Chapter 15 - Stryker

Taking Camilla’s hand and noting that she makes no protest when she spots the group of dragons infiltrating the Aurora Island’s protective dome shield, I’m relieved.

I thought she’d fight me.

Waking up this morning in her bed to find her missing, I thought she was still angry with me. Even after being intimate last night, I thought she regretted what happened and chose to leave my side.

But finding her in the Aurora Island library gave me hope. It seems she’s not opposed to learning about the dragon shifter species.

Just like Stryder advised, I just needed to give her time and space to come around. She would eventually. It’s an innate trait of a fated mate, after all. She can’t deny what’s been ordained by the gods, and the tether that binds us to eternity is a thread that cannot be severed.

I wish I had more time to speak to her and to say the things that are on my mind. But as my luck would have it, a group of dragons who don’t belong to our island are flying through the dome without warning.

They’re from Fire Force, and they’re being led by Rakon.

What does he want this time?

When we reach the elevator, I quickly call for it and turn to Camilla. I pause for a fleeting moment, soaking in the way her eyes hold a deep sense of longing and regret.

She recognized the gray and black dragon, too. She knows he’s back to cause havoc, and it pains her as her brows furrow tightly. We don’t have to exchange words to feel how despondent and dreadful the air is between us.

Why is Rakon adamant about disrupting us?

Why is he here unofficially?

And why does she have The Grimoire in her hand? It’s a book about witches, that contains their spells… It has nothing to do with dragon shifters…

“Go to my bedroom and lock yourself in,” I instruct Camilla, pressing the set of keys in her hand. My hand lingers on hers as I savor the way her warmth strengthens my resolve.

She has no idea that simply being in her presence powers up my inner dragon, soothes it, and nurtures it into believing that whatever is out there, I can face it and walk away victorious.

As the elevator doors slide apart, I push Camilla inside and hit the button to send her to the eleventh floor of my quarters. I step out and stare at her regretfully, but as the doors are about to close in the middle, she steps forward and places a hand on my wrist.

“Be safe out there…” she whispers as she stands on tiptoes that bring her high enough to press a kiss on my cheek. When she leans back, the elevator doors close, and she disappears.

I lift a hand to my cheek, the lingering warmth of her lips almost as brandishing hot as when Rakon fought me on the mountaintop. He’d scarred me with the hot flames of his dragon, but it doesn’t compare to the heat on my cheek from Camilla’s kiss.

Hers leaves me with a fragrant softness that powers my inner dragon as I march out into the sunlight and join Stryder on the front porch. He’s staring with brooding anger, gripping his brows as Rakon and his friends soar closer, setting fire to the east meadow as a warning threat.

“What does he want here?” Stryder grates, his blood boiling as his ears turn fiery red.

“He’s back to finish what he started,” I growl lowly. Stryder already knows that I fought Rakon in the mortal world.

He’s back to interfere between my mate and I. It seems he can’t get over our fallout all those years ago. But I can’t let him destroy the island.

In one swift motion, I invoke my dragon and shift as I lunge forward, leaping off my webbed feet with one powerful thrust of my dragon wings. Stryder follows close behind just as a handful of the Aurora Dragons’ soldiers join us in midair.

“ Take care of the others,” I order my friends through the mind link. “ I’ll deal with Rakon.”

“Be careful, Brother,” Stryder warns before he flaps his wings to carry him toward a Fire Force dragon who dispersed from his group.

Rushing forward with shallow swings of my webbed wings, I bravely fly toward Rakon and force him out of the group. His thunderous roar is no match for my resolve as I peel back the layers of my scaled snout and blow out a treacherous puff of hot flames.

“ Stryker!” Rakon fumes angrily when he has to dodge my attack of fire. He skitters off to one side, and I force him to the edge of Mount Aurora with deliberately powerful flaps.

“ What do you want, Rakon?” I demand just as he skids to a halt, kicking up dust and loose stones with the weight of his dragon. I land more gracefully, my dragon refined by the strength I’d been given by my mate’s kiss on my human cheek.

Rakon’s dark eyes glower at me as he attempts to gather his composure. His chest fills with menacing pride as behind us, the Aurora Dragons fight to chase the Fire Force dragons off our territory.

Without taking my slitted eyes off Rakon, I glance over the crystal gem standing sovereignly on my shoulder and send a mind link to my peers.

“ Don’t kill them. Fire Force is not the enemy,” I command, and watch as this throws Rakon off guard.

“ Oh…” He cocks his dragon head to one side as he regards me intently. “ But I am your enemy, Stryker Vulkan.”

“When will you let it go, Rakon Hawke?!” I snap back, taking a determined step forward, my wings readied at my sides to intercept his next attack.

I know it’s coming. I’ve fought the Fire Force Beta twice in my long lifetime, and I can almost predict his movements by now. Still, I need to remain cautious.

Rakon peeks over my shoulder, his pointed ears perking up just as his lips peel back in a sinister smirk.

“ Ah… There she is…” he drawls maliciously.

“ Leave her out of this!” I demand, taking another step over the boulders on the edge of the mountain. “ This is between you and me!”

The bleating cries and screeches behind us, as the fight ensues between the Aurora Dragons and Fire Force dragons, are alarming. But I don’t want to drag my attention away from Rakon while he eyes Camilla standing by the window on the eleventh floor of the castle.

“ Let it go, Rakon,” Is my final warning. “ Tell your friends to stand down.”

The warning comes as my attempt to prevent any casualties today. He’s the Fire Force Beta, and I’d hate to see any blood being shed over a feud that happened many years ago.

The Dragon Council saw what happened when Draco’s mate was threatened. Without a second thought, Draco killed the Blaze Legion’s Alpha when he refused to accept the current mating process and kidnapped Draco’s mate, Lily.

Any dragon who defies the Council becomes an enemy.

I don’t want to be the bearer of bad news if it comes to that. Rakon has another chance to change his mind and change course.

But the dragon refuses to give up.

“Never!” he roars, then lunges forward, giving one powerful flap of his wings before he wraps them around his large body and spindles toward me with his sharp snout aimed at my face.

With a quick flick of one wing, I dodge his incoming attack, spinning through the air before landing on nimble paws. My blade-like claws distend with a metallic clink, but when Rakon lands upright, he isn’t facing me. He’s facing the castle.

“ No, Rakon!” I bleat, but it’s too late. He plummets off the edge of the cliff, sending panic coursing through my veins.

Camilla.

“ Stryder! He’s going for the castle!” I warn my twin, who’s closer to the building, fighting off one of Rakon’s friends. He successfully kicks the dragon into a tumultuous somersault toward the trees, then lifts it off the ground.

I leap off the mountain, giving chase as Rakon glides toward the window where he’d spotted Camilla. Adrenaline kicks in just in time to send me speeding through the Aurora sky and aiming for Rakon from the left as Stryder takes the right.

We strike him from both sides, sending him hurtling to the ground in a frenzy of anguished whimpers and screeches. I lift my head in time to spot a Fire Force dragon heading for Stryder.

“ Stryder! Look out!”

Rakon’s friend crashes into Stryder, sending them both tumbling to the ground with a loud bang. But there’s no time to help my brother when I notice Rakon getting back onto his feet.

I nosedive toward him in a blur of rigorous thrusts with my wings and claws. Blood trickles from the gash he slices across my face, but I don’t give up.

I can’t. Not when he’s after my mate. My dragon’s veins pulse with adrenaline, as I kick and punch with monstrous rage. My mind thumps with the sounds of more dragons approaching, bellowing through the air as they enter the protective dome that keeps the island invisible from the outside world.

A fleeting moment of relief that washes over me when I recognize Draco’s voice in my head is my undoing. It’s that split second that allows Rakon to knock me down with a flying kick to my gut with his thick tail.

Wheezing from the impact when I hit the ground, and the wind is knocked out of my gut, Rakon doesn’t give me a chance to catch my breath when he steps on my chest, using the full force of his weighted dragon to keep me pinned to the ground. The sound of ribs crushing like twigs is louder than the pain I choose to ignore right now.

“ I’ll be back for her…” he warns, puffing only a wisp of fire in my face as he leans down. “ You’re lucky this time, Stryker Vulkan.”

With the parting threat, Rakon flaps his wings and rises into the air, joining his group as they fly out of the Aurora Island hemisphere with Draco and my brothers giving chase.

As relief washes over me from the riddance of the threat, the dull ache in my ribcage turns excruciatingly painful. Unable to ignore the pain of my injuries, my dragon cowers and retreats to the recesses of my being, leaving my human lying on the ground to deal with the aftermath of the fight.

Beneath the palm that rests on my side, I feel warmth flow as my eyes grow heavy.

“Stryker!” I hear my brother call out just as I surrender to the throes of hellish darkness that consume my vision and snatch my consciousness.