Chapter Eleven

Chapter Eleven

Fucking hell? Shock didn’t begin to describe his surprise and disbelief.

Finn had shifted into a fucking dragon!

And the man was beautiful beyond imagination.

Scales, all different shades of green, from emerald to the palest leaf color mingled and swirled, signaling his Greengile heritage.

None of this made any sense.

Except that Jazdon wouldn’t have felt Finn’s sleeping dragon because he could only feel what was beneath the skin of his own people, the Isatolia. It was a clan thing and Finn hadn’t once been near the Greengile.

That’s why none of them could have predicted this.

The fight had broken down the double doors to the training room and spilled inside when Jazdon shifted and crashed into the Parsmitt holding Finn. Good thing too, since the corridor couldn’t have held three fully shifted dragons, let alone the number of Parsmitt and Isatolia crowding together in this vicious fight. Luckily, the training room was massive.

Someone slammed a fist into Jazdon’s head, and he went down when several Parsmitt converged on him. He snarled, twisted, and swiped out one clawed hand, slicing open the chest of a shifter. His other set of claws he sent upward, right beneath another shifter’s jaw and impaled the Parsmitt’s head. He didn’t watch to see the life drain from the dragon’s eyes before he was moving and rolling beneath the onslaught.

Now the training room was filled with dragons, both partially shifted and at least four fully in their dragon form, and though the ceilings were high, it was getting hard to move the way he wanted to.

A roar caught his attention and he saw Vargla go down. Merlon, who had stepped into the

hallway at the sound of the commotion, screamed his rage. The quiet librarian shifted into full ice dragon form and leaped at the three who were attacking Vargla. A massive weight hit Jazdon in the back and again he went down beneath the crush. Claws ripped at his back, opening his skin, and he roared.

Suddenly Finn was there in his green, fully shifted form, tossing Parsmitt dragons aside with his massive jaw and flipping the rest away from him with a flick of his tail. With a mighty roar, Finn opened his mouth and sent green flames into the Parsmitt. It was a Greengile defense mechanism. The green glowing flames clung to the Parsmitt’s hide like lava, melting skin. Their screams echoed through the hallway as they scrambled away.

Finn turned to check on Jazdon where he lay sprawled on his back on the floor.

That’s when Jazdon saw it—the golden color of Finn’s eyes that reflected in the faint gold tint to his scales.

Finn wasn’t a regular Greengile.

He had royal blood.

It showed not only in his scales and eyes, but in his power and strength. Greengile royalty

were clan protectors and could rival the Isatolia in battle. With a savage snarl, Finn turned away from him and cleaved through the remaining offenders with lethal power, careful of any Isatolia.

Finn was a fucking force and Jazdon could only stare. Bodies lay scattered and any Parsmitt who were able to move ran screaming, dripping with green fire. Some reached their point of entry and there they shifted and dove through the opening and into the sky. The Isatolia soldiers shifted and slammed out of the castle, giving chase.

The hallway and training room dropped into an unnatural stillness when Finn went from fully shifted to partially shifted-dragon and half man—and held out a hand to him. With an open mouth, Jazdon stared at the gold tipped claws extended to him before he caught Finn’s hand and was yanked to his feet.

“Well,” Vargla coughed, breaking the silence. “This is interesting.”

“Hush,” Merlon said. “I’m so mad at you.”

“What’d I do?” Vargla pouted.

“Are you okay?” The raspy growl of Finn’s voice sent a shiver of awareness down Jazdon’s spine.

Was he okay?

Fuck yes, he was. More importantly, was Finn okay?

***

In Finn’s room, Jazdon sat on the edge of the bed, hunched over, studying his hands. He

couldn’t keep his mind from spinning out of control.

Fucking hell.

How had this happened?

How had a Greengile with royal blood survived as a human out in the world?

To his knowledge it had never happened before. Yet, now that he thought about it, how many more could be out there? How many more dragons might lay dormant in the human population?

He had no idea, and his father, Reykur, wanted answers. The king was waiting on them and Jazdon had no fucking clue what to tell his father. Oh hey, by the way, surprise! One thing was for certain though, they would be talking to the Greengile royalty after speaking with Reykur, that was for damned sure. One of them, and maybe not even the Iceland Greengile, but one of their dragons with royal blood had gone out and spread their seed in the human population. Or had Finn been stolen at birth? What if a kidnapping had occurred and it hadn’t been shared with anyone. Shit. These were questions he didn’t have answers to.

The shower switched off and Finn emerged from the bathroom rubbing a towel over his damp hair. Jazdon’s tongue stuck to the roof of his mouth. Muscles that Finn hadn’t had prior to shifting now covered the man’s body. Even the towel wrapped around Finn’s waist did nothing to disguise the changes. Finn had nothing to complain about in the groin area either if the bulge beneath the towel was any indication.

Finn dropped the towel and jerked on boxers with a pair of jeans that molded to his ass.

With each flex of his back, more muscles shifted as Finn shoved feet into socks and boots and then pulled on a t-shirt over his damp hair. Jazdon couldn’t seem to find any spit in his mouth to swallow and he couldn’t seem to get his dick to calm the fuck down either. That was his dragon’s doing. Ever since Finn had shifted, Jazdon’s own dragon had been thrashing about as if to stake his claim.

If his dragon had his way, he’d take Finn and make him his mate. Jazdon had

more sense than that though. Becoming his mate needed to be Finn’s choice.

And if Finn said no? Well, if that became the case, Jazdon would accept the answer. No way in hell did he want a reluctant mate. Giving Finn the choice was the right thing to do. Now if he could just get his dragon on board.

When Finn glanced his way, Jazdon jerked his eyes to the window and then grimaced when his ribs throbbed. It would take a few shifts to heal his injuries and he hadn’t fully shifted yet because he’d been fucking busy trying to wrap his head around the changes in Finn.

“Let me see,” Finn said and Jazdon turned his eyes back to the man.

He hadn’t realized how close Finn was until he tipped his chin all the way up, and Jazdon met those blue eyes. Blue eyes now ringed with gold. Finn had been beautiful before, now he was stunning.

“I’m fine,” Jazdon rumbled.

“I didn’t ask if you were fine, I said, let me see.”

He wasn’t sure how to take the suddenly imperious tone Finn used, but it made him drop his arm and lift the corner of his shirt. Finn probed at his ribs until Jazdon thought his teeth would crack from clenching his jaw so tightly.

“How can we get you better?” Finn murmured after lowering his shirt back down to cover the bruises.

“It’s a dragon thing…” he croaked and then coughed and continued. “I have to shift a few

times before my injuries will heal.”

“And why haven’t you shifted then?” Finn demanded.

“Because I think you and I need to talk.”

“We can talk after your shift.”

“I don’t want you to fly away,” he quietly admitted.

Finn’s eyes narrowed to slits and the gold color increased. “Jaz?”

“Yeah?”

“If I’d wanted to fly away, I’d already be gone.”