4. Kadia

"Iwant every single detail you can possibly give," Adrien demanded as she plopped into a chair. Azulia’s head feverishly nodded in agreement as she sat on the right-hand side of the couch. Remy was in the middle of the couch with her arms crossed over her chest. Sundrei just looked at her while her body was slightly leaning in on the left-hand side.

With all the focus on her, Kaida felt herself shift uncomfortably from foot to foot. Being the center of attention was not the greatest thing in the world, even when it was a positive thing to be telling her friends about the whirlwind romance that is currently dictating Kaida’s life.

"Okay. So... I guess I need to start with being mated. That seemed to trigger the rest of the events."

"I cannot believe you are mated! How the hell did that happen so quickly? That is the most exciting part about all of this!" Azulia exclaimed and looked over to Adrien.

Adrien nodded. "I completely agree. I would have never guessed that you moved on from the prince so fast."

Kaida’s heart skipped a beat at the mention of Enzo. No matter who she was mated to and her soul belonged to, Enzo was still going to carry a small part of her heart with him. She opened her mouth to answer, but Remy cut her off.

"Who are you mated to? I hope to the Gods that it isn’t Blaze. That dickhead can go fuck himself," Remy snapped, and Kaida could hear a growl coming from her at Blaze’s name.

Kaida opened her mouth again, only for Sundrei to cut her off, "Girls! How about you let her talk?"

Everyone looked at Sundrei with a surprised look on their face. Kaida was happy that she wasn’t alone in thinking that the Vampyre never talked. Apparently, Sundrei actually didn’t.

"Thank you, Sunny." The words came out of her mouth before Kaida could stop them. She had no idea if Sundrei liked having a nickname. None of the other girls ever called her by a nickname.

Sundrei’s eyebrows raised for a moment, and there was a slight frown before she recovered. Kaida gulped and feared that she had upset her. When Sundrei smiled at Kaida, some of her anxiety washed away.

"It’s been a while since I’ve heard that name. Thank you, Kaida." Sundrei got up and gave Kaida a hug. "It was bittersweet but lovely to remember after thinking about it. And don’t worry, you can call me that."

After she sat down, Kaida looked around and then back at Sundrei, "Did you want to talk about it?"

"No, sweetie. I want to hear from you. We can discuss me another time."

A rush of affection flooded Kaida for Sundrei. The Vampyre truly had a huge heart. Kaida could feel how that nickname brought up memories that Sundrei had pushed to the depths of her mind of which she dared not travel too often. If anything, Sundrei had been through a lot that she dislikes talking about.

I will give her time to talk about whatever she needs.

"Okay. Here I go. There is a lot to explain."

"Bring it!" Azulia and Adrien said in unison.

"Beckett is my mate. He was the only one who had even tried to accept me on this island and help. Well, I guess technically, they were all trying to help me unlock my dragon with all the training they had me do."

"More like trying to kill you," Remy deadpanned.

This one is fiery. I kind of like it, Kaida’s dragon announced.

Let’s hope we never make that fire burn towards us. I don’t want to see what she is capable of.

Really? I do.

"Beckett wasn’t trying to kill me."

Remy rolled her eyes, "I wasn’t talking specifically about him. I was talking more about the others."

Kaida ignored her and continued, "Well, Beckett claimed me, and I saw our flames. It’s the coolest thing, too. I saw my own, and it was so vibrant and purple! I should have taken that as insight that I did have a dragon. If I didn’t, I wouldn’t see a flame."

Adrien raised her hand, "Uh, sweetie, what do you mean? What flame are you talking about?"

"A dragon’s flame?"

"Yeah... what is that?" Adrien gave her an innocent smile. "Even while living here for this long, I don’t think I heard anyone talk about a dragon’s flame before."

"Oh," Kaida thought it was common knowledge but was obviously wrong. "A dragon’s flame is basically an indicator of a dragon’s soul. It burns the colors of the dragon and can even go out when the dragon dies. A soulmate can feel the flame blow out if their mate dies. We can see it if we open ourselves to the bond. I actually saw Beckett’s flame next to mine when we became bonded," she rattled on.

The girls nodded to show that they were listening. Kaida wasn’t sure if she was explaining it correctly or not for them to visualize it and understand it. Their stares turned into more of "Okay, what happened next?" She went into detail about the amazing night she had with him. He used his magic to change how cold his touch was to his advantage and took her to levels of pleasure she didn’t know existed. Azulia wagged her eyebrows and said that elemental magic can make things interesting in the bedroom. Kaida had to agree with her, considering her times with Beckett using his magic was better than the times he didn’t.

But I won’t tell Beck that.

Then she moved on to the next morning. The mere mention of Blaze had Remy growling. It made Kaida chuckle at how much the Lycan hated Blaze. Kaida felt a touch more love for Remy because of it. Kaida did not like Blaze for the same reasons. He was far too jealous and controlling to make Kaida like him, even as a friend. How she was mulling over the thought of being more than friends with such an asshole made Kaida shudder.

"Blaze then dropped me when I was like twenty thousand feet from the water. While I was falling, I was begging the Great Dragon to do anything possible to help me. Then my dragon emerged, just in time, to save my life. It was amazing. My dragon is the rarest dragon ever to roam the Dragon Kingdom. Not to mention... the most powerful."

"WHAT?!" they screamed in unison.

Kaida laughed, "Yeah! I am a Plasma Dragon. I am naturally the most powerful dragon! I have no idea what that means. I just know that I have different magic than others, like Storm Dragons, and everyone told me that I am the strongest!"

"So... you can kick Blaze’s ass?" Remy asked her gleefully.

Kaida tried not to laugh, but it didn’t work, "I will assume I can, but I barely know how to use my magic. He does. But all of the guys bowed in either their Dragon or human form. They just wanted to bow because of my dragon’s presence. How cool is that?"

"It sounds impressive. I can’t wait to see what that all means for you," Adrien told her.

"Same! I hope this means you can take over things around here. This place could use a woman’s touch," Azulia added.

Remy smirked, "I just want to see you wipe the floor with Blaze’s face."

Kaida shook her head. It is going to be Remy’s best day of her life if I ever get into a match with Blaze and win.

I don’t have a problem with this.

Kaida laughed, and everyone looked at her. She explained what her dragon said, and the girls had a chuckle about it. The next part that Kaida wanted to talk about was the one topic she didn’t want to bring up. Being here with the girls just reminded her that she wouldn’t have this every day. If something went wrong, she wouldn’t have these girls immediately by her side to help her through it.

You are not moving to a different kingdom or realm. You are moving to another part of the island. Stop moping and get on with it.

It’s not that easy. These girls took me in, no questions asked. They made me feel welcome and cared for after being dumped here by my supposed mate.

I can understand that quite well, love. I can’t understand thinking you’ll never see them again. You will.

Her dragon had a point. She would see the girls again. It just sucked that it wouldn’t be as often.

"One more thing. Beckett has asked me to move in with him."

A collective gasp gave Kaida the satisfaction of the girls not expecting this either. It should have been normal to hear that she would move in since she was now mated. However, something about it was just not the first thing that came to mind.

"Are you going to?" Remy asked her. "Like move in with the four of them?"

"That’s the plan," Kaida told her.

"Wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute," Remy said as she stood up, "Are you going to move into the house with four men? Three of them would love to kill you just because you lived in Dragaal. That does not seem like the best environment to live in, Kaida."

Kaida couldn’t argue with that, but she still had to explain what happened. "Beckett told them that if I didn’t live there, then we would live elsewhere. The others didn’t want that. They agreed to allow me to live there so Beckett wouldn’t move out."

Adrien used her best motherly tone, "Kai, not to be mean here, but that doesn’t sound like the best idea. It sounds like you two should move out to your own place."

"I agree with her. What is going to happen when you two start to build a family and everything? It’s going to get cramped inside of that house."

Kaida made a face, "Uh, wayyy too soon to be talking about building a family, guys. I am not considering children any time soon. When we are at that level, Beckett and I can talk about if the house is the best place for us."

"Y’all aren’t even asking the right questions," Remy announced. "What the hell is going to happen in that house when you move in and three of the people you are living with try to kill you?!"

"They won’t try to kill me!"

Remy chortled at her, "Yeah, right. Things aren’t just going to settle down because you move in. Mark my words, Kaida, they are going to up their game. They aren’t just going to suddenly stop hating you because you are dating their best friend. Hatred doesn’t work that way. It doesn’t magically disappear."

"That doesn’t mean her mate won’t step up and ensure her safety. Each one of them is powerful by themselves. Beckett can hold his own, especially since he has power over water. He can use ice to shut everyone up! Just slap ice over their mouth and call it a day," Azulia responded.

Remy narrowed her eyes, "There are three against one. Beckett may be strong, but not strong enough to keep all three of them off her if they all attack at once."

The girls continued to banter amongst themselves. Kaida wondered if everything they said was true. Would three of them gang up on Beckett because he was defending her? Would they try to kill her even though she was Beckett’s mate and lived with them? Yes, they were quite relentless in their training. However, Kaida didn’t think they were so evil as to kill their best friend’s mate.

But now you have me. It won’t be so easy to kill you now.

"It isn’t three against one anyway. I have my dragon. A powerful dragon at that. I may not know how to wield my power all that well... But I do know my dragon will keep me alive. She is stronger than they are and will shift to protect me."

"Kaida has a point. She isn’t alone. Dragons are fiercely protective of their human halves. I’ve heard of some controlling the shifts and slaughtering an army to save their human half. It’s not just possessive of their mates and treasure." Sundrei pointed out and gave Kaida an encouraging smile. "I’m behind whatever you choose, Kaida. Give them hell if they give you a hard time. If things get too sticky, just give us a call."

Azulia and Adrien agreed and apologized for not saying the same thing sooner. Remy put her arms across her chest and sunk down further into the couch, clearly upset she didn’t get her way.

"Well, Rem. What do you say about this?"

"I say if those assholes attack you again, I am going to neuter them and feed them their own testicles."

Everyone laughed, and the other three girls agreed. Adrien realized this meant that they would need to help Kaida pack up her things to take back with her and get the other girls to join in. She spent the rest of the day doing just that with her friends. Things were going great until Azulia mentioned she heard something that she thought she should share.

Arlo and Esen were talking about her while they were in town.

And it wasn’t about how much they hated her.

In fact... more like the opposite.

I’m sorry…What now?