153. Aurora

CHAPTER 153

Aurora

Morning's here, and I couldn't be more excited. Maybe it's the sick side of me that loves the idea of going to battle. Or it's just the fact I want to see exactly how many houses stand against us. My mates bring me my breakfast and I eat it in my room with them all present, along with our children. I don't bother to choose an impressive outfit for this morning because in all reality, it's going to get shredded the minute I shift.

As we start to head down to the arena, my father, Marco, Dante, and Edgar flank us as we move through the halls. I start humming to myself Danzig's "Killer Wolf." It's a classic and quite honestly, I quite love the song and the tone of his voice—whoa, baby, is his voice sexy. We make it down to the arena and I step into the ring. My eyes scan the bleachers looking to see how many of the houses are present. I hold my head up high and raise my arms, instantly dropping the temperature in the room. I can do the most evil thing possible and start pulling on their beasts to make them realize exactly how powerful I am. I contemplate this idea for several moments before deciding that this is not the ruler I wish to be.

Two men come stepping through the double doors on the opposite side. Ah yes, the house of Equus. They are a bunch of power-hungry fools. "What is one lone hybrid going to do against the likes of us?" Tegan asks without a hint of remorse. His twin, Liam, steps forth and lightly bows his head. "You know we have to test you." he says in a tone that tells me he's really not sure this is such a good idea. At least one of the twins might have brains.

I smile and lightly dip my head to them. I see the panic on Gisella's and Austin's faces. The house of Equus comes from the same island of the Bronze Dragon Kingdom. They are shocked and appalled, rightfully so, that one of their noble houses dare to stand against me.

I lightly bow my head to Gisella and Austin and mentally send a message to Alaric to repeat to them. I watch the moment the words leave his lips, and they both nod and bow their heads lightly to me. I just pretty much informed them that the house of Equus will be short two heirs by the end of this morning.

Now I'm pretty sure that these two are a mix of Green and Bronze Dragons. To me, it says their dragons will have a decent size and no real punch to their hits, and they are not immune to ice. I'm seriously contemplating not even bothering to shift for this battle; I can end it quickly with just a thought. But now, I will give my people the battle that they are looking for.

Tegan and Liam end up shifting at the same time. As I suspected, both of them took more after the Green Dragon side than the Bronze, according to their coloration. I shift to my beast, and I watch as Liam raises his head sharply in shock as to what he's seeing before him. By my coloration alone, you can pretty much assume I have an ice weapon. You can also tell my lineage of my great-grandmother, the Blood Queen. She was the most vicious dragon in the history of our people.

I practically snarl as I look at them with a feral grin. Standing still, I click my talons together, waiting to see which of these two males will make the mistake of charging. Tegan is the first to attack, and I'm quite thankful for it. I may be able to spare Liam if he knows what's good for him. I dodge out of the way of Tegan's breath weapon, then roll and jump to launch up onto one of the pillars in the colosseum. I remain on the pillar for a moment till he whips his head around and starts blowing his breath weapon at me.

As soon as his maw is wide open and the moment I see fire coming at me, I jump. At this point, I am soaring through the air in his blind spot. He won't realize that I'm almost on him till shortly after he closes his mouth. I land with a thud just above his nose. Quickly I sink my talons into his skin as I make my way up his maw. He starts thrashing his head around wildly, trying to shake me loose, but I refuse to let go. I see Liam suddenly start to back up into a corner. He shifts back to his human form and just stays pressed against the wall.

Tegan keeps thrashing his head around, still trying to throw me off. He takes several stumbling steps forward and attempts to ram his head into the wall. Just before he does, I flip myself around behind the two pitiful horns on his head. He crashes his own forehead into the sharp corner of the pillar, cracking his skull and allowing blood to ooze down his face. He starts to wobble, disoriented from the impact, and I go to work.

My big decision for this is: do I freeze him and then break the ice or do I rip his throat out and bathe the arena in blood? I'm going for option B. I slide down his neck as he still thrashes. He tries to bring his clawed hand up to grab me, but instead all he does is catch his own scales. I get underneath his jaw hanging upside down and lash out with my talons quickly. I catch part of the artery on the left side of his throat, watching the blood shoot out in spurts.

I maintain my grip and then reach out with my other taloned hand and slice the artery on the right side. As his heart beats, spurts of blood escape through the incision in his throat. Every beat, another spurt. I just hang there upside down, watching him bleed out slowly. I leap off his body when I feel him starting to get woozy. I land on all fours and start growling at him with my tail thrashing wildly behind me.

Several minutes later, his body crashes to the floor. The arena goes dead silent; you can hear the lub-dub of his heartbeat as it starts to stutter and falter. I'm not merciless, so I stare at him for several more seconds before shifting back to my human form. Quickly, I raise my arms up, sending a giant ice spike up from the floor through his chest, impaling him to end his suffering.

Alaric jumps down into the arena with me and throws a robe around my shoulders. I look back at Liam, and he comes crawling over to me on his hands and knees. He starts begging for forgiveness, telling me that his brother bullied him into standing against me and that he really didn't want to do it. I sense that Liam is an Omega, and just with that knowledge, I know that he had no choice but to follow his brother's instructions. Gently, I place my hand on his head and bid him to rise.

When he's standing almost at eye level with me, he can't maintain eye contact. He tries twice but can't look for more than several seconds, which further backs the proof that he is an Omega. I gently kiss both of his cheeks and tell him that he's forgiven. I tell him to go back to his family and tell them about the boon I have given him. He drops to his knees and kisses my hands before getting up and running out of the arena quickly. I look back to Alaric before he starts to yell.

"Anyone else wish to stand against our queen?" The anger coming off him in waves is almost unbearable. He's getting so tired of me having to fight constantly just to keep our people and us safe.

We watch the arena for any signs of someone coming to challenge me next. When nothing happens, he turns slowly in a circle before announcing. "The battles are over. We will all have lunch together, and at the next sign of any kind of betrayal I will wipe out an entire bloodline," he says sternly as he snuggles me against his side. Alaric is finally acting like the king that he should have been born to be.

Alaric leads me back to our suite and into the master bathroom. Jayce and Dominik already have the shower running and set to the perfect temperature. I drop the robe to the floor and head straight for the shower, where my boys pamper the hell out of me.

"I'm sorry, my love, if I could do these battles for you, I would," Alaric says solemnly as he lowers his head, semi-defeated.

I quirk an eyebrow looking at him, and then tilt my head to the side. "We both knew coming into this that I would be faced with challengers almost constantly. That is until they have faith that I am not like Vladimir and that as a hybrid, I can follow the old dragonic traditions," I say, trying to soothe his nerves as Jayce works the shampoo through my tangled bloody hair.

Alaric comes to stand outside the stall leaning his forearm against the wall and then presses his forehead to his forearm. He sighs softly, then looks over at me. "I know, but it's still not fair. Females are not supposed to be the ones that battle. But, for some reason, most of the males have no respect and raise a talon to my mate." He says on a huff, half-sounding sad. Out of the corner of my eye, I see Klaus come over and start to rub his shoulders.

"I know with my people, females are revered, honored, and spoiled rotten. The fact that the dragons have no problem battling her concerns me greatly for Tia's sake," Klaus says as he rests his forehead against the back of Alaric's shoulder. I watch his arms slowly snake around Alaric's ribs and hold him tightly.

"I know, and that's the one thing that scares me about my daughter being in the world. Who's to say someone isn't going to challenge her, figuring that they may be able to conquer her." Alaric lifts his head and looks at me. And I see the fear in his eyes.

"I'm not as worried as you are, my love," I say softly, leaning my head back as Jayce massages my scalp and starts putting the conditioner in my hair. "I've already foreseen who her mate is. He comes from a great house with wonderful parents. We just have to wait until the proper time for them to meet," I say with a gentle smile upon my lips as I wait to see Alaric's reaction.

He whips his head up and looks at me, eyes open wide, jaw slack. It takes several moments for him before he's able to formulate words. "You know who it is already?"

I nod slowly. "If my vision is correct, I believe, eventually, Tia will end up a bride of one of Gisella's sons," I say with a smile. My words bring Alaric comfort, and he nods slowly.

"I wouldn't mind her marrying into that house. They're good loyal friends and have offered us a ton of aid when we needed it." He smiles as he straightens up and pats Klaus's hands on his chest. "I would be honored if one of their sons became our daughter's mate."

"As would I, but keep in mind that not all visions come true." I raise both eyebrows at him. "Dominik and Jayce will tell you that once upon a time I saw myself giving birth to a boy and a girl, one with white hair, one with black. The babies I saw were twins, and that has not come to pass." I tilt my head to the side for him to gain some understanding.

"Sometimes these premonitions are more wishful thinking than actual for telling the truth about the future." I smile as Jayce finishes rinsing my hair. I step out of the shower and into the waiting robe that Dominik has for me.

"Well, for our daughter's sake, I'm going to wish that your dream comes true," Alaric says as he gently kisses my temple and then walks off with Klaus hand in hand. I have a sneaking suspicion my mate is going for a little stress relief, and Klaus has offered himself.

Dimitri comes walking in with food and beverages with all the little ones in tow. All of my children are shifted to that of their animals and running amuck through my massive bathroom. I can't help but laugh watching each one of them as they play and roll around with each other. Arnulf moves over to the extremely large tub in the room and starts filling it. "I promised the children they can play in the water for a while as you eat your breakfast. I hope you don't mind," he says with a smile and playfully motions his head towards the tub. I nod gently, and he continues to fill the tub with just enough water that even the littlest one can stand without their head going under.

One by one, Arnulf brings each of the children into the tub and then sits on the stairs splashing water at them playfully. He is such a great father to the children. He plays with each of them equally and has no favorites. But I have a sneaking suspicion that will change when he has one of his own. They continue to play and splash while I eat my meal. Eventually, my father comes wandering in with his mate.

"I hope you don't mind my intrusion, daughter, but I wished to see how you were," Nicodeamus says as he sits on the bench close by, dragging his mate into his lap.

"You're never intruding, Father, that is unless it's the bedroom and I have the door locked." I smile and laugh, and he just shakes his head at me. "The battle went much easier than I suspected this morning, and I was quite shocked to find that only one house stood against me," I say before I bite into the strip of bacon.

"I was kind of shocked myself to see that the house of Equus decided to try to stage a coup. They are not the smartest nor the strongest of the dragon families. But I do have to say you handled it beautifully." My father reaches over and grabs a biscuit off the tray, and starts snacking on it. "You showed mercy that even your great-grandmother wouldn't have. You are making a statement that you bear her power but not her blood thirst. You may just win all the houses over on that stance alone."

"I don't wish to be a tyrant," I state flatly as I stare into my coffee mug. "I don't wish to have to rule the kingdoms with my talons. I wish for peace and prosperity for our people more than anything else in the world." I take a small sip of my coffee and then hold the mug between both my hands. "These species have known nothing about war and loss for the last two generations. I wish to change their perception of the Lycans, as well as the Dragons." My eyes move to Arnulf as he plays with the babies and then back to my father. "Change begins with me, and I will be damned if my children will have to do as I have done the last two hundred and thirty years."

"You have no idea how proud it makes me to hear you say those words," my father says with a smile as his mate leans into his side, holding on to him tightly. "We shall make the change happen slowly but surely so that everybody is happy and comfortable. I do suggest, though, reparations to be paid to the families that lost members in Vladimir's coup." His eyes drop down to the mug that he had picked up. "Money doesn't fix things, but it can help elevate the living conditions that those who were left behind are living in."

I ponder my father's statement and think it over thoroughly. "I believe what you said has a lot of merit, Dad. Quietly take a poll and see which species besides the Great Bears have been afflicted the most by Vladimir's actions. The Great Bears need to have their village rebuilt as well as brought up to more modern conveniences." I sigh softly.

"They took the greatest hit because of Vladimir slaughtering their people pointlessly." I stare down at my mug before taking another sip. My eyes drift up, and I look at Dimitri who is now smiling proudly at me.

"I am most grateful to you, baby girl, for looking out for my people. They may be resistant to change, but I will help you all that I can." He smiles and bows slightly to me.

"I know that you wish to try to heal old wounds quickly, but to be honest, actions speak louder than words, and it's going to take time for my people to trust anybody outside of their community," he says as he pulls his daughter, Odette, out of the tub and starts drying her off.

Nodding slowly, I remain watching him. "Would you be so kind as to go speak with your people and advise them as to what I wish to do for them?" I ask, sounding slightly unsure of myself. "For a fact, I know the bears will be quite resistant to any help given to them by someone who even has a drop of Lycan blood in their bloodline."

"We will smooth things over with them. Me going alone will not make the statement that you wish for change. It'll appear as though you are scared to go stand before them," Dimitri says as he stares down at his daughter, drying her off. "Whenever you're ready, we can go, or you can invite them here or to the Marelup Castle, whichever you're more comfortable with." Dimitri raises an eyebrow at me and I nod slowly.

"We will go meet with your clan tomorrow afternoon." I reach out to Arnulf through the bond, requesting he sends a message to Dimitri's clan. "Today, we spend time as a family and figure out how to help everyone."