2

“Stay safe, guys,” I said, continuing on my way.

The skies remained clear as I picked up the pace and resumed jogging through the city. Relief filled me when I finally spotted I-240 up ahead, knowing it marked the neutral travel zone before entering Taugud territory. A quick sky check told me no green dragons currently patrolled the area. I put on one last burst of speed as I made my way under a bridge and crossed into my safe zone.

Esphyr stood waiting for me on the other side in her human form. She was Aidan’s aunt, and his cousin Donar’s mother. One wouldn’t know it by looking at her since she appeared no older than her early thirties. She had a large bone structure filled out with toned muscles, light olive skin, and long black hair that fell past her shoulders. This was a female who could cook a delicious meal and kill a few green dragons in a single afternoon. I respected her.

Her yellow eyes had black slits, something common to all shifters, and she narrowed them as I ran up to her. “A pendragon’s mate should not be out alone in pure dragon territory.”

Aidan had impressed upon all of us that I was not to go out fighting alone since returning. He understood and accepted that I had to hunt but wanted me to be as safe as possible. Ever since we’d reunited, he’d had more difficulty letting me out of his sight. I couldn’t blame him since I hated every time I had to leave him as well. But we both knew if I didn’t go out regularly, I’d turn on him or others in his clan.

“Conrad is transitioning to a slayer, so Rayna had to rush him to safety.”

Esphyr grunted. “They told me as much when they passed here half an hour ago, but you shouldn’t have let them leave without you.”

“We already patrolled the area, so I knew I was safe,” I argued.

She sighed. “Honestly, I know that, but I don’t enjoy explaining it to your mate. He’s cranky when you’re away.”

From what everyone told me, Aidan had proven to be the best pendragon they could recall ever having, and they were bonding with him in a way shifters had never done before with a leader. The catch was he didn’t tolerate any threat to me or our son. Everyone knew that was one line they couldn’t cross, so they did their best to protect us. It was nice, sort of.

I’d worried it would make the shifters resent me, but most said they believed I was why he didn’t let his newly acquired power go to his head. It was hard to get too cold and ruthless when you slept next to someone genetically programmed to kill you. They knew that despite being a slayer, I still thought much like a human, and I had certain expectations he had to live up to for our relationship to work and for me to hold back my instincts. Despite all the odds, most of the clan had grown to appreciate our arrangement. Other pendragons didn’t have someone like me to keep them in check.

“Don’t worry.” I smiled. “I’ll make him see reason and help him forget all about it tonight.”

Esphyr laughed. “Please. See that you do.”

Her body lit up in flames, and a few minutes later, she reappeared as a red dragon. She was smaller than Aidan in beast form but plenty strong. Esphyr grabbed hold of my body, and a moment later, we lifted into the air. I gritted my teeth against the urge to fight her. It was always there to some degree, even after freshly killing a dragon. My instincts warred with my intellectual side, but I’d developed iron control over myself. Only with my son, Orion, did I not feel an urge to kill at all. My brain didn’t even recognize his dragon side as a threat—to my relief after his first shift. For that matter, he didn’t trigger any slayer that way. It had come as a surprise to us all.

We flew over the rooftops of nearby houses. Based on the sun's position, I was running a few minutes late. She must have also realized that because she put on a burst of speed despite the awkwardness of carrying me in her arms.

The flight south from Oklahoma City, over the town of Moore and then past Norman, took just over thirty minutes instead of my estimated forty-five. We still had to go farther south into the countryside and past Lake Thunderbird before reaching the fortress. The enormous slate-colored stone walls and inner castle emerged with the backdrop of mountain ridges a few miles beyond them. Their towering heights with blue-gray peaks weren’t there until the dragon dimension collided with ours, changing parts of the land in unexpected ways. They spanned about fifty square miles.

As soon as we touched down on the landing pad—a scorched circle of earth—a guard came to escort me while another ran toward the gate. Aidan didn’t like it when I was late, so he must have asked someone to alert him when I arrived. This evening was going to be super fun.

“Milord expected you sooner,” Boden said as I joined him, censure in his voice.

He was one of the guards assigned to me when needed. He didn’t scare easily and had a sense of humor—when I wasn’t in trouble—which made it easier to get along with him. I didn’t like killing people who could make me laugh. It also helped that he had a son Orion’s age. They often played together and practiced their wing-strengthening exercises in the field.

“It’s getting harder to find Shadowan to kill. The guards keep their distance from us, and the smart dragons avoid that border now. We had to go farther today for our hunt.”

Boden lifted a brow. “Already have an entire dragon clan afraid of you?”

“All but the young and dumb.”

He chuckled, but then his expression turned serious.

“Forgive me, but I must check you as usual,” he said, referring to the chance I’d gotten infected by dark magic while away. It hadn’t affected any slayers so far, but we never knew if the Kandoran might find a way around that immunity.

“Of course.” I lifted my camrium top to reveal the lower half of my torso. No smudges of black tainted my skin. “I can’t wait for this to be over.”

“None of us can,” he said grimly.

I gestured for us to walk so we could keep things moving along.

“Anything significant happen while I was away?”

He shook his head. “No, thankfully, all has been quiet today.”

We passed through the gate, where two guards stood at attention with swords at their sides. Both gave me a brief bow. “I suspect they’ve got their hands full elsewhere and decided it was best to avoid slayers rather than face us. We do have a highly successful kill rate.”

“I never thought I’d see the day,” Boden said, a hint of humor gleaming in his yellow eyes. “Shadowan quaking in fear at tiny women who likely get knocked over by a mere breeze.”

I scowled at him. “You’re pushing it.”

“You should worry about your mate, not me.”

“I could tell Rayna what you said. Just because I like you too much to kill you doesn’t mean she won’t feel differently.”

Boden grunted. “Keep her away from me. She’s a pretty little thing, but the look in her eyes says she’ll have her vengeance if you cross her. Add in her sorceress powers, and she’s lethal. That slayer scares the zishkat out of me.”

Zishkat was a word I learned early, meaning dragon shit.

“You should be scared of all slayers,” I said, giving him my fiercest look.

He clapped me on my back, causing me to stumble a step. “You get less scary every day.”

“Oh, really?” I pulled a small blade, knicked his neck before he could blink, and then returned my weapon to its sheath. “How about now?”

Boden rubbed the wound, his palm revealing a tiny smear of blood even as the cut healed. “Okay, you’re still scary, but I’m glad you’re on our side.”

I grinned.

We walked in companionable silence along the main thoroughfare to the castle. Some shifters gave me smiles when I passed, others a curt nod, and only a few still had wariness in their gazes. When I had the time and energy, I tried to get out and talk with them to put them at ease despite the fact it made me uncomfortable. Aidan encouraged it. Boden often accompanied me during those excursions so the shifters I approached wouldn’t get too nervous. It was slowly making a difference, but I had my work cut out to win over everyone.

We climbed the wide stone steps of the castle, and I got my usual shiver of unease. No matter how many times I reached this point, the memories and guilt came flooding back into my mind. Would I ever stop thinking of the day I attacked shifters —while under the control of a sorcerer—and was forced to leave Aidan for five years? Probably not anytime soon.

The great hall was bustling with activity as everyone sat for the midday meal. It was amusing that shifters called it that when it was six in the evening, and humans would consider it dinnertime. Dragons ran on a different schedule, though. The Taugud didn’t rise until almost noon, so that was when they ate their breakfast, and their final meal was at midnight. I’d slowly gotten used to the strange timing of their lives since moving into the fortress seven weeks before. Orion preferred the different schedule to the early mornings we’d awoken to while living in North Carolina. That likely came from his dragon side.

When we reached the stairs, I paused and turned to Boden. “I can make it on my own from here. Go be with your family and eat.”

“Very well.” He gave me a short bow. “If you insist.”

He really was a good guy, and I could see why Aidan chose him to escort me. “I do.”

After he turned back toward the great hall, I hurried up a couple of flights of stairs until reaching the top level where the pendragon’s quarters were located. Aidan stood outside the door with his arms crossed, looking stern. Two guards stood near him, casting their gazes elsewhere.

“You’re late,” he said in a displeased tone.

I smiled brightly. “Then tell the Shadowan to stop hiding from me like little cowards.”

One of the guards snickered. Try as they might, they couldn’t remain stoic in my presence as they got to know me.

Aidan cleared his throat. “I’ll put that on my long list of things to do.”

“Oh, good.” I stepped in front of him and gave him a brief kiss on his lips. “It pays to be mated to a pendragon.”

He scrutinized me, checking for wounds like always after I hunted. “You appear to be unhurt, but you should wash the dragon blood from you before we eat.”

“Do I have to do it with a bath?” I asked, then leaned closer. “Or could you light me up with your fire?”

As I’d learned years ago, a shifter’s flames could clean me even better than water and soap. Whenever I felt extra tired and lazy, I’d make Aidan do it to save time and energy.

“Everyone is already waiting inside—and hungry. If I shift to clean you, I won’t be able to change again for a while, which is hardly convenient inside the castle,” he said, giving me a reproachful look.

“Right, okay.” I sighed, though I should have known better. He wouldn’t even be able to get through a doorway in his beast form. “The good old-fashioned way it is. You should have told them to go ahead and eat without me.”

“Absolutely not. If I did that, you’d be late every time.”

I snorted. “Sometimes I hate that you know me so well.”

We walked inside his chambers. Not long after I’d moved in with Aidan, we’d done a little rearranging. The sitting area was now on the opposite end of the room from the bed, and we’d put a large dining set next to the balcony. The fire-proof oak table and chairs could seat up to a dozen people. This allowed us to have a family dinner once a week where everyone dropped their busy schedules to eat and socialize together. It was cozy and intimate. With war looming, we needed that now more than ever.

I spotted my mother, Orion, and Paul on one side. Phoebe, Ozara, and their two-year-old daughter Leilany sat across from them, everyone with empty plates. On the sideboard, huge platters and bowls of food waited with a young human woman—Kayla—standing ready to serve.

She was now the head baker in the castle kitchens after proving no one could do better at the job. When I’d first met her, she’d only been fifteen years old, but now she was twenty-one and had grown into a beautiful woman. Her bright red hair hung in a braid down to her waist, similar to when I last saw her years ago, but her slight form had filled out with more curves under her white camrium dress that laced at the front.

Kayla had green eyes that missed nothing as she watched me enter the chamber. One would think a girl like her would stand out, but she had an uncanny knack for going unseen when she chose to do so. As soon as Aidan became pendragon, she’d resumed her spy work for him like in the old days. Anything she heard while working in the kitchens or walking through the castle, she passed to him.

As far as the rest of the clan knew, he requested Kayla to serve our weekly meals to reward her hard work and please me. In reality, the girl had no family anymore. She’d crossed into Kederrawien— a hellish world where dragons were banished a thousand years ago—as a child and lived with the shifters ever since, returning to Earth with them when the two dimensions melded together. While Nanoq had tolerated her during his reign, she’d been lonely and feared for her life as he grew more fanatical due to the dark infection spreading within him. Aidan wanted to give her a sense of belonging, so he included her in the meals as one of us. She’d sit and eat as well after serving the others.

“Start filling your plates,” I announced to the assembled group, giving them an apologetic look. “I just gotta wash up, and I’ll be right back.”

Chairs dragged across the stone floor, and they formed a line at the sideboard. Normally, I would have taken care of Orion’s meal, but I noticed my mom grabbing his plate for him. This was only the second time I’d been late in the past six weeks. No matter how often I said not to wait for me, Aidan insisted we all eat together.

Except when we were alone together at night, sitting with our family was when he was most content. It was the one time he could relax around other people without worrying about what he said and did and how it might be perceived. My poor mate was constantly hiding the stress of becoming responsible for a clan and preparing for war. Despite the fact he hadn’t wanted the position, he did a great job at it.

He followed me into the washroom. Before I could grab a clean cloth to moisten, he had me pressed against the wall. He took both my hands and held them above my head, pinned to the stone. A fierce look came over his yellow eyes.

“I should punish you for being late,” he growled.

I lifted a leg and rubbed it along his hip. “Mmm, that sounds like a good idea.”

He groaned, barely keeping up his stern expression. “You’re not supposed to enjoy my punishments, slayer.”

“Every time you say you’re going to discipline me, it turns out to be the best part of my day.” I smiled. “It’s not my fault if I like it.”

Steam came from his nostrils, heating my skin. “I’ll never grow tired of you and how you surprise me, misanna .”

I loved when he called me his “beloved one,” and the way the word rolled from his tongue with heat and finesse. “The same goes for you.” I freed my hands and cupped his face. “I love you and will never leave you again. You’re my everything, Aidan.”

He needed to hear me say that every day because the trauma of our separation still affected him a lot. It also did for me, but at least I’d had our son and a life to keep me busy. He’d suffered every day for over five years while we’d been absent, and he’d had no anchor to keep him sane. Even his family and friends had been kept away from him. No one except me saw how badly that time had damaged him, and I worked hard to help him overcome the trauma.

His eyes lingered on me for a moment longer, and then he crushed me in a deep kiss. The way he melded himself into me felt like he was a drowning man who’d found an anchor. Soon after reuniting, I realized he needed my support to keep him going. He’d handled himself well in those first couple of weeks after defeating Nanoq, but he knew I was returning soon, which had kept him motivated.

Now, I recharged him each night so he could go without me during the day and be the best leader possible. I’d never been prouder of him for overcoming a lifetime of doubts instilled by his own family.

After a minute of kissing and touching each other to reestablish our bond, and because we enjoyed it, we broke apart. His yellow gaze revealed how relaxed he’d become in those moments. I loved how much a powerful dragon needed me.

Aidan stepped back and swept out his arm. “You may wash now.”

“Oh, milord.” I gave him a mock bow. “You are too kind.”

He shook his head. “I will have to punish you thoroughly for that later, but for now, I’ll prepare your plate. You must eat, mate.”

I couldn’t argue with him there and appreciated that despite becoming pendragon, he still performed menial tasks for me. “Thank you.”

“You’ll have to tell me tonight exactly what happened during your hunt.”

I started scrubbing my face with the washcloth. “Oh, definitely. There’s even a plot twist at the end that I didn’t see coming, though I suppose I should have.”

He arched a brow. “What’s that?”

“Conrad is transitioning into a slayer right now.”

“ Shifitt ,” he swore and ran a hand through his dark hair. “Is that why you were late?”

“Partly.”

Aidan worked his jaw, deep in thought for a minute as I finished cleaning myself and combing my long, black hair. Sounds of the others digging into their meals and chatting reached our ears. We needed to head out there soon.

“Perhaps it is good timing,” Aidan said, straightening his shoulders. “Your annoying friend will be more resilient in battle and likely to kill more of our enemies.”

“Yes,” I agreed.

“Then I will try to see it as a good thing.”

I gave him a peck on the cheek. “Very wise of you.”