124. Aurora

CHAPTER 124

Aurora

Life is technically back to status quo. My heat is finally over, and I'm able to regain some semblance of control of my life outside of it. As I descend the stairs going into the castle's main hall, my mind wanders to those I left in hibernation. There are about a dozen to a dozen and a half young males that I spared during the assault. I believe today is the day that I will go and determine if they live or die.

At the foot of the stairs, my beloved enforcer and mate, Dominik, waits for me. "What's your desire for today, my love?" He flashes me that debonair smile of his and leans upon the banister.

As I reach the foot of the stairs, I gently cup his jaw and draw him to me. Softly, I press my blood-red lips to his till I hear his wolf grumble at me. A smile plays gently upon my lips as I pull back to look him in the eyes. "I need you to come with me; we need to attend to those young males that I spared." I start walking down the hallway holding Dominik's hand as we head towards the dungeon. "It's not fair or conducive for them to spend their life behind bars." I shrug my shoulders, then sigh softly. "I truly detest being judge, jury, and executioner for such young ones."

Dominik stops me suddenly, and comes to stand in front of me, blocking my path. Gently, he grips both of my hands and holds them together in between us. "Do you wish for me to take that burden from you?" he asks softly, not wanting to overstep his bounds.

"I would do it in a heartbeat, without question, just to make your life is easier and spare you some pain." Dominik's eyes flash to that of his wolf, and I can see how sincerely he wishes to shoulder the pain that I'm sure to feel.

It's moments like this I realize that I am truly blessed. Someone somewhere has really been looking out for me. I go from being an orphan with no parents to finding my father, finding my mates, to having children of my own. Through Arnulf, I got to meet my mother. It's moments like this that I start thinking about all the little things others take for granted. Gently, I nuzzle Dominik's cheek then kiss his lips again. "My love, just you being with me is a blessing. Your desire to shield me from pain and unsavory situations means the world to me." I shrug my shoulders lightly. "I know I don't express this often, but I love you, and I'm grateful for everything that you do for me."

Dominik smiles and draws me close to him again, holding me tightly to his broad chest. "You've come a long way Aurora. You've gone from barely able to show any affection to being the best mate a male could ask for." He gently presses his lips against my temple and stays there for a few moments before pulling away.

"It's nice to hear the words every once in a while, but I feel it in my heart and my soul how much you love me." He gently places his hand over my heart and smiles at me.

"I know I have a place in here, and that's all that matters." Dominik grabs my hand again, and we begin the long descent into the dungeon.

Alaric has long since woken the young males up from their slumber. Most prowl the cage lost and confused. A couple look angry, almost too aggressive for their years. My gut tells me that at least four of these young males will not submit and will die by my talons.

After releasing Dominik's hand, I step forward and place my hands on the bars before me. My eyes shift to that of my beast as I observe each of these males within the cage. I hate the fact that we have to have them caged up, but I also don't know if we can trust them outside of it. One young male comes to the cage's edge and stares at me. He's a bold one; this should be interesting.

I start unleashing my Alpha power little by little, watching the rest of the young males cringe and submit. The one still standing at the bars is a potential Alpha, therefore a threat to my mates. I increase the amount of power that I'm using, slowly watching him buckle before me. It doesn't take all that long to drive him into submission, but he has not yet gained my trust.

By the time I drive this one male into submission, Marco and Edgar have arrived with Dante in tow. Dominik fills them in on what I'm doing, and one by one each of them takes out one of the young males to stand them before me. I step up to the first one and lock eyes with him. Almost immediately, his eyes drop and he whines. "Do you accept me as your Alpha?" I question. In silent submission, he rolls his head to the side and exposes his throat to me. I give Edgar a nod, and he walks off, removing the young man from the dungeon.

Next, I move to Marco and the young male that he's holding. This young male doesn't even attempt to look me in the eyes and rolls his head to the side. "I accept you as my Alpha," he says quickly and without hesitation. I study him for a moment longer and decide by scent he's an Omega like my Jayce. I give Marco a nod, and he walks off with the young man.

Dante just so happens to hold the male I had to drive into submission. He's still being a bastard. The defiant look in his eyes just tells me he's going to be nothing but trouble. "I don't even have to ask you if you accept me because you don't," I say with as much venom as I can muster.

"I would ask if you yield, but I know that you won't." The young man just smirks at me.

"I grant you the gift of death eternal." Without hesitation, I lunge forward and sink my canines into his throat. Instantly, I inject him with as much venom as I can pump into him. Stepping back, I look at him, my lips covered in his blood as it drips onto my chest. His body starts to convulse in Dante's grip. The venom is fast-acting, causing almost a seizure-like condition before all the blood vessels in his body explode. Dante drags the corpse off into an empty cell then goes for a new male to test.

By this time, Marco and Edgar have returned, and both are going to the cage to pull out two new males as well. The next three submit rather quickly and fully without hesitation. Part of me, I'm almost slightly disappointed that I didn't get to dismember anybody else. Still, I guess it could be a good thing. Dominik remains at my side as I test each of the males that were left. Only one more gives me a hard time, and we saved him for last.

Dominik goes in and has a scuffle with this young male. Part of me wants to send an ice spike up this male's ass and have it come out the top of his skull. The other part of me wants to look at the fear in his eyes as I rip his heart out and drip his blood across my scales. Maybe I can do both at the same time? Nah, I might accidentally harm Dominik, and I really don't want to do that to him. He finally gets the young male out of the cage and pins him to the wall. The young male just starts to shift, and I lock eyes with him.

"You will not shift!" I say with my beast's growl filling my voice.

The unearthly tone I hit makes my three dragon guards cringe. They know I'm on edge; they know I can instantly lose my sense of control and decimate this male. I'm trying not to be that ruler; I'm trying not to be the monster I've been made into. But fuck it, it's one of those days. In the back of my mind, Limp Bizkit's song "Break Stuff" is playing loud and clear.

Dominik releases the male, and he immediately charges me. Without hesitation, I use one of the tricks that Gallus taught me. I use his gift of intimidation, pressing that and my alpha power upon this male. I was almost starting to get concerned when he didn't immediately buckle. Then again, my sick side was kind of loving it, looking forward to a fight. I finally break his resistance, and he falls to his knees, cradling his head. Fur randomly ripples across his body as he tries to fight for control.

Eventually, I lessen the pressure upon him. Some might have called that a mistake; I call it an opportunity for a kill. He lunges straight up at me, his claws extend ready to sink into me. It all seems to happen in slow motion, at least to me. When he is halfway to me, I shift both of my arms quickly, bringing my talons out and sinking them into his chest and throat at the same time. My right hand grips his trachea and the muscle surrounding it. My left hand wraps around his heart, feeling it beat against my palm. Every beat of his heart sends blood streaming down in between my scales. The crimson stands out so beautifully against my iridescent white and silver scales. The look of fear in his eyes is delicious. He's not able to hold his shift anymore; his claws have retracted, and he's just a mere man.

"I sentence you to death for attacking your ruler. I do give you credit, though," I say as I tilt my head to the side. "Most don't make it this close to me before I kill them." I shake my head back and forth.

"I wish you had chosen a different path. You are young and strong and could have lived a long time." Suddenly I pulled both my arms back, taking with them his heart and a section of his trachea.

He sputters and gasps for several seconds and then falls to the floor like a ton of bricks. I watch the blood slowly drain out of his body and coat the stone floor. Two lives were wasted today, all because Vladimir had poisoned their minds. On the bright side, I managed to save fifteen young males.

Through the bond I learned from Klaus, three young males know where additional females are being held. Klaus, Alaric, and Dimitri leave immediately with the three young males and four other dragons to retrieve them. I want to go with them; I want to help bring these females back. Dominik slides up behind me and rests his hand on my lower stomach, reminding me of my possible precious cargo. Mother fucker, at least the females will be safe, and having Klaus with the rescue party should help put their minds at ease.

"My love, we need to get you cleaned up. You wouldn't want to meet the new females looking like you stepped out of a horror movie." He smiles at me, then motions to the fact that my dress is now covered in blood. I'm still holding the man's heart in my hand and part of his throat. I shrug my shoulders because to me, it's no big deal. I offer the body parts to Edgar and watch him cringe. I start to laugh as I do something completely out of character for me. Quickly bouncing up, I kiss him on his cheek, leaving a bloody outline of my lips on his porcelain skin. I can't help but laugh as I walk swiftly down the hallway back towards the staircase.

These stairs leading to the dungeon absolutely freaking suck. What were they built by, smurfs? They're too damn short and too close together. I don't take long going upstairs and getting changed and cleaned up. I have way too much I want to accomplish today to get lost in a hot shower.

When I finally step outside of my bathroom, I find Jayce sitting on my bed waiting for me. My sweet, beloved Omega, he's absolutely my heart and the pride and joy of my family. Without a second thought, I run over to him and nuzzle his cheeks. I'm always excited to see him. Jayce brings out the best possible me that I can be. He makes me want to be a better person and to be more even-tempered and kinder. What I used to accomplish through fear, he's able to achieve faster through kindness. Perhaps I can learn a few things from him and start doing things more his way than mine. Without his knowledge, I've made him the diplomat in the family. I mean, why not? The guys already use him to propose ideas that they already know I'm not going to be happy with. Why can't I do the same? Have Jayce propose the ideas that the others may fight me on?

"How are you feeling, beautiful?" Jayce asks as he kisses both of my cheeks softly and then nuzzles my jaw.

"Doing okay so far today. No real complaints other than I wrecked another dress, and I had to kill two of the males." I shrug my shoulders lightly.

"All things considered, it's really not that bad when you put it into perspective," Jayce says, pondering the numbers that he had in his head from before. "Two out of seventeen, I'll take those odds." He starts tapping his chin looking at me. "Let me guess, the guy with the white-blonde hair and the one whose hair was almost black."

Immediately, I start laughing because Jayce hit the nail on the head. "Correct as always, my love. You know me way too well," I say as I laugh.

"It's not a question of knowing you too well, it's that I know how much bullshit you'll tolerate." He says as he lightly strokes my chin, then trails his fingers down my neck to my shoulders.

"Very true. I won't let anybody question mine or any of your authority in this pack." I rest my head on his shoulder and wrap my arms around his waist, just needing to be held for a moment. The last thing I need is for some young upstart to join the pack and poison it from the inside.

"We completely understand, my love," Jayce says as he rests his head on top of mine and wraps his thick arms around me. "You're only doing what's best for everyone involved, not just in the short term but for the long haul."

"Some days, I feel like an absolute monster, something that Mary Shelley would have written in one of her books." I shrug my shoulders lightly and nuzzle Jayce's chest as I close my eyes, listening to his heartbeat.

"We wouldn't let you become that kind of a monster, my love." His fingers run through my hair, removing any knots from my shower. "It's not like you don't give people a fair chance to prove that they're worthy of your leniency."

"Yeah, I guess you're right. It still sucks having to play judge, jury, and executioner." I sigh softly and squeeze him a little tighter. "It's not a weight or a burden that my conscience would allow me to place on someone else." I pull back to look up into his eyes to make sure he understands what I'm trying to tell him.

"We all have our demons that we hide, my love. You shouldn't be the only one haunted when there's six of us able to share the burden." Jayce keeps running his fingers through my hair, trying to soothe me.

"I know, baby, I'm trying. It's just so hard to let go." I try to smile even though I feel a little guilty for not opening up more. I raise a single brow looking at Jayce. "I wonder what demons Arnulf is hiding?" I wiggle my eyebrows at him.

"The man can talk to the dead. I'm pretty sure he has lunch with whatever demons he has," Jayce says matter of factly. I can't help myself, and I start laughing hard.

"Aurora, remember we all love you. I love you." Jayce presses his lips to my forehead and stays like that for a while. Eventually, he pulls away and starts to lead me out of my room. "Let's go see how everyone is making out."

Laughing softly, I follow behind him. He knows exactly what to say and do to make most of my concerns melt away. Jayce always manages to put my heart and mind at ease with simply his presence. He mentions heading outside to enjoy the beautiful day and the nice breeze that's blowing across the courtyard. We wind our way through the castle and out into the fresh air.