Chapter Three

Climbing the stairs, she made her way to her suite of rooms. She went outside onto her balcony and climbed the scaffold to get to the roof of her family's home where a launch pad sat ready for use. 

Although "home" was kind of an understatement. It was more like a mansion, with several suites of rooms needed to house Leah, her father, and all four of her brothers, plus their future mates and children. That's not even including the guest suites and the staff wing. The place was huge, but Leah often felt stifled. She wanted her own place, something just big enough for her, her future mate and any children they may have. She'd prefer not to have her father and brothers breathing down her neck all the time. While she loved her family, sometimes she just needed some space.

Leah stood in the center of the launch pad and closed her eyes. She reached inside herself where she knew her dragon waited, ready to be unleashed. As the first prickle of awareness began, she relaxed and let the change flow through her. Her body began to stretch to four times her human body size. Her hands and feet changed to long, sharp talons. Deep, dark red scales sprouted all over her body. A long, red tail with sharp, black spikes grew from her backside. Finally, large red wings spanning, each twelve feet in length, sprouted from her back. While she wasn’t the largest dragon in existence, she certainly wasn’t the smallest. 

Fortunately, dragon shifters were purely magical beings. Thus, when they shifted, their clothes shifted with them, unlike wolf shifters who shredded any clothes they were wearing with every shift. She would have seriously hated having to replace her brand new brown chiffon knee length halter dress and four-inch heel lace-up sandals.

When the transformation was complete, she breathed a sigh of relief. It was so freeing to release her dragon, especially after such a stressful day. Launching herself into the air, Leah reveled in the luxuriating feel of the wind whipping past her scales as she flew towards her destination. While she could have walked to where she was going, it would have taken her more than an hour to get there, whereas flying got her there in no more than twenty minutes. Hazel Drift was pretty large. So, when the war broke out, it was divided into two. Her clan owned this land, while the Blackwell clan owned the land to the north. There was a shifter neutral town dividing the two known as Summit Creek, which is where she was currently headed. They had an amazing cafe where she often went for her vanilla Frappuccino fix. They also had these white- chocolate covered strawberries dipped in almond bits that were to die for. Leah was getting hungry just thinking about them.  

There was a landing pad on the edge of the town, and Leah headed straight for it, shifting as soon as she touched down. Back to human, she made her way to the cafe. As she entered the place, the scent of fresh baked goods hit her like a tsunami. She inhaled deeply, then headed to the counter to place her order. Once her order was ready, she smiled at the barista in thanks, then made her way to her usual spot in the back where the comfy lounge chairs and couches were. Taking the seat closest to the window, she settled in with her snacks. She moaned in pleasure at each bite of the succulent candy-covered fruit.

"I think I may be just a bit jealous of those strawberries."