Chapter 31 - CracksPenelopeI woke up to the smell of fresh rain and smoke; the warmth of a firm body radiated from behind me as the weight of an arm rested across my lower stomach. I was in a blissful haze; my body ached all over but in the best way possible, not from countless hours of training or from cleaning out horse stalls. But from my body experiencing levels of euphoria I hadn't even known existed until last night. I didn't want to welcome the new day ahead of us; just wanting to stay in this reality forever. The one where nothing else existed outside of this world. This place where only Garren and I lived, our bodies entangled with one another, losing ourselves to each other over and over until we were left breathless and completely satisfied. Garren let out a low hum in the back of his throat, his hand gripping my stomach tighter as he pulled me closer to his chest. His voice thick with sleep as he pressed his lips against my ear. "Keep thinking whatever it is you're t
Chapter 32 - HonourPenelope "I guess I'll have to restart my count for how many days it's been since you were last here, Penelope." Perseus teased as he entered my room. His onyx hair pulled back, his gray eyes sparkling with amusement. "Haha, so funny." I groaned as I adjusted myself on the bed. Due to my lack of dragon warrior fighting skills, I visited this place more often than most. And because of those frequent visits Perseus and I formed a patient-doctor friendship. It was nice to know the male who was working on me, but at the same time, I would have much rather gotten to know Perseus from a different standpoint. "You should be proud of me, Perseus. I managed to go for a whole eight hours of training today." "Ahh yes, well, as great as that is, I believe your body would say otherwise, Poppy," Perseus muttered, his voice dropping to a more serious tone as he moved his hand across my jaw. I let out a slight hiss of pain as he pushed against a fresh bruise before moving to m
Chapter 33 - Blow upGarren "Did Penelope cancel our meeting, and you just forgot to tell me?" My mother's soft voice filled the silence of my study. I stopped my pen mid-swoop. My head snapped up, unease filling me as I stared at my mother in confusion. Her blonde hair was down today, making her look younger than she was. To a human, she would look like she was in her mid to late forties. When in actuality, she was well over eight hundred years old, my father fifty years older than her. "No," I said cautiously, my voice coming out calmer than I felt. Ever the King as I was forced to remain calm even though I wanted to run out of the castle like a madman. I was insisting that a search take place to locate my mate. My mother watched me with assessing eyes, the corner of her mouth tipping down into a frown. "Well, I'm sure she just got caught up with training. I will reschedule with her. There isn't much more training I can do anyways. She is a fast learner, that girl. She reminds
Chapter 34 - Burden Penelope My body felt like it was made of bricks, each movement requiring more effort than the last. I groaned in agony, the light from the sun filling my room through the glass ceiling, basking me in all its miserably warm glory. Of course, the one time I go out drinking, the sun decides to make an appearance. I rolled across the bed, blindly brushing my hand across the top of my nightstand until I found my phone. I hardly used the thing here, only needing to use it to talk to Hilary or my parents whenever they called or wanted to video chat. They all knew I was busy, Hilary believing it was work when my parents knew the truth. It was a hard pill to swallow, the constant lying and evading of certain questions that Hilary berated me with every time we talked. I did my best to redirect the conversation back to her, which worked most times, but the guilt never gave. Instead, it only seemed to eat away at me more and more. It made me think of Reyna and her partn
Chapter 35 - LimitsGarren "Is she getting better? Is she even worth all this training?" Hydra growled, his tone filled with annoyance as he ran his fingers down his snow-white beard. I had been listening to the same debate for the last ten minutes. Hydra being the sole cause for my rising anger since the beginning of this dreadful meeting.He was older than dirt, his face wrinkled from age, his gray eyes dull. His hair was as white as snow. How he managed to stay in the council for the last two centuries is beyond me. Perhaps it was his incessant need to have everything stay the same since the beginning of time that kept him here, knowing that most dragons hated change as much as he did. Or maybe it was just that fact that people feared the stories of his past. Though from the looks of him, I didn't think those stories were true at all. Hydra probably hadn't lifted a single finger in his life. The stories of his past were just that, stories. Not a single scar marred his ebony ski
Chapter 36 - FaithPenelopeThis sword weighed a ton as I forced my arms to hoist the giant piece of metal into the air. I don't know how my cousins made it look so easy to wield anytime I watched them train. Goddess above watching Mildred practically twirl the sword with a single hand was a miracle all on its own, let alone the two swords she had strapped to her waist. "You're still slouching. Push your shoulders back and straighten your spine." Mildred instructed in a bored tone as she leaned against the fence."You know-" I panted, gripping the sword in a death grip, trying to keep the handle from slipping through my sweaty palms. "-I'm starting to think you're just doing this for your own enjoyment. You haven't even tried to fight me yet." Her golden gaze locked on mine, an amused smirk forming at the corner of her mouth."Fighting you right now would be like swatting a fly. You wouldn't even last two seconds. I deserve a better challenge than that. So quit your complaining and
Chapter 37 - Boundaries PenelopeI worried my lower lip as I stood in front of Garren's door, rethinking whether this was a good idea or not. In the two and a half months since I had arrived in Caspian, I had never made a move to enter his room. It felt like crossing an unspoken boundary, one both of us weren't sure we were ready to cross. We hadn't done anything since coming back from Kailani. We hadn't even spent much time together after the blow-up we had last week. It felt ridiculous, always overthinking every move Garren and I made. The constant push and pull we seemed to find ourselves in every time we were alone. Especially since we had already crossed a line when he had me screaming his name while he sent me into oblivion, but there was what we did, and then there was what we didn't do, and I wasn't sure if I could handle the weight of that on my shoulders on top of everything else. It didn't seem fair to Garren or me, even though he told me time and time again that I wasn
Chapter 38 - Death Garren *Five hundred years ago* The war between the witches and Dragons was going strong. It seemed like it was never going to end. It was even worse than we could have ever imagined. Our relationship with the witches had always been strenuous, but now our hatred toward them was set in stone.They were always after our ancient magic, trying to find ways to steal it to feed their thirst for power. However, not all the witches were as evil as the ones who first attacked us. Some I had grown to know over the years still helped us despite many refusing them, making wards to conceal our location and other types of spells to help heal the sick and wounded. Most of them were tasked with keeping the royal family and our kingdom under the radar. Their loyalties to our family and our kind never faulting in the harshest moments.But even that wasn't enough to stop the inevitable from happening. Not when our own goddess abandoned us and gave the witches all the information
Epilogue. *Two Weeks later*"You mean to tell me you learned to do this in six months? Six months!" Hilary panted, dropping the arrow for the sixth time. She leaned down, picking it up with a frustrated growl. I let out a chuckle shaking my head. "Yes, but I was just as terrible as you were in the start, and I only got better because I was forced to spend twelve hours a day training." Hilary scoffed, aiming her arrow at the closet target once again."Plus, you're a werewolf. Which, by the way, is fucking mind-blowing. I don't think I'll ever recover from your weird magical family heritage." Hilary continued."You'll get over it eventually." I teased.Hilary released her arrow, flopping on the ground halfway between her and the target. She tossed the bow on the ground, throwing up her hands. A few warriors who had decided to watch the spectacle unfold snickered, earning a glare from my fearless partner. "I give up. Can we do that sheering thing back to the castle? I think I'm over
Chapter 56 - Love Penelope The return to my room was a hazy dream. I barely remembered walking there, let alone getting myself cleaned up and into bed before passing out. But I had done all of that at some point, considering a soft knock at my door was now waking me up.I knew at least a couple of hours had passed by from the darkness of the sky above. Garren had reassured me that I would be left alone until it was time for me to get ready for our big debut as king and queen this evening. My family had surrounded me after the battle, pulling me in for hugs, ignoring the blood and dirt covering my entire body as they congratulated me and told me how proud they were. Though my mother did threaten my life if I ever entered something so dangerous ever again, my father and brothers both agreed. Balor, on the other hand, decided to give me a few critiques that earned him a scolding from his brother and sisters. My body wasn't as sore as it was after the battle, but exhaustion still clung
Chapter 55 - Slayer of Monsters Garren The preparations for the battle were a strenuous six long month headache that involved endless amounts of planning, enduring countless meetings and trying to steal as many quiet moments with my mate as possible. But no amount of preparation or training could prepare me for what I was forced to witness eight now. Ophir was just beneath my skin, the urge to shift almost overwhelming me as I watched Penelope fight for her life.Everything was in her favour until Delmira shifted, then all hell broke loose, and Penelope went from having a chance to win the battle to being mere seconds away from it all ending. The spell I had made with Solace started to kick in, but I was afraid I was already too late. The pain in my leg and side slowly grew as I siphoned her injuries—enough to help her heal and fight but not enough to kill me. I could take any damage away from her except a strike to the heart or through the head. My magic healed me just as fast as
Chapter 54 - BattlePenelope"Breath," Mildred whispered as we approached the ring where mine and Delmira's battle would take place. It was huge, made of stone like almost everything in Caspian. It reminded me of the gladiator arenas back in Roman times, except this one was three times as big to accommodate such gigantic shifters. I had never seen the arena before, apparently all by design to keep me from freaking out, or so Garren told me this morning before leaving to finish the rest of today's preparations. "I am." I ground out. Lira let out a breathy laugh but quickly stifled it as I glared at her. I was on edge, nervous about the outcome of this battle. The same questions circled my head again and again.Had I improved enough? Did I have enough time to train correctly? Was this all a fool's errand? "We have this, Penelope. When we were together, we're unstoppable." Kyra encouraged, trying her best to mask her nervousness too. I took another deep breath as we entered the long
Chapter 53 - ClosurePenelope Home, that's what my pack territory should have felt like as I entered through the portal into the Bloodstone territory. Now though, the place where I had grown up, where I had trained and dreamed of helping grow one day, felt anything but that. Almost like it was a distant memory, one that was dulled compared to the memories I had clung to in my head for the last six months. I may have lived in Vancouver for the last four years, but even still, it had always been my place to come to when I needed an escape, to regroup my thoughts and rebuild my confidence for the road ahead. Now though, I felt like an outsider looking in, and the outcast feeling seemed more evident as I walked through the familiar streets searching for my parents and brother.Everyone seemed to stop what they were doing to stare at Garren and me, all casting wary glances in our direction, some even whispering not so quietly about who my mate was and what had happened between us. Gar
Chapter 52 - Dragon HeartHunter Life was a gamble; that was what I had learned in my early youth. Unfortunately, the truth of that statement was made abundantly clear when the war started, and I was hit on both fronts regarding the loss of loved ones and comrades. First, the death of Garren's brother and then my parents, followed by many, many others. I shut down after the war and closed off everyone as much as possible. I was as unpredictable and mean as Falkoor and thought it safer this way.I believed shutting everyone out kept me in control of the demon within. Only trusting Falkoor when Garren was around to help command and keep him in line when I lost control. But it did the opposite. It put my friends and our people at risk of an outburst. So today was meant to change that. The last few months had pushed me to open up more. It forced me to let more people into my circle and ease the grip on my dragon.When Penelope arrived, I thought she wouldn't last more than a week in ou
Chapter 51 - RisksPenelopeI stared at Opal, my eyes narrowing as I focused on her movement, from how her chest rose and fell to how her fingers twitched, looking for any tell that would give me a hint of her next attack. Except with the twins, it was never that easy; it was like staring at a wall and waiting for it to speak. Their years of training made it almost nearly impossible to predict or detect anything the sisters were going to do.Opal and Odessa were as trained as one could be, putting even the most trained warriors within the capital to shame. Opal's copper hair dancing in the wind was the only thing that moved as she stared us down. The constant state of unease when fighting her made Kyra anxious. "Steady," I warned Kyra, her presence just beneath my skin. "I know, they're just so-" unpredictable was what Kyra was just about to say when Opal struck. I twisted away from her sword just as Odessa attacked from behind. Two people at once. That was how far I had progressed
Chapter 50 - Sacrifice Garren One week, somehow, time seemed to slip by faster than I had ever experienced before. It got lost in the stolen moments with Penelope and in the long and strenuous days of dealing with the council when I wasn't watching her train. The snow had started to melt, the air becoming warmer as it delivered the promise of spring. And with it, a reminder of the battle that we had been training her for was fast approaching.Penelope didn't sleep in her room anymore; somewhere in the last few months, she had made my room her own. I couldn't say I didn't enjoy it; I honestly couldn't remember what it was like before she filled it with her scent and warming presence, and I didn't ever want to. I never realized how much I would love this, love her until I had her, and now I knew that I had to do everything within my power to ensure I got to keep her. It was why I was here now, the last place I wanted to be ever after five hundred years; I hadn't been able to look at
Chapter 49 - Distractions PenelopeIt was strange walking into a room full of humans, all of them none the wiser to the shifters that lived amongst them. I had no idea what this event was for, but I assumed it was for another one of Balor's clients. He was always selling himself, constantly marketing, working an angle to gain new clients and make more deals. Going all out to impress the richest of the rich, and tonight was no exception. An orchestra played on the stage; people danced on the dance floor. Tables littered the rest of the room, While people filled the seats, eating the tiny expensive hors d'oeuvres while discussing their next business ventures and big vacation. Staff walked around with trays of champagne and food. The three giant chandeliers above us twinkled against the crystal jewels as they hung effortlessly from the vaulted ceilings. Ribbon also hung from the ceiling; performers twirled and fell from the long silken ribbon as they entertained everyone who watched.