“What the fuck were you two thinking?” Vale snaps, saving me from spluttering a response to Maz. Damn, Maz is so confident. “I thought we were trying to keep a low profile, keep things quiet? Anyone could have walked in, for fuck’s sake!”
Maz sighs as I go and sit next to him on the bed. Kane looks at me. “I think she is my mate. I know it doesn’t make any sense, but it’s there. I feel it.”
The room goes silent. Mate? I know about it in theory, some magical bond between two shifters. It doesn’t exist for witches, so I wasn’t told much about it, but the silence in the room is deafening. Black speaks first. “I feel the same tug. I wasn’t sure last year, but I’m certain now.”
“She is a witch, and it is impossible. She doesn’t have shifter blood, and she can’t possibly accept a mating bond or bite. Do you want to be with a witch? Our races are not allowed to be together. Is this really what we’re doing now?” Vale practically shouts at us, and it hurts that he feels this way about me. I know he hates me, but this is…more than hate.
“I don’t care. I’m hers. She is mine. That’s all that matters.” Kane is firm.
Vale laughs. “This is madness. She is a witch, not your mate.”
“You’re wrong.” I cross my arms. I clear my throat and look at them all for a second. “I wasn’t sure when to bring this up, but I guess now is better than never. Well, when everything happened, when they took my memories, or tried to this time…they told me that I was the child of the enchantress and one of her bonded. A dragon. That I’m half dragon and half witch. I obviously cannot shift, and I don’t even know what parts of being a dragon have anything to do with me being a witch, but I’m clearly not unhinged. Well, I am a little, but?—”
I pause, looking at them mid-rant.
Maz surprises me by dropping to his knees in front of the bed. Black walks over and kneels next to him, and Kane follows. Only Vale backs away, shaking his head repeatedly in denial. Walking away from me.
“That’s why I… I thought it wasn’t possible. I thought maybe I was going insane. Is your father—do you know if he’s alive?” Maz stumbles over his words. “You’re a rare female dragon. Even as a halfling, you areexceptional. I felt the pull too, but Idismissed it as lust. I thought it was just because I wanted you so badly.”
“No. They told me he died. I need to confirm all this with the enchantress, but I don’t see why they would lie to me about that. I think maybe the reason I’m so good with spells and my power is limitless is because I am a halfling. I connect to small creatures. They’re not scared of me. They talk to me, whereas they hate witches. I never put the two together, but I think it’s because I’m not just a witch. Not just because I was kind to them, but they trust me because?—”
“You’re half shifter. They trust shifters too,” Black finishes for me.
“Yeah. I think the signs were always there.” I nod.
“It’s more than that.” Black touches my knee. “There’s more going on here. You’re our mate. My dragon’s always been obsessed with you, and that’s what happens when shifters find their mates. Their shifted animals become obsessed and will do anything to bind to their mate. All they want to do is to be with them, and the mate bond clicks together when you have sex. It’s a little different for dragons. We have to bite our mates too.”
“You think I’m really your mate?” My eyes fill with tears. I’m theirs and they are mine. I’ve been looking for my people, for my family, for someone to fight for me, and here they are. My bonded, my dragons, and I’m not alone anymore.
“You are,” Kane says firmly. “It makes sense, and it’s why I stopped us earlier. My dragon would have marked you as our mate, and I wouldn’t have been able to stop myself. I thought it was impossible, that I was just obsessed with you and my dragon just became obsessed too. But that’s not true, is it? Because you’re half dragon. You’re the last female dragon, in fact, and you are our mate. We all feel the same way about you. The same burning in here.” He taps his chest. “Do you feel it too?”
“Yes. I just didn’t know what it meant. I thought I was just attracted to you.” I shrug. “Maybe it isn’t as intense for me because I’m half witch too.”
Maz whispers, “More than just our bonded. You’re our mate. I wonder if your parents were mates, too.” Maz puts his hand on my knee. “You could change everything, you know that? More than just change the shifters’ world and their freedom, but you could change people’s opinions on witches and shifters actually being together. Your mother is the enchantress, and you are a half shifter with three mates.”
Vale is silent as I look up at him, knowing damn well that burning feeling in my chest flutters for him too. His arms are crossed, and he is glaring at us all. He meets my eyes with fury and hate. “I am not yours and you are not my mate. This is going to get us all killed. You are idiots, the lot of you.” He storms out into one of the bathrooms, and I wince.
“What do we do from here?” I say into the silence that is growing.
“Protect each other.” Maz gets off his knees. He takes my hand. “We figure out everything. How long can you stay here before Lock comes back from the meal?”
“Yeah, about that. Slight problem. Kane kind of burned my foster mother to ashes. They’re going to look for her and realize she’s missing. We need to make it look like it was an accident and not that you, you know, incinerated her,” I mutter, pinching the bridge of my nose. “They’re going to know I was the last person that saw her.”
Maz and Black share a look. “You stay here with Kane, and we will sort it out.”
“How are we going to do that?” I ask, my eyebrows drawn together as they both rise.
Black kisses my cheek. “Let your mates handle this problem. We do this together or not at all. You have to trust us, just like we trust you.”
I nod. “Okay, but be careful.” I watch them both leave before Kane picks me up and carries me to his bed. Wordlessly, he tucks us under the quilt, and I relax in his arms, a smile tilting my lips up. I’m not alone anymore, and the fight has just begun. I have everything to fight for, and I will not lose.
Chapter 10
WINIFRED
Iwish Juniper and Kane would come back to the meal from hell and save me. And Aster too. My mother is going to lecture me for not checking with her if I could bring Aster, especially considering Juniper brought Kane with her. Without them here, my mother’s full attention is fixed on me, and she picks at everything I do wrong in her eyes. My dress, my hair, the way I hold myself at the table, and everything right down to my choice in bonded.
I grit my teeth through it and remind myself that this is all temporary. When I finish my years in the wars, I can make my own life far away from her and her plans for my life. I am not marrying anyone I don’t choose, and I am not following in her footsteps of misery. No, I worked hard to get my place in the academy, despite my mother wanting me to fail. Then she would have complete control over my life, and I never wanted that.
