by Leela Ash
Laughter filled the room, from Donnelly’s bass chuckle to his love’s silvery giggle. Yet a soft melancholy lingered in Rex’s heart. He wasn’t out of the woods yet. “I’ll get to it, but this is complicated. Paige Hall, would you marry me—even though I can’t promise you a safe life? I will do my best. I would die for you, and for our kids. But with these Fangs of Apophis out there… the Shifter world just isn’t safe. I can’t make promises.”
“The only promises I need are wedding vows,” she assured him, her face flushed with love and a trust that made his heart sing with joy. Deep inside, his Bear reared onto its hind legs and roared its delight at the sky.
Yet he could not hurry her. This decision would last a lifetime and he wanted that lifetime to be perfect. “Are you sure? You’ve seen what the Fangs are like. In just the short time we’ve known each other, both you and your son have been kidnapped.”
“And we’ve been saved. By you.”
“But you came here to be safe….”
“I came here because I ran away,” she corrected him. “Like you. And I need to stop too. Lily was right. Every day, we can choose to be stronger. Today, I choose to stop running. Today, I choose you, and love.”
The last of his objections fell away, leaving nothing but happiness behind. “Then, Paige Hall, will you marry me?”
“I will,” she said, eyes bright with tears of joy.
The other guests waded in then, offering congratulations and claps on the back. Though, Aaron King kept chuckling. “Lily told you that, Miss Hall? It’s probably the first time she’s ever given someone good advice.”
For a time, he simply basked in joy. In the warmth of friendship, the heat of his Mate’s love, and passion’s whispered promise of a life of ecstasy.
Eventually, however, one nagging worry wiggled its way into his bliss. “Hang on. You never did tell me what happened! After I killed the Rat, I mean.”
“Oh, right!” Flushed with happiness, Paige laughed. “Well, you reared back on your hind legs, made this weird gurgling noise, and fainted.”
“Okay, okay, I don’t need every embarrassing detail,” he grumbled, to a chorus of chuckles.
“Sorry! Fortunately, we had phone coverage. I called the Donnellys and they came and got you. After that…” Paige waved at the others. “They should tell you. I was busy nursing you and didn’t have a lot to do.”
King eyed Donnelly, as if daring the Dragon to speak before him. The big man ducked his head instead, and the Wolf took up the story. “The attack on you brought this community together. You probably don’t know it because Shifters are an ornery bunch, but you’re pretty popular.
“With the information on the Rat’s phone, we located two more Fang safehouses. They’ve been taken out—which should shut down their operations in this area.”
“Any sign of that Worm?” The older man shook his head and Rex sighed. “Well that’s a good start, but the war isn’t won.”
“No,” the Wolf agreed, “but the Fangs no longer have bases near us. And now that we’re onto them, they won’t find it so easy to fly under the radar.”
“Plus, now we know what they’re looking for,” Donnelly chimed in.
Like the Dragon was some upstart pup sticking his nose into adult talk, King harried him right back out of the conversation. “I was getting to that. The Sand, Sage, and Big River Packs have agreed to patrol the badlands. Any sign of people driving where they shouldn’t, and we’ll hunt them down.”
Three Packs? That was a hell of a lot of Shifters. “Thank you,” he said, with heartfelt relief.
And, of course, the Wolf was in a nipping mood and wouldn’t even accept gratitude. “We’re not doing it for you. These are our range lands, our territory. We’re defending what’s ours.”
His Bear shuffled and rumbled, annoyed at all that barking.
I know, right? Two weeks ago, they weren’t doing shit-all. Now they’ve got their tails up in the air, proud as hell about defending ‘their’ land.
His Bear agreed and suggested giving the Wolf a nice swat, just to put him in his place. Tempting as it was, Rex vetoed the idea.
Let’s not chase them away before they help. Wolves can be obnoxious but—like Lily—sometimes, you need them.
“Unfortunately, the Rats are as useless as always,” King grumbled.
That surprised Rex—since up till now, they were the only Shifter Kind putting full effort into this project. “Oh?”
“They refuse to work with us.”
Well, you guys are a snappish bunch and Rats don’t care to get bitten.
No point telling King that, though. Rex tried a more tactful approach. “Let me talk to them. I know SueSue pretty well. I bet I can buy info off them.” Personally, he doubted the Rats wanted more than a cup of coffee for their spy work, but it let the Wolves save face. “What about that painting Paige and I found?”
King nodded to Donnelly. “Why don’t you fill him in?” Rex bit his lip to hide a smile.
The Wolf must not know; otherwise, poor Donnelly wouldn’t get a single word in today.
But if the big Dragon was irritated by King’s games of dominance, it didn’t show. “We still don’t know the meaning of the five Shifters. Some of the local Hares are Native and they’re going to talk to their tribal Elders and see if anyone knows more. Our best guess is that they’re the five people who will summon this monster into the world.”
“Nemagorix.” Beside him, Paige shivered, and he wrapped an arm around her shoulders.
Standing by her husband, Bree Donnelly nodded. “We don’t have much information on that thing or this ‘Aegis’ he mentioned to you. Further research is necessary.”
Disappointing, but not a surprise. “And the painting itself?”
“Torn down,” the Hare confessed. “I hate the idea of destroying antiquities, but it was too dangerous. We couldn’t find a way to make Nemagorix shut up, so we took his ‘phone’ away, if you will.”
Good. No easy way for the thing to speak to the Fangs, then. It wasn’t a perfect solution, but it would do, for now.
“Sounds like you guys have things under control. Not much for me to do except talk to Rats, finish healing…and start planning a wedding,” Rex added, smiling at his Mate.
Paige beamed back at him, proud and happy. “And we need to get SueSue a good present. She was a miracle. She spotted Freeman on his way in and got the kids away.”
“Did she bring them back,” he grumbled, “or do I have to start searching fallout shelters?”
“Yes, she’s watching them now. They’re out playing around the pool.”
His kids were actually in the damn pool—not whining to be taken to Totten Reservoir? Would wonders never cease!
“Huh. I didn’t know she liked kids.” A speculative gleam lit his eyes. “You think she’s interested in a babysitting job?”
“Let’s ask her,” Paige said, snuggling into the crook of his arms. “Besides, I think the position is opening up!”
The End
Alpha Protector Dragon
Shifters of the Aegis 2
A Wellspring Chronicles Tale
Tabitha St. George
Leela Ash
Copyright ©2019 by Tabitha St. George & Leela Ash. All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic of mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Chapter 1.
Casey Briggs waited. He sat on stone, the backbone of Mother Earth, so that she might keep him strong. Dressed in her colors – black shirt, black pants, black tie – he summoned the mantle of her eternal patience, bidding it to settle his agitated heart. Beneath those clothes, hidden to human eyes but not those of the spirits, tattoos covered his arms. Proclaiming his ancestry and his nature in swirling black patterns that would last forever. Or at least as long as his body. Above
him, Father Sun burned down, fierce in the desert morning. The shrill cry of a hawk echoed through the still air.
A good omen. The spirits guarded him in this treacherous time.
And so, he waited.
Mirages writhed and twisted at the horizon. From those shimmering lights, a figure emerged. A man, trudging slowly down the remains of an old road. Nearer he came, growing larger, more imposing, with each step.
Casey waited. Today was a momentous day, and the first of its great challenges approached. He would not succumb to eagerness or impatience like some Shifter child.
At last, the stranger stood before him. He was an intimidating man, with short-cropped blonde hair and a scattering of scars. His spirit animal, a great white Dragon, loomed large, its battered maw crisscrossed with scars.
Casey wasn’t daunted. His own spirit might be smaller, a lithe black Dragon with the curving horns that marked his Flight. But he knew he was the equal of any Shifter, and today, the spirits blessed him.
The stranger nodded pleasantly. “You must be Casey Briggs, from the Snow Flight.”
“Flight of the Snows,” he corrected him.
“Right. Finn Donnelly, First Flight.”
The arrogance of that name was a slap that couldn’t be ignored. “You are from Those Who Have Forgotten Themselves.”
Donnelly’s expression didn’t change – though the icy scales of his Dragon suddenly blazed with a brilliant azure light. Anger. Good. Casey felt a surge of adrenaline as his own Dragon rose to that challenge and unfurled its great wings.
Yet, to give him credit, the white Dragon’s words remained calm. “Is that what you call us? Let’s stick to ‘First Flight’, okay? Little shorter than ‘Flight of Those Who Can’t Even Remember Why They’re Here.’”
“Perhaps, ‘The Forgetful Flight’?”
In the Spirit World, two Dragons locked eyes. The white rumbled its disapproval, a deep, bone-shaking growl. The black hissed back, its sinewy tail whipping from side to side. Casey felt its power sing through his blood, calling him to battle.
Until the big man shrugged. “Sure. What the hell. I’ve been called a lot worse.”
The first spark of grudging respect lit in Casey’s heart. A humble warrior was a dangerous opponent. One who could not be tricked into a foolish charge.
Calm, he ordered his Dragon. Let us hear what this outsider wishes to say.
“Why have you requested this meeting?”
Donnelly gazed out at the vast spread of emptiness that surrounded them. “Before I answer, can I ask one thing? Why did we have to meet at a rock in the middle of nowhere rather than, say, Starbucks?”
And just like that, irritation roiled the calm waters of Casey’s soul. “Do you not know this ‘rock’?”
The other Dragon scratched his nose. “Is it, uh, granite? Or something like that?”
“This ‘rock’,” he snapped, “is the Place of Meeting Outsiders. It is here that, in ages past, the Peoples of this land welcomed our Flight. When the Sand, Big River, and Sage Packs sought peace among themselves, they came here, and they bound their Packs by blood and marriage. This is a sacred place! There is no more auspicious site for a meeting!”
“Okay, well, I’m not from around here and I didn’t know that,” said the Forgetful idiot. “Look, I’m not trying to talk smack about your rock. I’m just saying that it’s hot and I could really go for an iced latte right now. And Starbucks’ seats are more comfortable,” he added, as he swept a rock out from under himself.
How typical! Everything came down to indulgence and luxury for Those Who Have Forgotten Themselves. Were they even Dragons any longer – or just big, greedy lizards? “Again, I ask you,” Casey said through gritted teeth, “why did you wish to speak to me?”
“Because my Flight has forgotten something,” the big man said with a wide, guileless smile. One that made it hard to hold a grudge – even for a member of the proud Flight of the Snows. “We’re hoping you guys still remember it. You were at Fairburn’s meeting, right?”
Rex Fairburn. Casey’s lip twitched with disgust. The resorts that Bear built devoured the land and the silence with a hunger greater than any fallen Dragon’s. When Fairburn put out a call, asking all the Shifters of the Southwest to come hear of a new ‘danger’, Miles Kennedy, the Alpha of the Flight of the Snows, ignored him. “He is a destroyer of tradition,” he told his brothers of the Flight. “What threatens him does not threaten us.”
Despite that, Casey had gone. The Bear was as blind and stupid as they come, yet no one could accuse him of failing his duties. He protected his people and his town with honor. That duty, that faithfulness, earned him the right of a hearing.
And what a hearing it was! The words spoken still burned their way through Casey’s dreams. Oh, not Fairburn’s worries about some new enemies, the ‘Fangs of Apophis’. The Dragon neither knew nor cared about them. New enemies, old enemies… it was all the same. Those who remained vigilant didn’t need to worry.
No, let the other Shifters fret about these Fangs. What had shaken Casey to the bottom of his soul was Finn Donnelly’s announcement.
Wellsprings had returned. Founts of magic, they faded in ages past, leaving the world dull and mundane. Abandoning their protectors, the Dragons, to empty, meaningless existence. Now, the Wellsprings woke. Once more, Dragons were summoned to their most ancient duty: to protect the sacred waters that breathed life and wonder into the world. With magic’s return, the Rite of Claiming was reborn. No longer would his Kind drift through the ages, alone. Fate’s web grew strong again. Its touch, subtle and eternal, drew Dragons to their true Mates.
News like that should have sent Casey flying to the heavens, roaring his joy. Yet it was tempered with a bitter, terrible bile.
Fate had delivered the Wellsprings into the talons of Those Who Have Forgotten Themselves. They, not the Flight of the Snows, took up the most sacred duties. This Forgetful fool, Donnelly, who sat before him, pining for Starbucks? He had a Mate! That unworthy buffoon had somehow blundered through the Rite of Claiming and was bound to a woman in a sacred way that he, Casey Briggs, could only dream of.
The shame of that, the unfairness, drove him mad.
“So… the meeting?” Donnelly prodded. “Yes? No?”
That nudge yanked Casey out of his brooding, and he glowered at the cheery Dragon. “Yes. I went to the meeting.”
“Good. So, you know about the Fangs. Well, we’ve been investigating this, and Fairburn found out that the Fangs are trying to summon some big, bad, demonic thing into this world.”
Casey shrugged. Sounded about par for villains. They always hoped that spirits would just give them the power they were too lazy to build on their own.
“Does the name Nemagorix mean anything to you?”
At that, though, he straightened. “Yes. The Destroyer of Worlds. A creature from the spirit realms that is forever seeking to claw its way into this one.”
“Awesome!” The outsider’s smile blazed incandescent. “Score one for the smart Dragons! What can you tell me about Nemagorix?”
Like a poisonous serpent, worry crept into Casey’s heart. No one could truly draw the Black Worm back into this world, could they? Especially not some band of outsiders. “Nemagorix is a great spirit. He has destroyed this world three times.”
“Sorry?” Donnelly squinted at him. “If the world’s been destroyed, why is it still here?”
“It isn’t. This is a different world.”
“Oh. So, when you say the world was destroyed, you mean bad stuff happened.”
“No,” Casey snapped as the tip of his Dragon’s tail began to twitch with irritation. “I mean that the world died and a new one was born.”
An important distinction – which the Forgetful One immediately waved off. “Sure. Let’s not get bogged down over words. We both agreed this thing is bad. Apocalyptically bad. How did you guys stop him in the past?”
“We didn’t. Nemagorix has not entered the w
orld since we arrived. Only the People have faced him.”
“Native tribes? Okay, how did they defeat him?”
Was this man not listening? “They didn’t. He destroyed the world and when it shattered, he fell through the shards, back into the spirit realms.”
“Huh,” Donnelly said. “Well, I’m officially vetoing that plan for dealing with him.”
“Once Nemagorix enters this world, all is lost. The only hope is to keep him at bay. Deny him a doorway.”
“That’s a better plan. How do we do that?”
“Er, prevent people from summoning him?”
“I kind of assumed that.” A note of dry annoyance entered the Forgetful Dragon’s voice. “Any specific advice you can offer? Like who summons him… how… where?”
“No. I can speak to my Flight, however. Some delve into history more than I do. They may be able to give insight.”
“Thank you.” The other man, of course, assumed they’d share that insight with Those Who Have Forgotten Themselves. Casey wasn’t sure that was a good idea. “One last thing: have you heard of an Aye… uh, Ee-jee… No, dammit, I’m screwing this up. Hang on.”
From his wallet, he pulled out a scrap of paper. One word was written on it, in a woman’s delicate handwriting.
Aegis.
“Aegis,” Casey replied.
“Ee-jiss.” Donnelly muttered that a couple of times, committing the sound to his (limited) memory. “Do you know what the Aegis is?”
“No.”
Immediately, his blue eyes narrowed with suspicion. “If you don’t know what it is, how can you know how it’s pronounced?”
“Because it’s a Greek word. It means ‘shield’. Why do you ask about it?”
“Nemagorix says that the Aegis needs to be destroyed before he can enter this world.”
