Everyone started piling out of the truck, but it looked as if they had just stopped at a random bend in the road. “Where are we?”
“I want to show you something.” Ryder got out and met her at the front of the truck, then took her hand and led her toward the cliff.
Around her, the Bloodrunners began stripping out of their clothes. Weird. To avoid an eyeful of swinging dicks and bouncing boobs, Lexi aimed her focus on the cliff.
Lexi wasn’t afraid of heights, but the cliff dropped straight down, and at the bottom, sharp rocks jutted out of the earth. There was a river some distance off, and the scenery was beautiful, but this was close enough. Lexi backed away from the edge, but when she turned around to ask Ryder what they were doing here, a smattering of pops sounded and a monster grizzly burst from Wyatt, and then a blond one from Aaron. They were so intimidatingly big. They paced around Alana, her Change slower and painful-looking, but when she stood on all fours and roared, she didn’t seem to mind the pain. Her fur was a rich, chocolate brown, almost the same as her human skin tone. And though she was smaller than the other grizzlies, Alana still looked ferocious with all those claws and teeth.
Wes leapt off the ground and a giant raven burst from his body. As he circled above, Harper’s body rippled and cracked, and then an enormous green and gold dragon exploded from her body. Harper was so big she could curl around the entire Bloodrunner crew.
Lexi had never seen a dragon shift before, had never been this close to one, and she had to hold in a scream as Harper snaked her enormous head toward her. The bears disappeared down a steep trail on the edge of the cliff, and the Novak Raven dove over the ledge. And carefully, Harper stepped over Lexi and Ryder.
In a rush, Ryder grabbed Lexi’s hand and lifted it high until her fingertips brushed the golden underbelly scales of the Bloodrunner Dragon.
Amazed at the cold, smooth texture of the dragon scales, Lexi gasped. Harper spread her wings and dove off the cliff.
Lexi followed as close as she dared to the cliff ledge so she could watch the dragon in flight. Harper was grace in motion.
“Do you trust me?” Ryder asked.
Lexi looked at him over her shoulder. He’d stripped out of his clothes, and she was awed by his rippling muscles as he approached. Damn, her man was powerful.
“Of course.”
Ryder bunched his muscles. “Good. Don’t freak out,” he said the moment before the massive white owl ripped out of his skin.
In an instant, he clamped his long, curved talons around her upper arms, and with the beat of his wings, lifted Lexi off the ground and over the edge of the cliff.
Terror seized her as she watched the rocks below coming for her. Ryder had tucked his wings to his body and was dive-bombing them toward the earth. She couldn’t scream, couldn’t beg for him to stop, couldn’t even breathe.
With a resounding floom, he stretched his wings and caught the air, arching them away from the ground at such speed, the air was forced into her lungs.
“Ryder!” she gasped, struggling. His talons clutched her arms tighter, the points of his sharp claws digging into the tender undersides. She stopped struggling just to ease the pain. When he slowed and became graceful with his flying, she forced herself to catch her breath and then looked up.
He was staring down at her, his gold eyes round and his pupils so small it made them look even brighter. Even more striking. He was white as snow, but underneath his wings, there were dark specks on his long flight feathers. He was enormous, his wingspan stretching much longer than she’d imagined.
She couldn’t believe this was happening. She was flying!
Lexi looked down at the ground far below them. The river snaked through the mountains like a giant serpent, and waves of green painted a gorgeous landscape. Right below, Weston was flying with them, keeping pace.
She laughed breathlessly and held onto Ryder’s legs just to steady herself. Her heart in her throat, she arched her neck back and yelled, “Whooooo!”
“Caw!” the Novak Raven called below them.
Ryder belted a powerful screech, and down near the river, Harper roared along with the bears.
As long as Lexi lived, she would remember this moment—her first flight with Air Ryder.
Chapter Ten
“I didn’t realize how fragile your skin is,” Ryder said, his brows furrowed in concentration as he cleaned the small puncture wounds under her arm.
“Worth it,” she said breathlessly as she stared up at the sky again. She was just there! Flying!
“What if it gets infected?” Ryder murmured to Wes. “Maybe I should take her to the hospital.”
“Stop fussing,” she murmured. “I’m fine. They don’t even hurt.”
“I’m gonna have to make you some kind of arm guards if we do that again.”
“I can’t believe that just happened,” she said gleefully. “Ryder, that was the most incredible thing ever! I mean, it was terrifying at first because I didn’t expect it, but then it was exhilarating.”
Weston lifted her other arm and brushed a light touch under the cuts. “I think they’ll be okay.”
“She said she’s fine,” Alana said from where she was peeling shrimp on a plastic table on the sandy riverbank. “Stop coddling her, or you’ll chase her off.”
When Ryder immediately dropped her arm, Lexi snorted. Like she would ever leave him. This man had all of her locked down.
She scanned the beach and rolling river rapids, still in awe that a view like this existed down in this valley. There was a generator, and the three trees by the grill were wrapped in outdoor lights. Next to where she stood, there was a long picnic table with carvings of three bears, a dragon, a raven, and an owl. And when she looked closer, there was the beginnings of another carving, right next to the owl. It was human in shape with a few wavy lines of long hair. She frowned and opened her mouth to ask if that was her, but Wes pressed his finger over his lips and shook his head. Huh. A selfish part of her really hoped that was her next to Air Ryder.