by Meg Ripley
****
Keira took slow, steady breaths, trying to slow down the rabbit-fast pounding of her heart. Knowing that in a matter of moments, she and Raul would stand against Harold and Reginald in a fight to the death, made her more anxious than she would have imagined even days before. If anyone tries to get between us… instinctive, animal anger boiled away inside of her as Keira took stock of all of the reasons for fighting: her mate, the destruction of her home, the child growing inside of her, the punishment that had been inflicted on both herself and Raul. More than enough reason to want them both dead.
Keira’s preternaturally acute hearing picked up the muffled, muted sounds of movement in the woods surrounding the clearing, and Keira glanced at Raul, looking to see if the wolf was as prepared as he claimed to be. The air was full of the scent of anger and fear—her own, Raul’s, and as more sounds of movement came to her, Keira realized that much of it was coming from the arriving panthers and wolves.
She could feel the transformation rippling along her bones, feel the animal nature rising, competing for dominance in her dual-natured brain. Keira stood absolutely still, with Raul beside her, both of them in an unquestionably challenging stance to confront their arriving groups. The elementals each led their delegations: Fintan the panthers and Tara the wolves; Keira saw the uncertainty, smelled the fear and the brittle gunpowder scent of impending rage on her own people. Half of them looked at her with contempt. She glanced at the wolves and noticed that both groups—wolf and panther—bore signs of the weeks-long battle that had raged between them: injuries made different members of the clan and the Pack limp, made them move less than silently. Scratches and gouges marked faces, arms, and legs.
The two Alphas separated themselves, following the elementals to the center of the clearing; Keira saw the loathing in both men’s faces, the determination and the bitterness. Maybe if the two of you hadn’t been such goddamn idiots, we wouldn’t all be here, Keira thought grimly. She knew—she couldn’t help but know—that she and Raul might both meet their death in a matter of mere moments.
“The elementals have decided,” Tara said, as soon as the milling, murmuring shifters fell silent.
“This war cannot go on,” Fintan added. “We are ending it tonight. Raul and Keira will face off against Harold and Reginald in challenge.”
“The battle will be to the death,” Tara said, her voice slightly sad to Keira’s ears. “If Raul and Keira win the challenge, they will assume leadership of the Clan and the Pack jointly.”
“If they die,” Fintan told the assembled group firmly, “Reginald and Harold will be held to account for their behavior separately.”
“Standard challenge rules apply, with one exception,” Tara said. “There will be no seconds—the Alphas will be each other’s seconds, just as Raul and Keira will be each other’s seconds.” The two elementals stepped back, and Keira felt a thrill of bitter amusement at the shock on the two Alphas’ faces; they hadn’t expected to have to work together, clearly.
“Let the challenge begin,” both elementals said at the same time. Keira went to her hands and knees immediately, willing the change that she had barely managed to restrain while she waited to work its way through her body. She groaned as her bones transformed and shifted inside of her, as her teeth sharpened and lengthened, and her fingers shortened, forming into paws, claws pushing through her skin. Next to her, she heard Raul’s moan of discomfort transform into a low, throaty howl.
In moments, they had both transformed; Raul’s wolfish form looked more gaunt, and hungrier, than his human shape, and Keira felt a surge of protectiveness for her mate. The two Alpha males announced the completion of their transformation, howling and snarling. Keira pushed back her fear and the sense of self-preservation that came with her pregnancy, and sidled closer to Raul.
For what seemed like an eternity, Keira and Raul circled Harold and Reginald, watching them. Keira could feel the pulse of her mate’s thoughts more strongly than she could the miasma of complicated emotions rippling through her clan, or the veiled, violent impulses in her Alpha’s mind. She felt the push of Raul’s mind, the subliminal hum breaking in a sudden jolt. Now.
As one, she and Raul launched themselves at the two Alphas; Keira lunged at Harold, growling low in her throat as she pressed the attack. She was both aware of and oblivious to Raul’s attack on Reginald; the connection between her mind and her mate’s lingered, a peripheral noise, important but not enough to distract.
Keira lost herself in the battle, biting and clawing, sidestepping and slinking, darting out of Harold’s range and pressing the attack again. She feinted, she parried, she lunged and clawed; a raking flash of pain lit along her side, but it was unimportant. More pressing was the sudden sharp prod at her hindquarters; Keira twisted and kicked out, breaking Harold’s cowardly hold on her.
Keira had no idea how long the battle raged; at some point, she and Raul switched positions—with her attacking Reginald and him going for Harold—and then they switched back. Searing, fiery pain cut through her animal thoughts, and in what felt at the same time like an instant and an hour, Keira knew she was becoming exhausted; the two Alphas had to be exhausted as well. Harold made one last, desperate lunge at her, coming in low. Keira ducked under his attack and upended him, knocking the older cat onto his back and pinning him by the throat, growling.
In the same moment, Raul finally brought Reginald down, and Keira reached out with her mind. We have to end this. She felt Raul’s agreement, but nonetheless, something inhibited her from biting down, from taking the deathblow and ending Harold’s life. For several long moments, she and Raul kept the two Alphas pinned; they both knew that they needed to finish the challenge—but neither of them was quite willing to kill the two Alphas.
Keira felt the impulse from Raul’s mind, and echoed it back to him. They each, at the same moment, disabled their opponents, and then pulled back. Exhausted, Keira let the change flow through her once more; claws retreated into her skin, fur disappeared, and her mouth took on human shape once more as she groaned. Unconscious, Reginald and Harold both slowly assumed their human forms, sprawled on the ground naked, and Keira and Raul slowly rose to their feet as the last parts of their animal forms melted away.
“There has been enough killing,” Raul said.
“Raul and I have proven our point,” Keira added, looking at the man she had come to love. Both of them turned to the elementals governing the fight; Fintan looked almost equally disappointed and intrigued, while Tara looked faintly hopeful.
“We’ve disabled both of them. We could have easily killed them,” Raul told the elementals, turning his gaze onto the Pack and the clan. “If that doesn’t prove our fitness to lead the groups, nothing will.”
“It was a challenge,” Fintan said firmly, crossing his arms over his chest. “You have not finished the challenge.” Keira glanced at Raul and felt his support in her mind.
“This whole mess between the clans erupted because of wolves and panthers killing each other,” Keira told the elemental.
“We agree on this: it is not the time to kill more of either of our kind,” Raul added.
“That’s all well and good,” Fintan said, his lips twitching with something that Keira thought might be amusement. “But our terms to you both were clear.” Keira looked at the two groups, holding each member’s gaze until they looked away. Next to her, she sensed Raul doing the same.
“Do any of you, in either group, want to challenge us?” Keira asked.
“The point of the challenge is to determine who is strongest,” Raul said—though Keira wasn’t sure whether he was speaking to the Elementals or the clans. “If a single one of you doubts that Keira and I are stronger than any member of either group, speak now or hold your peace.”
“Do any of you require the letter of the law to be followed?” Keira glanced at Fintan as he asked the question. No one in either her clan or Raul’s Pack spoke up. “Very well then. No challenge is forthcom
ing.” Fintan shrugged, looking disappointed.
“How will you handle the two disgraced Alphas?” Keira looked at Tara.
“They are exiled,” Keira said. She took Raul’s hand in her own and gave it a squeeze. “They will have exactly two days to leave town. A second past that deadline and they will be killed on sight without hesitation.”
“How are we supposed to bring the groups together?” Keira noticed that the question had come from a member of Raul’s Pack; Raul’s mind, mingled with hers, identified the source as his second, Cam.
“That is for Keira and Raul, the new leaders of the combined group, to decide,” the Elementals said, speaking as one.
“We’ve had too much distrust between us for too long,” Raul told the group. “Too many secrets, too much hatred. Keira and I are calling a new law right now: the next person to raid a panther or a wolf will be brought to justice.”
“If anyone kills or injures any member of the other clan, they will be challenged,” Keira said. She flashed her teeth in an expression that wasn’t quite a smile. “If you’re going to come up against us, you’d better find a damn good second to do it with.”
“Keira and Raul have proven that they are stronger than the strongest members of their respective clans,” Fintan told the two groups.
“If anyone goes against their rule without following the proper channels, they will be punished,” Tara added.
“We will hold the allegiance ceremony in three days’ time,” Raul told the two clans. “Keira and I both expect to see every one of you there. If you will not give us your allegiance, you will leave this town.”
The two groups looked uncertain, and unsettled, but Keira knew that she and Raul had made the right choice; she looked out over the assembled group of shifters, and held each gaze in turn, asserting herself over every member of the community that had come to the challenge. She knew that there would be more battles to come—that there would be unrest from both groups as she and Raul brought them together—but Keira knew that she and Raul could handle anything that either the clan or the pack could dish out. They had survived, and stayed bonded, in spite of such long odds that it seemed to Keira that nothing would ever separate them; in the back of her mind, she felt the pulse of Raul’s agreement.
That was all she needed.
THE END
Dragon’s Complete Desire
Part One
Dragon’s Loving Desire
Story Description
It was my father’s dying wish that I marry Greyson, but now that the man who raised me has passed away, the very thought of going through with this arrangement breaks my heart into a thousand pieces.
Lately, I find myself dreaming of a vibrant world inhabited by a beautiful, powerful dragon. I told Mother of my dreams and saw something in her eyes that resembled recognition, which piqued my curiosity and drove me to dig through Father’s things.
It was there that I quickly discovered that what at first seemed like mere dreams were not dreams at all, but that this world and this beautiful dragon are real…
"If I have to attend one more simpering, shallow, saccharine display of fake mourning, I might have to throw myself off the balcony."
Aurora's hand grabbed at the jutting rock above her head and held tight as she adjusted her foot in the hold beneath her, gave a few small bounces to build up momentum, and launched herself up a few more feet.
"Yes, I could probably come up with several more 'S' words to describe them. How about 'sickening'? That's an 'S' word."
The voice streaming through her headset continued to ramble, but Aurora focused on her hand slipping across the grit on her handhold and tightened her abdominal muscles to keep herself steady. Beads of sweat rolled down her spine and she could feel the burning in her thighs from her exertion. She pushed forward, unwilling to surrender to the rocks.
"No, I do not think I'm being bitter. I'm the one whose father just died, but I seem to be the only one who has managed to keep myself together and not fling myself into despair bemoaning the continuation of life as we know it. I swear, from what everyone is saying, I should be wearing a black veil and wailing. I've already given up my future for my father. Is it too much to ask that I at least get to enjoy the last few days that I have left?"
A surge of energy pulsed through her and Aurora pushed herself up and over the edge of the cliff. She climbed to her feet and turned to look out over the view stretching in front of her. The sun was coming up in the distance, washing the sky in shades of pink and blue that should be giving her a fresh outlook and renewed hope for the day. Unfortunately, they only reminded her of the god-awful bridesmaids' monstrosities the wedding coordinator had brought over the night before and that now lay draped across every piece of furniture in Aurora's bedroom.
"Anson, go to bed. If you haven't noticed yet, the sun is coming up, which means you have, yet again, stayed up all night trying to save the world one political event at a time. Get some rest and I'll see you this afternoon."
Without waiting for her assistant to respond, Aurora tapped the button on her earpiece to end the call. She planted her hands on her hips and let out a long breath. These would be her only moments of peace in the day. Up here on the rocks where she could be alone was the only time when she felt free. Below her, the city looked peaceful and picturesque in the early morning light, but she knew that buried among those pristine houses and perfectly manicured landscapes waited for her an engagement ring she only wore when she had to, a man she didn't want to marry, and a promise to her father that she would soon have to keep.
Aurora waited until the last possible moment to slip her engagement ring onto her finger before stepping out of her bedroom. The gold band felt heavy against her skin, the cushion-cut diamond glinting up at her with such frustrating perfection it was as if it knew her secret. Smoothing a few wayward strands of coppery hair back into her severe bun she took a steeling breath and started downstairs.
Greyson stood at the bottom of the stairs, gazing up at her with a smile nearly as fake as his tan. Aurora suppressed a sigh and returned his smile with equal sincerity. If someone had taken a picture at that moment they would have looked the image of young prestige and budding political power. From her sleek black dress and the diamond drop at the base of throat to his sharply pointed pocket square and gleaming shoes, they said we've got our shit together.
Right past that thin, glossy surface, though, she felt more along the lines of how the hell did I get here?
Aurora descended the stairs slowly, resting her fingers across Greyson's outstretched palm so he could lead her down the last few. Once she stood beside him his smile became softer and more genuine. He stroked her cheek with the backs of his fingers and Aurora felt an involuntary shudder. It wasn't that she hated Greyson. In fact, they had been friends nearly their entire lives. When he touched her, though, and she saw that look in his eyes, it was like bits of her were disappearing beneath his fingers.
An hour later Aurora stood behind a podium with a stack of note cards in her hands. Her eyes swept across the faces staring up at her from the sea of cream linen and gold chintz in front of her, then back to her father's handwriting sweeping across the cards. The cursive letters seemed to unravel and slither across the thick white cards. She forced herself to focus on them and they slowly recoiled into their words. These were the last words her father ever wrote and it was her responsibility to put a voice to them now that he couldn't.
Aurora finally forced the words through her throat and kept pushing them out, letting them pour from her chest as she worked her way through the cards. Her voice remained steady and strong until she reached the last card. Her father hadn't intended on it being the last and the half-finished sentence looked lost against the pristine expanse of the mostly empty card. Touching her fingertips to the faint streak of blood along the bottom of the card, she completed Lee's final thought and brought the speech to a close.
Greyson met her again at the bottom of the
stairs, but this time Aurora stepped closer to him. This is what Lee wanted and what she had promised him. She knew if her father could see her at that moment, walking through the glittering event on Greyson's arm, he would be proud.
They spent the rest of the evening moving through the crowd, greeting people until they all became a swirl of color. Their words were a strange juxtaposition of condolences and congratulations. Aurora thanked them for both, changing the inflection of her voice slightly to make the response appropriate. By the time Greyson led her out of the room and into the soothing cool air of the night, she felt like she might as well just roll her father's coffin right down the aisle with her on her wedding day.
"You handled that very well," Greyson said, placing his hand on her lower back.
"Handled what well, Greyson? Reading the speech my father was writing when he was murdered, or plastering on my best bridal smile to accept congratulations?"
Greyson stroked the segment of bare skin revealed by the cutout in her dress and Aurora subtly pulled away from his touch.
"Why don't you come home with me tonight?" he said softly.
She stepped away and turned to look at him.
"No, Greyson. Still no. Please just bring me home."
Greyson gave the same resigned, disappointed look that he gave every time she refused to go home with him and held out a hand so she would walk ahead of him. They waited silently under the portico until the valet brought Greyson's car around.
Once home, Aurora removed her engagement ring and nestled it in place in her jewelry box. She took a long shower to wash away the memories and slipped into bed, another day crossed off her countdown.
****
Aurora descended into her dreams as if stepping from one consciousness into another. She was aware that she was sleeping in that intangible, abstract way that her body felt heavier; but unlike in a dream, all of her decisions seemed to be completely her own.
