The Rookie

by Abigail Owen

  Backing up until he had enough distance, Aidan kept his gaze on mother and child as he started his shift.

  Aidan’s vision blurred slightly. He knew, from watching his fellow dragons shift, that to Sera and Blake he’d appear like a mirage, the form of his body wavering in shimmering distortions as he silently transitioned from one form to the other.

  The dragon side of him, happy to be released, sensing the need to go gently for their audience, stopped pushing and settled.

  Immediately, senses already more developed than a human’s honed to a greater degree—earthy scents of pine and granite filled his nostrils, sounds of the earth and creatures nearby refined to a nuance, facets of the land around him sharpened to extraordinary detail, each blade of grass, even in the dark, a bright point in his sight.

  Nearby, a cougar stalked an unsuspecting deer, its near-silent footfalls padding over the forest floor in cautious steps. The soft lapping of the animal at a small gurgling stream stopped as it stilled, sensing a predator.

  Was that how Sera felt?

  Aidan tuned it all out, focused on the pair in front of him.

  Blake’s grin grew in proportion to Aidan’s body as bones and muscles grew and expanded, forming his massive limbs and lean torso. His skin changed to scales the shade of the sky at the edge of the horizon at midday, a pale blue that appeared to ignite with its own light. Of all his team, Aidan blended the best into the sky, but at dusk, like now, his scales reflected the colors of the sunset, picking up the oranges and pinks, almost as though he could absorb into the very stratosphere where he felt most at home.

  Aidan watched Sera closely as his neck elongated and massive spikes built to skewer anything that tried to bite him protruded along his spine. Deliberately, he laid them down flat, to make himself appear less aggressive. Massive talons formed his claws while his ears blended in with the ridged plate that fanned out from his head. The bony spikes rimming the edge mirrored teeth designed to rend flesh and bone.

  Sera’s mouth parted in a silent gasp, but she didn’t scream. Didn’t run away. That was something.

  Aidan kept his tail out of sight. Every dragon had a mace-like set of spikes at the end, but his, for whatever genetic reason, were longer and thinner, like massive spears, his coloring turning them almost silver, giving them a deadly gleam.

  She didn’t need to see that. Yet.

  Finished with the shift, the weight of his larger body settled into him, or the other way around, his soul settling into the dragon like pulling up a cozy armchair in front of a crackling fire. With a snort that released a small plume of smoke, Aidan lowered his body to the ground, trying to make himself smaller, keep this on their level.

  He laid his big head on the ground and waited, never removing his gaze from the woman before him.

  “Wow!” Before Sera could stop him, Blake broke her hold and ran over to Aidan. “You are so fucking cool, Aidan.”

  “What did you say?” Aidan demanded before Sera could. His voice inside her head, and Blake’s head, too, would be lower, darker, but still recognizable.

  Blake hung his head. “The F-word,” he mumbled.

  “Not our fault,” Rivin called out.

  “Nope,” Keighan echoed.

  “No swearing,” Aidan told the boy.

  Blake nodded and then launched right back into excited chatter in a nonstop blur of sound. “A dragon. Look at how big he is, Mom. Do you believe it? Can you blow fire? Can you do magic? How high can you fly? You won’t eat me, will you?”

  At that last one, Sera rubbed a hand over her eyes, though Aidan’s sharp gaze still caught the amused smile playing peekaboo at the corners of her mouth.

  “No, I won’t eat you.” Aidan did his best to gentle his voice as he sent the telepathic thought to everyone.

  When they used their normal speaking voice with humans, Delaney described the sensation akin to an axe through the brain.

  “But don’t be around when a dragon shifts for the first time,” Aidan warned.

  Demyan, the white dragon he’d rescued—still held in their cells—came to mind, and he’d been in more control than most. Most human legends and myths about dragons harkened back to true stories involving wild orphans shifting for the first time.

  Aidan had seen it happen just once. His father had been one of the dragons to go after the kid to take him out. One of the four dragons killed in the process. When one bonded mate died, so did the other, taking Aidan’s mother’s life at the same time.

  But Aidan had never blamed the young shifter who’d been executed by Finn himself, despite the dangers they posed. He’d blamed the society that led to that kid having to go through his first shift alone. The same society that had turned their backs on him.

  At the mere thought of Blake being shunned as a human among shifters, a barb of panic hooked through Aidan’s insides. Blake wouldn’t stand a chance. Gods, that could get ugly.

  “I want to see the others!” Blake turned to Titus who obliged and shifted.

  Titus made the boy laugh by blowing smoke rings. The rest of the team shifted as well. All except Drake, who turned to go back inside. Aidan watched his friend go with dread oozing through him. Was Drake just being his usual standoffish self? Or was the red dragon shifter reluctant to take his dragon form?

  A glance around told him no one else, not even Finn, found Drake’s behavior odd. But Aidan couldn’t shake the thought that something was off. Did it have anything to do with Sera?

  Sparing each dragon hardly a glance while Blake ran from one to the next exclaiming in gleeful delight, the woman in question approached Aidan slowly. The biting scent of nerves clung to her skin along with an underlying scent that came across more tart.

  “You’re…” She shook her head.

  What? He couldn’t get a read on her expression or body language.

  Showing zero fear, she ran a hand down one of his curved talons. “It’s like bone,” she murmured, almost to herself.

  “It is bone,” he confirmed.

  “And your scales?” She inched closer to touch one. “Oh! It’s smoother than I expected.”

  “We think of it as living armor. Only another dragon can pierce it.”

  She gave a little nod, indicating she’d heard. “Would you mind spreading out your wing?”

  Finally, he caught the undercurrent of curiosity in her voice. Just a hint, like the flavors Sera claimed to taste in her wines. He did as she asked, picking up one clawed hand and lifting it over her, spreading out the twenty feet of one wing above her head.

  Sera reached up and trailed the tips of her fingers along the underside of the semiopaque membrane. Her touch, a glide over the smoothness, warmed the thin flesh spread wide by the finer, long bones that branched off his arm.

  “Wow.” She sort of breathed the word. That small sound went straight to his groin and his heart. Sera wasn’t scared or revolted, she was…fascinated.

  And now he was turned on as hell.

  A nervous giggle burst from her and hit him square in the chest then spread out, only torqueing him up more.

  Definitely not what he’d been expecting.

  “Is that a good laugh or a bad laugh?” he asked.

  “I don’t know.” But she grinned and snickered again. “You’re amazing.”

  Aidan couldn’t stop the low rumble of sound that purred from deep inside him. Sera’s eyes went wide. “Is that a good sound or a bad sound?” she threw his words back at him.

  “I don’t know,” he reciprocated. He shouldn’t allow himself pride from her praise.

  She shook her head. “Funny.”

  He didn’t miss the tiny step back she took, putting distance between them. “Aidan…” She lifted her gaze and cut herself off. “Do you mind shifting back, please? I find it difficult to address one eyeball and a mouth full of T. rex teeth.”

  Immediately he shifted back to human, his perspective narrowing and shrinking as his body rid itself of wings, and scales, and spikes, re
placed by a fully clothed man, almost as vulnerable as the woman standing before him. When she said nothing, he lifted his eyebrows in question.

  She stared at him, that trust that had been in her eyes before he’d walked out on her this morning there for him to see. “What should I do?”

  Fuck. Why’d she have to ask him that question? “What does your heart tell you?”

  Damn. Now he sounded like a lame after school special.

  Sera’s face fell, and the fact that he’d let her down in some small way grated.

  As she turned to walk away, he snagged her hand, her skin soft against his rougher palm. “I’m serious. Look past the fear, and the unknown, and the shock. What does your gut say?”

  Sera stared at their connected hands before raising ocean-blue eyes, stormy in the dim light, or maybe a reflection of her emotions, to his. “I feel like…maybe there’s something to all this.”

  What did that mean? All this as in dragons? Or all this as in them? Because he couldn’t—

  “Being around you guys, even when you’re”—she waved a hand at the dragons still in beast mode playing with Blake—“that, something about being around you feels…right.” With a self-conscious crack of a laugh, she shook her head. “Sounds crazy.”

  She tried to tug out of his hand, but he wouldn’t let her go. “Not to me. Not to any of us. This is what you’re meant to be, Sera. The gods looked down and deemed you worthy—strong, resilient, smart, beautiful.”

  She blinked at him, eyes still clouded, and he could tell he wasn’t getting through. He stepped closer, taking her other hand, locking on to her gaze, determined she see the truth he believed with everything inside him. “Haven’t you always felt out of place, like you don’t quite fit in your life?”

  “A puzzle piece that has all the right colors, but not the right shape,” she whispered.

  “Exactly.” He squeezed her hands. “That’s your soul telling you the right slot is somewhere else.”

  Her breathing evened out, and Aidan knew he’d got through to her.

  “And finding my mate will make it all perfect?”

  Aidan hitched his mouth up in a smile he didn’t think he would find for a long time after this day. “Nothing is perfect. But right? Yes, I believe you can find rightness.”

  Just not with me.

  Sera inhaled slowly, her gaze falling away to track Blake’s laughing shenanigans with the rest of the team. A glance over his shoulder revealed Kanta showing how his forest-green flames would lighten to the shade of new grass if Rivin added his own white-tipped fire to the mix. Titus, meanwhile, had curled himself protectively around the boy, but craned his long neck, watching Sera and him closely.

  As he had every right to do. More right, probably, than Aidan.

  “Okay.” Sera turned her face back up to his, the total trust in her eyes gutting him with a glance. “I’ll try the mating process.”

  …

  I have to kill Aidan.

  No other option presented itself. The rookie was confusing his mate.

  He had waited for Sera to look his way when she’d been told about the brands on her neck.

  Brands, plural.

  He wanted to carve them from her skin, leaving only his. His claim. His rightful claim to his mate.

  She’d been told the colors. He’d waited for her to turn to face him, to ask if one mark was his. The swirling lines were unmistakable.

  All she had to do was acknowledge their connection and he’d be the one to take her to the Council. They couldn’t deny him, sending him to the mating ceremony. She’d be his in a few short weeks.

  But that hadn’t happened.

  Anger sparked and caught fire, turning into a slow burn in the center of his chest as they’d walked outside, and Aidan had monopolized Sera’s attention, showing her his dragon before anyone else had a chance to step forward.

  He called upon the control that had got him through these months waiting for Sera to reveal her truth, not to mention centuries waiting for her and the deaths of three potential mates, unworthy women, all of them.

  He’d wait. If he killed Aidan now, Sera would see. She thinks of Aidan as a friend, and she’ll blame me for his death. She’d never choose him as a mate then, and choice was still part of the success of a mating. She had to choose him willingly.

  I’ll wait for you, my precious love.

  Sera was worth this brief moment of pain.

  He’d have to time his attack for a strategic moment. A fire set by another dragon shifter would be perfect. He’d take out the rookie and blame it on the dragon who set the fire. He couldn’t set the fire this time, though doing so was tempting to speed the process. The scapegoat of another dragon to blame was exactly what he needed to wait for.

  Perhaps the young dragon still held in a cell could be compelled to make an escape. Or…

  Rune.

  There was his answer. Were Rune to find out about Sera, he’d surely come and try to take her away. Rune was known for kidnapping any woman showing dragon sign in some misguided attempt to thwart the clans and the Mating Council.

  The “traitor” still on the team, who reported to Rune, something he’d learned by following the mole on more than one occasion, would take care of informing their former team member, once a brother.

  I just have to make sure I’m there when Rune’s team shows up.

  Either way, Aidan had to be removed from this equation.

  Chapter Ten

  Rune scouted the area where he’d arranged to meet his informant, using his skills to stick to the shadows cast by the tall pine trees. Flying during the day was not his preference. Black dragons, the stealthiest of the clans, thrived in the night, but during the day…especially the bright blue of today’s sky, they stood out like a stain. However, the hint that had been tossed out involved a dragon mate. The danger of discovery would be worth it if he could steal another woman from the assholes who called themselves a Mating Council.

  Satisfied no ambush lurked nearby, Rune glided to a landing, avoiding the trees. The design of his wings, the membrane attaching at the ribs rather than the shoulder like other dragon clans, made his flight near silent. The tricky part was avoiding taking out trees on the way down and not dropping like a body with cement for feet in the process.

  A small clearing around a river, the water quietly burbling around timeless granite boulders and smaller rocks, provided the perfect spot, allowing him to spiral in. From there, on equally silent feet, trained well by his black dragon brethren before he came to the Americas as an enforcer, he made his way to the meeting spot deep in the mountain wilderness.

  His informant already waited for him. Around him, the birds and creatures of the forest had gone silent, the biggest clue that a predator lurked in the woods. After several minutes, waiting and watching, Rune stepped into view. “This better be worth it.”

  His inside man placed with the Huracán Enforcers didn’t so much as flinch. “It’s important.”

  Rune waited, impatience crackling like tethered electricity underneath his calm facade.

  “Sera Morrison is a dragon mate.”

  “The winery owner?” he asked. And received a nod of confirmation.

  Damn. That complicates things.

  He’d been tracking two possibles in the area. Delaney Thompson had mated Finn before Rune could get to her. But Sera Morrison…

  The man standing in front of him stepped closer. “I thought the djinn you tracked down said Sera wouldn’t present with signs for another few years. Not until her son was grown.”

  “She did,” Rune confirmed through pinched lips. He’d paid good money for that information. The dragon after Delaney last year had been a half-breed, part dragon shifter, part fire djinn. Turned out his mother was able to locate possible dragon mates before they even showed signs. Either that magical bitch had lied, or something had changed the course of events. Either was equally possible. “Who knows?”

  If Sera’s situation wasn
’t known to the rest of the team yet, maybe they had time to get her out—

  “All of them.”

  Shit. “What else?”

  “She’s showing three brands.” The informant pushed his hair from his eyes in an agitated sweep of his hand. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”

  Three? Shock reverberated through Rune like metal clanging against metal. “That’s not possible.”

  A harsh bark of a laugh from his friend startled a bird from its hiding spot in a nearby tree. “Delaney didn’t show any marks. Now this. I’ve given up trying to second-guess the fates.”

  He had a point. Rune eyed his informant closely. “Any brands I care about?”

  “Aidan’s family.”

  The rookie, whom he’d known only as one of Lyndi’s orphans, was screwed, regardless of the other marks.

  “Titus’s family.”

  Rune struggled to conceal his reaction to that. Titus had been one of his best friends, more like a brother. The only other dragon on the team from his clan. Other than Finn, he’d missed him the most. And the man had already lost one dragon mate. What cruel fate had pitted him against his own teammate? “How did Titus take it?”

  “Usual.”

  Which meant quiet, preferring to do his thinking in private.

  “It gets worse.”

  Worse than teammates fighting over the same woman? He’d seen that tear families apart. “Who?”

  “Drake.”

  Rune snarled. Drake’s mark meant Pytheios’s mark. That changed everything.

  No doubt that red bastard needed to be removed from power. The team might remain blindly loyal. The Alliance and the clans, too. Could they not see that the worst of their kinds’ problems started when Pytheios took the throne? But no. Countless arguments hadn’t convinced his team, though he had little proof at the time. Circumstance and gut feel. Even now, what he had wouldn’t stand up in their courts. Without the numbers to take on the High King, Rune had focused on what he could do.

  The last thing he needed was to bring the High King down on his head by going after Sera, but this mate would be more important than all the others. “What’s Finn’s plan?”

  “Inform the Alliance tomorrow night.”