Chapter 17

Seventeen

Beckett

Beckett and his brothers flew to their own home after they left the girls on the beach. It was the only home on top of the cliff that looked over the entire land. The four of them agreed this was the best place for their home when they took the role of leaders over this place.

To their dismay, the four of them were not brothers by blood. They had all grown up together here and spent so much time together that they called each other brothers. It was uncommon for them not to be seen together. From the moment they were awake until the time they went to bed, they played or talked about the things they would do once they ruled. It was always in the cards that they would. They were the strongest dragons here.

Once they turned eighteen, they could get the resources together to build their house. All four of them agreed they would each have their own floors with private bathrooms and a shared floor with their kitchen and a place to hang out. It took a long time to save their earnings so they could do this, but they all contributed so it could happen. The build took a few months, but once it was finished… it was their home.

And no one would ruin it.

When they all landed, they tucked their wings back into them. Blaze stomped into the house with Arlo and Esen trailing after him. Beckett took a moment to look down at the area where he knew the four girls were taking Kaida. There was something about this girl. Beckett could feel his soul calling out to her the moment he laid eyes on her. A mate bond should be there, but he couldn’t feel one.

Is it because she is dragonless? Is that why there isn’t a mate bond between us? But that can’t be right. She had a mate. She can still have mate bonds form.

“Beck! Where you at, man?”

Beckett heard Esen’s voice calling out to him from inside the house and groaned. Every part of him wanted to go back to Kaida, but his brothers wouldn’t understand this. He already knew that once he stepped inside that house and hung out with those three, Blaze was going to go off about Kaida and her new friends. Blaze hated when anyone was on that beach. He considered it his, even though there wasn’t a way to claim it. It was technically a public beach. None of them did anything wrong. If anything, Blaze should be happy that those four stepped in and took care of a newcomer. It meant that they didn’t have to do it.

Yet he is going to pitch a fit about it.

He took a deep breath, allowed the power of his element to wash over him to calm himself, and then walked into the house. Beck already knew where to go. Any time any of them were together, they were in the rec room where the billiards table was so they could hash anything out that was prudent to rule this place before playing a few games. He kicked off his shoes after walking into the house, hung up his jacket, and then walked off to the right, where the large room held his brothers.

And they were doing exactly what he thought they would be doing.

Arlo was chalking his stick to prepare for playing a game. In his hands was his personal stick, made from the bark of the tree he used to build his first fort when his magic started to present itself. It wasn’t exactly sound, and the weight of the magically enhanced wood caused the tree to snap. Beckett never really understood why, but Arlo kept one of the tree’s branches. After they bought the billiards table, Arlo took the branch and turned it into his stick. No one else was allowed to use it.

Esen was sitting in the leather recliner in the corner, rocking as he looked bored. True to the Breeze element, Esen didn’t like to stay stationary for a long time. Any time they were in here, Esen was in that chair so he could rock it, as he always needed to be moving.

Blaze was pacing as his Ember energy filled the room. Beckett could barely breathe when he walked into the room from the swarming energy. He let out his own Tidal energy to calm Blaze down, but the moment Beckett felt it had touched him, Blaze growled in his direction.

“Knock that shit off. I have a right to be angry.”

“And that right is?”

“The right to uphold my own rules. Who the fuck do those chicks think they are going on my beach after hours? It’s not that fucking hard. I give everyone all damn day and half the night to be on that beach. After those hours, it’s ours!”

“It’s a good thing they were there. We didn’t plan to be there tonight. That girl was dropped off there and would have been stuck there all night without shelter, food, or water. With a freshly broken mate bond? She could have died. That shit would have been on us,” Beckett rattled off.

Blaze locked eyes with Beckett and snarled, “You are defending their actions?”

“I am.”

“The fuck, dude?”

Beckett rolled his eyes, “Blaze, this should not come as a surprise at all that I would defend them. They did our job for us. If someone died out there because we didn’t check, these people would begin to question if we are fit to rule here. We heard all the stories about Dragaal and the pieces of shit that run it. They don’t care about their people. Clearly, considering they alienated our people here and then started dropping their rejected here, too. Am I the only one here seeing that this was a good thing?”

“You’re just saying that because of the girl,” Arlo said casually.

Beckett said nothing. Arlo was the most observant one in their group. Beck already knew that Arlo would have noticed how he stared at her.

“Who cares if it was because of the girl?”

“That’s why? Seriously?”

“Why is that so hard to understand?”

“She is dragonless, Beck. There is no point in pursuing that.”

The way that Blaze said dragonless had the venom that Beckett expected. Blaze was someone who wanted power. He craved to be on the throne in Dragaal. More than any of them did, Blaze wanted to be the King of Dragaal. A few times, Beck pointed out to Blaze that his need for power made him no better than the Storm Dragons that currently had the throne. Blaze didn’t see it that way.

Blaze was also someone that wanted someone powerful to be his mate. If someone was dragonless, more often than not, that meant they were not powerful. At least, that was the way with the Elemental Dragons. Beck heard that Storms could end up emerging more powerful than most if they were late bloomers.

Not Elementals, though.

“That doesn’t mean shit, and you know it. You are just trying to create a reason to hate her. You feel the pull to her, too… don’t you?”

Blaze scoffed at him and then grabbed a stick from the cabinet on the wall. The silence said more than anything Blaze could have said.

If Blaze felt it… who else did?

“Did you two feel it, too?”

More silence. They all looked at one another. All four of them were sizing one another up. It wasn’t uncommon for a female to have more than one mate. That had happened a few times throughout Dragon history. Usually, though, it was the same dragon type that was mated together, not different species.

“It doesn’t matter. She doesn’t have a dragon. Therefore she cannot produce children. There is no reason to go after her.” Blaze mocked the idea entirely.

“She could be a late bloomer. One that is more powerful than us all,” Beckett pitched to them.

“Highly doubtful, Beck. Any late bloomer here has been quite weak,” Arlo added to the conversation.

“So you all feel a pull to her, but you aren’t going to do anything about it? The Great Dragon has given you all a chance to be with the other half of your soul… and you are going to ignore it?”

None of them said a word. Arlo and Blaze started to play their game. Esen continued to rock in his chair and watched. Beckett shook his head at all of them and walked to his floor. With each step, Beck rationalized the thoughts he had inside of his head.

I am going to pursue this. I am not going to ignore what the Great Dragon has given me. I can help her Dragon emerge. When that happens, and these asshats want to pursue this, she can have the choice to accept them. Until then… she is mine.