Mated to the Dragon

by Kayla Wolf

  It was almost dark now, but there was enough light left reflecting from the underbellies of the clouds for Lisa to see four sets of footprints in the mud outside the house. They led around to the back – to where Alexander usually landed, she thought with a sickening jolt of fear. Four sets of boot prints – then one set of boot prints, surrounded by a confusion of ...

  Pawprints.

  The wolves. Jax, Shrike, and the twins. They'd been here. Lisa slipped her hand inside her jacket, touching the can of pepper spray that she'd made sure to bring with her. She may not have talons or claws, but she wasn't going down without a fight.

  The yard was a battlefield. The earth had been churned up wildly, as though by some great earthmover – but Lisa's heart, which had leapt to her throat, sank as she realized there was no great golden dragon standing triumphant. Where was he? A few feet away, there was a dark shape on the ground, and as she drew closer, she caught her breath. An enormous wolf, bigger even than the ones she'd seen at the zoo, with dull brown fur. There were great wounds on its side – torn by sharp talons, perhaps? – and something misshapen about its torso that suggested it had been crushed. She looked at its chest carefully. It wasn't breathing.

  “Come to gloat?”

  A familiar woman's voice behind her. Lisa spun, raising her can of spray, not taking any chances this time – and there stood the woman Shrike, her red hair plastered to her face by the rain. But there was none of her usual swagger in her posture – her shoulders were hunched, her movements small.

  “No. I'm looking for Alexander.”

  “Dead, or close enough. Killed my brothers. Blinded Jax, or close enough. Blood for blood.” Shrike moved to the fallen wolf's side with a hesitation that wasn't like her. She knelt in the mud, seemingly oblivious to the way it covered her jeans, and gently stroked the wolf's shoulder, her face torn with grief. Lisa hesitated, unsure of what to do, worried about Alexander but not wanting to interrupt the woman's grief. As if she could hear her thoughts, Shrike glared up at her. “I'm not going to attack you if that's what you're worried about. We fought, we lost. You and your lizard are safe. From us, at least.”

  “Can I help —”

  “You and yours have done enough, ape,” Shrike snarled at her, and Lisa took a few protective steps back, her hands raised. But Shrike lost interest in her almost immediately, her attention moving back to the dead wolf. “Come on, little brother,” she murmured, her voice almost too low to hear over the rain – and in a show of strength quite out of keeping with her slender frame, she lifted the enormous wolf from the mud, her shoulders supporting his huge chest and his forelegs dangling by her arms. Without looking back, she trudged around the house and out of sight – presumably to the black van Lisa had seen on her way in.

  Alexander.

  She ran into the house, her heartrate speeding up as she saw the copious blood on the porch, on the door, leaving a heavy trail through the living room and into the bedroom. The door was ajar, and she pushed it open, hardly daring to breathe. Alexander was there, spread across the bed – human again. She'd seen him injured before, but this was another level entirely – great, gaping bite wounds covered his arms and his chest. One of his eyes was either missing or so covered with blood that she couldn't see it.

  Still, when he heard the door, she saw him struggling to rise, his ruined body tensing for the fight. She gasped, took a few steps forwards to stop him even as she saw fresh blood pour from his wounds at the effort.

  “Stay still, stay still. Oh, God, Alexander —”

  “Lisa?” His voice seemed to rip itself free from him – when she looked at his throat, she saw how badly lacerated it was.

  “God, what happened to you?” She was by the bed, reaching for him but unsure where she could touch him without making it worse. “Let me – let me – I can tear up the sheets for bandages, there's water in the stream outside, we just need to... need to put pressure...”

  A smile made its painful way onto his bloodied face. “Always so... practical...”

  “You have to change shape,” she gasped, staring down at him. “Didn't you tell me you'll heal faster – heal faster as a dragon?”

  “I am always,” he said with difficulty, “a dragon.”

  “You idiot,” she whispered, tears pouring down her face.

  “They almost destroyed my other form,” he forced out. “Then this one. But I ...” He coughed, blood flying from his lips. “I took two out. And Jax's eye. They won't be back. Crippled wolves don't hold territory. When word gets out that the New York pack leader lost his eye... if he is foolish enough to attempt to hold the territory, he will be usurped within weeks. Wolves are savages.” He coughed again, wincing visibly with the pain.

  “What can I do? How can I help you?”

  “I am grateful... not to die alone.”

  “No.” She had moved to the bed, kneeling beside him, heedless of the blood soaking into her clothing. “You're not dying. What about —” She cast around, desperately. “What about your people? Who will help them if you give up?”

  “I couldn't help them.” He took a breath, groaned at the movement of presumably broken ribs. “Lisa. I am so, so sorry. I was so wrong. To leave you.”

  “Make it up to me by staying alive.” She was holding his face in her hands, wiping at the blood helplessly with the sleeve of her jacket.

  “I came back here. To find you. To tell you. I don't care about my soulmate, my destiny.” He took another labored breath. “I love you. Not some woman I've never met. Even if it means my people will perish, I love you.”

  “It's me, you idiot,” she whispered, blinking away tears. “It's me. I'm your soulmate. I must be.”

  He stared at her through his remaining eye, that blank expression she knew so well. The look of a man who was thinking as fast as he could. A flash of what Anna had said about her fiancé. He just needed time. Time to think things through. Well, they were out of time.

  “You were meant to meet her when you least expected it, right? We met when you were being beaten to death by werewolves. I'd call that pretty unexpected.” She talked fast, terrified he'd slip away before she could finish what she'd started – before she could explain what she'd been trying so hard not to believe the entire time they'd spent together. “I saved you. I helped you. This whole time, we've been fighting what we feel for each other. You searched so hard for something you'd already found. It's me.”

  “She —” He struggled to take another breath. “My soulmate. She would – love me.”

  Lisa uttered a bark of laughter that was dangerously close to a sob. “Are all dragons this stupid?”

  Even with his face almost completely covered in blood, Alexander managed to look offended.

  “Of course I love you.”

  They stared at each other as thunder rolled and the rain battered wildly on the roof. And slowly, hesitantly, as though he was afraid he would break her, Alexander raised his unbroken arm and pulled her into an embrace. She lay against his ruined body, squeezing her eyes shut to blink away tears, her heart full of so much love and pain she thought it might explode. Had to explode. It felt like it was burning – a furious heat in the center of her chest, radiating outwards – filling her ribcage and lungs, emanating into the room —

  She opened her eyes and yelped in shock. A dazzling golden light was surrounding her in a luminous sphere, centered on her chest – and as she watched, it grew to take Alexander into its circumference. The glow seemed to linger on his wounds, intensifying in its brilliance – a pattern not unlike Alexander's scales flickering into life and then disappearing, leaving behind only clean, unbroken skin. It moved across his body like a wave, and as it went, it healed. And then as quickly as it had come, it faded.

  She sat beside him in silence for what could have been thirty seconds and could have been ten years, unable to believe what had just happened. He looked like he was sleeping. The only evidence that he'd ever been hurt in the first place was the bloodstained
bed. But the fear in her chest wouldn't fade. What had just happened? She knew nothing about dragon anatomy – for all she knew, the miraculous thing she'd just seen was simply what happened when they died.

  Then Alexander opened his golden eyes and looked straight at her – and with a wave of relief so palpable and strong it made her dizzy, Lisa threw herself into his arms.

  Chapter 25 – Lisa

  “I need higher heels,” Lisa said crossly, scrutinizing herself in an ornate mirror. “This is ridiculous.”

  The woman who was sitting casually on her bed sat up straight and laughed, a musical sound. She had golden eyes like Alexander's, but where his hair was wild and curly, hers was dark and sleek, and fell effortlessly straight to her shoulders, never a hair out of place. When Lisa had first met her, she'd thought she was being introduced to Cleopatra.

  “Did Alexander really never tell you he was the short one?” Her voice was low and silky, smoother than her brother's somewhat stiff and halting delivery – though he'd improved a lot over the last few months. They'd all been spending a lot more time in these forms, after all. But Helena had the most practice, and it showed.

  “If he's the short one, what does that make me?”

  “Fun-sized.” Helena rose to her feet and crossed to the mirror. She was an Amazon of a woman, an inch taller than her brother and made of muscle and sinew. She adjusted the sleeves of the dress Lisa was wearing with an appraising eye, tucked an errant lock of hair back into the intricate bun it had been restrained in, and smiled triumphantly. “You look exquisite.”

  “Exquisitely short,” Lisa grumbled. But she had to admit – Helena had done an excellent job. She looked like some kind of Disney princess. An eggshell-white gown, perfectly fitted to her every curve – delicate lace, a scooped neckline of a style that had always been flattering on her, a dropped waist and a full skirt that fell almost to the floor without threatening to trip her up. And yet more unbelievably, the gorgeous gown was actually comfortable. Helena had been baffled by the idea that human women traded comfort for beauty.

  The door opened, and Lisa turned around, smiling. “Thank God. Come stand next to me, so I feel like a normal person.”

  “Oh, Lisa,” her mother gasped, hands rising to her mouth. “You look – you look – God, I'm going to cry.”

  The last few months had been a whirlwind. After Alexander's miraculous recovery, they'd talked long into the night about what came next. Neither of them had been sure, but both of them had been giddy with relief – the wolves banished, the search over, Alexander's injuries healed. They'd driven back to New York together the next morning to drop off the car, Alexander fascinated by the speed and power of the little machine, and awestruck at the fact that Lisa knew how to pilot it, despite her insistence that driving wasn't that special a skill.

  Then Lisa had packed a few things, and they'd set off for the Rocky Mountains. That particular journey didn't involve a car, however. They flew, up and up and up until the air was cold and biting in her lungs and she could hardly see a sign of human habitation – then he'd dipped his wings and taken them down into a valley that would have been all but inaccessible any other way than by air – steep, unforgiving cliffs rose on all sides, with the ground sloping down to a crystal-clear blue lake at the bottom of the valley. Sensing he was showing off his home, she'd stared around at the exquisitely beautiful scenery. There were dozens of little caves in the cliff faces, and as they grew closer she realized they were too regular to be natural formations – they'd been hollowed out, as if by the scraping of talons. There was a flat area outside one of these entrances – and on it stood Alexander's family.

  They weren't what she'd expected at all. For a start, they'd all towered over her – Alexander’s father was a few inches taller than him again, and his sister too. His brother was the same height and bore him a striking resemblance. Could they be twins? She'd appreciated their greeting her in their human shapes. Four dragons would be a lot to handle.

  They'd welcomed her with open arms. Alexander's brother was quite a character – he was full of jokes and laughter, as well as interesting facts and stories about the incredible labyrinth of caves and corridors that formed their home. It had been carved out centuries ago, by their forefathers, and they – and other families – had lived here ever since. There were many cave systems like it, the majority of them abandoned. Legend had it that once every cave in the valley had been occupied – but since a few hundred years ago, they'd been dying out.

  “Not anymore,” Alexander's father had said, smiling gently. He was a quiet man, bookish and thoughtful, and there was a great sadness in him that made sense when Lisa remembered what Alexander had told her about the recent passing of his mother.

  “Are there other dragons in the world?”

  “So the stories say. We're not in contact.”

  “Why not?”

  “The world is large, and we are small,” Alexander's father said – it sounded like an old expression.

  “Not anymore,” Lisa said, tilting her head. “We can communicate instantly with anyone on Earth. Look.” She pulled her phone out of her pocket, opened her Instagram. “This is a friend of mine who moved to China. That's a photo of her dog.”

  The dragons stared at the phone in her hands as though she'd just pulled an enchanted sword out of her pocket. The silence was broken by Helena, who clapped her hands together, laughing with delight.

  “Oh, Alexander, I like her.”

  The next few months had been a blur. Lisa had put her life in New York on hiatus – she threw a goodbye party for her friends and sold the biggest pieces of her furniture (which took care of the rather exorbitant credit card balance she'd run up over the last few months.) Her business was another question – she felt a pang of sadness every time she thought of selling it. That was, until she reached out to Jacqui. The woman not only offered to take it over, but she also had plans for expansion.

  “You give good advice. It's a good product. We can do e-books, webinars, one-on-one online coaching... honestly, the sky's the limit. You can work remotely,” Jacqui explained over the phone. “I'll take care of the logistics, the marketing, the branding, you be a figurehead. Deal?”

  Nobody had ever said 'no' to Jacqui, and Lisa certainly didn't intend to be the first. Her little business – her brainchild, her baby – was in excellent hands.

  Not that she didn't have plenty on her plate here. The dragons were fascinated to hear stories about the human world, and by the time she'd been there for a few weeks, she understood completely why the prophecy had called for a human woman to breathe life into this ancient civilization. They were so wise, so powerful – but so helplessly bound by tradition, blinded by their own complacency. But they were willing to learn and grow, and that was all that was needed.

  She and Alexander had talked about something else, too, that long night in the ramshackle old house where they'd fallen in love. And as she walked with her family through the now-familiar corridors of the labyrinth where these dragons had lived for hundreds of years, she felt the same bright, brilliant joy in her chest that she'd felt that night – that night that felt like a lifetime ago, though it had only been a few months.

  In the depths of the mountain was a great cave. Alexander's father had explained it was a natural formation, something no dragon had helped construct – simply found a passage into it. It was something of a sacred space to their people, and as Lisa emerged into it, escorted by Helena and her mother, she caught her breath in absolute wonder. The cave was enormous – large enough to hold a hundred dragons at least. The walls all glittered with crystals, light refracting and reflecting from hundreds of candles that stood on the cave floor. And there, at the other end of a long path that wound between glittering rock formations, stood Alexander. He was in his human form – but he was the only one. Behind him stood two great glittering dragons, their eyes glowing golden. Lisa, her mouth agape, felt Helena's hand in hers. The woman squeezed it briefly, and then
was gone. A rush of air, and one more dragon soared over to land with the two behind Alexander, light dancing from her luminescent scales.

  Her father was there, too, standing stiffly to attention in his best suit, his eyes crinkled with pride and love as he gazed at his daughter. Lisa felt tears start to build in her eyes and blinked them away, smiling. It meant a lot to her that the dragons had been willing to allow not just her, but her parents, too, into this sacred space. It was a gesture of great trust.

  And Lisa got the feeling Helena got a lot of joy out of showing the baffled humans around. Lisa's mother must have almost had a heart attack at least a dozen times. Her father, though, was incorrigible. She should've expected as much. When Alexander had revealed his true nature to Lisa's parents, her mother had almost fainted – but her father had walked straight up to the enormous creature crouching in his backyard and begun barking questions about aerodynamics and asking to see its wings more closely. It was a sharp turnaround from their initial reaction to the news that Alexander was a dragon, which had been uproarious laughter.

  But it was her mother who asked an important question, much later, when Alexander was back in his human shape, and they were all drinking tea (and Lisa's father had been banned from asking any more questions about flight.) “Your people – they don't age?”

  “We age,” Alexander had said. “But very slowly.”

  “Then you'll outlive Lisa.”

  “My father is working on that.” Lisa had stared up at the dragon in surprise – this was the first she'd heard of it. “A line of the prophecy suggests a kind of transformation will take place...”

  “You're going to make my daughter immortal?” Lisa's father had interrupted. “Not a bad wedding gift. How? Purely scientific curiosity, mind you.”

  “I do not know.” Alexander looked a little embarrassed. “My father is the scholar of the family. But I have no intention of spending another minute of my life without Lisa.”

  Where the walls of the cavern rose up from the ground, Lisa could see a series of ledges – and to her surprise, on several of them were perched more dragons, their eyes gleaming dully in the light. To her astonishment, their eyes weren't gold like Alexander and his family – there were a group with sparkling blue eyes, a group with glimmering forest-green eyes, and even a group whose eyes shone dark and glittering like opals. These weren't people she had met, yet – but they watched and waited, and as she began to move down the (rather unconventional) aisle with her mother and father by her side, she felt the lightest of reassuring touches on the edges of her mind. Gentle, wordless messages of support, of joy, and of welcome. And finally, she reached Alexander, standing with his family, and he took her hands in his, his golden eyes full of the love she felt for him.