by Noah Harris
Arulean regarded him for a moment, and then nodded quickly. “Fine. Get under the desk again. I’ll cover your tracks.”
“What if she notices me like you did?”
Arulean scoffed. “She is far too enamored with herself to notice much of anything else.”
Rajiah snorted. He had no reason to argue that particular point. He ducked beneath the desk, assuming his previous position just as the doors to the library opened with far more force than necessary.
“Arulean,” came Lyphnia’s greeting, though it sounded almost like an accusation. It was loud in the otherwise quiet space.
Arulean shifted so he was standing on the opposite side of the desk from the door, his legs blocking the opening to Rajiah’s hidden nook. He could hear the man idly sorting through a few books on the desk. “Lyphnia,” he said sounding bored.
“Where are you? This place is needlessly huge.”
“Over here,” he said, raising his volume just a fraction. “And it is not too large. If anything, it is too small for my growing collection.”
Her heels were sharp against the floor as she strode across the room. “What does a dragon need with dusty old books? We are creatures of action and fire, not idleness and paper.”
“We are wise creatures, and, to be such, we must learn. The past has plenty to teach us.”
He could practically hear his sister rolling her eyes. “Never mind that, I didn’t come here to argue with you again about your hoard,” she said, sneering. She paused, then asked a little too evenly. “Why are you here and not at the festivities with our people?”
“Gerrald wanted a word with me in private.”
“Gerrald? He’s not here.”
“He just left.”
“What did he wish to speak with you about?”
“Private matters, Lyphnia.”
She hummed irritated, and Rajiah nearly jumped when he heard her put her hands on the top of the desk, opposite Arulean. When she spoke again, her voice was pitched low. “There was once a time when there were no matters private enough to be secrets between us,” she purred. Rajiah felt his hair stand on end.
“Those times are long gone, Lyphnia.” Arulean said, almost sadly, with a hint of irritation.
“Do they have to be, though? We can get them back... our spark shouldn’t be that hard to rekindle, Arulean. You and I, we’ve always had it.”
Something sickening and heavy solidified in Rajiah’s gut. He struggled to keep his aura contained, but he doubted it mattered. Not with how brightly Lyphnia was shining at the moment. He glared at Arulean’s legs, standing firm and solid. He imagined the man’s stoic face.
For the sake of dragon-kind, he knew he should be hoping for them to become mates again in truth. He had heard rumors of the distance between them, but hadn’t realized the full extent of it until he had witnessed it with his own eyes. They were mated still, but there was no warmth between them. He should want them back together. They were stronger united, and their kind needed strong leaders. Not to mention they had bred several children in their lifetime, which was important with their species dying out as it was. He should have no reason to want them to remain so distant.
However, Rajiah felt nothing but relief when Arulean replied with chillingly brutal honesty, “I do not want it back, Lyphnia.” His voice was soft, low, barely above a whisper, but it had the effect of a shout.
She slammed her hands on the desk, making Rajiah jump. “You are a fool, Arulean Black. A fool.” She seethed.
He sighed. “Why are you here, Lyphnia? Surely, it is not to drag me back to the festivities. We both know you prefer to shine without me.”
“I came to see if you had seen my brother,” she said, still seething but her anger under better control.
Rajiah stiffened, breath stilling.
“Was he not at dinner?”
“He was, but then he slipped away and hasn’t returned. Euwen Gold is looking for him.”
“Euwen Gold?”
“Yes, the man has taken a liking to him. He hopes to woo him before any of the other Alphas. He said they had a delightful conversation during the feast, though I doubt it. Euwen isn’t much of a conversationalist, and Rajiah is quick to bore.”
“Already attempting to mate off your brother?”
“Not my idea,” She said offhandedly. “It was my mother’s dying wish that he find a mate. Which he’ll never do if he keeps running away like this.”
“I have not seen him.”
“Would you tell me if you had?” she said with an edge of bitterness. “We are keeping secrets from one another now, after all.”
“What reason do I have for keeping your brother from you?”
There was a long, tense silence where Rajiah could practically imagine them sizing each other up, looking for cracks in the other’s mask. He barely dared to breathe, keeping every breath shallow and even. A finger traced one of the gold bands on his wrist.
Finally, Lyphnia broke the silence. “If you see him, please direct him back to the gathering.”
“I will do so.”
She spun around and strode out of the library, pace barely stopping to swing the door shut behind her with a muffled bang. They waited in silence, neither of them moving. Rajiah’s heartbeat slowly returned to normal, his breaths coming easier.
“I believe it is safe to come out now.” Arulean said, stepping away from the desk.
Rajiah crawled out and got to his feet, brushing off his clothes. “Thank you,” He muttered, avoiding eye contact in favor of straightening out his garments.
“Are you certain you do not wish to return to Euwen Gold?”
Rajiah’s head snapped up, eyes locking onto that dark gaze. He gaped, nose crinkling in disgust. “Why in hell would I want to...” His words trailed off. While Arulean’s voice had been the same as it always was, there was something glinting in his eyes, a tugging at the corner of his lips. Reality hit Rajiah hard, knocking the breath from his lungs with a surprised laugh. He felt his lips curling into a small smile. “By the Elders, did you just tease me? Is the great Arulean Black making jokes?”
He chuckled, shoulders shaking slightly. The sound was deep and rumbling and sent shivers down his spine as warmth pooled in his gut. He liked that sound a lot. Perhaps too much. “I have been known to do that from time to time.”
“It’s a damn miracle is what it is.”
“I suppose you won’t be attending the rest of the festivities then?”
“I had no plans to, no.”
“Perhaps you would like some help finding books that might interest you?” Arulean said, gesturing widely at the shelves. “I know this library through and through. I could be of assistance.”
Rajiah found his smile widening as he said softly, a little breathlessly, “Yeah, I’d like that.”
Neither of them made it back to the gathering that evening.
Chapter Five
The official start of The Summit was a momentous occasion. The castle practically hummed with energy the entire day leading up to the full moon. The valley was alight with buzzing from hundreds of dragons and other shifters eagerly awaiting the night. Everyone seemed to run automatically, going through the motions of the day without fully being there mentally. Even the conversations that happened were said and heard with half an ear. It was as if the entire population of the valley was in a daze that hazed over their reality as they waited.
As the sun set, the dragons began to gather in the large flight field outside the castle. Hundreds, if not thousands, of people, standing around in various stages of undress, waiting and watching, heads tilted toward the sky.
Arulean and Lyphnia stood in the center of the field as darkness faded over the valley. They were both naked, standing tall and proud with chins tilted upward. There was more distance between them than was typical of mates, but no one said anything. Their auras burned brightly, subduing the crowd and drawing them in all at once.
Rajiah stood close, but m
elded into the crowd. Lyphnia wanted him close at her side as a show of the power and authority of their lineage, but once she had stepped out of her clothes and up to Arulean, the feeling of the approaching full moon vibrating through her system, she hadn’t noticed when Rajiah had stepped back to blend among the people.
His eyes were on Arulean as his fingers idly traced the outline of the thick gold choker that hung around his neck. Arulean stood tall and proud, body lean and muscles well-defined. Pale skin marred with long healed scars and the dips and valleys of his muscles beneath his flesh. His shoulders and chest were broad, hips slim, with powerful thighs. His dark hair was swept back from his forehead, wind caressing the locks to give them a gentle sway.
He was beautiful, and it was a fact that Rajiah was quickly becoming very aware of. He was indisputably attracted to the man, but he didn’t think that was entirely his fault. Plenty of men and women must be attracted to him. He was handsome and powerful and a perfect specimen of a dragon. He was, biologically, the perfect mate, and he set Rajiah’s insides aflame.
The problem was that Rajiah couldn’t have him. Not only was he mated to Rajiah’s sister, but he had stated to his brother that he had no plans on taking another mate. Lyphnia would be his one and only, despite the dissonance between them.
That, however, didn’t stop Rajiah from wanting him. It was a strange sensation. He had been attracted physically to alphas before, but it had never been difficult to resist them. It had never been hard to say no. He found himself drawn to Arulean like a moth to a flame, so willing to fly straight into his own demise.
He could smell Arulean’s scent on the wind, dark and tantalizing, burning his senses and making his hair stand on end. His mouth practically watered and his inner dragon shifted, rearing its head with the nearness of the full moon and the desire for a potential mate. Not just any mate.
His dragon wanted Arulean Black.
He gritted his teeth, clenching his jaw and digging his nails into his palm.
With the sun gone, the moon was rising. He felt it. The heaviness of his bones, the crack in his joints, the shifting of his muscles beneath his too tight skin, the press of his wings, skeletal like bones pressing against the paper thinness of the skin on his back. It ached, it hurt, but he knew the release would be so, so good.
At once, the crowd in the field seemed to shift, everyone anxiously restless as they stripped off the rest of their clothes. Rajiah joined them, slipping easily out of his pants and tunic, his boots having already been abandoned in the castle. Last to come off was his jewelry, he wore heavy gold bands and chains on his wrists and around his neck. Some of them were for show, but there were some that were scent blockers. They contained heavy elements, herbs, and magic charms to block out most of the pheromones from the scent glands at his wrists and neck. It helped him stay hidden, helped him move among lesser shifters and his own kind without drawing attention to himself.
For he was a child of the Great Mother, the only male omega she ever birthed, and with her strength came a great gift and a great curse: his scent was strong. It was strong and powerful to indicate his lineage and his supposed fertility as an omega. As an unattached omega, his scent was deliciously alluring, and it hadn’t taken long for him to find measures to counterbalance that.
He folded the jewelry carefully in his clothes and set them aside. Standing up straight, the wind shifted. He felt it caress his back, his sides, ruffling his hair, carrying his scent toward the center of the field.
He saw several dragons turn in his direction, several alphas standing up straight, eyes finding him, nostrils flaring. His attention, however, was on Arulean. He saw the moment his scent reached him, saw something in his expression darken, saw his eyes tear themselves away from the sky, saw that gaze settle on him. Suddenly, the whole field disappeared. Breath caught in his throat at the gleam of hunger in the Alpha’s eyes, the odd stiffness with which he stood, the tension in the air.
The moment stretched, brief and fleeting, yet immensely powerful and leaving Rajiah both weak at the knees and standing straight with confidence.
Then the moon came out and Arulean’s attention returned to the occasion.
He and Lyphnia turned toward each other, eyes aglow and smoke drifting from their skin into the night air. Everyone on the field seemed to hold their breath as the king and queen crouched. Energy swirled around them, burning in the air. When they leapt, the ground splintered and cracked beneath them with the force, creating two small craters where their bodies had been as they rocketed upward. They shifted in the air, smoke swirling as their flesh burned away to make room for scales, their bodies lengthening and growing, wings bursting forth from their backs. They spread them wide, pumping the air as they shot straight upward.
He watched, breathless, as the two dragons swirled around each other, circling the field, black and red, shadow and blood against the night sky. Then they both opened their massive jaws and let loose a mighty roar in tandem that shook through the valley, vibrating mountainsides and shuddering through every shifter, down to their bones.
The two dragons swirled together before shooting off and away, moving toward the mountains.
The spell that kept the dragons on the ground and breathless broke. One by one and then all in rapid succession, dragons shot into the air in a similar fashion, shifting in the air as they took to the sky. Roars filled the air, creating rockslides and avalanches in the distance, shaking the earth with their voices. It was deafening. It was liberating. It was magic.
Rajiah’s wings burst from him in a rush of pleasure. He spun upward, spiraling into the sky, pumping his wings harder, gaining speed. He joined the herd of dragons flying after Arulean and Lyphnia as they led a lazy circle around the mountains that framed the valley.
They were a rainbow in the night, colors of their scales dark with shadows, but glistening in the moonlight, sparking against the darkness. So many of them, all shapes and sizes, males and females, alphas, betas, and omegas, old and young. They flew together, a stream of dragons in a thick mass follow their king and queen.
After everyone was in the air, they circled the valley several more times before Arulean and Lyphnia suddenly climbed higher and dove out over the mountain range. There was a chorus of deep, rumbling voices as the flock of dragons followed.
The flight was chaos.
Dragons swirled and dove around each other, chasing and leading, gliding and climbing and diving. They swarmed out over the mountains, far enough from human civilization to be safe. They played in the air, danced in the clouds, flew low enough to let their claws brush the treetops, bounced off cliffs and mountains. They darted through the air, a cacophony of sounds accompanying them.
Above them flew Arulean and Lyphnia. The two darted and swirled around each other, neither one overtaking the other and neither one getting too close. Once upon a time, when Rajiah had visited the castle in his youth, he had seen them fly together on a full moon. They had been beautiful, two scaled creatures entertained and moving as one. They were constantly close, moving as if predicting the other’s movements, flying high, embracing, and falling to the earth together. It had been a beautiful display of mateship.
It was more apparent in that moment than on any other that they were two rulers who ruled side by side, but did not love. Not anymore. He could see the hints of it, the echoes of a time when they had. He could see it in the way they still seemed to know each other’s movements, in the way they had known patterns and kept pace with each other, but those were only echoes in the vast distance between them.
Rajiah had been watching them from a respectable distance, but a flash of dark, golden scales cut off his path, forcing him to pull up short. He hovered in the air, glaring at the large body of the alpha known as Euwen Gold. He was an impressive alpha, Rajiah would give him that. Euwen was strong in body and scent, and part of him stirred. But it was nothing compared to the desire he felt for the dragon king.
His lips curled away from his
teeth in a warning snarl, but the larger dragon only sneered back, coiling his body closer. Rajiah snapped at the air before twisting away, curling down and around him before rising high and fast. Euwen followed, much to Rajiah’s annoyance. He danced through the sky, trying to lose the larger Alpha in the crowd, but when he twisted his head around to look, he found that instead of losing an Alpha, he had gained several more pursuers.
Something in him came alive at the sight of that. Several alphas, each strong and powerful, chasing his scent, following on his tail. He reveled in that, a strange sense of power that he’d never truly felt before. The power that came with being a desired omega, young, fertile and unmated. The power that came with being wanted. Something confident overcame him, some part of him that wanted to be wanted, and liked it.
If those alphas wanted a chase, he would give them a chase.
He tilted his wings, lifting up high and spinning to face them, treading air. They pulled up short, shoving each other and watching him curiously. If Rajiah could grin, he would have. Something sly and seductive and cocky. As it stood, he was sure the pheromones he was producing in his rush of excitement were getting the message across just fine, if the responding scents from the alphas was anything to go by.
With a playful flick of his tail and a graceful roll of his body, he clamped his wings close to his body and went into a sudden nosedive. The alphas scrambled to follow.
Wind rushed past his ears, howling off his scales. He dove straight for a lake, flaring out his wings only at the last moment, rippling the water and dragging his claws across the surface. He heard a splash behind him and snickered when he saw one of the alphas struggling out of the lake. They were hot on his trail, and so he sped up. Empowered by himself and by the full moon, he twisted and danced through the air, weaving through the congregation of dragons and leading his alphas on a merry chase.
