Dragon Mated: Supernatural Prison #3

by Jaymin Eve

  Louis nodded. “To have your soul be dragon mated is the greatest gift. There are none stronger or more intelligent than the dragons.”

  “If this is true, then how do I have a dragon and a wolf soul?” My voice was high, and if I’d been on land I’d be pacing. “How the hell am I possible?”

  Chapter 11

  My entire body was so tense I felt like I could fracture apart with the smallest of taps. Louis shook his head at me.

  “I just don’t know, Jess. It’s almost as if your beast dragon mated to you after you were already developed enough in utero to have claimed your wolf soul. The dragon king did something unnatural to make this happen. Somehow he manipulated a dragon soul. It’s possible that’s why you needed to come here, because the only ones who could truly tell us are the shining ones.”

  This was why my dragon and I weren’t as connected as Braxton and his dragon. We’d all been dragon mated the same, but I already had the soul of a wolf inside, so my dragon bond was less complete. I went from tense to breakdown in seconds, my emotions spilling over, sorrow burrowing deep into my heart. I closed my eyes so I could focus internally, so I could see my beautiful dragon.

  What did they do to you?

  She fluttered her wings at me, those large eyes blinking rapidly. Even if she did remember what had happened to her before we were mated, there was no way for her to tell me.

  “I’m not worthy,” I murmured out loud. “She didn’t choose to be dragon mated, she was forced. It’s not right. It’s not right!” My voice was loud, and without thought I was scrambling out of the water.

  Everything inside of me screamed at the wrongness of this. A part of me wanted to claw at my own skin, to release the majestic creature who felt like she was meant to be mine but at the same time wasn’t.

  Before I could complete my insane breakdown, something changed in the world. An energy infused across the air and the sky darkened. My breathing was ragged as I fought to control the anger and pain lashing at my insides.

  I had dealt with fucked up things in my life: my mother disappearing, never knowing my twin, my father’s absence and depression, the dragon mark and the subsequent running for my life, but this was the first time I’d ever felt this out of control. I knew that compared to most, my life was pretty great – I’d always had my pack. Still, I was handling this far worse than I expected. My soul actually cried for my dragon.

  Again I tried to shelve my emotional leakage. Whatever entity had disturbed this land was getting closer. Reeling in my emotions felt like an impossible task, and it wasn’t until arms engulfed me from all sides that I managed a slice of clarity. I was surrounded by limbs, energy, warmth, support. My pack. For many moments we did not speak, we just stayed as a single unit and watched the sky as it continued to darken, waiting for the new interference to show itself.

  As the boys wrapped themselves and their energy around me, some of the fissures in my heart and soul – which were so much deeper now – started to disappear. The quads’ love and support was a magical putty, easing some of the ache inside.

  “I don’t know what I would do without you all.” My voice startled me. It was far huskier than usual.

  Arms tightened even further, and a few more of the cracks were healed. The largest cracks could never be fixed – the one which mourned for the soul of my dragon, and for all those marked who had lost so much of themselves.

  “You’re worthy, Jess.” Braxton was close to my right ear, his words a balm to my wounds. “No matter what the king did, your soul was always strong enough for a dragon. Think about it, you’re strong enough for two souls to be mated with yours.”

  “Exactly, Jess,” Jacob said with a touch of laughter. “Are you starting to agree with me when I say you’re the dragon whisperer? Double dragon mated: Braxton and your own dragon. Nothing unworthy there, babe.”

  I don’t know why but I laughed. It wasn’t funny and I was feeling like ass right now, but Jacob just sounded so proud of himself as he tried to cheer me up. It was the perfect thing he could have said, knocking me straight out of my melancholy, reminding me of all the ways I was blessed.

  My dragon might not have been destined for me initially, but she had chosen me and I legit loved the heck out of her. Together with my wolf, we were a soul trifecta and we were totally going to kick Larky straight in the balls and then rip his freaking head off.

  My wolf and dragon roared in agreeance. As I straightened and pushed my hair back from my face, the quads unwrapped themselves from me. Everyone is entitled to a moment of hitting rock bottom, it’s how we build ourselves back up to be twice as strong, but my moment was over now. Braxton ran a hand across my hair, tangling his fingers through it, as he loved to do.

  All of our attentions were drawn back to the darkening sky. Dragon-shaped shadows were zagging across it and the six of us settled into a semi-circle, waiting to see what was about to happen, preparing ourselves. Louis stepped to the front, his power longer-reaching than the rest of ours. Tyson was the next best.

  The shadows disappeared, only to reappear moments later. Before I could react my head exploded and darkness engulfed me. For the first time in my life, Jessa was lost to the dragon. The shining ones were here to play.

  I awoke in a field very much like the one I’d just left, my head squashed against something quite hard and rough, and by the time I opened my eyes and scrambled to my feet, it was too late to haul butt from the dragon – a dragon who was not Braxton or Larky. Nope, this dragon was so unbelievably stunning it made the rest of us look like geckos – you know, those weird little translucent lizards – ugly bastards, no matter how useful they were at keeping the spider population down.

  This dragon was a pure, shimmery gold, like the richest vein of gold you could ever hope to mine from the ground, so sparkling that it irritated my eyes if I stared too directly.

  Large, red, jewel-like eyes gazed at me. Unblinking. I sensed no aggression from the beast, even though the wild magic it emitted suggested it was a wild dragon, not a shifter. While it felt like a bad idea to remove my attention from this golden giant, I had to send out my senses to see if my pack was close by.

  I got nothing from our immediate surroundings, no other energy at all.

  Welcome to my realm, youngling.

  The musical voice echoed across my mind and crashed like cymbals into my brain. I shook my head, trying to dispel the lingering fogginess that had sprung up by simply being in the presence of something so magical.

  Who are you?

  Somehow I knew how to project the words I wanted and keep the rest private.

  I am Chrysandra. I am both shining one and queen of the wild dragons.

  Holy crap on toast. And I had thought I was a special cupcake. How could she be both?

  Have the shining ones always been dragons? I had pictured them looking like pointed-ear elf-princesses.

  No, many millennia ago our two races were strong enough to exist separately. Now we are one and the same. After the battle with shadow spawn, those who were left chose to be dragon mated to our most magical of brethren. This is how we survived.

  Un-freaking-believable. The shining ones did the opposite of the dragon shifters. The dragons didn’t mate to them, they went into the beast.

  What do you want with me? What happened when I blacked out?

  Images appeared in my head then, flashes of my dragon flying in a large group of beasts, all of them impressive and ancient looking, although none still came close to the spectacular visage of the dragon before me now.

  You and the soul of your dragon are innocent victims in something which should never have happened. A thousand years ago a shifter came to our land. He asked for a favor, offering his own boon in return. We refused him, for what he requested was so abhorrent to our kind that there would be nothing he would ever be able to give which could justify it.

  Fucking Larky. Bet they wished they killed that arrogant dick right then and there. I certainly wished they
had.

  He was charismatic and very persistent, though, and somehow managed to convince two of the younger shining dragons to join forces with him. Together they approached the shadow spawn. Our enemy took his offering and granted his request. Even with limited power, they still managed to create a curse, a line of magic which was sent out into the universe. The shifter wanted to bind souls to his own. In the case of his death, he would be able to be reborn with the blood of those who bore his mark.

  So it had been the shadow spawn who created the marked.

  Why is my mark different than the others? Why did my blood free him from his prison?

  Chrysandra didn’t answer immediately, and I felt like she was searching my mind, ferreting around in there, probably trying to figure out why I was so special. Finally, her deep tones sounded again.

  You’re descended from the shining ones, you and your twin both. There was once many supernaturals who were descended from us, but now they are few. You and Mischa are the only two to be both dragon marked and contain the blood of the shining ones. Teamed with the blood of Larkspur’s daughters, you held enough power to trigger his curse.

  I never even bothered to wonder how she knew Mischa’s name. She was a god, they just knew shit.

  So, I’m actually descended from … the shining ones. I trusted the word of this golden beast, but it was still a crazy thing to wrap my head around. Guess I knew now why the labyrinth had let me in and Loch Ness had been like a massive, scaled kitty-serpent. I was family and stuff.

  Yes, your family is one of the stronger lines left in the supernatural races, and because you were the first born of your twin set, you’re stronger than Mischa. This is why you were the dragon mated.

  Yes, how the hell … uh, how did that happen? I’m a dual shifter. I also have a wolf soul bonded to mine.

  Those jewel eyes blinked then, closing in one slow sweep, and stayed closed for many moments. I could hear nothing, but the sorrow that seeped through and into her magic was potent.

  That was part of the curse and the reason we would never have helped him. I flinched, her eyes were still closed and I had not expected her to start talking. He wanted us to forcibly mate a dragon soul with a supernatural, one descended from the shining ones, and in doing so, we would create a mate strong enough to bear his children, a queen to help him lead the five races. This was against everything we stood for, everything we had ever promised to our majestic beast friends.

  My heart was beating so hard it was almost loud enough to drown out the Queen’s voice in my head. This was information we needed, that would help us, but I wasn’t sure I could handle the full truth.

  When we turned him down, he went to the shadow spawn, and while they were able to release the curse, they cannot touch the souls of dragons. Which is why he ended up turning two of our members. Their betrayal was deep and all encompassing.

  Chrysandra’s eyes were open again now.

  They stole four of our young, newly born dragons. They killed their physical bodies and contained their souls in balls of magic. These four became trapped in the curse of the shadow spawn, cursed to be dragon mated when that was never their fate. The first three were lost to the great sky in an attempt to forcibly mate them to some of Larkspur’s men, experiments so they would not make any mistakes with his chosen mate.

  They were going to wait on the fourth, hoping to discover the secret to a successful dragon mating, but we thwarted those plans. The moment he killed those dragonlings, he made enemies of the shining ones and the dragons. It was only his ties with the shadow spawn that stopped us from killing him immediately. With his power so linked to theirs, the energy of his death may have given the shadow a window to escape their prison. We would have been weakened, and they would have overthrown us.

  Instead we decided to throw as many obstacles in his path as we could, and eventually he was spooked enough to release the remaining dragon soul into the universe. She was still stuck within the marked curse, but instead of being forced to a specific supernatural, she was free to find the mate he needed.

  The shining one paused and the air felt heavy. The next time her voice was in my head, it was shaky.

  One of the stolen young was my child. Until this day I never knew if she was one of those who were lost or if she was the remaining soul released into the universe. The moment you stepped into my realm, I sensed her soul within you. She survives. The true heir to the dragon mantle, the last queen of our kind.

  Holy shit. My heart broke for her. No mother should have to face the loss of a child.

  It’s been like a thousand years since they stole the dragons, right? It had to be before the king was killed. So my dragon was just existing out in the universe, waiting to find the right soul to mate with? Larkspur wasn’t around to force her? So does that mean it was a natural dragon mating, like Braxton and other shifters?

  I sensed her hesitation before she spoke again.

  Larkspur did not force her to choose you, but as I said, the curse was strong and she was a victim as well. Larkspur commanded her to seek the strongest line of shifters, descended from the shining ones. She waited for you through the many centuries. You were the first to call to her, and even though your soul already had a wolf claim, she found a way to make the bond work. Through no fault of either of you, it was this joining which freed the shifter, for he could never have been awoken without the final piece of his curse.

  Yep, I knew that all too well. I had been the piece of the puzzle, my blood and dragon mated soul the key to opening his tomb.

  Even though she chose you, and you were bonded in the same way as all other dragon shifters, her soul was never supposed to be free to be dragon mated. She should be the queen of her people. She is everything we had hoped and dreamed of to lead our royal line. I have not had any young since. Josephina is the last of my line.

  Josephina. The name slammed into me like a bullet to the gut. I played with her name in my head, and my dragon, who had been listening to her mother speak, sent warm energy toward me, trying to reassure me, trying to make me feel better about being the prison binding her soul. Being dragon mated was the greatest gift I could ever hope to have, but this was not the way it should have been.

  Josephina wrapped herself closer around me, sending more of that ancient energy in my direction. I wailed my sorrow at her. I’m sorry. So, so sorry. And even though we couldn’t communicate the same way I was talking with her mother, I could tell that she was trying to comfort me, reassure me that this was not my fault, that she had chosen me for a reason, that even though, by the time she found me, I already had a wolf soul, there had been no one else strong enough for her.

  I managed to pull myself together, steadying my breath, focusing again. I sent a question to Chrysandra: How were the dragon marked chosen?

  Larkspur wanted the strongest minds. Body strength was not as important. He wanted twins and multiples because of the mental link you already possess, a link he could utilize when he tried to control you.

  Made sense. Larky was a smug, intelligent asshole. And I was so going to kill him. He murdered baby dragons, for freak’s sake.

  Chrysandra shifted closer to me, her head snaking down to hover inches from my own. Her eyes stared into my soul again and I wondered if she was trying to see Josephina, her daughter.

  I have to go now. There’s much we do to keep this world as is, to stop those from waking who should not.

  Wait, I blurted. Just really quickly, why did Larkspur not use magic when he fought against Braxton? And what did he promise you and the shadow spawn? What could he offer that would be worth the shadow ones helping him with a curse? That must have cost them precious energy.

  Our gazes remained locked.

  If he managed to dragon mate a soul to a shifter descended from the shining ones, she would be strong enough to produce his young.

  I remember.

  Her children would be dragon shifters, the first ever naturally born, no need for a dragon mat
ed soul. These young would be stronger than any dragon-mated shifter, a true hybrid of the kind, and would hold power over the five supernatural races. Larkspur plans to build an army of his children to rule over the supernatural races. Even the gods would not be safe.

  Fuck! I had kind of skimmed over that before, but I should have paid closer attention to the fact that Larky planned to turn me into a dragon baby maker. A fact which fit with our earlier revelations of my fertility, and his want for an heir.

  He promised the eldest of his offspring, a child of immense power. We would never consider it for a moment, but it’s a weapon the shadow ones will use against us.

  A warning entered her voice.

  This is a bargain which still stands. You must ensure this never comes to fruition. Please remember, supernaturals who are dragon mated don’t have the same fertile periods as regular shifters. You can have a child at any time, unless you seek spelling from a magic user.

  That was weird. Besides my pains very recently, I’d always had normal shifter fertile times … maybe it was because my mark and dragon had been suppressed, her magic locked down. Either way, I didn’t have to worry about having that asshat’s child, I think I’d remember if Larky had been close enough to get his di–

  Wait…

  My heart stuttered in my chest.

  Braxton.

  We had slept together after my mark was released, and without using protection. I had been ages away from my fertile time, so there had been nothing to worry about. Except … apparently there was. I could be carrying Braxton’s baby, a child that might be a dragon shifter, and was promised to the shadow ones…

  The agony must have been clear in my ashen features. Chrysandra offered me some reassurances. The promise was only for Larkspur’s first born, so a child conceived with another would be free from any debt to them.

  The relief was short-lived.

  But … if your child with another is a dragon shifter, and Larkspur steals this young and offers it to them, the shadow spawn will not care that this is not the complete fulfilment of the promise. They want the weapon, and will accept the first natural born dragon shifter. Do not let Larkspur steal your child … my daughter’s child.