I hope you enjoyed this look at Iniko and the future generation of dragons. One more epilogue to go before this book is done.
One Month Later.I’ve never been so exhausted in my life. An Alpha, especially an Alpha of Alphas, should never be this tired. But with twenty-two mouths to feed, it’s nearly impossible to keep up. I’m pretty sure that whoever said it takes a village to raise a family was a dragon, because if I didn’t have the help of nearly every dragon at the academy, I don’t think I’d ever be able to sleep.I can hear my little darlings screeching before I can see them. The four deer I have in my talons will only quiet them for a moment. By the time I’ve fed every one of them, the first ones will be screaming for more food again. And by screaming, I mean screeching. It’s an ear-piercing sound that makes my head throb.As I fly in, I see all of my half siblings in various stages of assisting with my babies. Thankfully, the younger kids enjoy helping out and they can oil and scrub my babies as they shed their skin, which seems like they do every damn day. I’d think I was over-feeding them if they were
**This is Book 5 of the Elemental Dragon Series. While this book can be read as a standalone, it is recommended that you read the first four books in the series, starting with The Arena. References to other story lines and past situations will not be reiterated in this story.**I'm standing here in the arena once again, staring at this arrogant asshole who thinks that he can claim me and make me his dragon. This time, it’s an elf prince.My Aunt Kaylani says it's not an arena. Call it what you want - an Arena, a Colosseum, or a claiming ground. It's all the same to me. It's a place where idiot assholes like this guy in front of me come to try and enslave me to their will.I had hoped after the Alpha werewolf had tried to claim me and I had made a point of nearly killing him, that the claims on me would stop. And they did, for a couple of months. But now here I am again, with yet another high-ranking supernatural who thinks that the Alpha of Alphas belongs to him.I glare at the elf as
We're being chased, Snow and I. We're running as fast as we can. He's faster than I am, being a dragon, and he can fly. So, I tell him to run ahead of us, to go. It's really him that they want, not me. There are five of them and they're spreading out, trying to pin us down.Only one of them has shifted into something that I recognize - a lioness. The other woman looks like a winged Lycan, her body covered in sapphire scales. The males, I'm not sure if they're boys or men, have hideous shifts. They look like they should have been dragons, at least they have scales on part of their body, but not all of it. Whatever they are mixed with did not blend well with the dragons. They hiss and slither like reptiles.Snow has been leading us up a mountain. The last time he fought them, one of them fell off the mountain and that was how he and I got away. I'm not exactly sure what that means or how he did it. It was one of my blackouts and I don't remember it. But it doesn't matter. If he thinks t
I am completely, totally, and utterly in love with this woman. She is everything that is good and kind and gentle in this world. She's the only one that I've ever met who is that way. Everyone else that I've ever encountered has tried to hurt me.She thinks that group that was chasing us was after me. They aren't. They want her. I know they want her, but she never remembers that. And I don't understand why she can't remember when she turns into a dragon.I lift off with Eliane on my back and go in search of food, thinking back to the first time that we met. Well, we didn't actually meet, but it was the first time that I saw her. It was her first shift. I didn't immediately recognize that the large dragon that she had shifted into was the same young woman whose pained screams I'd been hearing for who knows how long.She had destroyed the laboratory where we were being held captive and I had been terrified, having suffered my own pain at the hands of those crazy men. She had shifted int
“C’mon, Cal. You have to go to class. This is an academy,” Ajax, my best friend, arguably my only friend, says.“Why? It’s Elemental Manipulation. What can Kaylani possibly teach me that I don’t already know?”“Charlotte will be there,” he says in a sing-song voice.Charlotte is a fox shifter and she’s as foxy and cunning as her animal spirit. I like her a lot. I like how adventurous she is in bed even more.“She’s becoming too clingy,” I say, but it’s an excuse and by Ajax’s raised eyebrow, I know he knows it. Unlike the others, he has no problem calling me out on my shit. Of all the dragons or hybrids with the dominant dragon gene, Jax is the only one that will stand up to me. I have a lot of respect for him because of it. Elio is a close second, and he tends to make our duo a trio, but for the most part, I prefer Jax’s company to the others.“Fine, I’ll tease her to the edge of insanity during class, then fuck her into oblivion afterward,” I say, pulling myself out of bed.“That’s
When Snow flew away, I was worried that they would try and follow us, the two who tried to get us to stop, Fenian and Tesha. When they didn't, I was thankful. And when we were far enough away, and realized they weren’t following us, Snow and I finally started hunting for food.He caught a large buck. He's become adept at killing them quickly because he knows I don't like to see the animals in pain. I'm thankful for that. He's an animal and I understand his need to eat other animals, but he's not cruel about it, not like the Mean Ones. We’ve seen the way they torment their food when they hunt and the devastation they leave behind. Sometimes, they hunt for fun, not because they need to eat. It's another reason I know that we don't want to be captured by them.When we land, Snow slices off one of the deer’s legs for me. I use the makeshift knife that I've made with Snow’s help. Using his earth element, I was able to take a rock and wear it down to where it had a sharp edge. Then I found
Once again, Jewels has protected me, saved me from the ones who attack us. I wasn’t expecting that Ancalagon would be so determined to find Eliane. He brought a different dragon with him this time, another green one. Both dragons were large, larger than me, but only Ancalagon is as large as Jewels.They said they wanted to help me and Eliane, but when I didn’t tell him where Eliane was, he began ordering me to tell him.I refuse to betray her. I will never betray her. When his command washed over me, trying to force me to his will, I had screamed in fear and that was all it took for her to come. Jewels, my constant savior. I’m not sure what would have happened to me if I’d had to live this life without her. She is my everything.When she tells me to follow her, I do. I know she’s looking for another safe place for us to hide. As we fly, I watch her swoop down over a herd of deer, snatching one in her talons and tossing it in her mouth whole. I marvel at her grace and beauty, loving th
My father was right. Eliane and her dragon don’t know about each other. Or at least, her dragon doesn’t know she has a human form. I don’t even know how that’s possible, but I intend to ask Doc Everett.“I swear I was just trying to talk to him, Cal,” Ajax says. I know he feels my anger and frustration. I’m not angry at him. I saw what he was doing. He was trying to engage Snow, or Iniko, as Jewels calls him, in a conversation.“I don’t blame you. I blame HIM!” I bellow. “He knew you weren’t going to hurt him, but he didn’t like it that she was starting to listen to me, so he lied, cried out, knowing she would respond and turn on us.”I roar, hot flames flying out of my mouth, but I fly through them unscathed. “That….creature is NOT my brother. He is deceitful. He wants my mate and he’s willing to manipulate her so he can have her. I won’t allow it,” I say, turning to look at Ajax.He’s flying slower than usual, and it takes me a minute to realize that he’s injured.“JAX! WHAT THE FUC
One Month Later.I’ve never been so exhausted in my life. An Alpha, especially an Alpha of Alphas, should never be this tired. But with twenty-two mouths to feed, it’s nearly impossible to keep up. I’m pretty sure that whoever said it takes a village to raise a family was a dragon, because if I didn’t have the help of nearly every dragon at the academy, I don’t think I’d ever be able to sleep.I can hear my little darlings screeching before I can see them. The four deer I have in my talons will only quiet them for a moment. By the time I’ve fed every one of them, the first ones will be screaming for more food again. And by screaming, I mean screeching. It’s an ear-piercing sound that makes my head throb.As I fly in, I see all of my half siblings in various stages of assisting with my babies. Thankfully, the younger kids enjoy helping out and they can oil and scrub my babies as they shed their skin, which seems like they do every damn day. I’d think I was over-feeding them if they were
Three months later.“Iniko! Be careful!” I say to the little dragon, the perfect little white dragon. He hatched from his glass egg a couple of weeks ago and because I laid my eggs while he was still in his, he seems to think that my babies are his siblings. I don’t mind. I love that I get to see Iniko as a baby dragon.“Hey, little bro. It’s too hot for you to be here. This is a hatching ground. You’re going to burn yourself,” Ancalagon says, using his big snout to carefully move Iniko away from the hot area that used to be the medical center and is now a dragon egg hatching ground. Of course, I’m the only dragon producing dragon babies, and they had to put a barrier around my eggs since Ancalagon and I won’t let most people near our babies, but it’s still a hatching ground. Iniko hatched here and he’s one of the few that I let near my eggs.He’s always allowed to come see me. I’ll never be able to say no to him. He’s just as sweet as a baby as he was when I met him, sweet and gentle.
The aftermath of the battle was tough, made more difficult by Iniko’s passing. Two of the people manning the harpoon launchers were killed, but no one claimed that they killed the third and by the time we went searching for him, he was gone.The two earth dragons refused to speak to us until I used my Alpha command to force them. Once I did, they told us how Galeus, Truda, and Banari had convinced them that we were the reason that everything had happened to them and that’s why they attacked. I still don’t trust Dion and Sena, the new earth dragons, but Kaylani has allowed them to move into the big house. At least there, we can all keep watch over them. To their credit, they’ve joined the classes and seem to be advancing quickly.The clean up took a while. With so many dragons crashing to the ground and the two new earth dragons rupturing the earth, it’s taken all of us to make sure that the big house is structurally sound for us to keep living in. The earth itself was easy to correct.
As we rush towards where Zephyr continues to cry her dragon’s lament, we pass Iniko. My heart clenches, but I know we have to help the others first. As much as I want to go to Iniko, to let myself grieve for the loss of my friend and dragon, I need to help Zephyr. Iniko would have wanted that.When we get to her, Ishir has stopped outside the big house, holding on tightly to her as she cries her dragon’s lament in her human form.Ishir seems to be fighting his own tears and based on what Ancalagon told me, I’m sure he’s battling Zephyr inside her own mind. Nova and Brooke are with them, all of them have their arms wrapped around Zephyr, Nova and Brooke sobbing with her lament for Iniko.“Go get Cyrene. She’ll respond better if it’s you. I’ll help your mother,” I say to Cal.“Be careful,” he says before running inside the big house. I can smell a fire nearby, but that will have to wait until I can get Zephyr calm.“Zephyr,” I say, putting my hands on her body. Almost instantly, I feel t
As I blow my elements onto my mate’s chest, submitting to him as his dragon and leaving my mark on his chest, I feel something inside of me heal, something snap into place besides our bond. Suddenly, memories come flooding into my mind, images of times in the laboratory when I was a girl, memories of helping Ancalagon when he was captured by the man who claimed to be my father, my father imprisoning me and torturing me to make me into the dragon I am now, my first shift where I destroyed the underground laboratory where my father kept me captive, shifting back because I was terrified of what had happened and seeing Iniko for the first time, helping him escape the laboratory. I remember being alone, being lonely, finding Iniko again, realizing now that he really did know that I was both the humanand the dragon, and that he and I weren’t fated mates. I remember seeing Ancalagon and having no loving feelings for him, being angry with him for leaving me and not coming to find me. I didn’t
The moment the howls of alarm went up, I raced to the house, helping Zephyr get our kids and rushing them to the nursery in the big house. We have several babies on campus now, so we’ve established a safe room of sorts for the young kids with any mothers or assigned protectors going with them. I want Zephyr in the safe room. She’s getting close to delivering our next kitten, but I know she won’t sit this out. Two of her sons and her sister are out there fighting.As we rush to the battle, I hear the sickening sound of a harpoon launching. The sound brings with it the memories of fighting in the arena, of the days when the dragons were attacked. I thought the harpoons and launchers were gone, but obviously, some remained or have been rebuilt.I hear Avani scream in pain, the earth rumbling around us as he pulls on his earth element and tumbles to the ground. I know it must be bad if the harpoon brought him down. I heard in the past that he ripped a harpoon out of his wing and kept fight
I’d been flying patrols, thinking about Emmi when I saw the strange dragons, two of them. I bellowed a warning, in case it was an attack and I’m glad I did. At least everyone had a few moments to prepare before all hell broke loose.It felt like harpoons were flying everywhere. Elemental dragons were getting hit and taken down quickly. I’m not sure if that was an intentional move by the attackers, or if the elementals are trying to protect the others. Either way, Avani and Kaylani went down fast.Zephyr is still pregnant, so she can’t shift, but Tana is up, blowing fire and protecting the packhouse where her pups reside.I realize that Merethyl was protecting their house, but once Avani got shot, she raced to him, working to get the harpoon out of his body. I stayed back, battling with the others against these new dragons. Since I was the first to see them, they’d attacked me together. Then Kenzo and Daichi, two other earth dragons, jumped in and we began throwing our earth elements ba
This past week with Eliane has been amazing. Except for the times when she goes off alone with Iniko, sometimes even flying with him, it’s been incredible. I know I’m a greedy dragon, all water dragons are, but I want my mate to myself, all the time.Today we have mate bonds class. I love this class, not only because Iniko isn’t in the class with us and I get to have her all to myself, but it’s filled with other students who share a mate bond like we do.“Where are Tesha and Fenian?” I ask when we walk in. Those two are always in this class, Fenian wanting to make sure that he’s a good mate to his dragon, especially now that she’s about to have their baby.“Tesha went into labor this morning. She and Fenian are at the medical center,” Kaylani says.“Ohh, another baby. How exciting!” my mate says. I can’t wait for the day when it’s my mate going into labor, or maybe laying her eggs. We just have to get her connected to her dragon first.“I’m surprised that she didn’t want to go off into
It seems like once Cal accepted me, everyone accepted me. Well, except the elves, but I was warned by basically everyone to stay away from them, Revalor especially. So Eliane’s first day back, even though she spent most of her time with Ancalagon in our joint classes, went really well. I guess being the Alpha of Alphas, what Cal says goes, or at least it seems so.If I’m not in classes with Eliane and Ancalagon, I’m in them with Ancalagon and the other dragons. There are very few classes that Eliane has without Ancalagon, but more that she doesn’t have with me, like mate bonds. Since she and I don’t share a mate bond, I’m not in that class, but she and Ancalagon are. I know that she’s learned a lot about what a mate bond is from that class. And while I know that she and I don’t share a mate bond like the others do, that doesn’t mean that I don’t love her with my whole heart.While the two of them are in classes together, I go to see my mother. I still feel the draw to her and even thou