Chapter 5 - Stryder

Shutting my eyes with a furious huff, I fold myself into the sheet and hide behind it.

It’s better than facing the woman’s questioning glare when I have no clue why my inner dragon feels so protective of her. Forcing myself to sleep, I only wake up when my brother, Stryker, sends me a mind link to inform me that I have to attend today’s meeting.

Groaning as I open my eyes, it feels like I’d barely gotten much sleep thanks to my overworking mind, even while my body rested. I dread having to face the human, but luckily for me, she’s knocked out cold on my bed.

A bed I’ve never had a woman in, I think sullenly as I quietly go around the bedroom to get prepared for the day. I can only hope that this isn’t the meeting I’ve been dreading – especially not so soon after Felix’s wedding.

Not while I have a stranger in the bed meant to be shared with the human mate with whom I’m supposed to produce dragonspirit children.

Now I have a bigger problem to deal with, I think as I glance at the human who lies in my bed. Not only was bringing her to the island a mistake, but she knows now that I’m a dragon shifter.

Great. Just fucking great.

Sighing discontentedly, I lock my bedroom door behind me, sending out a silent prayer to the gods that no one has decided to visit my quarters today. The last thing I need is for someone in my family to discover that my door is locked.

Everyone knows that I’m probably the least tidy of the Vulkan siblings and the most careless when it comes to privacy. It’s not like I ever had reason to lock my door until now.

It’s that nagging sense that I’m hiding the biggest secret from the ones closest to me that makes breakfast with my family rather uncomfortable. Luckily, everyone is too caught up in their own chit-chats to notice how little I’ve had to eat. The newlyweds aren’t present, but yesterday’s wedding is all everyone seems to be talking about.

“Are you alright, Stryder?” Stryker asks, cutting through the silence of me wallowing in my self-inflicted mess.

Having to force a pretend smile to keep up appearances seems to be something I’m used to by now. Stryker remains oblivious to my true feelings about the human mating process – the whole idea of having to produce offspring, for that matter. Even now, he smiles warmly at me, only fueling the remorse that looms over me like a dark cloud.

“I’m fine, Brother,” I lie, glancing at Draco as he plays with Tyson on his lap. “Has the Alpha given you any indication of today’s meeting?”

Stryker shrugs. “As far as I know, you’re the only one apart from the Council who’s been called in. Even I’ve been told to sit this one out.”

“That’s… Strange,” I think aloud, though my heart begins to race as if I can foresee the future. “If it’s about me, I’d like you to be there.”

Stryker frowns, seemingly conflicted. “We’ll have to ask Draco if–”

“Ask me what?” Draco cuts in. Even though he’s preoccupied, the Alpha always has a way of picking up on things. Like he’s eavesdropping. That’s why Stryker and I often travel to the mortal world for some privacy. That’s why I have to keep my true disdain for my turn in the human mating process so secretive, that not even my twin knows how I feel.

I hate keeping things from him. But this whole human mate thing has left me no choice.

“I’d like Stryker to be present when the Council announces who my mate will be.”

“Naturally,” Draco chuckles. “It was Stryker who offered to sit out of this one.”

Slowly turning toward my twin with a skeptically raised brow, I notice the way he avidly avoids making eye contact with me.

Is there something you’re not telling me, Stryker? I ask through a mind link that cannot be heard by the others. Because we’re twins, we share a special telepathic connection that allows us to speak privately.

He shrugs but replies mentally. Not hiding anything, Brother. I just thought you’d want it to be a private affair.

Since when do we do things without each other? I ask, though it pains me to pose such a question when I’m the one hiding things from him.

Forgive me, Stryder. I thought it was something you’d wanna do alone.

I shake my head. I need you now more than ever, Brother. That right there is the truth.

***

While we wait for the Council members to gather in the boardroom, we learn that the Vulkan family is leaving for Italy tonight. Everyone’s visiting Draco’s villa there, leaving Stryker and I to tend to the island. Perhaps the gods have decided to be favorable to me, and I don’t have to tiptoe around my family while the human I rescued is on the island.

I wouldn’t know what to tell them, anyway. Draco and Aragon had good reasons to bring human females to the island when they kidnapped their mates. Felix too. But the human I brought to the island isn’t my mate. Neither is she someone I’d consider for a one-night-stand.

She’s not my type, anyway.

When Father clears his throat and draws our attention to the beginning of the meeting, the looming dread over my head grows until I can’t see the light anymore. Even though I’m saved by the fact that my family will be away, leaving me to deal with the human in my bedroom, I still have to face what comes next.

“... With everything that’s happened between my older sons and their mates, the Council has decided that we will no longer use force to bring the humans to the island,” Father explains. “The human women should be allowed to decide for themselves if this is what they want.”

Nova, the Fire Force elder on the Council, chuckles. “If what Felix says is true, the Cube seems to unveil the dragon shifter’s true, fated mate. Giving the human female a choice is simply for the sake of her own well-being. It’s inevitable, if she is the dragon shifter’s fated mate, that she’ll fall in love with him anyway,” Nova adds.

“It’s natural, but I do believe it’s the right thing to do if we consider her happiness. After all, she leaves the mortal world and becomes immortal when she births a dragonspirit child. Her happiness should be taken into consideration.”

Draco and Aragon, as the Alpha and Beta of the Aurora Dragons and members of the Council, nod in agreement. Both my brothers had been through the wringer with their mates, kidnapping the human females and forcing them to the island. I never agreed with it, and I’m glad the changes are being made.

This is the Council’s way of bringing more harmony between the dragon shifters and the humans.

Except, I haven’t fully come to terms with having to mate at all. Gulping, I shift uncomfortably in my chair when the Council’s attention comes to me. Avoiding their gazes does little to ease my worries, and when Father speaks again, I think I’m going to pass out.

“Since you are next for a human mate, Stryder, we have decided that you will visit the mortal world and become acquainted with her first.”

I frown, finally lifting my head and staring warily at my father. “Become acquainted with her?”

“Yes,” Father nods. “You will meet her in the mortal world, charm her, and allow her to genuinely fall in love with you. Then, you will reveal your true identity to her, and let her decide if she wants to come back with you.”

“You want me to manipulate her?” I ask for clarity.

“No,” Draco finally speaks. “You will naturally fall in love with her, too. I’d hardly call it manipulation.”

I sink back in my seat, my whole world crumbling around me in that moment. How do I explain to them that I don’t believe in the idea of “fated mates.” Neither do I believe in love, or the loss of one’s freedom.

They’re all crazy. Mad.

Hideously insane!

“... Her name is Olivia Jackson,” Father says, his voice distant in my head. I’d lost track of anything he was saying before that, my mind reeling from the absurdity of what the dragon shifters now believe to be true. I only start paying attention because I have to pretend that I’m even remotely interested in what’s going on.

Now I have to go to the mortal world and meet the human I’m supposed to mate with. Shaking my head discreetly, my father continues giving us the background information of the woman.

“She’s twenty-seven years old and lives in Los Angeles, working as an agent for the Federal Bureau of Investigation.”

“Wow, that sounds exciting,” Stryker perks up beside me, forcing me to smile as if I care what she does for a living.

What does it matter anyway? It’s not like she can continue being an FBI agent when she comes here. It’s probably the most insignificant job she could have, considering we don’t need a police force on the island.

“This is what she looks like,” Father says as he slides a photograph across the table toward me.

Though I’m not interested in the woman, or having her fall in love with me, curiosity has me pulling the photograph closer. That, and my twin’s excitement. It rolls off him in waves.

Taking a deep breath and smiling at the room full of Council members, I lift the photograph and almost have a heart attack on the spot.

Staring back at me is a pair of piercing blue eyes, framed by a head full of red hair.

It’s the woman who I’d saved in the mortal world, in Vegas.

The woman tied to my bedpost in the castle.

Olivia Jackson is her. She is Olivia Jackson.

The daunting realization spins my world off its axis, my troubles worse than I thought they were.

Around me, the Council discusses the possibility of the Cube of Knowledge picking out the fated mate of a dragon shifter male. I can barely grasp that Olivia – the woman upstairs – is supposed to be my mate.

Fated?

That only makes things worse. I don’t want to love or be loved, let alone be fated to a human.

Staring at the picture of the woman, I mentally disregard the notion that she’s my fated mate. It’s impossible. The gods couldn’t have made such a grave mistake. I’ve never been attracted to a red-headed, pale-skinned human before.

Then why do the fine hairs on the back of my neck prickle the way they did when I felt compelled to rescue her?