“Well done,” Dain rumbled.
He tried to hold me close, but Auren swept up, her wings raking through the air as she strove to reach us. Her claws went out and his grip broke as she plucked me from Argent’s back like a child might a discarded doll.
Idiot males.Her thoughts were just as hot, just as caustic as the fire the three of them had unleashed.Idiot, idiot males. Fern…Fear, anger, regret, they felt like they swirled inside her, just as bright as her scales.Fern, I thought you were still on my back.
Not strong enough for that yet, I replied, clinging to the cage of her claws.You might have to ferry me around like this until I develop those rider muscles.
That will not happen.The approaching keep never looked so good and she hovered above the roof, carefully setting me down before landing beside me. Her head pressed into my chest, forcing me to stumble backwards before I grabbed her skull and then returned the hug.You are a fellow queen. You ride on my back unmolested…That dangerous rattle started up in her chest as more and more dragons landed beside us, but they weren’t the only ones drawn by the fuss. Royal Riders spilled from the keepand onto the roof, the general amongst them.Or I will tear out the throat of every single male who dares cross my path, Auren finished.
“Why am I getting reports of reckless manoeuvres being performed over the bay?” the general snapped as he appeared on the roof. “Of dragons nearly flamed out of the sky and…” His eyes settled on me, brows drawing down hard. “And a cadet being flung from the saddle?” Hands went to his hips. “Can someone tell me what the bloody hell is going on?”
Chapter 26
Auren
I’d had just about enough of insolent males interfering.
Fern’s heart beat like a rabbit’s, far too fast and thready for it to be healthy. Dimly, I was aware of a hereditary memory about shock being a state humans easily fell into and the possibility of it killing her. My body moved of its own accord, settling around Fern. My tail whipped across the keep roof and didn’t that have the males jumping, human and dragon alike? With a snarl, my head rose above Fern’s, making clear they would all have to fight their way past me to get to my bondmate.
But that would never happen.
You are precious,my father had told me yesterday, but when I snorted, he shot me a sidelong look.
In the way gold is, jewels are, I replied, remembering the box of gems Viridian had gifted me. I waited for my father to contradict me, wanting, needing him too, but those words didn’t come.
This isn’t the fate your mother wanted for you. A deep sigh had himhunkering down lower.Nor me. I tried to protect you from this attention when I removed you and your sisters from Wyrmpeak as young dragonlings.
But now you can’t.
I had grown to my full size two years ago and yet it felt like only now I understood what being a mature dragon meant.
A mature female.
When an essential commodity like water or food is scarce.My father’s eyes met mine and it felt like I could see a world in those bronze depths. A world I didn’t like very much.Dragon behaviour, human, even animals change.The need to survive, to procreate and pass on your genetic legacy grows more pronounced. Males in particular, they grow aggressive, fighting amongst themselves to be proven the strongest, therefore being the one to mate with the few females left.
Fight…?My throat worked, my rattle starting up, even though the threat he spoke of wasn’t here in the cave with us.Mate…?And how exactly do these males think they are going to mate with me?
He tried to reply, but I rose up to my full height. Not as large as my father, but Hadrian was from an ancient line, when dragons, male and female, were so large they could blot out the sun as they passed by, wreaking havoc on the world below. I wished then that I had more of my father’s lineage, making me a terrible and brutal queen.
By harassing me to the ends of the earth with their intrusive fawning?I replied.
Perhaps.It was then that I knew my father saw me as a mature female, because he didn’t try to soften that blow at all.But you asked me about silver dragons…
I shook off the memory,coming back to the keep roof abruptly, just in time to see dragons landing everywhere. My throat worked as my rattle made clear that none of them should come any closer, not even the ones that whined and creeled, their wing membranes pocked with holes created by Viridian’s acid breath.
And that of the silver dragons.
“General, sir—” Fern began, but I did not like her placating tone at all. I was raised to become a queen, but humans seemed determined to clip the wings of their females.
What happened?This general’s head whipped around when he felt my voice inside his head and I noted the way his nostrils flared, the thin line of his mouth. Humans had more subtle ways of conveying anger, but I saw them all right now.My bondmate and I participated in the training exercise as instructed.
“The wing lost control of their beasts,” Viridian’s rider said as he slid from his bondmate’s back. “They were acting like idiots, trying to impress Auren.”
Depriving me of my target.My rattle grew louder as I remembered the way each one of these beasts swooped in front of me, crowding me in.Putting themselves in harm’s way as well as…My tail curled tighter around Fern, as if someone would try and take her from me again. That she slipped from my saddle… The need to lash myself with the anger that raged inside me was almost irresistible, but I realised I would not have been forced to rise up so abruptly if these… males didn’t insist on getting in my way.Almost killing the one reason why I’m entertaining this conversation in the first place.
“Is this true?” The general didn’t ask me that, but the human males who were now dismounting onto the keep roof. “Is this what happened?”
You dare to question my word, human?
