17. Beckett

The smells of parchment and ink wafted in Beckett’s nose as he flipped the book page in front of him. The archives had three books inside them with possible information about plasma dragons. The one he chose first talked about the history of Dragaal and the dragons that resided there. How the Great Dragon created the species and filled the land with the six types of dragons that everyone knew about. Then, it went into depth about each species.

Beckett chuckled, reading about his own breed. How Tidal Dragons were known for commanding water and having an aura that could calm others. Some Tidal Dragons gained the power to control emotions completely with their magic, whereas others could barely command a wave to stop in its tracks. Knowing that he could command the sea to part in two and walk all the way to the barrier made his chest swell with pride.

He thumbed through the pages about the others as well. Ember dragons being hot-headed, Breeze dragons being a little flakey at times, and Terrain dragons being level-headed was not news to him at all. It was as if he was reading about his friends like they were the Archetype for their breeds. He chuckled as he read through it, causing Arlo and Esen to stare at him.

"What’s so funny? You’ve been laughing for like ten minutes now," Arlo questioned as he looked through the book in front of him.

"Just how we all fit in the descriptions for our breeds. It’s like whoever wrote this knew who we were and wrote it down to be the stereotype for our breeds. Kind of funny."

Esen scoffed, "I am not like other Breeze dragons."

"Yeah, you care more about your appearance than others."

Esen threw a ball of paper at him, "Shut up."

"Seriously though, how much time do you spend in your bathroom daily? Just wondering."

"Why?"

"Because if you are spending like an hour or so in there, making sure you look so good before you step out the door... why do you still look that bad?"

Esen growled, "Watch it. Not like you don’t look like crap right now."

Beckett laughed. "I faced off with a Plasma dragon in a fit of rage. What’s your excuse?"

"Will you both shut up? I can’t concentrate on all your yammering. I thought we were looking to find information about Kaida and her dragon here. Not to find new ways to poke at each other," Arlo snapped.

"I’m always down for both."

Arlo glared at him. "Well, stop. I want to know how I am drawn to her even though she is mated. Makes no damn sense to me how that is possible."

"Simple. She is different from the rest of us. Plasma dragons haven’t been around in a thousand years. She’s the first one. So, she gets all the men so she can make more," Esen threw out there playfully.

Beckett narrowed his eyes at him. "I’m sure there is more to it than that. Is it every Plasma dragon that has this power of men? Is she the first one that this happened to? Is it because she was a late bloomer to get her dragon, so her system hasn’t caught up with the fact that she is mated already? There is so much we need answers to."

"Let’s not forget that she can kick all of our asses with her magic with very little training, and her dragon makes all of ours bow in submission. Not even the King and Queen are able to do that," Arlo added.

"I actually have a thought about that. I remember my mom saying something about that before. Like the Queen visited here, and her dragon wanted to bow to her," Esen told them.

"So, Kaida is supposed to be the Queen? Is that what you are trying to say?" Beckett wasn’t sure if he believed that or not.

"I don’t know. Just telling you what I remember."

Beckett turned to the book’s page where information on Plasma dragons was supposed to be and noticed that it was the book’s last page. He narrowed his eyes as he inspected the page front and back; not much was written on it.

"What the fuck? How are there only three paragraphs on Plasmas in this thing?"

Arlo and Esen looked up from their books and glanced at Beckett. He tried to skim the information, but it did not look like much was there–Definitely not enough to answer a lot of the questions they had.

"What does it say?"

"Plasma Dragons are a rare breed. Any combination of dragons can create a child who will blossom into a Plasma Dragon. The most potent combo for this to happen is Plasma with another Plasma.

Any child born from a Plasma Dragon may experience a higher power potency than another child of their breed. Children who do not have a Plasma but have a Plasma parent have been known to have the power, stamina, and shifting speed of a Plasma, but inside of their Storm, Terrain, Ember, Breeze, or Tidal form. This does not mean they will wield Plasma magic, but they have the strength of one.

If a child emerges with a Plasma dragon and is born of a fated mate pairing, it has been known for the child to gain an exceptional amount of power once their dragon emerges. It has been witnessed by the child with a Plasma Dragon to gain enough power to rule over Dragaal." Beckett read from the pages.

"That’s it?" Esen deadpanned.

"Yeah."

"Well, that’s not a lot of fucking information at all!" Esen growled.

"You’re telling me. Is there anything in your book that mine didn’t cover?" Beckett asked him.

Esen flipped through a few pages while skimming for details. He shook his head and flipped a few more. It took a few minutes before Esen opened the page and vocalized an "Ah ha!"

"A Plasma Dragon has been known to hold extraordinary power. When one has emerged, it is to be celebrated as if a new heir to the throne has been born due to the power it wields and how it can bring dragons in line.

It has also been known that a Plasma Dragon needs several dragons to watch over them. In Dragon culture, a Plasma Dragon is female. There have been reports of several Plasma Dragons being mated to three to five males and one from each species. This is so the Plasma line is carried through all breeds."

Beckett stared at Esen as the words washed over him. There it was. This is an answer to the question of why Arlo and Esen felt drawn to Kaida regardless of her being mated to him. It was normal for a Plasma to have more than one.

But three to five? That means Blaze does feel the pull to her, too. And why she was fated to Enzo. He was a strong Storm Dragon; we are all the strongest Elementals.

However, did Beckett want to share Kaida with that many people? He just found her. He hasn’t even had time to really get to know her and spend time with her just to himself. Arlo and Esen weren’t planning to fight the pull any longer. They wanted their fated mate, too.

The more Beckett thought about it, the more he realized that he was being selfish. If Kaida was destined for more than one to keep her safe and continue the Plasma line, who was he to stop that from happening? Once that rolled through his head, the feeling of sharing didn’t seem to be that big of a deal. He wasn’t even jealous of his friends trying to pine for his mate. He didn’t feel sorry for them either.

I guess I never did. This feels... natural. I guess it should if she has been destined for us all.

When Beckett looked at his two friends, they both shared the same look. They were waiting for Beckett to respond to what they just learned. Hell, they probably expected Beckett to become angry that he would have to share Kaida with them. If it were Blaze in this position, that is probably how it would have gone down.

"Well, it’s there in black and white. Kaida was prone to multiple mates from the start. That’s why you two are drawn to her. Blaze probably is, too, but he just won’t admit it."

Arlo cocked an eyebrow. "You aren’t mad?"

Beckett mulled around on it again, paying attention to how his body and dragon reacted. There was no response from his dragon. In fact, his dragon accepted it well before Beckett did.

"No. I don’t need to be. Kaida seems to need more than what I can give. She is a Plasma, after all. First one in a millennium. She needs protection; after what I saw today, she needs much more than I thought. Maybe if she has more mates, we can keep her calm, and the entire island won’t be destroyed because she lost control."

"Yeah, what happened today anyway?" Alro inquired as he flipped through the book pages in front of him.

"I have no clue. We were going on a flight around the island. She noticed something on the peninsula. Then she went berserk. I tried my best to distract her, but this black mist was there, and she must have breathed it in. I stayed in the air so it wouldn’t touch me, but whatever it was, it disappeared after Kaida’s dragon went nuclear on it."

"Looked like Nathan was going to go nuclear today, too. Was he out there with you all or something?"

Beckett shook his head. "No. I didn’t see anyone out there. If they came into contact with it, I didn’t see when."

Esen made a face as he thought about it. Beckett wanted to make a joke that he was smelling smoke, and Esen should stop overloading his brain but thought better of it. This was the longest the two of them had spent time together in a while. He didn’t want to ruin it.

"Looks like something we will have to do some recon on. If it touches anyone else, we will have a problem," Esen told him.

"Maybe that’s what got into the others that we were told about earlier, too," Arlo suggested.

"What do you mean?" Beckett asked him.

"A citizen approached us when we were in town. They said that people were being a bit irritable lately. People that aren’t normally like that, too. The guy was concerned about it, and we said we would investigate it. Now, I think it might be what you encountered. If it made Nathan want to attack a Lycan, that would explain everyone else starting issues when they are normally good people," Arlo rationalized.

"That just sounds insane. What is this stuff, anyway? What could possibly change someone’s temperament and make them start issues out of nowhere?" Beckett pondered.

Arlo shrugged. "Have you asked the Witch?"

"Adrien, her damn name is Adrien. If you don’t start remembering Kaida’s friends’ names, she isn’t going to be even remotely kind to you."

"Fine. Have you asked Adrien about it?"

Beckett rolled his eyes. "First off, you’re acting as though you breathed in the black mist, being a dick for no reason. Knock it off. Second, no, I haven’t. I think Kaida wants to talk about it, though. She said things were going down earlier when I saw her, so I told her we could talk later."

Esen narrowed his eyes at him, "And you let her just chill out with her friends instead of coming back and telling you everything she knows?"

"Girls need their time together. If Kaida doesn’t get time with her friends, she may resent me. I’d rather not have my mate put me outside, thank you."

Esen chuckled. "Dude, you’re so whipped already."

"More like I am happy and want to remain that way. You’ll see what I mean when you become bonded. Changes your life and how you treat them. Stop fighting it so much, and you may see what I mean before then."

Esen rolled his eyes. "I was just cracking a joke. Don’t get your boxers in a wad."

"Hey, I found something." Arlo made the two of them stop and look at him.

"What? More on Plasma Dragons?" Beckett asked while leaning in to see the paper.

"Plasma Dragons will carry more energy than any other breed of dragon. They will need to exert excess energy so it does not build up over time. This could lead to the Plasma Dragon having mood swings that could potentially lead to outbursts of energy. When this happens, the power that it exudes could level a city."

"Uhm... what the fuck does that mean?" Esen grabbed the book and read over the passage again.

"It means she may need training, flying around, or even a run often so her energy doesn’t build up, I assume, because she is constantly having it inside of her. It makes sense, though, because her power is literal energy, so she needs to move as much as she can during the day so she doesn’t combust."

"My gods, it’s like we have to tend to this chick day and night," Esen groaned and tilted his head back.

Beckett shook his head. "Dude. You are going about this all wrong."

Esen looked at Beckett, "What do you mean?"

Beckett scoffed. "Seriously? You didn’t pick up what I just put down? She needs her energy to run out. What can you think of that we could do to run her energy down?"

Esen continued to stare at him. Beckett’s comment was completely going over his head. Arlo chuckled and locked eyes with Beckett. He wagged his eyebrows at him, confirming that he got what Beckett meant. Beckett laughed when he did, making Esen glare at them both,

"Aw, come on, what the fuck! What are you two holding out on me here?"

"If you can’t figure it out alone, I’m not telling. I don’t even know how that went over your damn head. It’s a pretty easy thing to get!"

"Whatever."

It’s good to know that Esen doesn’t always have sex on the brain.