The Rookie

by Abigail Owen

  “Good,” Aidan said.

  She lifted her arms, peering at her unmarred skin, her clothes back intact as though they shifted with her. Back to human.

  Quickly, she covered the distance to where Titus now lay on the ground. Through the white of his button-down shirt, his chest glowed an eerie reddish orange, the veins exposed in a darker almost purple underneath. This had to be a ghastly way to die. Eaten by flames from the inside out.

  He opened his eyes and the most hopeful smile graced his lips. “Is it really you?”

  What did that mean? “Yes.”

  He searched her face, as if not quite sure. “I saw things…saw you. Only it wasn’t you.”

  Sera had no idea what he was talking about, so she stayed silent.

  “You forgive me?”

  Sera clamped her lips shut, holding back a hollowness that threatened to crush her. This was the Titus she knew. Not the dragon who’d come for her and Blake, but this quiet, kind man. A friend. “Of course.”

  “Do you think the others forgive me, too?” His voice sounded like ash and smoke. And fear.

  “Others? The men?”

  He shook his head. “I’ve…taken three other mates before you.” He closed his eyes. “Stole their lives.”

  Oh God. He’s punishing himself with the same death.

  Sera sucked in a sharp breath. “I don’t know,” she whispered, unable to lie to him.

  He lifted his lids and that hopeful light disappeared, leaving his obsidian eyes as dull as ash, and he nodded.

  She dropped to her knees at his side and took one hand in hers. “I wish it didn’t have to be like this,” she said. “I wish you had found your mate.”

  “I should have trusted the process more.”

  Through her shock, Sera recognized others joining them. Drake, Aidan, and Rune appeared at Titus’s side, having shifted as well.

  Rune bent to one knee, taking Titus’s other hand. “You should have told us. Told me, old friend.”

  Titus just shook his head. “I couldn’t.” With what little strength he had left he pulled Rune closer, pushing the words out one at a time. “Don’t make my mistake.”

  Rune stared back at him, his throat working. “You’ll always be my brother.” His clansman. The other black dragon on the team.

  “We have to go,” Finn, the only one who hadn’t shifted, ordered.

  Drake and Aidan both knelt to touch their teammate, saying silent goodbyes, before all three men backed away and shifted.

  “Sera,” Finn prompted.

  “Not yet.”

  Titus turned his head with obvious effort, and smiled at her, so peaceful given what he was going through. He lifted a hand to touch her cheek. “If your face is the last thing I see in this life, then I am content.”

  She put a hand to his cheek. “I hope you find her in your dreams.”

  Then she sat silently by his side, his hand in hers. At first all that happened was more labored breathing, like his lungs were filling with water. His skin paled then started turning gray, the shade darkening with each passing moment.

  “Not much longer, now,” Finn said quietly.

  Blake’s small form suddenly scooted up to them, crawling forward on his belly. With a small whine, he nosed under Titus’s other hand, now limp, so that it settled on his head. Then he lay there quietly.

  “I’m sorry,” Titus told the tiny dragon. Then he looked over Blake’s head at Finn. “He shouldn’t have to see this.”

  At Finn’s nod, Aidan moved forward. Only Blake didn’t want to go, and he had to pull the protesting child away, Blake’s cries cutting through her heart. Even Drake had to look away.

  As soon as Blake was gone, she turned back to Titus. That peace-filled gaze trained on her, he suddenly arched, his back coming up off the ground, his hand grasping hers hard enough she worried he’d crack bone. The red glow inside him drew in on itself, growing smaller and smaller until the light extinguished. He dropped back, relaxing, his grip going loose, and the black depths of his eyes turned milky and then gray as his entire being turned to ash.

  Sera closed her eyes. “Goodbye,” she whispered.

  Heavy silence hung over them.

  “We have to go,” Aidan said.

  Sera swallowed but got to her feet with a nod. Then moved to where he stood with Blake, Drake, and Rune standing between the pair and Titus’s body.

  Aidan released her son who scooted over to her, bumping into her until she put her arm around him, careful not to impale herself on his baby spikes. Then he buried his snout in her shirt, his body trembling.

  Now that the immediate threats were handled, she tried not to let the new panic take hold of her. Her child was a freaking dragon. “Can you try to shift back to human, buddy?”

  Blake didn’t answer but shook his head in a move that appeared frightened to her.

  “That’s okay. We’ll figure it out,” Aidan said, giving her a look as filled with false confidence as his voice. “You’re going to struggle to keep up with full-grown dragons, so I’m going to carry you. Okay?”

  Blake’s deep blue eyes turned to her, and Sera nodded, forcing a calm smile.

  Aidan looked to her. “Do you want to ride or fly?”

  What if the dragon took over again? Sera reached for the beast coiled inside her, but they’d become one being. The moment Aidan had risked his own life for her child, the brand burning into the back of her neck signifying their bond.

  Sera reached back to finger the smooth skin at her nape, wondering what the mark looked like now. “Fly.”

  Aidan nodded. Taking Blake with him, he pulled back, giving her space.

  Shifting was surprisingly easy this time. The reverse of changing to human. Instead, she brought forth the dragon. For her, the task was less about picturing herself in that form than calling to the creature inside her and letting her loose. Like they shared her body. Sera was in control, but her dragon was always there, watching, a part of her, long before she’d met Aidan and the Huracán crew.

  One and the same, yet different.

  In moments, she stood before the men, fully formed.

  “Let’s go,” Finn said.

  Aidan turned to face his team. “We can’t go with you.”

  All the dragons except Rune stiffened. Sera, however, wasn’t surprised. No way would the Council accept them, not with their theories about Sera and the High King or the way all of this had happened. They couldn’t bring their problems down on their friends. Their family.

  Sera stepped up beside her mate, a show of solidarity.

  “You can’t come with me,” Rune stated unequivocally. “I don’t trust the rookie not to reveal my whereabouts to his Alpha.”

  “I still haven’t decided what I’m doing with you,” Finn growled at Rune.

  “I saved Aidan’s mate, brought Aidan to her, and came and got you when Titus attacked us. Not to mention being right.” Even in dragon form, Sera could see hard light in the stare he shot Finn.

  “Maybe,” Finn said. “We don’t know, yet.”

  “I think you can cut me some slack this time.”

  Finn shook his head, glaring at the black dragon. “Fuck.”

  But they all knew that meant he’d decided to let Rune go.

  Rune turned to her and Aidan. “I can get you out of here and hide you for a time, until it’s safe enough for you to travel on your own. Best offer you’re going to get.”

  After a smidge of hesitation and a glance her way, Aidan nodded. “Thank you.”

  “I hate to be the voice of reason here, but we have maybe fifteen minutes now,” Hall said.

  Hall. She’d almost forgotten the part he had to play in this. The man was working for Rune but had assured her not against the team. She looked him dead in the eyes. “Do not betray the team,” she warned, her message for him alone.

  “These assholes?” he joked, but it came out sounding half-hearted.

  “Hall…”

  “I never wo
uld.”

  Then she’d keep his secret. For now.

  In a rush, they said their goodbyes. Aidan picked up Blake in a large talon, and together, they followed Rune into the sky. Drake and Hall also followed, but broke off, headed in another direction. Sera swiveled her head to look back at Titus one last time, only to see Finn standing beside his body, almost as though he stood at attention. A leader saying goodbye to his fallen friend.

  Unable to watch anymore, Sera turned away.

  …

  They followed Rune for several hours, checking over their backs in case they were being followed. Nighttime dropped over the sky, shielding them from prying human eyes. The land was an expanse of black, though Aidan’s dragon’s eyes allowed him to still see the details of the topography laid out before them. The ridges of buttes, plateaus, and mountains passed below them and formed the vista ahead of them.

  Finally, Rune dropped, and beside him, Sera sighed in what felt like relief. Amazing she’d made it this far. Together, they spiraled down over the twinkling lights of a town.

  “What about the humans here?” Sera asked.

  “Exactly why we’re here,” Rune said. “They won’t search for you among humans. Not to start.”

  “But Blake—”

  “I can do it, Mom.”

  Sera gasped, a sound more like whistling wind coming from a dragon. She dipped her head to peek underneath Aidan at her son and bobbled in the air because of the change in her posture. “You can talk?”

  “I’ve been working with him while we flew,” Aidan told her.

  “Really?”

  “It might take some doing, but Rune says we can sneak him into the house they have for us and work on it in there.”

  Relief—still edged with doubt, but sweet regardless—rushed through him. Only it wasn’t his relief; the emotion belonged to his mate. An echo reaching him through their bond already.

  How could anyone—the Alliance or the Mating Council—ever deny she was his?

  They made it to the ground and shifted, undetected. All except Blake who tried but couldn’t. That edge of doubt about his new son turned into more like a dirty layer of doubt, but Aidan had faith in their combined destiny. They’d figure it out.

  The next hour passed in a blur. They managed to get Blake through the buildings of a small neighborhood into a house that appeared to have been built in the early 1900s, all wooden—white wood siding, dark-stained wood floors worn smooth by many generations of feet, lovely carved scrollwork in the doorways and banister.

  “I’ll check on you in a couple weeks,” Rune said after they’d looked around. “Try to integrate into the town as much as you can. Play human.”

  And then he was gone.

  Another hour of trying to help Blake shift proved unsuccessful until Sera finally insisted he needed rest. They’d try again in the morning. They cleared a room in the back, making sure the blinds were drawn, and he curled up on the floor like a massive, scaly cat, asleep before they even turned off the lights.

  Aidan took his mate by the hand and led her into the family room at the other end of the house. He gazed at her, eyes tracing the contours of her face. Worry pinched her expression, along with exhaustion, but even underneath all that he could see her love, her trust.

  Gods, thank you for this woman. “He’ll be fine. I promise.”

  Sera took a deep breath and nodded.

  Aidan wrapped her in his arms, drawing her against his hard chest. Having her against him felt like home before his parents had died, like everything in his world was right.

  Even when it wasn’t.

  “I know we’re mated and our bond has already solidified, but I need to see.” He feathered her hair away from her nape and a rumble of approval sounded in his chest as he stared at his mark. He ran a finger over the slightly raised skin. “It’s incredible.”

  The intricate lines of his family symbol, the same as on the back of his own neck, stood in stark relief against her pale skin in swirls both delicate and strong. He laid a soft kiss on the skin, and heat streaked through him in immediate response. The way Sera shuddered against him told him she felt it, too.

  He brought his head back around to face her and she closed her eyes and lifted her lips. But he waited.

  She opened her eyes with a disgruntled frown. “Hey.”

  Aidan grinned and linked his arms loosely about her. “I want you so bad I ache.”

  She looped her arms around his neck. “Well, then?”

  Aidan chuckled, then grew serious, needing her to hear this. Really hear it, after everything they’d been through. “I love you, mate.”

  She smiled, a glow coming from her soul that shone through the flames stoking in her eyes. “I love you, too, mate.”

  The air punched from Aidan’s lungs in an audible grunt and he took her face in his hands. “Thank the fates,” he murmured before claiming her lips, sealing their love, their destinies, their souls…with a deeply satisfying kiss.

  Epilogue

  Drake stalked through the halls, headed topside in the mountain. He needed to clear his head, and a nice long flight would do that.

  While he still could.

  He passed by the large family room area, unable to avoid it. Voices floating down the halls had already warned him that most, if not all, of the team were hanging out in there right now. Hopefully he could slip past. He wasn’t fit company most days, but lately that had been worse.

  Except as he skulked by the entrance to the room, Sera’s lilting voice caught his attention. Drake stopped cold and listened for a minute. Curiosity got a hold of him and dragged him into the room.

  “Hey, Drake,” Delaney called. She was seated on one of the long, leather couches, with the entire team around her. In her hands she held a flat device. “Sera and Aidan sent us a video. Come see.”

  Drake stuffed his fists in his pockets but walked over.

  Delaney backed up the video, and there she was. Sera beamed, waving into the camera. Dragonhood suited her, giving her a glow she hadn’t had before, something he didn’t think came from the snow surrounding her in the shot. That much snow this early in the fall had to mean they were somewhere far north or far, far south.

  Rune hadn’t been in touch since everything had gone down, but he suspected he was holed up somewhere in South America. So maybe they were there, too.

  Even as a human, she’d been a strikingly beautiful woman in a sweet, adorable kind of way. Her blond hair was longer now. Were her turquoise eyes even more stunningly bright?

  “Hi everyone,” Sera called into the video. Aidan stood, grinning behind her and waving as well.

  “We can’t tell you where we are,” Sera continued, “but know that we are safe and settled.”

  Aidan came closer to the screen and wrapped his arms around his mate, cuddling her. “We no longer have contact with Rune, but you should know that we wouldn’t be here without him.”

  Finn grunted beside Delaney only to get an elbow to the ribs for it.

  “Delaney, thank you for sending the ghoraibi with Demyan,” Aidan said.

  “That Demyan kid is a better ninja than a black dragon,” Hall mumbled from where he stood behind the couch watching.

  The young white dragon shifter had offered to risk his life, acting as a go-between for Aidan and Sera, the only shifter who knew their location now.

  “The cookies meant a lot,” Aidan continued on the screen. “I remember my mother talking about wedding traditions from her culture once and mentioning those.”

  Sera took over, lighting up the camera with her smile. “I assume they represented my purity of heart, though. Because, otherwise I’m in trouble.”

  Drake raised his brows at his Alpha’s mate who shrugged. “We had to celebrate with them somehow, and cookies were easy to send. I Googled it.”

  “When we come home, we’ll have to do a big party with all the traditions,” Sera said.

  “See—” Delaney pointed at the screen, giving
Finn a pointed stare. “I’m not the only woman who still wants a ceremony after she’s mated.”

  Finn grunted by way of reply.

  On screen, Sera sobered a bit. “Blake is still dragon.”

  Aidan also went a little grimmer, lips going flat. “I’ve never seen one so young shift before. If you have any advice, send it the same way we got this to you.”

  “Not that it seems to bother Blake.” On screen, Sera rolled her eyes. “I’m homeschooling him, and as a dragon he can’t read, because of his eyes. He also can’t write or type. Everything has to be done aurally.”

  Aidan grinned. “But man, can our kid fly.”

  Sera rolled her eyes again, but also smiled. “He can. Watch this.”

  She turned the camera to the skies—showing that they were some place with snow all around them and mountain peaks everywhere. A valley, far north by the looks of it. Isolated. Perfect for a rogue dragon family.

  Aidan’s hand flashed on screen, the spot between his finger and thumb where his king’s brand should be now shockingly bare as he pointed. A rogue without a clan. Someone their team was supposed to hunt down and kill.

  In the pale blue of the daytime sky, a tiny dark blue dragon appeared. As they watched, Blake performed a series of flips and loops and sharp maneuvers before swooping low overhead, buzzing his parents.

  “Damn,” Rivin exclaimed. “That kid really can fly.”

  “We’ll have to challenge him to a fly-off,” Keighan added, nodding.

  Drake didn’t pay them any attention, though, focused on the woman on the screen as she turned the camera back to her and Aidan.

  Could Sera have saved him?

  Maybe.

  Seeing how happy Aidan and Sera were together, he knew he would make the choice to walk away from her again. Every single time.

  She wasn’t his type anyway. On the few occasions he allowed himself to picture a mate, the person he pictured was different—not his opposite like Sera who was all sweetness and light, but his match, his equal. Darker, feistier, harder to win over. Like the woman he’d saved, along with her family, from the fire near that town. She’d fought him like a wild animal, even though he’d been trying to help her.