15. Jade

15

Jade

To ensure we wouldn't make the same mistake twice in a row, Alaric returned to his hotel that night, much to our mutual disappointment. But I reassured myself that Alaric was mine, and I was his. Soon the Games would be over, and we'd live the rest of our lives in peace.

I woke up bright and early on the day of the third challenge, but I didn't feel the usual calm joy of morning. I was uncharacteristically restless and irritable. My skin felt hot and tight, almost itchy in its discomfort. Being torn apart from my fated mate must've upset my inner dragon, who wanted to break the cage of my human flesh.

Calm down, Jade, I reminded myself. It was only a single night.

Still, my dragon rumbled, pacing crossly within my soul. I attributed the cause to our separation from Alaric and ignored it. The sooner we completed this final challenge, the better.

As I made my way towards the beach, my discomfort intensified. My dragon stirred, agitated. I didn't understand. I had no evidence to indicate anything was amiss—just a ‘gut feeling,' as they say. But I didn't see anything out of the ordinary.

Gaius stood ahead waiting for me. I spotted him easily easily thanks to his pink shirt. Behind him, the contestants sat spread out on picnic blankets on the beach. Unfortunately, my eyesight was my Achilles heel. I couldn't discern exactly what was going on. I pushed up my glasses, squinting harder.

I stopped. There was something out of the ordinary. The omegas' hands were awkwardly folded in front of them. The distance was too great to make out any detail—like a head of white hair.

My stomach tightened for reasons I didn't understand. I hurried to reach Gaius, but he caught up with me halfway, as if cutting me off from the scene. He gave me a quick pat on the shoulder as greeting, then launched into his announcement before I could question him.

"Good morning! We're all here, folks, so let's begin the third and final challenge!" Gaius declared to the film crew. "Mister bachelor, join me this way..."

Since the cameras were rolling, I forced a polite reaction, but my gut reaction didn't fade. Something wasn't right.

But Gaius didn't lead me towards the omegas—he pushed me in the opposite direction.

"Could I get a crumb of context, please?" I asked dryly.

"A crumb you shall receive," Gaius said. "Along with... this!"

His jovial tone didn't reassure me. My suspicions turned out to be valid when he pulled out a black fabric strip. An eye covering. It wasn't from my collection, thank Holy Drake, but my stomach still lurched.

Nothing was obviously amiss, so I brushed it off. It must've been my dragon's agitation starting to get to me. I calmed myself and took the fabric.

"I'm meant to put this on, I suppose," I said, unable to hide my lack of enthusiasm.

"Yes! And I'll take your glasses, please. Thank you."

I grimaced. I felt naked and helpless without my glasses, but I conceded with a sigh. I handed them over to Gaius in exchange for the silk covering. As I quickly placed it across my eyes, I heard the thud of the protective glasses case shutting.

"All right. Now, will you please explain the challenge, dear host?" I asked.

"I'm so glad you asked, dear bachelor," Gaius replied, apparently oblivious to my trepidation. "Today, our challenge is a spicy one. Our omega contestants are bound, and you're going to be the one to free them!"

Unease swirled in my gut.

"I don't understand," I admitted.

"It's simple, my scaly friend, and so are the knots! You'll have to untie each contestant—without your vision, of course."

My blood turned to ice. Bondage was not something to be done lightly. If the binds were done poorly or without the correct knowledge, it could harm the omegas. I was going to throttle whoever put forth this asinine concept.

But Gaius said the knots were simple. He was always honest, so I believed him. That was the only thing suppressing my temper. Besides, however idiotic my brothers could be, they wouldn't purposely put the contestants in danger.

I hoped.

"Worry not, my draconic friend," Gaius said. "Just because you can't see doesn't mean you're alone. The omegas can see the binds, so they'll walk you through the process. See? You'll get through this challenge together!"

I had the sudden violent urge to rend Gaius into chicken nuggets.

"So, what is the purpose of this challenge, exactly?" I demanded, struggling to maintain civility.

"Teamwork! You can't be fated mates without being able to work together, right? Plus, you'll share a tender moment with each contestant. Maybe a certain special contestant will have extra time with you..."

Despite my lack of vision, I sensed Gaius winking at the cameras. I figured it was supposed to be playful, but it came across as conspiratorial. Did he plan that little comment because he knew I was in love with Alaric?

And if so, what did it mean?

Everything about this charade was mindless and illogical. This challenge served no purpose except to force me into proximity with the omegas, who weren't even doing anything. Unless we had a secret kinky contestant in our midst, I doubted their knowledge of rope work would be enough to guide me properly.

I steadied my breath. I'd get through this—one last obstacle before I could claim Alaric forever. Besides, I had more than enough experience tying and untying knots to make up for everyone else's lack of experience.

What I was not looking forward to, however, was cozying up to the remaining omega contestants. The idea felt grimy and wrong.

It's official, I thought, my brothers are never running the Dragonfate Games again.

"Ready, contestants? Let the third challenge begin!" Gaius announced.

I rolled my eyes at the fact that he hadn't asked me if I was ready. Thankfully, the eye covering hid my rude behavior from view.

I had one simple goal: find Alaric immediately, and put an end to this.

As the challenge started, loud voices called out to me.

"Over here!"

"No, come this way, Jade!"

"My ropes are super loose. You can take them off easily!"

I stood still, fuming silently. Curse their cacophonous racket. I couldn't hear Alaric's voice among them. Was he even calling out to me? I focused, seeking his sweet and sassy voice among the noise... but it wasn't there.

My dragon turned unruly in the confines of my soul, like an untamed stallion confined to a stable. He pushed the boundaries of our shared skin. I breathed hard, forcing him down. But when I ignored him, he roared hard enough that it shook my bones.

I shuddered. Yes, I was upset, but there was no need for my dragon to burst free. Alaric was safe.

Wasn't he?

I paused, listening. I still didn't hear his voice...

But what if he couldn't speak?

Gaius's words flashed in my mind. He said the contestants were bound. What if he didn't just mean their hands?

My stomach clenched tight with fear. Suddenly, I believed my dragon instincts.

I forgot about the cameras and the TV show. Nothing mattered to me except holding Alaric in my arms, and knowing he was safe. I tore the black fabric from my eyes.

"Alaric!" I cried. "Where are you?"

My vision was wretched. All I saw were blurs of color.

But eyesight wasn't my only sense. As I searched the beach wildly, desperate to find my mate, a note of baby powder reached my nose.

Hope flared inside me. Locking onto his scent, I whirled towards him like a feral animal.

And in the next second, I was a feral animal.

My rage and protective instinct coalesced into a supernova explosion of power. My dragon ripped free of my human body. The frantic shift barely took the blink of an eye; it was so impossibly fast the cameras couldn't even capture it.

I breathed hard and ragged as I scanned the beach. Unlike my human form, my dragon vision was crystal clear.

I found Alaric in a heartbeat.

Unlike the other contestants, a gag busied his mouth. His arms were bound awkwardly behind his back, and his legs were tied together poorly. The ropes pressed tight and raw against his delicate skin.

My mate was hurt.

My mate was in danger.

The scales and feathers along my spine went rigid with fury. A terrifying cry erupted from my fanged mouth, loud enough to echo off the forest behind us. I lunged for Alaric like a striking cobra. His eyes widened, but he didn't move.

My fangs sheared the ropes. They fell to tatters. With his arms free, Alaric wriggled onto his knees. He yelled something, but it was muffled behind the gag. In a precise motion, I slashed it with my claws—it fell from his mouth into the sand.

He coughed, then called, "Jade, it's okay!"

I barely heard him over the roaring blood in my skull. I was furious and terrified.

In another well-aimed strike, my sharp teeth shredded the last ropes on his legs. All the binds were gone, but my fear and guilt remained.

Alaric scrambled to his feet. He threw his arms around my head, hugging my forehead to his chest. His body was warm compared to my cold scales and icy rage.

"Jade, calm down," Alaric breathed. "It's okay. I'm fine."

A growl shook my throat. I couldn't stop thinking about the sight of him bound and helpless, constricted dangerously by unskilled hands.

His hands stroked the sides of my face. "It's okay," Alaric repeated.

I hissed—not at him, but at the situation.

"I know," Alaric said soothingly.

Rushed footsteps alerted me to an intruder. I broke free of Alaric's grip and whipped my head around to snarl at Gaius.

"Whoa! It's me, Jade," Gaius cried, putting up his palms. "Is everything okay?"

His words blurred like smeared letters across my brain. I barely understood him. I was so angry that I'd lost my ability to understand speech or talk in dragon form. I'd reverted to a primal state of being right in front of everybody.

My blood sloshed like chunks of ice. I grasped at that loose, desperate grip on my humanity. I retained just enough of it to be deeply ashamed of myself.

But my embarrassment wasn't the worst part. Going feral was dangerous. If I lost myself— all of myself—everyone present could be seriously hurt, except my mate.

Before I could snatch back my dwindling civility, Alaric spoke up in my stead.

"Can we turn the cameras off for a minute?" he asked sharply.

Gaius frowned in concern, then nodded. He understood the gravity of the situation. He took a long stride away from me, then gestured to the camera crew with a horizontal hand slice.

I heaved for breath. Calm, steady rhythms. Tranquil thoughts. I needed to pull myself back from the edge.

Alaric grasped the sides of my head again, forcing me to look at him. "Jade, I'm here," he said, curt and firm. "Get a hold of yourself."

My mind swam. He was safe. And he smelled so good. I thrust my snout against Alaric's chest, sucking in his scent with every deep breath. It was the only thing grounding me.

"It's all right," Alaric said. There was no gushy insincerity in his voice. His matter-of-fact tone brought me back down to earth.

I exhaled a long, hot breath against Alaric. I finally stopped feeling like my heart was going to explode from my ribs, and my body relaxed.

Then I realized my claws were clenched hard in the sand. If anyone had been in the way, I would've shredded them by accident—and in my feral state, I wouldn't have even cared. That realization horrified me.

My shame shocked me back into humanity. I tried to make myself smaller. I folded my wings and tucked my tail around my claws, pressing closer to Alaric.

"You're okay," Alaric said as he stroked my scaly face. "Everything is fine."

It was not fine, but my mate's confident attitude made it feel that way. He was the cool tide to my raging inferno. He doused the flames of my wild anger—anger I didn't even know I had inside of me.

"Is he all right?" Gaius asked from a distance.

"Yes, he is," Alaric replied. "Right, Jade?"

His conviction reassured me. I still couldn't speak, but I managed to nod.

"Let's go somewhere private," Alaric decided. "Sorry, Gaius, but can you deal with this?"

"I'm on it," Gaius said, unusually serious. From the corner of my eye, I saw him raise a hand to pat my leg, but then he paused, apparently thinking better of it. "Feel better soon, Jade."

Alaric led me into a quiet clearing in the forest. As soon as we arrived, my knees buckled and collapsed. My body trembled too hard to keep myself upright any longer.

"Are you okay?" Alaric asked.

I nodded again, then forced myself to speak. The sooner I acted more human, the faster I'd get out of this state.

"Yes," I growled. It sounded more draconic than human, but at least it was a solid word.

Alaric sighed, relieved that I'd spoken. He petted my forehead with calming strokes.

"You know," he said, looking me over, "you are a gorgeous dragon."

That earned him a rough chuckle. I felt my human self slowly floating back down to my dragon body, and I managed to speak again. "I'm sorry about the circumstances."

Alaric gave me a small, reassuring smile, then asked, "What happened?"

I shut my eyes and breathed for a few seconds. I had to be careful not to trigger myself back into a feral state upon revisiting the memories.

"I lost control when I saw you." The words came out thick and animalistic. "You were in pain. Danger."

"I wasn't—well, it was uncomfortable," Alaric admitted.

The feathers on my spine bristled. He could downplay it to ease my feelings all he wanted, but I knew the truth. Bondage like that was not to be done haphazardly.

"You could've been seriously hurt," I growled.

The risks blared like neon signs in my mind, but I dared not think about the potential outcomes had there been an accident. I couldn't risk slipping backwards again. I forced myself to stay rooted in the present.

Alaric was safe. Therefore, I was safe.

"I'm sorry for alarming you," Alaric said. "I didn't think it was a big deal when I agreed to it."

My feathers went rigid. "Agreed to it?"

The bushes rustled behind us. My brothers stepped into the clearing. Thystle and the twins grimaced and bunched their shoulders, looking particularly guilty.

Everything clicked into place.

" You ," I snapped.

My feral rage rekindled at the sight of them. Crimson and Cobalt predicted my outburst—they ran in front of our younger brothers, a physical barrier between them and my fangs. I dug my claws into the ground so I wouldn't barrel into them, but I knew deep down, they couldn't stop me. At least, not in human form.

"You have to calm down," Cobalt ordered, deep and firm.

I ignored him, snarling at my three youngest brothers, "What did you do to my mate?"

The trembling twins clung to each other. Thystle backed up, eyes wide with real fear.

"Stop it, Jade," Crimson urged. "You're scaring them."

My dragon soul didn't care. Let them be scared. They deserved that much for putting my mate in danger.

A warm hand touched my front leg. I didn't need to look down to know it was Alaric.

"No need to bite anyone's head off, Jade," he said, both stern and sassy. "I told you I'm fine, remember?"

I exhaled through my nostrils. Only the fact that Alaric was unharmed stopped me from biting someone's head off.

"Y-yeah," Aurum said, slowly untangling from Saffron. "Besides, Alaric agreed to it. It was consens—"

My anger exploded. "I don't care if he agreed to it! You never should have done it in the first place!"

Cobalt and Crimson exchanged a quick glance, a silent agreement to shift and fight if this escalated any further. I almost dared them to try.

But a deep growl from the opposite end of the clearing stopped everyone. Viol emerged like a living shadow, his deep purple scales glinting as he stepped into the sunlight. He stalked closer until his snarling face was inches from mine. Our fangs were close enough to maul each other.

"Cut it out," Viol said roughly.

My mind raged like a storm. The polite, civilized Jade warred with the possessive, furious dragon Jade. Every time I remembered Alaric in that dangerous bondage, my rage erupted, and all I wanted to do was commit violence against those who'd harmed him—even if it was my own family.

"I cannot," I growled back.

"You can and you will," Viol snapped. He lowered his voice so only I could hear him. "Enough, Jade. You're acting like me. We don't need two insane freaks in this family."

My feathers fell flat. As his statement sunk in, I suddenly came to my senses. Hot, liquid shame drenched me. I backed away and curled onto the forest floor. The utter disgrace shocked my system, and I reverted back to human form.

Alaric cradled me, still stroking my hair. It came loose from the tie when I shifted, spilling over my shoulders and back.

"It's all right. I've got you," he murmured.

His sweet words were the only tether left to my sanity. I was so bone-chillingly mortified, I could've dug a hole and buried myself in it.

After a few quiet beats, my brothers approached us. Viol, still in dragon form, remained by the tree line like a watchful sentinel.

As the eldest, Cobalt spoke first. Though he was still slightly guarded, I mostly heard relief in his question. "Are you feeling better, Jade?"

"Yes," I rasped. Talking came easier now that I was back on two legs.

Crimson sighed. "You really scared us. Mostly those three."

I didn't want to look at Aurum, Saffron and Thystle. I was too ashamed. But no matter how disgusted I was with myself, they deserved an apology.

I forced myself to meet their cautious gazes, then stared at the ground in deference. "I am deeply sorry. That was unacceptable. Please accept my apologies."

Tension hung thick in the air. Would they forgive me?

Saffron blew out an exasperated breath. "I thought I was gonna die without even finding my fated mate!"

As the tension vanished, Alaric grinned at me. "Not that I wanted anyone to get hurt, but I found your animalistic rage quite sexy."

In the background, Viol scoffed and slunk into the darkness of the trees.

I groaned, wanting the earth to swallow me up again. "Losing your humanity is not sexy. It was awful," I muttered.

Alaric glanced between me and my brothers. "So, I assume whatever just occurred is a dragon thing?" he asked.

"The phenomenon doesn't only occur in dragons," I explained. Sharing information made me feel more like myself. "Under the right circumstances, any shifter can turn feral. But dragons are... passionate, to put it lightly. And if it happens to one of us..."

"It's intense," Cobalt finished. "It's dangerous to everyone except that dragon's mate. I came very close to going feral once when Muzo was in danger."

Alaric nodded solemnly. "I see." He looked at my brothers. "What about the rest of you?"

They all shook their heads, which made me feel worse. As far as I knew, they were telling the truth. I'd never witnessed any of my brothers gone truly feral—at least, none of the ones present.

I winced with shame. I was supposed to be calm, respectable and intelligent. I was supposed to be the trustworthy one, the one constantly in full control. Not a wild beast.

"It's a terrible loss of control," I went on, lowering my gaze. "You're not yourself—but the worst part is that you are . You're the wildest, most primal version of yourself, operating on instinct alone. You would do anything—hurt anybody—if it meant keeping your mate safe."

Alaric shuddered. Now that the heightened emotions were over, I wondered if he was shaken by the events.

"I'm sorry," I said to him. "I never wanted you to see me that way. It was undignified."

He smirked. "It's fine, Jade. You're my mate. I want to know all of you, even the darkest parts."

My heart fluttered. I knew Alaric wasn't only referring to the debacle that had just occurred, but was also alluding to my perverted tastes. It was our mutual secret.

Alaric's words were true. Out of everyone in the world, only he knew my deepest truths. That was a comforting light in the pitch blackness.

"Hey, um," Thystle began, voice shaky. "We should apologize too, Jade. And to you, Alaric. This is our fault."

"Yeah," Saffron said as he rubbed his arm. "It was our stupid idea to put Alaric in bondage. We had no clue what we were doing."

"We just figured you'd both like it." Aurum grimaced as he looked at Alaric. "Did we hurt you, man?"

"The restraints were a bit tight, but I'll live," Alaric admitted, flashing them a forgiving smile. "I have my own blame in this. I should've known better. I'm sorry for worrying you, Jade."

Alaric kissed my forehead, and I sighed contentedly. That small gesture felt so nice after my explosion of stress.

"Let's go home," Alaric declared.

I was happy to let him take the lead.