“I-I’m helping you.I love you.”
“So, you stole my mate.”His words are like sharp knives, flung at her, each hitting their mark.
“I’m supposed to be—”
“You are nothing!”he roars, his dragon pushing through to the forefront.“You were an acceptable assistant but that is it.Nothing more.”
His words break something in her.She turns and lunges at me, a blade flashing in her hand.A scream tears from my throat, but it’s not fear anymore.It’s release.Because in that moment, between pain and fury, between her hatred and my survival, I fucking snap.
Fire erupts from deep within me, covering me in flames and melting away the chains that hold me in place.But the fire isn’t red, or gold, but a perfect mixture of the two.It’s soft and warm but still lethal.
It bursts from my chest, sending Greta flying backward.My restraints melt.The metal floor glows beneath me.Something cracks down my spine before exploding out of me.Wings.I can feel them, raw and rising.
A roar explodes from deep inside my chest as the world around me shimmers.I feel my bones snap and realign as I drop to my knees.My body bends, reshapes, and grows.It hurts, but with the pain is an overwhelming sense of freedom, like this is exactly what I have been waiting for my whole life.
Looking down my body, I take in my new form.Powder-pink scales that shimmer beneath the shitty lighting in the warehouse.
I’m a fucking dragon.
My skin is velvet scales.My fingers, talons.
Greta scrambles backward and her blade clatters to the floor.Her face is all horror now.No hate.No fury.Just the realization that she tried to kill a dragon.And failed.
She screams.The sound reverberates through my skull and grates not only on my nerves, but on my dragon’s too, irritating us both.I open my jaws, to burn or bite, I’m not even sure, but someone else beats me to it.
Midnight-blue wings erupt behind her and a roar shakes the ground.Acheron lands in a blast of power, massive and enraged.His dragon form is pure death—dark, beautiful, and terrifying.
Greta shrieks shrilly before she takes off running like an idiot.But it’s too late.No one can outrun a dragon, especially not two pissed-off dragons.
I leap, my wings catching the air, and crash down in front of her, while Acheron crowds her from behind.There’s nowhere to go.Nowhere to hide.
She looks at me.“You’re not supposed to exist.”
My dragon grunts before opening her mouth.It’s not words or a roar that leave us but fire.Final and absolute.I watch as Greta burns, not just her body, but the poison inside her.The lies.The jealousy.The rot.And then she’s gone.
I collapse in the middle of the warehouse floor the moment she is gone.Smoke curls from my skin, and my wings retract slowly, painfully.My bones ache from the shift, and my head is spinning.But I’m alive.Whole and changed.
Acheron lands beside me, shifting to his human form before he hits the ground.He’s already moving, already gathering me into his arms.
“You did it,” he whispers.
I can’t speak.My throat is raw, and my heart is racing.But my arms wrap around him instinctively and my head rests against his chest.
And the bond between us sings.
“I’m sorry,” I whisper.“I didn’t mean to shift.Not like this.”
He cradles my face.“You were magnificent.”
I blink up at him.“You’re not afraid of me?”
“Terrified,” he says softly.“Terrified I’ll never be worthy of you.”
And then he kisses me.Claiming me again—this time, dragon to dragon.
