I love teaching. It’s the best thing that I do next to helping these hybrids and dragons. If you had asked me a few years ago what my life was going to be like in the next five years, I never would have imagined that it would be this. I’ve always been enamored with dragons and to find out that they are real and that I could become a permanent part of their life, was incredible. Getting to know them, work with them, save them, and now teach them, has been a dream that I never thought would become a reality, but here I am.That doesn’t mean there aren’t pitfalls. I’m in love with a dragon, the most beautiful dragon of all of them if you ask me, but I wasn’t born to claim a dragon. Every time I take Cedric’s sword-wielding class, I’m reminded of how utterly weak I am compared to these shifters. I walk out of that class, my entire body feeling like I’ve been beaten up. And while the others may walk out that way too, by dinner they are all healed, while I am still sore at the next class.M
We’re not supposed to leave the school grounds, but sometimes, I just need to get away. In a school of freaks, I’m the freakiest. I’m the only one who can shift into two different types of shifters, which might be really cool if they were normal, but they’re not. My DNA got so screwed up by the scientists that no matter what form I take, I’m a freak of nature, a scaly Lycan or a furry dragon.That may change if Eric ever wakes up. I may not be the only one that can shift into two animals. I heard that Doc Everett had to give him a fourth DNA, elf DNA, to try to get the others to merge. We’re still waiting to see if Eric wakes up. He has Komodo dragon, polar bear, water dragon and now elf. If he’s like me, he’ll shift into something like a furry lizard or a scaly elf. Neither of those options is positive. Sometimes, I wonder if it wouldn’t have been better if they had left me to die.As I walk through the woods surrounding the school, I catch a strange scent, a scent I’ve caught severa
I was on my way to check on Everett, Amne, and Eric, when Ancalagon bugled that intruders had crossed the borders of the school.I race outside leaping into the air.“Where, Ancalagon?”“Near Zephyr and Ishir’s place.”“Stay here, guard the school,” I say, hovering as the other dragons head my way.“All of you, guard the school,” I say.“Do as she says,” Ancalagon orders them as I fly toward where I’ve caught the scent of strange hybrids. Strange but familiar, one with fire dragon and Lycan DNA, and the other has Lycan and earth dragon DNA.A moment later, Zephyr bugles that it’s okay, we’re not under attack, but I continue making my way toward where I also now smell Tesha’s familiar mixture of Lycan, polar bear, and fire dragon.I fly in, lifting up so my back feet are closer to the ground and I begin to shift as I land, tucking my wings into my back as my feet touch the ground.“Whoa,” one of the boys says, staring at me. “How did you do that?” he asks, staring at my naked body.Ish
Amne had a pretty good night overall. She tossed and turned for a long time until Ancalagon suggested that I flip her onto her stomach. It took me awhile to figure out what he was saying. My understanding of dragon speak is getting better, but it’s not perfect.When I carefully helped her flip onto her stomach, she was able to fall asleep and I realized that her entire life, she’s only slept this way.Every few hours, I’d wake up and take blood from her IV, testing it to make sure that her shift continued to go well. By morning, I’m feeling pretty confident that I can get her outside today, even if it’s just to lay in the sun with the other dragons for a few hours. Her eyes are mostly stabilized in the human version, with only the occasional flickermto her dragon's eyes.I was just about to ask her what she wanted to try and eat for breakfast when Ancalagon bellowed his warning. I heard Kaylani run outside and shift, then tell Ancalagon and the other dragons to guard the school. I’d h
I take the nasty smelling food that Everett gave me and I walk into Amne’s room.“Amne, how are you feeling this morning?” I ask her. Because she’s on her stomach, she has to lift herself up and turn her head to look at me.“Hi Kaylani. I’m doing okay,” she says, her voice raspy but better.“You can talk! Yay! Everett sent me in with some food for you,” I say, moving over to her. Her lip curls like mine did.“What is it?” she asks.“Eggs and some more of the pureed soup.”“That tasted gross, but I’m not sure I could swallow anything else right now,” she says.“Let’s get you turned over and try to get some food in you. Everett thinks that you can go outside today. I don’t think he wants you to try and shift quite yet, but he wants you to be outside in the sun, letting it heal you,” I tell her as I help her roll over.“He’s really good, isn’t he?”“Yeah, he is. Now remember, hold your breath when you swallow,” I tell her and hold the cup to her lips. She does much better today than she
After getting Elio and Valko fed, I showed them to the spare rooms in the hospital wing. “I’m assuming you’d prefer to share a room for now? If not, we have space to give each of you your own room. It’s up to you,” I tell them. They look at each other and turn back to me. “Together,” they say at the same time. I’m not surprised. They have been together since they left the laboratory. They are obviously friends and trust each other. I put them in a room that has two twin beds and its own bathroom. “There’s a shower in there with towels,” I say stepping into the bathroom. I check the cabinets and pull out a couple fresh bars of soap and some shampoo. “If you need or want conditioner, I’ll have to get that for you,” I say, checking to make sure they have pillows, and that there are sheets and blankets on both beds. “Why are you doing this? Helping us, I mean,” Elio asks. “I’m a doctor. I was a human doctor before I met the dragons and the others. When I became a doctor, I swore an
I follow Everett and the boys back to their room. “They asked for a haircut, Kaylani,” Everett says. I can feel the weight of what he needs to do to help Elio on his shoulders. I take his hand and pull him to a stop. “If anyone can do this, Everett, it’s you. You’re the only person I’ve ever met who is so completely dedicated to helping these kids,” I tell him. I watch the war in his eyes and a moment after I see him lose the battle, he has me pressed against the wall, his mouth devouring mine like a starving man feasting for the first time in too long. His hand goes into my hair and he grabs hold as he pulls away from me. “I need you tonight, Kaylani. I need to dominate you, to be in control.” I know my mate, maybe better than he knows himself, so I give him what he needs. A challenge. “You can try.” If he were any type of shifter, he would have growled at the challenge. Instead, he pressed his hard length against me, taking my mouth again. He dominates my mouth until I’m whim
Perhaps I shouldn’t be so severe with an elf prince threatening to claim Kaylani, but I know that she’s my mate. It scares me to think that someone might claim her. If they did and they told her she needed to leave the school, she would go with them. If they told her to burn the school to the ground, she would do it. That’s what happens when someone who only wants the power of a dragon claims one. That's the power of claiming a dragon. They give themselves to you completely. I can still feel Kaylani seething beside me as I lead her out of the dining room. It takes a lot to make my mate so angry that she would threaten to kill one of our students. Threatening to claim her is obviously one of those things. I look at her out of the corner of my eye. This is the woman who gives herself to me willingly, but she’ll threaten to kill an elf prince if he says he wants to claim her. I wonder if she isn’t threatened by me because she knows that I could never claim her. I’ve seen the other mate
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