by Bryce Evans
Dag followed him inside and into his office, where MJ was working on his computer. “Did she let you explain?”
“Nope,” Nolan answered harshly as he moved books around on his desk. He wasn’t even sure what he was looking for. All he could think about was Skylar and worrying about her out there by herself.
“Well maybe I can talk to her when she gets back,” MJ said, finally seeing Dag standing at the door. “Hello.”
At first Dag didn’t say anything to her; he just nodded. MJ’s eyebrow went up and she continued to stare until he finally got the hint. “Oh. Hello.”
“Not much of a talker, are you?”
“No.”
MJ laughed. “You may want to work on that if you’re going to be around this bunch.”
Nolan glanced up at Dag, because he knew MJ was done talking. She’d already gone back to working on the computer. Dag looked confused. Apparently he’d never experienced a woman dismissing him like that.
“Are you kicking us out?” Dag asked Nolan, raising his chin and crossing his arms in front of him.
“No, what makes you think that?”
“You said—”
“What I said was that if she wants to leave then I won’t stop her. Before she flew off she said that maybe you guys needed to leave so I would have more time with my friend here.” Nolan motioned toward MJ.
“That’ll be the day,” MJ said laughing without turning around.
“Exactly. She jumped to conclusions and then flew off before I could explain that MJ is just a friend. Especially since there was nothing to explain.” Nolan stopped mid-sentence and looked up at Dag. “Why am I explaining it to you? I swear the woman has got me twisted.” Nolan shook his head.
“Anybody home?” He could hear Ryder call out as he and the others came in the front door.
“I guess the meeting will start soon. Might as well get you introduced to everyone now.” Nolan motioned for Dag to follow him out of his office.
Skylar couldn’t believe how stupid she was acting. What did she think was going to happen? The man was an Alpha; of course there were other women. It wasn’t like she hadn’t had other men. Yes, it had been a long time, but she wasn’t a virgin. Plus, they weren’t together and never would be. She was being childish, and she hated the fact that she was going to have to apologize to Nolan for the scene she’d made. He didn’t deserve to have her feelings taken out on him.
Flying helped more than anything, even though her whole body ached with stress and unwarranted jealousy. She made sure to keep close by, though. The meeting was going to start soon, and she needed to change before she greeted everyone. Before the meeting she wanted to check the area by air. Something didn’t feel right, but for the life of her she didn’t know what it was. She searched the ground below, but found nothing out of the ordinary. Maybe it was just a feeling, but she trusted her feelings. Flying down, Skylar landed near the side of the house where Dag was standing. He had clothes in his hand and quickly handed them to her.
“Everyone is here and waiting for you,” he said.
“Oh no, I thought I had enough time. Are they angry?” Skylar asked, concerned.
“No, Princess. Right now they’re making nachos, like MJ said they would be,” Dag told her.
“Who’s MJ?”
“Nolan’s friend.” Just hearing Dag say it made her angry all over again.
“Okay.” Dag smiled at her, but she couldn’t even smile back. At the moment she was so eaten up with jealousy she felt like hitting something. Her guard didn’t deserve that, even if it would make her feel better.
“Let’s go, everyone is waiting.” Dag grabbed her hand and began pulling her toward the house. Skylar followed him into the kitchen, where everyone was sitting at the table eating snacks. Like Dag had said, they were cooking meat for nachos.
“Most of you know Skylar, except Bast, Carina, MJ, and Jackson,” Nolan said, making introductions. “And she saved my life so I owe her big time.” Great, now Skylar felt like an even bigger idiot. He felt like he owed her. “Skylar, this is MJ. She’s my computer expert, practically my little sister, and a pain in my ass. She came over early to work on a camera that was messed up.”
Now she knew why Nolan had made the introductions. Skylar smiled and nodded her head at the beautiful woman, feeling like a teenage girl in a high school drama. She was embarrassed by how she’d acted toward Nolan and MJ. He looked at her as his little sister. So why was she so jealous?
“This is Bast—”
Bast stood up. “No need to tell me who the princess is. We have met before, a long time ago.”
Skylar bowed to the king and he bowed back.
“Princess, I’m glad to see you again,” Bast said.
“And this beautiful one is Carina Bailey.” Nolan winked at a little girl. She couldn’t have been more than eight or nine years old, but her aura was powerful that it cast a glow around her. Carina Bailey might be young, but Skylar could see the great weight she carried. She thought it was sad for the girl to have that much pressure on her at such a young age.
“It’s nice to meet you all,” Skylar tried to make eye contact with everyone, including MJ.
“Okay, now that the introductions are over, let’s get this meeting started.” Bast announced. Skylar was standing beside Dag, and Nolan pulled out a chair and motioned for her to sit down. She had disrespected him enough, so she sat down without any fuss. Unfortunately, it was right beside MJ—the woman she’d thought Nolan was seeing.
With everyone’s attention on Bast at the front of the table, she took the time to check out this MJ. She couldn’t be over eighteen years old, too young for Nolan. The woman made her uncomfortable for some reason. Her expression seemed a bit hard, and it was impossible to get a good read on her.
“Jackson, I understand you have some news,” Bast prompted.
The Sentinel stood up and nodded. “I was gifted the last piece of the Stone. Yesterday when I woke up, I found a suit of armor lying beside me. After inspecting it, it could only be the Armor of Kevalth.”
“Then all the pieces of the Stone are now present, which will grant us some special powers. And before you ask, I have no clue what those will be or when we will be gifted them,” Bast said.
Skylar remembered what Cry had told her about the Order and how they needed to stay away from them. He’d been worried about the members seeing one of them and thinking they were Jamal or another dragon helping him. Cry said that the Order was a group of special shifters and other magical beings who’d been brought together to get rid of her brother, Jamal. He had killed their father so he could rule and create total chaos in the world. Her father, Riffa, had believed in flying at night and leaving the humans alone, but Jamal was cruel and wanted to rule the earth. Which meant letting the humans know about them.
Jamal cared nothing for anyone or anything. He scorched the earth just so he could eat the ash, which brought about an imbalance in the world. Thousands of acres of trees and forestland had been destroyed by her brother. Finally the Gods intervened by giving certain paranormals gifts that would help them destroy Jamal. The Order was formed, with one Elf, one bear, one wolf, one panther, one tiger, one jaguar, one dragon, and two witches. The Gods realized that each member would need something extra; something special that would help them destroy Jamal. So they gifted the members with a powerful item that was either hand crafted by a certain God or something they had made that had magical powers. They called all the gifts that the Gods gave them the pieces of the Stone. Each gift was unique and special for each person it was gifted to. Unfortunately, nobody knew what the gifts could do or what they would help them with. All the Alphas were gifted with the Coins of Two; Bast received the Sword of Garrick; Jackson was gifted the Armor of Kevalth; Sage, who was Brody’s mate, was given the Cloak of Edengraf; London which is Ryder’s mate received the Tree of Life, and she was gifted with the Bow of Artemis; and Carina was considered a part of the Stone itself, being a powerfu
l witch and Seer.
“I thought that the Order was made up of an Elf, wolf, panther, jaguar, tiger, and two witches. Correct me if I’m wrong, but Jackson isn’t any of those. I don’t even know exactly what a Sentinel is. No disrespect to you, Jackson,” Nolan said.
Jackson just nodded in acknowledgement.
“That was what the last Order was made up of. However, it was never said that the Order could not be added to. Apparently, the Gods felt a Sentinel would be a nice addition. We have several witches in the Order, as well. I don’t make the rules; only the Gods can see to that,” Bast answered.
“I think we all agree with you Bast, but the rules do seem to be changing, and right now we need unity among us all and a plan to end this once and for all. How do we plan if we still have no clue what the Stone is or what it will do? The dragon and witch need to die, but we still don’t know how to do that,” Nolan argued. Skylar could tell they were all tired of this war. And he was right; her brother and the witch needed to die.
“The question is, how do we kill them?” London asked.
“That’s a good question, and only Skylar can provide that answer regarding her brother,” replied Bast.
Everyone turned to look at her. Skylar knew the day was coming when she would have to give the Order the knowledge of how to kill a dragon. If they intended to win this war, she would have to put the fate of her people in their hands. She swallowed hard, staring at Dag and the others in her Clan.
“Princess.” Nolan’s voice drew her attention to him. “This isn’t something we take lightly. We know so little about dragon shifters, and I hate that you’ll have to give up your weaknesses but we have no choice. Your brother has left us with no choice. I give you my word that you can trust us, but we’re out of time.”
Staring into Nolan’s eyes, she knew that he was her mate, and that he was talking from the heart. Her dragon pushed against her wanting to mate. It was her mate. She would trust Nolan with her heart, which was what it would take to kill dragon.
She glanced over at her clan who each nodded and smiled at her, giving her their blessing as well. Cry was the last one, and when he smiled she knew it was decided. “When a dragon shifter shifts, there’s a shiny spot right over our heart that…”
“Makes you vulnerable,” Nolan finished for her. She nodded.
“Yes. The bow of Artemis will find its mark when the time comes. I will kill my brother, unless one of you does it first. Once the arrow hits him in the heart, he will die. The rest of our skin is so tough that nothing will penetrate it, but everything has a weakness. That is ours.” Skylar glanced back at Cry, who gestured for her to continue. She had to tell them everything if she wanted to live among them. “And if you make your nets bigger and make them of pure gold, they will hold a dragon. When you shot the nets at him before it only slowed him down for a few seconds. The gold nets will hold him longer, giving me time to make the shot.” Skylar had to look away from Nolan. She had just given up a secret that could cost her and the others their lives.
“Thank you, Skylar,” Nolan said. His voice was soft.
“Thank you, Skylar.” The voices echoed around the room.
“Now that my brother knows that I’m here and helping, he won’t come at you the same way as before. Jamal is very tactical. If you wonder how the witch has been evading you, I would say it’s because of him. He’s crazy, but smart in the strategies of war. We will need to outsmart him. Beat him at his own game.”
“How?” Judd asked.
“First, let’s start with fire-proofing your homes and city buildings, because Jamal will try to burn them all down. We can help you with that, too. Dag has already invented a formula that will give you a fireproofing solution. Right now my brother is shocked and rethinking his plans. That’s why we need to start today with spraying this solution on everything we can.”
“Skylar, what do you think he will try first?” MJ asked.
She stared at the girl, and still couldn’t get a good read on her. “I think when they attack they’ll come at us from different areas at the same time. He’ll want to separate us. They won’t expect us to be waiting for them. I think they’ll attack at night. Jamal will come in and try to burn whatever he can in different areas thus making the teams separate to put the fire out; the witch will use magic and she will come with more reinforcements than you think.”
“How do you know this?” Me-Len asked.
“I’ve seen a lot of vehicles heading toward the castle. Remember, our eyesight is better than anyone’s,” Skylar advised.
“How many do you estimate?” Nolan asked.
“Hard to tell, but I would say hundreds. If she’s been planning this for a while then she’s had time to gain a lot of followers. You have a lot of enemies, many of whom are jealous of your success and may have joined on the false pretext that they’ll get Alpha City.”
“Then we plan for the worst case-scenario,” Ryder said grimly.
“MJ, I know you have a plan, let’s hear it,” Bast said, gesturing for her to speak.
Skylar watched as MJ looked at Judd Walsh, the panthers’ Alpha. When he nodded, MJ took out her laptop and plugged it into the TV monitor on the wall. “I actually agree with Skylar. From what I can tell there are six places they’ll hit us at. That means the Order will have to separate to cover these areas.” They watched as MJ showed the six areas around the city.
Whoever this woman was, she was a hell of a strategic planner. As each area was shown on the screen, she explained, “I think that most of the witches and wizards will come at us from this area. They’re not shifters and can’t hide as easily, and this place has the most cover. They need that to conceal themselves when daylight hits. I also agree with Skylar that they will attack at night for better concealment.”
Skylar noticed two men standing to the side of the room, watching. One man in particular eyed MJ with interest. There was something different about him. He was a shifter, she couldn’t tell what kind. His scent smelled different from the others. “I think that Jamal will try to start burning in these areas, away from where the witches will come in. He’ll use the fire to try to bring us out of hiding and catch on our way to extinguish it, leaving these areas unguarded and giving them a way to just walk in without much force. Then they’ll try to outflank us, and that’s where the problem is.
“We’re vulnerable enough being locked into the city. In order to gain a tactical advantage we need to outsmart them, and unfortunately we need people who can come in behind them and outflank them.” She watched as the two men both stood up straight, obviously not liking what she was saying. MJ looked directly at them and said, “I know you should never do this because you can have crossfire, and that’s why I’m suggesting we use some sort of bait to bring them in and then kill them before the others know that their back-up isn’t coming. We need to have surprises waiting for them. If we can bring them into one area and contain them, we can finish them off.
“This is the place I think we need to lead them to.” MJ hit a button and a picture of an open field with hundreds of wildflowers filled the screen.
“Dammit. I can’t believe we overlooked this. That’s the Meadow of Flowers. This is what Carina was talking about,” Nolan exclaimed.
“Does this look like what you saw, Carina?” Bast asked.
Carina nodded, staring at the screen. Then her body stilled and her eyes rolled back in her head. She started shaking as she said, “When the flowers turn purple they will come.”
Bast caught the little girl when she fell backwards.
“It’s okay, Carina.” He held Carina to his chest, calming her. Skylar could see him using Elf magic, speaking words she’d never heard before into Carina’s ear. The little girl looked wiped out. The vision clearly took a lot out of her. Skylar was sure that Carina’s body and mind had been through enough with the war going on.
“Carina are you okay, sweetheart?” Kayden asked. She could see the love everyone had for the litt
le girl. She was so worn out that she fell asleep in Bast’s arms.
“Bast, you can lay her on my bed and let her get some sleep. That way we won’t disturb her with our talking.” Nolan stood up and waited while Bast picked Carina up in his arms and took her back to the bedroom. For some reason, Skylar felt the need to follow them to make sure the little girl was okay. She was drawn to Carina.
Nolan opened the door for Bast and pulled back his comforter. His scent hit Skylar hard as she stepped into the room. So hard that she came to a dead stop and inhaled deeply, taking in his spicy scent.
Shaking her head, Skylar opened her eyes to see Nolan watching her. “Are you okay?” Either he didn’t have a clue that they were mates, or he didn’t care and was rejecting her.
Nodding, Skylar stepped back into the hallway to get away from his intoxicating scent, while trying not to look so obvious. She watched from outside the room as Bast carefully placed Carina on the bed, covering her up and then kissing the top of her head. It was a tender moment that brought a tear to her eye.
She walked back to the kitchen without waiting for them. Conversations were going on around the room. Even her clan was engrossed in talking and smiling with the others. She liked that. It had been too long since they were truly happy. No matter what, they weren’t going back into hiding. This had to work. They had to end this war, and that meant she needed to finally kill Jamal. There was no love left inside her for her brother; he’d taken that away when he killed their father.
Chapter Seven
Nolan watched as Skylar walked away. He’d smiled to himself when she came into his bedroom and inhaled his scent. She was just as attracted to him as he was to her.
Bast turned around and stared at him. “Skylar is your mate,” he said, more of a statement than a question.
“No, why are you saying that?”
“It’s obvious to everyone.” Bast shook his head, but his expression was neutral. “Why is it that you people can’t recognize your own mates? It’s miraculous that you even manage to have kids.”
