3
Dante
I’d never been so fucking boredinmylife.
I groaned loudly as I beat my wings, staying afloat on top of a thermal. Catching the columns of hot air was about the only fun to be had while patrolling the skies and being a babysitter to the raven scoutbesideme.
“If you groan one more time,” Ruby growled, her raven voice stern, “I’m going to peck youreyesout.”
“Please do. At leastthatwould beinteresting.”
Ruby was losing patience with me. “Why don’t you look around? There’s plentytosee.”
“Like what? Trees? Oh, look, is thatanelm?”
She sighed and flew ahead. “Don’t fallbehind.”
I grumbled and joined her within a few wingbeats. As if a raven could outfly a dragon. It was almostlaughable.
For anyone down below looking up, we must have been a sight indeed. Two pitch black shifters flying underneath the new moon - one, a large black bird, and the other, a dragon with iridescent scales and a creamunderbelly.
“I don’t understand why I had to come,” I repeated. “There were plenty of others who couldaccompanyyou.”
“Ichoseyou,” Ruby repeated with the thinning patience of a school teacher whose student wouldn’t shut up, “because you’re one of the only dragons who hasn’t been on a scoutingmission.”
“Apparently, I wasn’tmissingmuch.”
“Dante, this is important,” Ruby chided. “We’re always looking for new blood in the tribe. Without it, we risk losing genetic diversity and the opportunity to acquire new types ofshifters.”
I’d heard this spiel about a hundred times before, and it wasn’t any more interesting the hundred-and-first timearound.
“We don’tneednew types of shifters, do we?” I muttered. “I mean, we’re dragons. It doesn’t get much betterthanthat.”
She glared at me with her beady raven eyes. Although she was small, the ferocity of her gaze was enough to make me shiver. Big, bad dragonindeed.
“You’ll understand when you’re older,”Rubysaid.
I growled this time and puffed out smoke from my nose. “Excuse me? I’m an adult, Ruby. Don’t talk to me like I’m achild.”
“Then don’t actlikeone.”
I clicked my tongue. “Harsh.”
She shot me a wry smile despite herself. “Maybe when you’re interested in starting your own family, you’ll appreciate the diversity of the available omegas in our tribe. It’s one of our most important strengths,Dante.”
This time I couldn’t help but laugh. “I’ve got plenty to keep busy with. I don’t need an omega right now. Gods know I especially don’t needababy.”
She gave a little shrug of her wings. “You might changeyourmind.”
“Doubtit.”
She rolled her eyes at me, but there was a good-natured twinkle in them, like she knew more than I did at any givenmoment.
Annoying little raven,I thoughtaffectionately.
The skies were dark under the moonless sky, with only stars to light our path. The iridescence of my scales dulled under the low-light and it was a small blow to my vanity, but there was nobody up here to impress anyway. Even though I wasn’t interested in finding an omega and starting a family, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a big flirt. It wasn’t so much the romance I liked, but the attention. Knowing that Icouldhave anyone I wanted if I so much as batted my eyes and blew a heart-shaped puff of smoke in theirdirection.
Isn’t that what being an alpha dragon was allabout?
