Chapter 1 – Jax's POV

*Present Day*

I would often find myself just staring at my second chance mate. I was still trying to accept the fact that I even had another mate. For us lycans, second chance mates are unheard of. The odds are like one in a million for our kind. So you can damn well bet that I was going to do everything I could to keep her. If she said jump, then I was asking how high? If she said kiss my shoes, then I was baseball sliding to them like they were home plate! I was falling, and falling hard at that, for this woman.

The fact that she was a dragon didn’t bother me much anymore. Yes, I still worried when she would get upset, knowing she could shift at any given moment. Dragons are not known for their charity work, or kindness, or just plain out common courtesy for that matter. Dragons were ruthless, demon spawns of Satan that destroyed everything in their path, but oh were they some of the most gorgeous creatures on this planet!

Tora, my mate, showed me some pictures that her sister had taken of her dragon before. I was in complete and utter awe of her. Her scales were the color of dusk, when the dark blues and purples mixed with the black. They had a metallic shine to them making them look like they had stars everywhere. Her eyes, oh goddess her eyes, they were the color of the most beautiful sunset. That perfect blend of dark yellow and orange.

I wished that she could shift at will like us lycans and wolves, without the danger aspect of it. Maybe there is a way to tame her dragon? Is that even possible? I mean Disney did it, so how hard could it be right? I would have to do some research on that one. I had been so lost in my thoughts watching her work on our soon-to-be new home, that I didn’t even hear her phone ring.

I was pulled back to reality when she pointed to it saying it was her dad and that she would be right back. My lycan instantly tensed up because we both knew that nothing good ever came from a call from that man. I watched her walk into the woods but knew I couldn’t follow her. Her dragon, who’s name is Maggie by the way, would have sensed me coming. So I stayed rooted in my place waiting for her to return.

It was close to a half hour later before I finally heard her coming back. When she emerged from the tree line, her face was beat red from the blood rushing through it. I could hear her elevated heart rate and all I wanted to do was hold her, to comfort her. I wanted to show her that I was here for her and that she would never be alone again. I stood up to start walking towards her when she held her hand up to stop me.

“Honey, I need to calm down first. If I don’t, I’m going to shift.” She said, staring at the ground.

“I understand what you’re saying hun but do know that I am here for you. I am never leaving you. If you need a few moments to reign Maggie back, then a few moments I will give you. Remember, you take care of her but I take care of you.” I said with pleading eyes.

Tora looked at me and a small smile of appreciation crept across her face. She didn’t say anything but walked back into the woods. As much as I didn’t want her to leave, I knew this was the way it had to be, for now at least. If she were to shift right now, the whole pack could potentially be in danger.

When she finally did come back, she came straight back into my arms. I did not object to her actions. I just stood there and held her for as long as she needed. I still didn’t know how to console a dragon but I was hoping that whatever I did helped.

We cleaned up the tools from today and headed back to my temporary apartment. Once we got there, I sat in my chair in the living room and I told Tora to go ahead and take a bath while I called Alida. She reluctantly agreed. Once the bathroom door was closed and I heard the water running, I pulled my phone and dialed Alida’s number.

“Hello?” Alida answered after only the second ring.

“Hey. I have a question. More like I need some help I guess.” I said.

“Everything ok? Do I need to come home?” Her voice was worried.

“No no. Nothing like that. Everything is fine. It’s actually about Tora.” I paused to gage her response.

“Is she hurt? Oh no, don’t tell me she left…” Alida was now going 90 miles per hour.

“No, she’s still here. She’s actually in the bath right now. What I need help with is finding out if there’s a way to tame her dragon.” I said more as a question than a statement.

“Tame Mags? I don’t know if that’s possible Jax.” Alida said softly.

“Nothing is impossible right? Would you know anyone who could at least point me in the right direction to find out?” I asked.

“The only person that I THINK would even have the slightest idea would be Charlie. He’s older than dinosaurs.” Alida laughed.

“Good point.” I chuckled. “I didn’t even think of him. I will give him a call tomorrow then. Thank you Alida! See I knew the Goddess didn’t make a mistake when she made you The Chosen One.” I smirked, knowing she hated that and that she was across the world and couldn’t do anything about it.

“Jax, it is too early in the morning here for your shit talk!” Alida groaned.

I just laughed at her and we went on to discuss the status of the Royal Court and Prison progress. I was just about to get off the phone with her when Tora came out of the bathroom wrapped in a towel.

My lycan growled in approval but Tora completely ignored him. “Are you still talking to Alida?” She asked.

“Yes ma’am.” I nodded.

“You know better than to call me that.” Tora glared at me. “Can I talk to her please?”

“Alida, Tora wants to talk to you.” I said before handing her the phone.

“Alida?” Tora asked while turning away and walking into the bedroom.

Her actions had me furrow my brows in confusion. She never left me out of a conversation before like that unless it was her father. I chalked it up to a stressful day, and she just needed some girl talk. So I got up, went to the kitchen, and started making us a late dinner. I wanted something quick and easy but something that would fill us up also. Omelets it is!

I kept my hearing focused on the bedroom but I couldn’t hear anything. So after a few minutes I finally gave up. I had just finished placing the omelets and buttered cinnamon sugar toast on our plates when the bedroom door opened.

Tora came out in one of my shirts looking sexy as hell. “Oh sweet Goddess, grant me the strength to not act on my natural instincts right now!” I prayed out loud looking up at the ceiling.

Tora giggled, kissed my cheek, and sat at the table. I smiled, grabbed our plates, and served her before seating myself.

“So is everything ok? I mean considering today’s events that is.” I asked.

“Yeah, I’m ok now. Thanks to you and Alida.” She smiled while cutting into her omelet.

“I’m not going to lie hun, you kind of scared me when you walked away on the phone with her.” I said cautiously. I didn’t want to upset her for the second time today.

“I’m sorry honey. That wasn’t my intention. It’s just I thought she would be the best one who could relate to my situation with my dad. I was just asking for advice on the matter. That’s all.” She reached for my hand and rubbed her thumb across the back of it.

“That makes sense.” I offered a reassuring smile.

We finished eating and I jumped in the shower real quick. After that we climbed into bed and Tora snuggled up next to me. I inhaled her scent deep enough that I thought I was going to choke on my own breath. Tora was running her fingers randomly across my chest, causing my lycan to purr.

“Are you a cat or a dog?” Tora joked.

“Hey I can’t help the noises he makes because of you.” I shrugged.

Tora just smiled at me before going back to what she was doing. I started running my hand up and down her back slow and soft. It didn’t take long before I heard her heart rate slow down a bit and her breathing even out, signaling that she was asleep.

The next morning I got up early to call Charlie. Hopefully, he could help me. I walked out of the bedroom and softly closed the door behind me. I went to sit in my chair as I dialed Charlie’s number.

“Hello Jax.” Charlie answered after a few rings.

“Good morning Charlie. I hope I am not interrupting anything. Do you have a few minutes to talk?” I asked him.

“No worries. I got all the time in the world right now.” Charlie chuckled.

“I talked to Alida last night about an idea and she thought you were the best person to help me further. I want to tame Tora’s dragon, Maggie.” I started.

“How old is she?” Charlie asked.

“She’s 24.” I responded.

“That’s perfect then!” Charlie exclaimed.

“What do you mean? Is it even possible?” I asked.

“Yes it is possible. It’s a pain in the ass and can take a long time, but it is possible. The reason I say her age is perfect is because by now she has shifted enough to know what it feels like. She knows when Maggie is pushing forward to force the shift. But at the same time, she is not old enough to be stuck in her ways. You know the saying ‘can’t teach an old dog new tricks’? Well that would apply here if she were older.” Charlie explained it to me.

“So what do we do? Where do we start?” I asked now sitting forward in my chair, fully invested in what he had to say next.

“Let me get ahold of an old friend of mine. She has personally done this before, I have only heard stories and seen the results. I will let you know when I can bring her out to meet with you and Tora. In the meantime, you need to speak with Tora about this and make sure that this is something she wants. Because if she doesn’t, then it will be harder to tame Maggie.” Charlie said.

“Thank you Charlie. I really do appreciate it and I will talk to her about it soon.” I replied before we said goodbye and I hung up the phone.

A couple of days had went by with no new drama or bullshit. Alida had sent a text saying they would be home this coming weekend. Her and Gunner had already covered Africa in a month’s time. There weren’t very many packs there anyways. Most wolves and lycans liked the cooler climates, but we can adjust if needed. She had told me that they would be home for a couple of weeks before heading back across the pond to Europe.

I had informed them when they were trying to plan the appropriate amount of time for their trips, that Europe was more the vampire’s territory than wolves so they could probably cover all of them in about six to eight weeks. I knew she hated being gone for long periods of time like that and leaving Tora and I to be their personal secretaries.

To be honest, Tora took care of most of that. I, apparently, never asked questions or when I did, they weren’t the right questions, so I gave up. Besides, Tora was a hell of a lot more organized than I was. She knew exactly where everything was.

I knew Alida wanted to be home for the birth of Ben and Chelsea’s first pup. What she didn’t know was that they were waiting on her to come home for a different reason. Alpha Nik found out that Tyler was able to be their beta, and after some talks, Tyler was willing to accept the role. So everybody had decided to wait until Alida and Gunner returned so we could all celebrate together.

Alpha Nik and Beta Derek planned on stepping down at the end of the year, so I suggested that if Tyler was going to be the new beta, that they bring him in early. That way he could learn the role and be training properly instead of just being thrown into it. It would also give the pack a chance to get to know him and his human mate, Stephanie. Although I had never seen an omega ranked wolf jump to a gamma rank before let alone to a beta rank, I just hoped he would be strong enough to handle the transition.

Time seemed to drag so slow after talking to Alida and finding out when they were coming home. Everyone was acting like little children on Christmas Eve that were to excited to sleep. To say that we made more progress on the new house in just the last couple of days than we did in the last couple of months would be an understatement! Everybody was out helping all the time to help pass the time.

It wasn’t until the night before they were supposed to be home that I had remembered that I still needed to talk to Tora about taming Maggie. We were sitting in the living room watching a movie, well she was at least. I was trying to figure out how to break the ice on this subject. What if she didn’t like the idea, like just completely hated it? I didn’t want her to think that I didn’t love her as she was and was trying to change her. I did love her exactly how she was. I was only trying to help her so she wouldn’t have to be so scared of shifting.

“Jax, what’s wrong?” Tora said looking up at me.

“There’s something I need to ask you but I don’t know how. I don’t want you to get the wrong idea and get mad.” I said looking at the floor.

“Honey, just ask. I promise not to react without asking questions if they are needed.” Tora said sitting up. The loss of her touch had my lycan whimpering.

“What if I told you it’s possible to tame Maggie?” I asked in one breath.

“Well then I would say, are you serious?” She said perking up.

“Yes. I talked to Charlie the other day about it. I didn’t want to say anything to you and get your hopes up until I knew for sure. He said that you are the perfect age to make it possible. Although it is a long process.” I said finally making eye contact with her.

“Honey that is the greatest thing anyone has ever done for me!” She leaped forwards and wrapped her arms around my neck.

“He did tell me that you have to want this for yourself. Any doubt that Maggie senses will just make it that much harder.” I warned.

“Oh I do! I do want it! I’ve always wanted to be free like you wolves. To be able to shift and still do good things! Not be known for chaos and destruction.” She said with a sad look in her eyes.

“I understand hun and I will be there with you every step of the way, but there is just one little thing that you got wrong in that.” I said holding up one finger.

She creased her brows thinking back to what she just said but when she couldn’t figure it out, she looked back at me for an explanation.

“I’m a lycan, not a wolf.” I laughed as she pursed her lips and playfully smacked my arm.

“Ass-monkey.” Tora snorted as she cuddle back up into my side.

We both fell asleep there on the couch that night. It wasn’t until I heard Tora’s phone going off that I woke up. I looked at her to see her still sleeping peacefully. I didn’t want to wake her, so I eased myself out from under her death grip and placed one of the decorative pillows under her head. By the time I got to her phone it had stopped ringing.

I unlocked it to see a missed call from her father. Why the hell was he calling again and why this early? I looked back over towards the couch and Tora was still fast asleep. Just then she received a text message from a blocked number.

Blocked Number (6:02am): Tora, your father is on a rampage! You need to come home before he fully shifts! Stop being a chicken shit and just get your ass home now!