5.

Donald

I didn’t think I’d have to do anything like this for a long-ass time. Traveling to Clan Thunderstorm? This is something I never do. It’s not something I’ve ever wanted to do. Here I am, though: traveling.

I fly low, just over the treetops. Natalie is on my back, holding tightly to me. I don’t like this. I prefer when I carry her beneath me in a basket. My talons are strong enough to carry just about anything, but she’s determined to ride me, and I’m trying to be less tense. Besides, she’s the mother of my children now. She’s the strongest woman I know.

Before me, a row of dragons fly in a single-file line. Wilson is leading us with Lee, Lawrence, and Cameron following. I’m bringing up the rear. Even though I would love to have brought even more warrior dragons with us, Henrietta brought up an important point: what if it’s a trap? There’s a possibility that we could be walking into a nightmare situation, so we have to be ready for anything. This includes the possibility that we could be heading into an ambush.

If I really thought that was going to happen, though, I wouldn’t have allowed any of our mates to come. While we have to be ready to deal with the fallout of arriving at Thunderstorm and discovering that they have already lost, I refuse to believe it’s possible.

“We’re going to be fine.” I hear my mate’s voice even though she’s whispering to me. The other dragons are focused on flying straight ahead. They’re not listening to me or Natalie, so we can speak quietly and freely. Well, she can. I can’t speak to her in my dragon form.

I appreciate that she talks to me like this, though. Even though I can’t say anything back, I like knowing that she’s here, that she’s ready. I appreciate that she understands some things take time, like getting comfortable with the idea of going to battle.

I’m not ready.

I am aware that I’m joining the team as a doctor. If we encounter any injured or hurt dragons, we’re going to need to provide care for them. I don’t want to have to do this, though. I want to go back to Fablestone, where the most difficult thing I deal with on a daily basis is dragon cubs who catch the flu.

“They’re all going to be fine,” Natalie continues. “We’ll reach them before nightfall, and we’ll talk to them. That’s all. They’ll have more insight, and we can tell them the steps we took to fight Lucky. They were around back then. They know it was hard. I guarantee they’re going to want to know what we did to fight them off. We can do that, Donald.”

I know she’s right.

We fly all day, continuing long after the sun sets. Beneath us, Reece is running in his tiger shifter form with Sabrina on his back. The two of them didn’t ride Wilson. He’s leading the way, and even though he warned us that Reece might take a day or two to catch up, that hasn’t been the case.

Reece is faster than Wilson gives him credit for, but the truth is that Reece has a bone to pick with dragon poachers. He’s not a dragon, but he was still captured by Lucky. Even now, years later, there are moments when he still feels like he was let down. He was hurt, injured, and left to pick up the pieces of his shattered soul. Then Sabrina and Wilson walked into his life, and everything changed.

But he knows more than any of us what these shifter poachers are capable of, and he knows that we have to stop them no matter what it takes.

The moon is out, and the stars are bright. We near Clan Thunderstorm. Wilson slows his pace, and the rest of us branch out so we’re flying on either side of him. Lee and Lawrence flank his left. Cameron and I fly to the right. Wilson stays in the middle, and he guides us forward into what could be a complete nightmare.