Everett doesn't want anyone to have her, but he still doesn't feel worthy of claiming her. What do you think?
I’m waiting for the day when Everett tells me to submit to him. If he did, he’d probably be surprised at how willingly I would submit to him. But he hasn’t yet, although he gets closer every time he takes control. My kind, gentle mate was made for me. Underneath that sweet, healing nature is a man who likes to be in control, but he would never be the type who would abuse the power that comes with claiming a dragon, unlike Tarathiel. When Everett left me this morning, going back to his room, I called Zephyr, letting her know I wanted her assistance this morning. I have no problem taking down several elves, but if King Almon shows up with several elvish warriors trying to hold me down so his son can claim me, I wouldn’t be able to fight them all. I walk out of the main hall to the courtyard, hearing Tarathiel loudly proclaiming that our school is shit and that everyone should leave. “Tarathiel, it’s time for you to leave,” I tell him. I watch him decide if he wants to threaten me, an
All of the frustration and fear of facing the elves vanishes the moment I hear the alarm go off. Eric is awake, he’s alone, and he’s in my laboratory. Thankfully, Amne left for breakfast early this morning with Kano, but I need to make sure that Elio and Valko aren’t going to get hurt. When I race inside the main house, everyone who wasn’t outside is milling around. “Get to class,” I bark as I race through them. “Dad! Dad, what’s happening?” Ajax calls, rushing in from outside. He and his brothers were there to help protect the school. I turn, seeing the fear on all of their faces, after the threat from the elves this morning. “Eric is awake. I’ll take care of it. There’s nothing to be afraid of. The elves are gone,” I tell them. “Zephyr!” Kaylani calls out to her, racing up behind me. “I’ve got it,” she says and stops, beginning to guide the students back to the dining room or out to classes. I turn my attention back to Eric. I can hear banging and pounding as he must be tryin
After breakfast, I set Elio and Valko up in the game room. Since Everett isn’t done testing them yet and now he’s going to be busy with Eric, I want to make sure they don’t get bored and into trouble. Yhendorn and Kenna leave for the classes that they teach. Kenna, being the oldest of the young dragons works with the others to strengthen their wings and bodies, training them to be more agile in the air. Yhendorn is working with the individuals who have the earth element. “Kaylani,” Zephyr calls. “Hey, did I hear Avani just land? I didn’t think they were coming until tomorrow.” “He is here. He and Merethyl are going to watch our kittens for us while Ishir and I go look for my egg,” she says and I know my sister well enough to know that she’s terrified that she won’t find it. There are a lot of similarities between the skin of this new dragon and Ancalagon. “Let’s see what you find first. We know that they had Ancalagon’s DNA. It may not be your egg,” I tell her gently. “What if it
I watch Kaylani as her finger runs over the DNA strands. She’s so smart, sometimes I forget that she didn’t go to medical school like I did. She has taken to medicine and helping these kids like she was made for it, which of course she wasn’t. A dragon should be in the sky, not on the ground, in a laboratory, pouring over test tubes. But here she is. “I’m not exactly sure what I’m looking at Everett,” she says, turning her head so those sapphire eyes lock onto mine. I get lost in her jeweled eyes, wondering what it would be like to know that she was mine forever. “Everett?” I shake my head, refocusing on Elio. “Hang on, this might help,” I say, clicking a couple more buttons on the computer and then going to stand beside her. “This is Elio’s human DNA,” I say, pointing to the blue strand. I added color so she could see the problem. “This is Tana’s fire dragon strand,” I say, pointing to the broken red DNA strand that attaches in places to Elio's human DNA. “And this is the Lycan
After meeting Elio, Valko, and Eric, Nova, Naida, and Tesha stayed in the game room with them playing games. I could tell Everett was feeling a strong urge to be near me. I took advantage of the opporunity to please him and taste him. Once I released Everett, having greedily tasted him three times, I had gone in search of Kenna. I wanted her answer to helping Elio before Everett met with him. While I’m gone, Everett plans to meet with Valko and go over his DNA with him. I catch Kenna at the end of her class with the dragons. She bellows at them as they all go flying off with Ancalagon. I watch as Ajax joins them and I see Amne looking at them mournfully, Kano at her side. “You need a class on shifting,” Kenna says walking up to me. “Yeah. I was planning to work with Amne today, but things got hectic.” “No offense, Kaylani, but when aren’t things hectic here?” “True. It does seem to be one thing after another. We’re about to go on break between semesters. The ones who have homes w
I knew Elio would be devastated. I felt sick when I saw what I was up against and it's not my body. I just hope that he’ll give me a chance. Kaylani and I explained everything to Yhendorn, helping him to understand why Kenna felt the need to take him away from the school. “I don’t own her. She makes her own decisions, but I won’t say I like seeing her holding the hand of another man. Thank you for explaining it though. At least I understand why she did it. Do you think Kenna’s DNA will work?” “I don’t know. All I can do is try,” I tell him. “If you need mine, you know you have my permission to use it.” “Thank you, I appreciate it.” “Talk to me about Fenian. Has his attitude improved since I spoke to him?” Yhendorn asks. “Yes, actually. He’s a brilliant young man, or elf. He just needs to learn tolerance and understanding. If he can figure that out, he’ll make one hell of a medical professional. He’s got the instinct for it and he’s a quick study,” I tell him. “I’ll talk to him.
Zephyr’s egg is gone. I can feel the devastation in her and feel Ishir holding on to her mind. “We need to have a meeting with all four dragons and mates,” Ishir tells me as we walk inside. “We may as well include Ancalagon. He’ll be a fully mature dragon this year,” Zephyr adds. As much as Ancalagon has been acting like a moody teenager the last couple of months, he is still the Alpha, and he is the strongest of us all. Not only that, but whatever Oliver did to him gave him all four elements. He’s the most dangerous dragon that has ever been born. If we’re going to find his brother, he needs to be a part of it because it’s very likely that whatever Oliver did to Ancalagon, he did to this baby dragon. Of course, that’s best-case scenario. Oliver did a lot of horrible things to the humans and shifters he experimented on. We can hear Everett soothing Nova about never being alone again just as we walk in. I watch her rush into Ishir’s arms, hugging him tightly. He squeezes her in a hu
I heard Ishir telling my mother this morning about the juvenile females that smelled like they had dragon DNA. The dragons are mine, whether they are hybrids born from a dragon and another shifter, or they were created in a laboratory and hatched from an egg, or their DNA has been altered with dragon DNA. It doesn’t matter. They are mine and I am their Alpha. So instead of joining this morning meeting, I went looking for them. While I don’t go on the bigger hunts that Cedric, Ishir and my father go on, I do search for hybrids when I’m out. Sometimes, I catch their scent and usually they run from me. I’ve also come across the scent of the bad hybrids. Their scent is tainted. Rather than dragons, they smell like lizards. Lizards or lions. One smells like my father, and two smell like Tana, but I can tell from their scent that their shifts haven’t gone well. The lizard smell is the same smell that Eric had when he first arrived, but now that Doc is fixing him, he’s started to smell more
Six months later School is in full session. We nearly tripled the number of students in this semester’s classes. A large portion of those are werewolves, which has brought an entirely new set of problems and solutions to our growing school. Cedric wanted more protection around the school, so he added werewolf patrols. Sometimes, those wolves take their jobs too seriously and not only keep others out, but try to keep the students in. And while I don’t want students wandering around on their own outside the school boundaries because it’s unsafe, I also know that a lot of our hybrids were held captive and knowing the are free to leave at any time goes a long way to making them feel safe here. Thankfully, Cedric and Tana manage the wolves and Cedric holds them accountable when they become overzealous about not letting the students out of the territory. The other group that has added to our numbers this year is the elves. We had several already, but now most of the troupes have sent at l
I’ve been working as many hours as I can without taking too much time away from my mate and our newborn twins. I’m exhausted, but I can’t stop. I can’t figure out what Oliver did to cause the problems in Ancalagon’s DNA. What I do know is that his attitude has become abhorrent. He’s gone from the sweet, kind dragon that he used to be, to an arrogant, asshole prick who loses his temper over simple things. Yesterday, he blew his fire over the hybrids and it was only because of Ajax and Elio that he didn’t burn some of them alive. The three of them, Cal, Jax, and Elio, had started to get closer as friends, but now, I’m not sure if that will last. Ancalagon is being an equal opportunity jerk, lashing out at the elves, the werewolves, the hybrids, the lab dragons, the elemental dragons, and even his friends. The hardest part is that those who have dragon genetics in them feel the draw to answer to him because he’s their Alpha, no matter what kind of prick he's being. I’m not sure how I d
I stayed at home one more week after Everett returned to work, taking care of the twins. Once we got them on the same feeding schedule, it got easier. And then, by the end of the second week, we began supplementing my milk with formula, giving Everett a chance to help me feed our babies, but also giving me the opportunity to go back to work. Bajaro and Kayid had reached out to the shifters in the forest and there were several who had lost families or were alone who liked the idea of living among a bunch of young supernatural beings in a place that felt safer to them. We quickly renovated mine and Everett’s old rooms into a nursery where all of us could drop off our babies while we are teaching class, or for me, when I’m working. It’s a good thing that so many shifters wanted to come work for us, because we have a large number of babies with the possibility of more coming next semester. Before the end of the semester, all of the elemental dragons agreed to add in a class for claiming
Having a baby is exhausting, everyone says so. Having two….yeah, this is exhaustion like I’ve never felt before and I did my residency in the emergency department of a hospital. As a resident, I always got put on the night shift. There’s no such thing as sleep when you’re a resident. Of course, I’m older now, but, wow! I’m not sure if I’d prefer my babies be in sync and both want to be up at once, or if it’s better that one is just finishing when the other starts to cry. Then when that one is done, the first one is ready to eat again. Even as babies, my dragon babies have a voracious appetite. I’m rocking Ebba after she’s finished eating. Again. I’ve learned how to slide down in the rocker so I can hold her while she sleeps and still catch a little sleep myself. As I rock, I feel my mate put her hand on my arm. “Don’t, Kaylani. You’re feeding two dragons and sleeping less than I am. Don’t you dare push your strength into me,” I say, tired enough that I don’t bother opening my eyes.
The very next day, we implemented a requirement that any dragon claim, whether hybrid dragon, laboratory dragon, or pure dragon had to be requested. Any claim not going through the proper request would be stopped, by force if necessary. Ancalagon had snorted at the pure dragon wording in the decree. “Who would be stupid enough to claim me?” he asked. “Anyone who is power hungry enough to want the strength that only you can give them, Ancalagon. You’re the Alpha of us all. Controlling you means that someone could conceivably control all of us. That is a scary thought, considering the Chief and Oliver haven’t been dead that long,” I tell him. “What about Sunshine? Does this clause include her?” The way he asks, it’s as if he expects that it doesn’t include her. “It includes all dragons, Ancalagon,” Zephyr says to him. “So, if say, a certain white dragon tried to claim her, and I came across them, I could stop the claiming?” he asks, as if the rest of us don’t understand what he’s a
Tana’s delivery was a bit more intense than Zephyr’s. Being a fire dragon, her emotions literally run hotter. Add to that, Cedric missed the birth of his first two children, and he becomes very possessive when Tana is delivering a baby. After warning him twice, I finally had to wash him out and threaten to keep him out of the room if he couldn’t control his temper and his fire around Everett. All of our mates are possessive, but Everett is a doctor and Cedric can get over it. No one threatens my mate. After Tana snarled at him to get his shit together, he finally settled and Everett delivered their baby girl, one with a Lycan gene this time. They named her Aithne, which means fire. By the time we had delivered two babies, I was exhausted and so was Everett. As we walked back to the main house, Everett scooped me up. “You don’t have to carry me,” I tell him, but my head falls on his shoulder. “I know I don’t have to, but you’re exhausted.” “So are you,” I mumble. “Rest, my dragon
It was a long night. None of us were willing to go to bed while Ancalagon, Avani, and Zephyr were out. When they finally returned, we were all exhausted. I did find out from Zephyr that Ancalagon blames himself and realizes that Eliane probably blames him for what happened to her. Ancalagon had cried his dragon’s lament for hours, devastated with the news that Everett had given him. There are so many problems with the mate bond between Ancalagon and Eliane and I have no idea how to help them come together. “I wish I could do that thing that Merethyl does, where she says ‘peace’ and it flows through the person she wants to calm. I may only be human, Kaylani, but I am your rider. So, peace. I need you to relax. You’re carrying our twins and that’s already a lot of stress on your body,” my mate says once we’re back in our room. “I’m so tired, but I don’t know how to shut my mind off, Everett. This situation is terrible, putting brother against brother for a mate, one fated, one possib
I watch as the dragons work together to calm Ancalagon. His anger is something to behold and it never occurred to me that as the manipulator of four elements, he could, quite literally, destroy the earth. As I watch, it makes me even more concerned that his DNA is breaking down where his mate bond should be. If his brother intends to fight him over his mate, would he really kill him? What would that do to Avani and Zephyr? Zephyr’s mental state isn’t as steady as the others, although Ishir keeps her mind from breaking. How would something like this affect her? How would it affect Ancalagon? And how would it affect Eliane? When Merethyl and Zephyr finally calm him enough, I walk up to him and put my hands against him, wanting to heal him with my element. It’s the first time that I’m attempting to do this with such massive injuries, and I know Zephyr is also pushing her element into him to heal him, but as soon as I open myself to my element, I can feel Ancalagon’s power and the heat o
“Kaylani, can I talk to you?” Tesha asks, as she knocks on my door. “Hey Tesha, come in,” I say, getting up from my desk and coming around to hug her. She looks like she needs a hug. “Do you want me to close the door?” She nods. I close the door and then lead her to a couch where we can sit together. “What’s on your mind, Tesha?” She looks everywhere but at me, before focusing on my stomach. When her eyes finally meet mine, I’m pretty sure I know what’s wrong. “I’m pregnant. I mean, I think I’m pregnant. I’m pretty sure I’m pregnant,” she huffs, then looks at me. “I’m pregnant and I don’t know what to do.” “What happened to the condoms?” “They burned off. Every time we used them they burned off. Then Fenian started pulling out but sometimes…” she scrubs her hands over her face. “I had no idea how strong the mate bond is. How good it would feel to be with him. In that moment, I don’t want him to pull out any more than he does, and now…” “Have you been to see Everett? Just to con