Chapter 5

Aldryn

I enjoyed the dinner with my mom and Eli. Though it was bittersweet knowing that the next morning I would be leaving on my quest. I was officially calling it a quest to find my biological family. There was no question in my mind that Eli would come with me. Even if I didn't need him there to talk me down from whatever shift tried to take over my body, I just liked having him near me all the time. He was my best friend. There was no way I would do this without him.

I hated leaving my mom. I knew she had friends within the pack that would keep an eye on her. I had already texted my siblings in our chat space to let them know I would be leaving. My sisters were already making plans to make a visit with their youngest pups.

It worked out perfectly that both Eli and I could get the time off to travel. My boss hadn't even blinked an eye when I told him I needed two weeks off. I assumed Eli's supervisor was the same.

The next morning, I finished packing. Eli was already at my house when I came down the stairs. He must've been excited for this trip as well. I grinned when I saw him, my happiness exploding throughout my body, and even the dragon in my head seemed happy.

Having another being in your mind that was an extension of you was trippy.

It was so much like how my brothers had explained how their wolves felt in their head.

Now I understood.

Pretty green, the dragon inside me rumbled.

"That shirt looks nice on you," I said. "It really brings out the green in your eyes." That was what my dragon meant, right? Because Eli's eyes were green. They matched my dragon scales or what I had been able to see of them when I was shifted.

"Thanks," Eli said, a hint of red sweeping across his cheeks. He tugged at the hem of the kelly-green shirt. The color had faded with time, but it was gorgeous on him.

"You two should eat a big breakfast so you don't have to stop. Although I don't know how you'll know when you get where you're going," Mom said. She had been on edge all morning. She had baked several batches of cookies and packed us an entire cooler of food.

"We don't either. We're just going to fly blind."

Eli winced. "Maybe don't call it flying, because we are taking a car, right? You haven't been airborne."

I laughed and hugged him with one arm. "Hey, once I figure out that flying thing, I'm totally taking you up there," I teased. I watched as his Adam's apple bobbed as he swallowed. He was stiff in my arms, not at all like that carefree Eli I knew.

Was he nervous for this trip? Or scared of me after I shifted?

"Sure, that sounds great."

We ate our breakfast quickly, but we did have a lot of it. We were both shifters, after all, and we needed the extra calories.

Eli swirled his bacon in the syrup left over from his pancakes, and I smiled.

His gaze met mine mid-bite. He licked the syrup from his lips. The amusement at his weird eating habits died away while I watched his tongue glide over his upper lip, then he sucked his lower lip into his mouth. They both glistened.

"What?" he said. "Is there something on my face? I feel sticky." He touched a finger to his lips, and that made it all the worse. It had to be the recent shift. It had my feelings and hormones out of control. Why else would I be staring at Eli's mouth like I wanted to taste it?

I got up and put my plate in the sink. Eli followed soon after. Then we were out the door.

I hugged my mom tightly. "Well, we're off."

Eli got our bags in the car. We only had one duffle bag each, plus the cooler my mom had packed. He made sure to put that in the center of the backseat so we could reach it.

"You'll contact me, right? You'll let me know where you are?" Mom said.

"Of course," I said. "I really do love you, Mom, and I appreciate you raising me. I never felt like I was anything different than anyone else in the family. Once I find my dragon brothers, I will come home," I promised.

She cupped my cheek. Her smile reached her eyes, and she looked at me with all the love a mother could hold. "I know you will. I'll see you again, no matter what." She gave me one last hug, and then I climbed into the driver's seat.

Eli smiled from the passenger side. He had his phone out, and he was connecting it to the speakers. "I worked on a playlist," he said. He adjusted the volume and hit play, treating the car as if it was his own. As he should. We rode together to work each day and did some errands for the pack which required us to be in the same vehicle together. He always had a playlist ready, and I was happy to let him.

I laughed. "Of course you did. What sort of things are on this playlist? Better not be any of that folksy stuff you like."

"Well, we're on a quest, right?"

I put the car in drive and started moving. I kept my eyes on the familiar road rather than looking at Eli. It had to be the shift and the journey that was making me feel such weirdness. "I've been calling it that, too. How did your aunt feel about you leaving?"

He shrugged. "Don't think she'll notice, honestly."

Good riddance to them. I disliked very much how he was treated by his family, which was why I invited him over to my house as often as I could. He was way too good for the way his aunt was. I had suggested once that Eli could just move in with us. But my mom had laughed and said no, that wasn't the way things worked.

"Thank you for coming," I said after we had traveled a few miles. We were officially out of the pack territory. Soon we'd be farther than we'd ever traveled before.

Eli had gone to college, but it was all local. Many of his classes had been online. I had never left the state. I barely ever left the pack except to go visit my siblings, and that was only a few times. I knew so little about the outside world. I didn't know if other shifters would be able to sense what I was, or what their reaction would be. Yet I wasn't scared. My heart was leading me, and I had Eli at my side.

"Of course," Eli said. "We're friends."

"Exactly. Friends."