by Ophelia Bell
Thunder rumbled through the air around the Pavilion, signaling their arrival. Kris had the impression the six dragons were flying from somewhere far away, yet they always simply appeared out of thin air between the six columns of the pavilion, and hovered with wings beating in the air, their variety of colored bodies casting glimmering shadows of matching colors on the ground around him. The shadows drew closer and where they met in the center, a white light shone on Kris and Darius like a spotlight where they knelt.
Darius let out a sigh that mirrored the sensation Kris felt deep in his belly, all the way down to his cock. Simply being in their presence was often as satisfying as making love to Issa, though by the end of his meetings the euphoria rarely lingered. He hoped this meeting would prove to be more productive.
“Greetings, Catalyst. Unbound.” The large green dragon was the first to speak when the six settled onto the ground around the pavilion and walked forward to surround them.
“Numa,” Kris said, nodding his head toward the Green and glancing around at the others.
“What prompted this summons?” The black one, Ked, said in a deep, throaty tone.
“The lives of my children are in greater peril even now. They won’t survive much longer without aid.”
“They will survive if you and their mother give enough of yourselves. Are you giving enough?” The white dragon, Aodh, spoke. Kris glanced at him but immediately away from the blinding brightness of his scales.
“We have given all we can without jeopardizing our own lives. We will not leave them orphans.”
“There is only one way we can help.” Belah, the blue dragon answered in her delicate, gentle tone. “It is out of our control otherwise. We need the Verdanith assembled and reactivated to weave our magic together for to them to absorb. Be assured we value yours and Issa’s lives as much as the children.”
Kris looked beseechingly at Gavra and Aurum, the red and the gold. “But you can give to me in the traditional manner, can’t you? Surely one dose of Nirvana from one as powerful as you…”
Gavra’s eyes flashed red, his deep voice cutting in. “We cannot couple with you, Catalyst, as enticing a prospect as it is.” He let out a low, rumbling hum that signaled his appreciation. Aurum hummed back in agreement, her voice harmonizing with Gavra’s in a way that vibrated down to the base of Kris’s spine and made his already uncomfortable erection throb even harder. The sensation was compounded by the bright look the golden dragon gave him, as though she’d gladly couple with him, if it would do them any good.
“Can’t or won’t?” Kris said. “You forget I know where we came from. It’s been hundreds of thousands of years since the Mother created the six of you, and you found your first mates among the humans.” He looked pointedly at Gavra. “It’s time the rest of the Brood knew as well. You fathered our oldest ancestor more than a hundred generations ago. I’m not asking to mate with any of you. Only to help sustain my mate and children until the twins are safely born. Our race owes our existence to you already. Isn’t that enough?”
“They are right,” Numa said, her green eyes glowing. “The Mother was the first Prismatic, and her power only resurfaces once in each generation. As a Prismatic dragon, your power is the embodiment of the Mother in this world. The essence of her that you carry prevents you from absorbing the pure energy the six of us possess. It would be like shining a light at a mirror if we tried. The Verdanith is the only way we can effectively focus the appropriate combination of power to sustain you or any other dragon. Until it is assembled there is nothing we can do.”
Kris sensed a murmur of dissent. “Are you hiding something? Please tell me if there is any other way. I refuse to accept that we are out of options entirely.”
Numa settled her disconcerting gaze back on him. “There may be one other option. There are humans we call ‘Udara’ who possess an even greater capacity for absorbing magic and transferring it. But they are exceedingly rare and difficult to find. Even if you could find one, they would require being mated and marked before even being allowed on the mountain. It would be easier to find as many mated dragons as possible who are willing to offer their mates on a regular basis. Most dragons aren’t willing to share their mates so readily.”
“It’s the only option we have at the moment, except you have forbidden me from sharing Issa’s pregnancy with others,” Kris said.
“This close to the birth, we can make an exception if you promise to only invite those you trust the most.”
“Very well,” Kris said, relieved that he finally had more than vague guarantees. He would have to give in and call the others, and just hope those who weren’t actively trying to locate the lost fragment of the Verdanith would be willing to help after he confessed the secret he and Issa had kept from them.
“What word from the Court on the missing fragment, Kris?” Numa said, moving on to other business.
“I only know they were close to locating it. I haven’t heard from them in several weeks.”
The Council didn’t respond for several moments. The hum of their private communion irritated Kris. Sometimes he was alert enough to break through and catch a few pieces of what they shared, but today he was too exhausted. While he waited his mind was free of them, at least. He sent a quick thought to Issa letting her know things were progressing but not in which direction. He’d tell her the full details later, when the Council wasn’t around to overhear his thoughts.
The second he’d finished the thought, his mind split with blinding pain, a bombardment of nearly deafening voices clamoring for attention. He cried out, clutching his temples. “What do you want?!” he yelled silently back.
The voices ceased instantly and he sighed in relief. A moment later, a single familiar voice came back through, sure and deep.
“It’s Kol. We have the fragment. We’re all here and on our way to you now.”
“Hurry. And bring your mates, too.” Kris sent back, then immediately sent a message to the Unbound dragon guards that surrounded the pavilion to give Kol and his retinue full access, regardless of status.
He needed all of them.
Chapter 3
After half a day in a plane flying between Tokyo and Singapore, Rowan relished the chance to stretch her wings again. They’d waited until nightfall before climbing to the top of one of the city’s tallest hotels before shifting. From Singapore it was another few hours to the island, which passed quickly now that she wasn’t confined to a metal tube.
Rowan landed in a field surrounded by men in robes, allowed Trevor to dismount from her back, and shifted to her human form. The rest of her companions either dismounted or shifted around her. Trevor and Rafe moved to one side of her while her tall, red-haired brother and his beautiful mate flanked her on the other side. With the others at her back, Rowan felt for the first time like she belonged in a place. These were her people. Her family. And she would do whatever it took to help them.
A single broad-chested man with a shaved head stepped eagerly toward her, his expression filled with gratitude.
“Zak?” she said. She almost didn’t recognize him in full daylight until she caught sight of his yellow eyes and attractive face a second before he gathered her into his embrace. His strong arms crushed her to his chest. With her cheek mashed against him she gave Rafe an apologetic look, but the Shadow only laughed.
“Your timing couldn’t be more perfect,” Zak said when he released her. “Darius is with Kris and the Council now. We need to get you to the peak as soon as possible.”
Kol and the others walked toward them with determined looks.
“Can we even get up there? I thought there was a restriction,” Rafe said.
“Kris has summoned all of us,” Kol said. “However, the magic that protects the peak allows only Court dragons to access via the air. Racha will fly ahead as our representative. The rest of us will walk.”
The petite Asian woman Rowan had only met a couple days earlier embraced the bear of a human man who had a
ccompanied her. They whispered to each other softly, then kissed tenderly. Racha quickly shifted into a majestic green dragon while her mate looked on. Rowan didn’t think she’d ever get used to seeing the transformation, even though she’d accomplished it countless times herself.
Rowan fell into step behind Kol. Her insides churned and she felt on the verge of tears after everything. This had to be the end of it. She clutched tighter to the pair of hands that held hers, and they gave back with as much strength. The crush of Rafe’s and Trevor’s hands in hers calmed her, gave her courage to face whatever would come.
She looked around at the others climbing the narrow mountain path with her. So many she barely knew, but who she already loved. Her brother smiled encouragingly at her and she smiled back.
As rushed as their journey was, so close to the end, it had still taken them a day and a half to get back to the Monastery from the temple where Rafe and Trevor found her. From there they’d trekked back out and headed to the Tokyo International Airport. She’d laughed at the other dragons who met them there, blustering about being stuck in a tube to fly them places quicker, but grew quiet soon after when the same urge to spread her wings sank into her after Kol’s private jet was airborne.
“How the hell do you deal with this?” she asked out of the blue half an hour later. Her skin itched with the need to shift, but there was nowhere near enough room in the small cabin to do so.
“Sex,” several of the others replied. There were sixteen, altogether, filling up the cabin.
“We shouldn’t,” Kol said. His fingertips had turned into sharp talons that pierced the leather armrests. The others were in similar states of tense restraint.
“We don’t need to,” Roka said. “My Queen, will you join me?”
The large, white-haired dragon took a deep breath and expelled it in a shimmering cloud of white. Racha did the same, their breath mingling and dispersing throughout the cabin. Rowan let herself inhale the pleasant-smelling smoke. A sense of relaxed euphoria came over her within moments and the overwhelming urge to shift and catch the air currents with her wings disappeared. They spent the next several hours in subdued, but happy conversation. She got the sense this meeting was a long needed reunion for many of them. Even more so for herself and the brother she’d never known she had.
Geva had been solicitous of her from the very first moment, anxious to confirm that she was well and that Rafe hadn’t harmed her. When Rafe turned to the group to display the mark she’d given him, the subject of his loyalty was dropped. The others treated Trevor with warm interest, but he had refused to leave her side for a single moment.
Even now he walked at her side as they trailed up the mountain. “What exactly are we headed toward?” Trevor asked.
“The confrontation of our lives,” she replied. “So cross your fingers.”
“We’re meeting with the Dragon Council,” Rafe clarified. His voice caught and he cleared his throat with a nervous cough. Rowan darted a concerned look at him.
“Are you scared of them?”
Rafe gave her a sheepish smile. “I’ve never met them before. Only the Court and the loyal slaves that serve them have ever been in their presence until now. But Kris insisted we all go, even the humans.”
Their destination came into view far above, a huge pavilion that sparkled in the sunset at the peak of the mountain. There was a collective murmur of awe from those around her and they increased their pace up the winding, cobbled path.
The structure was the size of the Acropolis, only built in a hexagonal shape. Jade columns as thick as redwoods held up a roof that she could barely make out as obscured in the clouds as it was.
Shimmering curtains of multicolored light filled each space between the columns, beyond which Rowan could make out three figures standing in the center looking out at them. The Queen, Racha, stood in between two large men, one bare-chested with shoulder-length black hair and a violet sarong, the other in a robe and sporting a shaved head and familiar eyes that flashed red when they settled on her.
She restrained herself from surging forward, though her heart swelled to see the large Unbound who had helped her when she’d visited last.
“Darius,” she whispered.
“Yeah, Darius.” Rafe said the name with a distinct lack of hospitality. He snorted and bent to kiss her on the cheek. “Sorry, love. I know he helped you, but…” He trailed off with a shrug.
“Trevor helped me, too, but you don’t seem to hold it against him.”
“Trevor isn’t a dragon.”
His jealousy toward Darius perplexed her at first, but since the entire Court had come charging into her chamber, she’d learned they all had peculiar quirks that made no real sense. At least not until she remembered they’d only lived in the modern world for less than a year. Though, one detail that became clear in watching the others was Rafe’s resistance to confessing his love to her to begin with. Their race had been forbidden from mating and breeding among themselves for as long as they could remember. Aside from a few extraordinary exceptions, any dragons who mated with one of their own went to great lengths to hide such a union. Her existence was evidence of that. And Darius, Zak and the other Unbound, as offspring of other matings between two dragons, were evidence of the persecution of dragons who broke that law.
“Roka helped you. Can you explain to me the difference?”
“Roka…” Rafe stopped, his mouth half open as though he were searching for the words. “He helped out of necessity, and he is already mated.” Under his breath, he murmured, “It’s not as if we’d be able to breed.”
“So it’s only because they’re males that you’ve got your panties in a bunch?”
“You’re a beautiful, powerful dragon. I’ve submitted to as your mate already, against the laws as they stand now. If those laws change, you’ll have the right to take others, I imagine. Other dragons and humans. Male and female, if you choose. That, and it’s not exactly easy to get over centuries of backward thinking. The idea of you breeding with another dragon feels…not right.”
“Unless it’s you.”
Rafe’s jaw clenched and his hand tightened around hers. “I used to feel differently,” he said quietly. “Two dragons lying together was against our laws, except for the sacred union of the Catalysts and the dragon mates chosen for them by the Council. I believed in our laws and held to them so tightly that I considered such unions among other dragons an abomination. It wasn’t until the night I met you that I knew what a fool I’d been. I could sense in your magic how pure your blood is. Yet all I wanted was to awaken your nature and make you mine. But once I did that—I discovered you were even more powerful than I’d dreamed. I couldn’t go back without letting you claim me. This feels right, now that it’s done.”
“It’s not quite done yet, though, is it? We still have a law to change.”
“That we do,” Rafe said, bringing her hand to his lips.
Chapter 4
The escort of Unbound dispersed around the Pavilion and Kris finally caught sight of the retinue of Court dragons and their mates. The group was led by a few unfamiliar faces. He recognized Geva and Erika instantly—but the trio that accompanied them were new to him. The striking female Red in the center exuded power beyond even Geva’s vibrant energy.
“There she is,” Darius whispered beside him.
“You know this dragon?” Kris asked, jerking his head to look at his father.
Darius cut a sideways glance at Kris and gave him a smug smile. “She’s our salvation. I couldn’t tell you about her before today, or we’d have lost her assistance.”
“Who is she?” Kris asked, turning back to watch as the group approached, still far enough to be out of earshot.
“Bren and Warik’s daughter. The newest Unbound. So new, the Council doesn’t even know about her. Or they didn’t until now, but it’s too late for them to do anything.”
Darius sounded pleased with himself. Kris glanced at him again and caught the sm
ug smile and twinkle in his eye. Kris braced himself for a reaction from the Council who had faded out of visibility until the others came into the Pavilion. Nothing happened aside from an agitated crackle of energy around him. They were aware, but holding their tongues.
“The lineages say Bren was mated to a human named Bertram…” Kris began, but Darius cut him off.
“Warik the Red was the son of our queen, Freyja, two generations past. Warik mated with Bren, our queen, almost three decades ago, just before Bren died. You and I are both aware that the only dragons allowed to breed pure are Catalysts, from whom every generation of Queen has been born. This beautiful young Red represents multiple generations of the purest breeding in our history.”
“Her parents shared a bloodline and still mated?”
“Yes! That’s my point. The bloodlines don’t matter within a single generation. At least that’s my theory. It’s the magic in a dragon’s essence that the child is conceived from, and two dragon parents produce a much stronger magic in the child. Genetics are such a small part of it. Why else would they have let me mate with your mother? They simply needed my dragon essence, and knew that because both my parents were dragons, it would be strong, though hers was still stronger. Our combined magic made you who you are, but physically you resemble her more than me. The only physical trait you have of mine is that infernal furrow between your eyebrows when you’re anxious or upset.”
“Are you sure you should be making these speculations now?” Kris asked. The Council’s agitation had grown to the point that his skin prickled from the energy being cast about within the pavilion. His own gut twisted with his nerves and he was suddenly very conscious of how tense his brow was.
Darius snorted. “Every dragon needs a hobby. Besides, what could they possibly do that’s worse than what I’ve endured for hundreds of years already? If they’re upset, that’s just proof that I’m at least not far off the mark. They’re probably angry that they didn’t have a hand in determining her parentage.”
