Chapter 27 - Felix

The early morning sun kisses Sierra's tanned cheek, spreading a lilting smile on her lips as she shuffles to get comfier, snuggling into my side. When her hand smooths across my chest, it's almost as if it's magic she wields from her palm when my chest fills with pride, my heart feeling fuller than ever.

Smiling to myself as I tuck a stray hair behind her ear, I gaze at the woman who has my entire heart. Not just any woman, but the one who stole my heart the first time around when she didn't even know I was a dragon shifter. The second time around only proved one thing—she loves me for who I am, and she's willing to make the necessary sacrifices.

"Don't stare like that…" she murmurs derisively. "... You're disrupting my dreams."

"You still believe in that?" I chuckle lowly. Sierra always believed that if I stared at her while she slept, I would somehow enter the dream she was having. It was a superstitious belief that she had thanks to her grandmother's many folktales.

One of which was about preternatural creatures with reptilian skin and webbed wings, slits for eyes, and who breathed fire from their lungs. Weredragons.

"Hm…" she huffs, playfully slapping my chest." Now there's two of you trying to get in my pants. It just makes it complicated." She pouts, opening her dreamy eyes.

"Trying?" I quip, reaching beneath the sheets and finding the heaven between her thighs. "They can continue trying. I'll be the one who succeeds every time." She moans sweetly as I press my lips to hers.

"The only one," she concedes in a gentle whisper. "The only one who dares to come into my mind."

While I pepper her neck with kisses, what she says is a thought sparking in my head.

"The only one?" I ask, staring at her until she opens her eyes and frowns at me. When she notices how interested I've become, she nods.

"Yeah," she concedes. "It's silly, really. And maybe it's my mind doing tricks on me. But even before, when we lived together, it kinda felt like you were projecting yourself into my dreams."

"Maybe I was," I lament in deep thought. "The day before, when you were kidnapped by the werewolves, did you think of me?"

Sierra's eyes widen a little. "I wasn't just thinking about you. I tried calling out to you, even though I knew it was pointless. Even before being kidnapped, when I suspected I was pregnant, I tried," she sighs.

"Pointless?" I shake my head, finding her hand and intertwining my fingers with hers. "I felt you, Sierra. It was so strange because I didn't know it was you.

In hindsight, it makes sense now. I felt you trying to reach out to me; I just didn't hear it clearly in my mind."

"You think we might share a telepathic communication?" she asks.

"We need to test the theory," I suggest with a little bout of excitement. "If we do share a telepathic connection, there might be more to our relationship than we thought. Only Draco and Lily are considered fated mates. But what if…" my voice falters off as I realize there's more to this than I considered before.

When I met Sierra for the first time in the bar, it was love at first sight. I was drawn to her instantly, not wanting to be anywhere else besides with her.

I didn't feel the full intensity of that pull until our passionate tryst on the mountaintop. It was the first time we made love without protection. While we lived together in the mortal world, I'd been pedantic about being safe, not wanting to complicate things back when I didn't know that a human and dragon shifter could be mates.

Sierra watches me intently as a flurry of thoughts race through my mind.

"The Cube…" I go on. "It runs our DNA through the system using advanced tech and a little bit of magic. What if it's just finding our fated mates?"

"Isn't that a rare thing?"

Cradling her cheek, I stare into her eyes. "As rare as meeting you in the mortal world and falling in love with you, only for you to turn out to be a match for me. Even with Aragon, Yazmine discovered Grandfather's remains so that we could finally give him a proper burial. Maybe fated mates aren't as rare as we thought."

"I do believe in fate," Sierra smiles. "I don't think it's anything but fate that led us back to each other."

"Of course, mi ángel," I press a kiss to the top of her forehead. "But this is something I need to tell the others about. If we collect fated mates, we become stronger as a clan."

Sierra nods, sighing as she rolls over onto her back and stretches her arms above her head. "I should go check up on Dad," she says as she climbs off the bed. "Are you gonna come with me?"

I shake my head as I get to my feet. "I'll visit him later. I have to attend another Council meeting," I say as I slide my pants up my thighs. "We have to clean up the mess with the werewolves. It's something I need to deal with. This was a close call, we can't be exposed like that."

"Why hide?" Sierra asks, prompting me to pause and look up at her, noticing the way her brows are gently lifted with the question.

"Our existence has been a secret for centuries. That's why the island is protected by the dome."

"So, change the way things work," she shrugs. "You changed the way the whole mating thing works. You can change the way the world sees you."

"The humans won't accept that we exist," I object, to which Sierra sighs, climbing onto the bed on her knees and crawling toward me. She wraps her arms around my neck and stares intently into my eyes.

"Out there, the human world is changing, evolving," she says. "You are probably the most powerful beings that exist on Earth. Imagine all the horrors you could end when people know that you exist."

"We're outnumbered, Sierra, there's—"

"No," Sierra sternly interjects. "Like you said, you become stronger with the clan getting their fated mates. There's so much that can be prevented in the world if humans knew you existed. So much that can be done if you work together."

"They'll reject us, Sierra…"

"I didn't," she defends. "Neither did Lily or Yazmine. Or my dad, for that matter. It just comes as a shock at first, but the weredragons can literally take over the world if they wanted to. End world hunger, prevent wars."

"That's what we do from the shadows."

"No more hiding," Sierra says sternly. "No more tiptoeing around for the sake of the mortals. You don't have any reason to be afraid."

***

"What about Diego?" Draco asked me when we'd gathered in the boardroom for the meeting with the Council.

"Sierra has asked me to keep him here. He's got no one else in the mortal world, and trouble will just end up finding him again," I chuckle. "He's better off here, where he can be with his daughter and grandchild."

Draco gasps. "She's pregnant?"

I nod excitedly just as the Council Elders come in and take their seats. Draco pats my shoulder while Aragon comes in and hastily takes his seat.

"Sorry that I'm late," our younger brother whispers. "Dracon is a little bit too attached to me."

I chuckle lightly. "I told you already, fatherhood becomes you, Aragon," I jest with a pat on his shoulder."

"Thank you for joining us today," Father addresses the Council. "Though Felix has given up his position as the Beta of the Aurora Dragons, he's here today to give us an update about the werewolves he'd encountered. Felix…" Father gestures to me, prompting me to go ahead.

Clearing my throat, I nod at my father before giving the Council an update about everything that's happened with the werewolves. With Aragon's help, we'd learned about the lab facility in the mortal world where the werewolves from Mateo's pack.

We've yet to discover if there are other packs with the same ambitions as Mateo's pack—to harvest the blood of dragon shifters to gain immortality amongst their kind.

Our findings seem to come as a shock to the Elders, who'd been around for many centuries and haven't had any trouble with other species of preternatural beings. They watch me, faces paling as I tell them about what the werewolves really wanted.

"... Unfortunately, we had to take them out. Only the leader of the pack remains in our dungeon, Mateo. He might come in handy if there are any disturbances in the future from another pack."

The Council members remain quiet as they exchange worried glances.

"I do apologize," I say as I lean forward. "It was my fault they knew about us."

"An oversight, I'm sure," Zark, the Elder of the Blaze Legion Elder from the East Coast of the world, speaks up. I haven't heard much from him since the Blaze Legion attacked us a few months ago, but I know he means well. He understands the magnitude of oversight when he'd placed the wrong dragon shifter in the leadership of their clan.

"Yes, an oversight," I nod. "But one that can be avoided in the future. I have a suggestion, if I may."

"Go ahead," Father permits. "If it can help us avoid future incidents like this one, we'd love to hear it."

I steeple my fingers in front of me and continue, "Now that we're exposing ourselves to humans through the mating process, we risk being discovered by others apart from just our mates. We've already seen what happened with the Lady Dragon's sister," I say as I glance over at Draco. "And with the werewolves. Why do we still hide?"

The Elders glance at each other warily, Father shrugging when he says, "It's how things have always been. We're meant to be Earth's protectors from the shadows. If we exposed ourselves…"

"Then what?" I counter, raising a discerning brow. "We are, after all, dragon shifters who have powers and strength beyond compare to what's out there. Perhaps it's time we stopped hiding in the shadows and let the world know that we exist."

Another long stretch of silence follows as the Council Elders contemplate my suggestion. From how their eyes glow with deeper color, I know they're sharing a private word between themselves telepathically.

"We'll give this some thought," Father finally relents. The meeting then continues with discussions of successful trials in the human mating process.

Not just with our clan but with the other dragon shifter clans. Though I'm no longer the Beta of my clan, I can't help but feel pride swelling in my chest for how well things are going. It has me wondering, though, if what I suspect is true. I decided to bring it up the next time someone is meant to take a human mate after I've tested the theory with Sierra myself.

This is why I'm glad when the meeting is over and that I can rush back to her. She's probably with her father, showing him around the island like she planned this morning. To be sure of this, I stroll to the boardroom window when the elders have left, peering out to spot my mate wheeling her father across the bridge.

"Congrats, Brother!" Aragon praises as he joins me at the window. "Draco just told me that you're gonna be a father."

I can't help but beam from ear to ear, my eyes trained on Sierra down in the courtyard. "Isn't that what the whole mating process is about?" I muse.

"If you asked me five months ago, I would have said that it's a waste of time," he scoffs. "But now that Yazmine is here, I can genuinely admit that it's more than just about producing offspring for the clan."

I glance at my brother and realize that he's speaking from his heart.

"I know exactly what you mean," I concede, nodding back to the view of the island where my mate shows her father the rugby field. "That's why I'm planning on giving Sierra everything she deserves, starting with a wedding on the island."

Aragon makes a muffled sound. "You're beating me to all the things I wanna do," he chuckles. "You sure you don't want the Beta position back?"

"Nah," I shake my head. "Fate gave me a second chance for a reason, and I plan on spending it making up for lost time."