What do you think of our new hybrids?
I rushed with Everett into the hospital wing, Fenian right behind us. Elio, Valko and Drakon, hearing the screaming of the girl, Brooke, came rushing to see what was happening. “Give us some space. We think she’s having her first shift,” Everett tells them. “She’s got the same fur I do,” Drakon says. “Yes, that’s why I’m going to use Kaylani’s DNA,” he says, looking at me. The girl has partially shifted and one leg is huge, covered in white fur. Polar bear. I rush to the room where he keeps our DNA ready to inject. Just as I’m rushing back, I hear Zephyr calling out. “Ancalagon said this one was bitten by a shifter who is part Komodo dragon.” Everett looks up from speaking to Brooke. “Komodo dragons are venomous. Fenian, get her set up on that table over there,” he nods before turning back to the girl, holding her head and trying to calm her. The girl, Enya, rushes over. “What are you doing to her?” she asks worriedly. “I’m going to sedate her and then I’m going to layer her DN
I walk out to find Naida and Amne. They are waiting for me just outside the main house doors along with Tesha. “You’re going to join us, Tesha?” She shrugs. “Naida said you told her that the more she shifts the less it hurts. So, I figured I’d try.” “What are you going to shift into today?” I ask as we begin walking away from the school. I need space for them to shift, but I also want to give Tesha some privacy since I know she’s self-conscious about her mix of animals in her shift. “Is it just the four of us?” she asks. “Yes.” “Then, maybe I’ll try my dragon.” “Perfect, that will be easier since both Amne and Naida will be pulling on their dragon forms too. This way, we can all work on it together.” When we’re far enough away, I turn and have them spread out around me, stripping off their clothes and making a triangle. “Okay, first, I want you all to close your eyes and breathe. Take deep, calming breaths. Clear your mind, listen to the forest around us, the stream over by Ze
After Brooke and Aspen were asleep, their vitals stable, and everyone was gone, either for classes or to go check on Enya, I took the blood from both girls and venom I collected from Aspen into my laboratory across the hall. I turned on the monitor and video so I could keep eyes on the girls while I worked, knowing that Kaylani and Fenian were gone. I start with the blood. I'm almost able to process the DNA of blood in my sleep now because I’ve done it so many times. That was going to be the easy part. I set the system to begin working and then I turned to the venom. It’s possible that it’s straight venom of the monitor lizard, but that wouldn’t be the norm for those scientists. They wanted killing machines and simple monitor lizard venom, while dangerous, wasn’t necessarily going to be 100% effective against shifters, especially dragons. I’ll have to confirm with Ancalagon, but it sounded like Aspen was bitten in her dragon form and the venom didn’t start attacking her body until sh
As soon as we realized that we’d found the paralytic, I left Everett to his research. If I know my mate, he’ll figure out what the eight strands of venom are before morning. I escort the others out of the room so Everett could work. Ajax had already gotten the cot for Enya and I sent him and Drakon back to their rooms. Then, I help Enya get set up in the room with Brooke and Aspen. After she is settled, I look over the two girls, making sure their vitals are good and checking the bite mark to make sure it is still looking good. “Why are you helping us?” Enya asks. I glance at her before turning back to the blankets that I'm tucking around Brooke. I want to make sure she’s warm but not too warm. “Do you know anything about dragons?” I ask her. “Uh, I thought they were fictional until I sort of became one.” I smile at that. “We’ve done a pretty good job of hiding in the last century. But to answer your question, dragons are protectors. It’s why we’re the strongest of all animals. W
It was early in the morning when I figured it out. Once I figured out one strand of venom, the others were easier to find and a simple matter of cross checking and determining which venom belonged to which animal. I had been keeping watch over Kaylani and the three girls in the room. I heard Cedric come in hours ago and listened to his conversation with Kaylani but I didn’t want to stop my work. Kaylani can handle anything that comes up. Now, as I finish washing up, I turn from my venom strands to look at the monitor. Kaylani has fallen asleep with her back against the wall, her hand still resting on Enya. I take a moment to watch her. As exhausted as I am, I will never tire of watching her. Whether she feels my eyes on her or it’s just her animal instinct, I don’t know, but her eyes open and she quickly looks around the room. Seeing nothing is disturbed, she looks up into the camera, directly into my eyes. She knows I’m watching her. I finish drying my hands and step out of the ro
“Hey, is everything okay?” I ask as Everett and Avani walk into the room. Avani gives me a look, but Everett comes up, touching my hip gently. “Perfect. Is this everyone?” he asks, looking around. “Everyone except for Ancalagon, but I feel him outside,” I tell him. I take a seat beside Zephyr as Everett moves to the head of the table to address everyone. “Good morning everyone, and thank you for taking time to meet this morning. I’m not sure what Kaylani told you…” “Nothing,” Avani interrupts him. “I didn’t have much to tell,” I say, scowling at him. “It’s true,” Everett says, coming to my defense. “I haven’t had a chance to tell Kaylani yet what I found. But yesterday when I was testing the venom in the bite that Aspen obtained from the bad hybrid, I found eight strands of venom in addition to the venom of the Komodo dragon.” “Eight?” Ishir asks, surprised. “Yes, and Kaylani realized that there was something familiar about those venom strands, but only parts of them,” he says
The day of our meeting, I drew blood from all of the dragons, including Amne. I know she’s shifted but I prefer to be sure that nothing is happening with her that isn’t obvious on the outside. It took me another day to test it, during which time I explained to Aspen everything that had happened with her and what was happening with Brooke. Ajax, Kano and Keagan had come over to welcome them and show them around the school and ranch lands yesterday, and today, Elio, Valko, and Tesha had come to hang out since everyone else is leaving. Naida had come to say goodbye, having been invited to join Nova on her trip with Zephyr and Ishir. She said she’d never seen the ocean and since she spends as much time with them as Nova does with us, Kaylani agreed. Kaylani and I said goodbye to the elves and other shifters in the morning after breakfast then I returned to finish testing the blood of the dragons. I found something off with Ancalagon’s but I’m not going to say anything about it until I d
I’m excited to have this week with Everett. I know he’ll take advantage of only having a few of the kids here this week, but he shouldn’t be so busy that he can’t spend time with me and if last night is any indication, he’s willing to spend a lot of time with me and inside me. More and more I’m struggling to keep my dragon contained when we’re together. Everything I feel for him comes to the surface when he tells me he loves me and tells me he wants to be with me. I spent the day yesterday, while he was working in the lab, moving my things into his room. I didn’t want to give him any reason to change him mind. When he got to his room and saw all my things there, his smile was brilliant and he didn’t waste any time making me feel at home. This morning I’m up early, wanting to check the perimeter and make sure that none of the good hybrids are lurking nearby and that none of the bad hybrids are planning any kind of sneak attack. While the kids who are here can mostly shift, they aren’
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