Forged from the Ashes (Wings of War Book 1)

by J. Kearston

  I snort. “You’re the one that almost got shot.”

  He frowns, checking me over like he doesn’t believe me. After a day of leering, it’s actually a nice change of pace to have someone look at me with genuine concern. I tap my finger to my chin as I debate an idea, they may or may not prove to be terrible. But honestly, that’s never stopped me before.

  “You have a job yet?”

  He gives me a strange look, thrown by the sudden change of topic. “No, I was out job hunting when I ran into you. Haven’t had any luck, so I was going to call it a day and head home, try again tomorrow.”

  I grin, internally laughing maniacally at my genius. “I’ll give you a thousand bucks a month to be my bodyguard until I choose my mates,” I offer before hitching a thumb at the town behind me in the direction of the bookstore. “Because if that sort of mess happens again, my brothers will definitely try locking me in the house or insist one of them join me everywhere anyway. What do you say?”

  Soren is actively grinning now. “Wouldn’t it be a conflict of interest?”

  I start climbing back in the driver’s seat as he shuts the door like a gentleman. “Why do you say that?”

  He winks. “I’m going to be trying to keep you away from all of them and all to myself.”

  Be still my heart.

  “So that’s a yes?”

  He comes around the car and climbs in beside me, ducking his head a bit to fit. “It’s a hell yes, little dragon.”

  Chapter 7

  Soren

  “Five seconds. You have five seconds to explain what this guy is doing in our house,” Kaiden demands, green eyes narrowed like he’s trying to laser my face off.

  I stuck with Ezra the rest of the day, joined her as she picked up her little brother, who didn’t look nearly as upset as I thought he would, and back to her home. She called and the triplets said they’d be home for dinner today, so she figured this would be the perfect time to get this out of the way. The three of us are already eating, because they were late and Ezra got tired of waiting.

  She gives them the bullet point version of what happened today, ending with her plan to hire me. I might be biased, but I completely agree with her that the plan is brilliant. She doesn’t need to worry about assholes that won’t leave her alone, and I get to not only make sure she’s safe, but spend nearly all of my time with her.

  They make it all of five seconds before exploding into a litany of complaints.

  “Do you mean to tell me you are paying a guy to stare at you all day? To be alone with you constantly? You couldn’t even choose one that would do it for free, Ms. Moneybags?” Kinsley exclaims, gesturing wildly while grabbing a plate and sitting at the end of the table near Elias.

  Elias and I are on one half of the table while Ezra took the head of the table beside me, leaving Kahl to sit across from me and Kaiden across from Elias.

  She flips him off before taking a bite. “I thought you’d be happier I was proactive. I figured mobs of horny men would rank right up there with brussel sprouts for you, Kinsley.”

  Kahl serves his plate and sits across from me. “So why didn’t you act like the others? No interest in our sister?’

  I don’t even hesitate. “On the contrary, I warned her it would be a conflict of interest to take the position.”

  “No talking about positions and my sister in the same sentence,” Kaiden snaps, stabbing his fork into his plate.

  I chuckle. “Apologies. I felt the same pull, but my only concern was removing her from the situation before she got hurt in the crossfire.”

  Kahl strums his fingers on the table as he thinks things over before turning to Kaiden and Kinsley. “Might be a decent plan. One of us can’t be with her all the time, and if he likes her, he won’t allow any guy she’s on a date with to go too far.”

  Kinsley starts to get on board next, talking around a mouthful of potatoes. “And he’ll be forced to watch her date other guys. Got to hand it to you sis, that’s pretty savage.”

  He’s not wrong, but just because she goes on a date, doesn’t mean she’ll mate the guy.

  “Way to make me sound like a bitch, Kinsley,” Ezra scoffs and I grin as they continue to snipe back and forth. I’m an only child, so this is all foreign to me, but also much more amusing than I would have imagined.

  “It’s a compliment. Now you’re a savage in the races and out of them too,” he counters instantly.

  “What’re your thoughts on the matter, Elias?” Kahl asks, and I turn in my seat to look at the second smallest red head of the bunch.

  Red hair? Must be a Veles.

  Elias is more subdued, but under the attentions of his older brothers, he sits straighter and speaks louder than he did this afternoon, as if he’s trying to emulate their actions.

  “I’d like to find out why he came here before trusting him alone with Ezra,” he declares, looking at me in challenge.

  He knows he’s backed me into a corner and is damn proud of it. If I don’t say anything, I’ll look suspicious. If I explain, they might kick me out. But if I lie, I have no doubt in my mind these four could sniff it out the second the words left my mouth. I sigh, pushing my plate away and resting my elbows on the table and interlocking my fingers. I rest my chin on them, looking directly at Ezra so I can watch her reaction.

  “I come from a small country overseas called Omisha. With as small as it is, it wasn’t hard to eradicate the humans after the attack. But earlier this year,” I trail off and take a deep breath. “A few months ago, there was another attack there.”

  Ezra cocks her head to the side. “But I thought all the humans there were slaughtered?”

  I nod. “They were. This one was led by our kind. Dragons, turning against other dragons.”

  There’s a beat of tense silence before she breaks it. “Why?”

  I scrub a hand down my face and sit back. “Competitions over females are becoming more and more violent. There’s a radical group that thinks thinning the herd now will be better in the long run. Less competition over women and less resources used before they die.”

  Elias pipes up beside me while also kicking me under the table. “That doesn’t explain why you’re here.”

  I tip my head in acknowledgment. “As you can imagine, things escalated quickly. My flight and I cut down a good chunk of their numbers before fighting our way out of the country. We came here to try to escape it all, to start over somewhere peaceful.”

  Ezra is the first to point it out. “But you didn’t kill them all, and those you left alive might come after you for revenge.”

  I close my eyes, sighing in defeat. “Exactly. We did everything possible to cover our trail and moved halfway across the world, but anything’s possible.”

  Elias slaps my back as he walks behind me towards the kitchen sink. “Okay, then I’m good.”

  “Wait, what?”

  The triplets follow his lead, taking their plates into the kitchen as Ezra rolls her eyes at the mess piling up. Kahl crosses his arms across his chest and leans against the fridge.

  “One, they wouldn’t kill Ezra if they came across you since they’re thinning the herd of males,” he states.

  “Two,” Kaiden continues, leaning against the counter, “we’ve spent the last ten years training her how to fight her way out of impossible situations. Even if you hadn’t shown up today, she would have locked herself in the bathroom and busted out the window if she couldn’t get to the doors or take them all down herself,” he says confidently, but he misses the appreciative smile Ezra gives him when he does.

  Kinsley starts in on the dishes. “And third, something like that will gain traction worldwide if it hasn’t already.” I make sure not to let any of the confusion show on my face, going along with his speech. “The Gauntlet each town runs is its own way of culling, but it’s disguised as a competition so people voluntarily sign up. We’re better off having someone we can trust that’s faced off against those assholes and knows how they op
erate than flying in blind when they eventually make their way here if they haven’t already.”

  Elias comes back to the table to poke at the top of Ezra’s head, drumming his two fingers on her casually. “Hadeon has been relatively peaceful the last ten years, but nothing lasts forever. I’m the last generation in middle school, and as soon as we graduate, all of those teachers will be out of jobs, just like the elementary. When people lose their jobs, they get desperate. Desperate people do desperate things and make rash decisions they wouldn’t otherwise. So having an extra set of eyes isn’t something to turn away if their intentions are in the right place.”

  As soon as I thought I had a read on these men, they throw me for a loop.

  “Wait,” Ezra asks, tilting her head up as Elias continues to boop her nose and cheeks casually. It must be a frequent occurrence, because she acts like it doesn’t even faze her. “Is that why the three musketeers have been working so much? Are people stocking up on weapons and armor?” She’s looking at Elias, but talking to the triplets.

  “We didn’t want to worry you,” Kahl says quietly and her expression shudders closed.

  “Can we cool it with all the secret keeping, for the love of the Fates? First I’m a ticking time bomb and now murder sprees? What else have you all been hiding?”

  They’re quiet and she sags in relief until Kinsley pipes up, “I’m the one that killed your turtle.”

  Her eyes fly open and she whirls around, nearly falling out of her chair. “I knew it, you lying bastard!”

  It helps to lessen the doom and gloom as they start bickering and Kahl and Kaiden give me the go ahead to walk a tour of the house to get a layout of entrances and exits in case of an emergency. I won’t be staying here, but if push came to shove and someone broke in and she called for help, I could get here quicker than the three of them since I’m only living two blocks over.

  I walk down the hall, passing each of the triplets’ rooms and up a flight of stairs to the second floor. I pass Elias’ first, and Ezra’s is directly across the hall. She has a massive window that even I could fit through, which is a security nightmare. Her bed is pushed up against the wall in the corner to the right of the window and on the left of it is her dresser. The entire rest of the space is cleared out in the middle to make room for...I’m not even sure what it is.

  “It’s my design for a gauntlet,” Ezra says from behind me, squeezing past to get into the room and brushing against me. I don’t step to the side to make it easier, enjoying it far too much.

  “Those are Legos,” I argue.

  She gives me a withering look. “Well yeah, it’s not like I can afford to build the real thing. Legos are expensive enough already.”

  I step further into the room and look at the chaotic mess in a new light, now that I know what it’s supposed to be. “Your hoard of choice is Legos?” I clarify and she narrows her eyes at me.

  “As well as books and weapons. Don’t mock, this town is incredibly boring,” she scoffs, but I’m pretty sure my grin takes over half of my face; especially when I see the corner of Yri’s shirt peeking out beneath her pillow.

  “No judgment, just caught me by surprise. My fat fingers have never had patience for the things, but I step on enough of them at home.”

  Her eyes light up. “You have brothers too? Younger? Elias could use some more friends his age. How old are you anyway?”

  I wobble my hand back and forth. “The flight kind, not the blood kind like you. We’re all twenty- six.”

  She sits on her bed and tries to subtly stuff the shirt out of sight and I do her the courtesy of pretending not to notice. “That’s pretty unusual, to be an only child.”

  She’s not the first to point it out, nor will she be the last. Even before the humans made the strike on the female dragons, our numbers were dwindling. Women mate in units, typically referred to as flights, because only mated adults could fully shift. Unmated males never developed their powers, simply a stronger stock than humans, and though females have extra abilities at birth, even they can’t fully shift unless mated.

  We’ve evolved through the centuries to be a stronger class of people, but reaching that highest rank is still the prize most people will only ever dream of.

  “My mother died in childbirth,” I admit quietly. “So as you can imagine, it wasn’t the most pleasant upbringing with grieving fathers.”

  “I’m so sorry,” she apologizes, but I wave her off. “What’s done is done, no use harping on about it or getting trapped in the past. Want to show me the rest of the house?”

  She welcomes the change of subject, leading me past the bathroom on the way to the door at the end of the hall. The massive library is gorgeous and I can already see it’s the most cared for room in the house, not a speck of dust to be found.

  “It used to be my parents’ room,” she casually states, picking up the bag from earlier today and starting to add the books to one of the shelves. “We didn’t want to preserve it like a creepy memorial and be sad every time we looked in here, so we decided to convert it instead.”

  Yri was absolutely right. She’s a fiery haired angel.

  “I adore it,” I admit honestly.

  She gives me a sad smile. “Me too, but I still would trade it for them in a heartbeat. Theirs is a sad story, but not the only tragedy in this room anymore, and we decided to fill it with happy endings instead.”

  She trails a finger across the spines as a shout echoes up the stairs. “It doesn’t take that long to see the place! Those doors better be open!” Kaiden calls and I laugh, ushering Ezra back downstairs.

  I bid everyone goodnight and give Ezra my number, despite Kaiden’s glare, promising to be here at seven tomorrow morning. I walk back home, since it was more practical financially to only invest in one car when we came to this country before settling into a town.

  I unlock the door, Yri face-planted on the couch and Cai reading in his chair. He looks up when I enter, giving me a look.

  “No luck today, I take it?”

  Yri twitches in his sleep, groaning and starting to wake up. “Maybe we should trade, I’m fucking exhausted. You should be the blacksmith instead.”

  I grab a beer from the fridge, sitting down across from Caius and grin. “Can’t, I already have a job; bodyguard.”

  Cai snorts out a surprised laugh. “What type of wimp would actually hire a bodyguard? Wouldn’t people want to kick his ass on principle? What sort of men do they raise in this country?”

  I take a long pull of my beer. “Who said it was for a guy?”

  Yri’s eyes fly open, fully awake now. “You brilliant motherfucker. Why didn’t I think of that?”

  I laugh heartily. “I wouldn’t feel too upset, Yri. She was hiding your shirt under her pillow, so looks like you made an impression.”

  He sits up, rolling his shoulders and practically skipping to the fridge to get his own drink before coming back to relax on the couch. “Looks like you get to suck your own dick, Cai,” he jabs, taking a long drink from his beer.

  I try to smother my laughter. “Now, now, Yri, give him some more credit than that. After spending the evening in her home, it would seem she and Caius have something in common beyond the races.” I pointedly take the time to go get another beer, drawing out the suspense and waiting to see if he’ll bite. Cai may be cynical, but it’s with good reason. It’s dangerous to get your hopes up, especially in this day and age.

  “You going to spit it out or what?” he finally snaps, caving to his curiosity.

  I twist off the cap and take one more drink, drawing out his torture like the sick bastard I am. “She has an entire model gauntlet taking over her room. Made completely out of Legos.”

  Caius narrows his eyes at me. “You swore you’d never say anything.”

  I laugh. “And I didn’t, just enjoyed the discovery.”

  Yri claps his hands. “It’s official. She’s perfect.”

  “Wait a minute, why did she agree to let you be her
bodyguard? After the way she acted after the race, that doesn’t make sense,” Caius asks, so I fill them in on everything they missed and it casts a shadow over the room as memories threaten to resurface.

  “She seriously had no idea about mating heats?” Caius asks incredulously. “Just how sheltered did her brothers keep her?”

  I grunt. “Pretty sheltered, and it seems the whole town is in cahoots. At first, I couldn’t reconcile that with letting her run the death race, but I get it now.”

  Vyrian nods sadly. “It’s the only freedom they had to give her. She’s never left the city, has she?”

  I shake my head. “Doesn’t sound like it. Seems she thinks it’s like this everywhere.”

  Cai sighs, swiping a hand over his face. “I hate to admit it, and hate the way they’re going about it, but it might just give her a fighting chance.”

  “I toned it back when her brother gave me a warning kick, scaling back the severity of the problem. I made it sound like it was just the beginning of a rebel group instead of telling her the truth.”

  That once she’s mated, she’s going to have to make it to a Sanctuary if she hopes to survive.

  Chapter 8

  Ezra

  “This is going to be an adjustment.”

  Soren laughs and it sends a shiver down my spine. “Anything I can do to make you more at ease, little dragon?”

  I try to quell my hormones, but fuck, he’s making it hard to keep track of my priorities. “I...will let you know as soon as I think of it.”

  I ignore his deep rumble, reminding myself that my hormones are in overdrive and not to trust anything I feel under the influence. Decisions made in the heat of the moment aren’t rational, but fuck, I want to climb him like a tree.

  We dropped Elias at school and even though my brothers make the best weapons in the area, I insist on driving across town to a dealer that gets out of city imports for a very specific reason; he ships in the popular weapons from out of town.