Once inside their house again, I pause, unsure where they want to go. Azrael bushes past me and leads everyone into the living room. He gracefully sits down on the very edge of thesectional, and the rest of the guys arrange themselves scattered across the plush seating.
When I just stand there awkwardly, unsure where to sit, Colt takes pity on me. With a half smile aimed in my direction, he pats the cushion between him and Rook. Walking over, I plop down between the two of them.
There’s a long stretch of awkward silence as none of us really knows what to say.
“So, I’m sure you have lots of questions.” Colt waits for my nod of confirmation before continuing. “Well, feel free to ask them. We’ll answer them all to the best of our ability.”
I don’t really know where to start. I want to know everything, so it’s hard to pick just one thing.
Realizing Remy never got the chance to explain earlier, I start with, “What’s a mud dragon?”
Remy’s eyes go wide as we all turn to look at him. He rubs a hand on the back of his neck and pulls a tennis ball out of his hoodie pocket with the other.
He bounces the ball on the floor as he says, “Um, basically, my secondary ability is being able to control earth-related things. So, I can move dirt, rocks, plants, land, and more around with my magic. Oh, and my dragon really loves to roll around in the mud.”
Hal grins at me before turning to Remy with a raised brow. “Don’t forget that they used to sacrifice virgins to one of your kind in Rome.”
Remy rolls his eyes. “Yes, a mud dragon used to protect a village just outside of Rome thousands of years ago. In exchange for defending the town, he required a virgin to be sent up with tasty food every month. If the virgin wasn’t turned on by his dragon form, he sent her back down. If she was, well, he showed her a good time and sent her to live elsewhere. He was a weird dude, from what I hear.”
“Yeah, and all the villagers thought he was eating the poor girls who had ‘impure thoughts,’” Hal helpfully supplies.
Remy looks a little embarrassed. “Mud dragons are pretty common, but he was definitely the most famous.”
I snort. “That’s a fun bit of mud dragon lore. Weird but fun.”
At my response, Remy looks relieved, as if he thought I would judge him for what someone like him did thousands of years ago.
When no one says anything, I realize they’re waiting on me to ask another question. “How do you know I’m a dragon?”
Hal’s mouth tilts up in a small smile. “Your eyes turn to neon-green when you experience strong emotions. The signature defining trait of dragon shifters in their human form is that their eyes glow an electric, neon version of their normal eye color, instead of the amber of regular shifters.”
Well, that explains why Hal and Azrael were kind of freaked out when they saw my eyes the other night. “Why haven’t I shifted into a dragon yet? I’ve been able to shift into plenty of other creatures.”
Colt’s ice-blue eyes bounce between mine for a moment, like he’s trying to figure out what I’m feeling just by looking at me. “To unlock your dragon, you have to drink a valor alpha’s blood. Without that, you can’t shift—just like wolves can’t shift without wolfsbane. What kind of shifters did you grow up with?”
“White tigers. But why can I shift into everything else?”
“My best guess is that it has to do with the type of dragon you are. You’re what we call a Vereselen, or a shape-shifting dragon,” Colt explains. “Your type of dragon is incredibly rare, so there’s not a whole lot known about your abilities. Did you drink the tiger lily potion at eighteen?”
“Yeah.” I now realize I probably shouldn’t have done that. I didn’t know I was anything other than a tiger shifter at the time, though. I’m just glad the potion didn’t seem to have harmed me at all.
Colt shoves a hand through his onyx hair. “I think that must’ve unlocked your secondary ability of shifting, then. Only an alpha’s blood can unlock your dragon form, but your specific affinity must be unlockable another way. We’d really only know the answer if we could track down another Vereselen, but the only one we knew left our valor a while ago.”
I feel a surge of disappointment at that. It’d be cool to meet someone who can shift like I do, but that doesn’t sound like it’ll be happening anytime soon.
“What type of dragons are you guys?” I know Remy is a mud dragon, but I have no idea what the others are. Or even what types of dragons exist.
Hal perks up at the question. “Rook, Remy, and I are all common dragons. I’m a fire dragon, and Rook is an ice dragon. Az and Colt have more rare types. Colt is a shadow dragon, and Az is a lightning dragon.”
I would’ve thought Remy and Colt would be similar dragon types because they’re identical twins. I guess I don’t really understand what decides the types. “What determines what type of dragon you are?”
Remy shrugs. “Genetics and luck. Colt and I have the same genetics, but he had the luck of getting a cooler dragon than I did. Although, mud dragons are still pretty sweet.”
I huff a laugh at Remy’s explanation. “Why wasn’t I raised with other dragons?”
“That’s something we don’t know.” Rook props his chin on his hand and looks thoughtful. “How sure are you your mom is your real mom? It would be unusual for such a rare dragon to come from an interspecies pairing, but it’s not impossible.”
“Pretty sure.” Unfortunately. I would love for someone else to be my mother, but that’s unlikely. “She was pregnant for the nine months before I was born. Wren remembered it, and I’ve seen pictures of her at that time.”
