“About time,” he snaps as Brodie and I join the rest of our team and Gretchin around the conference table. “We have to work out a schedule with the queen. I want you all working with her every afternoon on her shifts until she can shift on command and control whichever animal’s body she is in. Brodie, you will be able to help her with her wolf, and I suggest you go to the archives and ask Sable for information on the hydra. As for the pegasus, we don’t have any in our ranks due to the prejudice of the last few royals, so maybe she will have information on them too. It’s not as good as learning from a shifter source, but I don’t think they would willingly send one to assist us.” Bryson looks and sounds tired. The shit show with the council this morning didn’t help. I know he’s under some pressure to keep the new queen safe, especially since no mates have appeared. It is their role to provide protection for the sitting ruler. Layla, Mia, and Evie look like refined ladies, but the three of them are fierce protectors. Their cats are savage in the defense of their mate.
Suddenly, before anyone else can say anything, a rush of breath stealing magic washes through the conference room. I shudder as it caresses my skin, and my hands change to paws before slowly switching back as the magic dissipates.
“Fuck, did you feel that?” Hunter grunts, smoke drifting out of his nose, and I see scales disappear on his arms much like my hands changed.
“That felt like the same magic that was in the throne room on blessing night.” Gretchin’s eyes are still feline as she shakes her head, trying to negate the magic’s touch.
“Goddess magic,” Gem agrees, his body awash in flames as he pushes back out of his chair and steps away from anyone to prevent anything else from catching on fire. His chair smolders on the ground behind him as he wrestles his flames under control.
Gryffin runs out of the room and returns with an extinguisher, quickly dealing with the still burning flames, and Gem winces.
“Shit, sorry. I couldn’t control it all of a sudden.”
Bryson gives him an absent wave and looks toward the door. “I have no idea what that was, but maybe we should head outside and check. The troops should still be at morning formations, so let’s go and see if we have to put out any more fires. Hold on to that, some of our newer recruits may not have the same control all of you have,” he tells Gryffin and gestures to the extinguisher.
We follow him out of the conference room and to the outside exercise area. Sure enough, the area is pure chaos. There are a few shifters running around in animal form, as well as a couple on their knees, struggling to control their animal. A dragon is still on the ground, but he’s thrashing his head around, and flames are flying haphazardly across the yard.
Bryson marches up to him, puts his hands on his hips, and bellows at the recruit. “Shift before you kill someone.” The change is instant. The shifter freezes, and his body convulses before he returns to a naked, huddled male on the ground, his training uniform shredded. The rest of us round up the other animals running around like they are in a panic and use our own alpha command to get them to shift back.
“What the fuck?” one of the shifters on the ground grumbles and flops onto his back, his chest heaving with exertion. He rubs a spot on his chest above his heart. I recognize him as one of Bryson’s captains, a mer shifter who is a beast of a warrior. His long teal hair has fallen out of its tie and is spread out on the ground around him, moving like it’s underwater. Scales flicker up and down his arms, and his body convulses, shredding his pants when his legs shift into a tail. Gills form on his neck, and he flops around like a fish out of water, gasping and clutching at his chest.
“Fuck, get Micah to the pool. He’s drowning on land!” Gretchin screams. Gryff continues to battle the fires from the dragon as the other four of us hurry to follow Gretchin’s instructions, lifting him and running toward the pool on the other side of the training grounds.
It takes a good couple of minutes to make our way through the barracks and to the pool, and when we get there, we slide him in. He disappears, sinking below the surface. His eyes were closed, and I’m not sure if he was breathing.
“Is he dead?” Brodie asks, not taking his eyes away from the surface of the pool.
“I don’t think so. He felt like he still had a life force,” Gem replies, his own gaze locked on the water.
“What the fuck was that?” Hunter asks and drops to his knees at the edge of the pool, breathing as heavily as I am. Micah wasn’t light. He’s a big, brawny dude in human form, but his mer form was even larger. “Why isn’t Dad worried?”
“The goddess has never done wrong by us before,” Gem murmurs thoughtfully as he turns and joins us at the side of the pool. I hear other people approaching our location, and despite the scent of smoke in the air, I can smell the general, Gretchin, and Gryff as well as Adam and another one I’m not familiar with.
“How is he?” Bryson asks, surveying the pool like he’s looking for the shifter.
“We don’t know. He hasn’t surfaced yet.” Brodie sounds worried, and I watch as the unfamiliar man who accompanied them peels off his clothes, dives into the water, and disappears.
“Elliot will check on him. He’s one of the other mer shifters we have in our military and Micah’s cousin,” Adam explains.
“I can tell he’s alive, but I’m not sure how long it will take him to heal or what was wrong with him. Micah is too old and too experienced to be shifting on land. The saltwater is the best place for him at the moment,” Gem advises the general who nods.
“Okay, well, while we’re waiting, let’s help clean up the training ring. Once it’s done, everyone can have the afternoon off to recover—except you guys of course. We need to go check on the royals and make sure they are unaffected.”
“Shit, what if the queen shifted?” Hunter scrambles to his feet. “She has no control over her hydra yet.”
“I think we would have noticed if she shifted anywhere in the palace that wasn’t the safe room. We’d be hearing screams of terror.” Gretchin chuckles but bites her lip with concern, looking in the direction of the castle.
“That’s true,” Bryson agrees and puts a hand on his son. Hunter visibly relaxes, the tension leaving his shoulders. Apart from the king and queens, Bryson is one of the strongest shifters, and his alpha energy has a way of soothing riled shifters, even us.
“Let’s clean up, and then it will be time for lunch, and we can check on her then.”
“Hopefully the rest of the council isn’t joining us for that meal,” Gryffin grumbles. “Breakfast sucked.”
“That’s just because you can’t handle Gianna and Liana’s flirting,” his sister teases him, and he wrinkles his nose and moves closer to Gem, swinging an arm around him possessively. My eyebrows jump in surprise, but I can’t stop the pleased smile that crosses my lips.
“Finally,” I murmur to Brodie who moved closer to me.
“Yeah, I heard them return together from the ball last night. Thankfully Gryff managed to pull his head out of his ass. I hope he will drop the whole sixth member thing next.”
