Dragonshift

by Linton Bowers

  “Alright, I’ll borrow from you all and get better. You need to prepare yourselves though. I suspect it will take everything you have to give in order for me to get better.”

  “Wait,” Roo said. She stepped forward so I could see her. “Take from me as well.”

  Then I was in darkness once more. Roo stood before me wearing nothing. “How is this possible?” I asked. “You belong to my father.”

  “I did, but I severed that tie,” Roo said. “I want to be one of your Tua.” She dropped to her knees and took one of my hands in both of her’s. “I know you suspect something about me and what your father wants. You are right too. I will tell you everything whether you accept me or not. But I beg of you to accept me into your pack and make me one of your Tua.”

  “It’s about time you did this,” Riley said as she stepped up beside Roo. “I was beginning to think this time would never come and we would be stuck with that jackass forever.”

  “You knew this was going to happen?” I asked. “And how are you able to be here too?”

  Riley kneeled next to Roo and took my other hand. She looked at roo and whispered, “You know we don’t have to bow like this right?”

  “I know,” Roo whispered back which caused me to chuckle.

  “Anyway,” Riley continued. “I figured Roo was going to do this after you saved her. Your father is not a kind man, and he uses us any way he sees fit. He keeps us strong because it serves his purpose. You treat your Tua, and now your wolf pack, with respect. You are strong because you all grow together. I’m with you from now on.”

  I felt a new mark burn itself onto my chest and knew Riley was mine. A notification popped up, but I had an idea of what it would be so I dismissed it.

  “If you will have me,” Roo said. “I will be your faithful servant.”

  “No,” I said. I pulled Roo up by her hands so she was standing. Tears filled her eyes from the thought that I had rejected her. I had to set her straight. “I don’t want you to serve me, Roo. I want you to be my friend. I want you to be my equal and partner. If we can do that, then I will accept you as one of my Tua. But I will not take you in under the impression that I am your master and you have to serve. I want us to be strong because4 we care about one another. Roo,” I lifted her hands to my mouth and kissed her knuckles. “Would you be my friend and confidant?”

  The werekangaroo pulled me into a tight hug and cried. I felt another mark burn on my chest and wondered if I was going to run out of room for them. I dismissed another popup message while holding Roo. “You know, one of these days you have to tell me your name. While I like Roo, I have a feeling there is more than that.”

  She laughed. “My name is Jacqueline Cobly. But please, call me Roo.”

  “Roo it is then. Welcome to the family Roo.”

  We were on the fifth floor once again. Or we never left, but I was back in the present as opposed to being in my head. Does that even make sense? Oh well.

  “Okay, so once again, I have to be sure. Everyone here is cool with me pulling from them right?”

  “Do it,” Andrea said.

  “She speaks for all of us,” Dris added.

  “Were in,” Roo said as she took Riley’s hand.

  “I give you my power whenever you need it,” Cassie said.

  “Ok, then her goes nothing.”

  I reached out through the wolf mark, the dragon mark, the drop bear mark, and the kangaroo mark. I went up to ninety percent from all, knowing it was going to take a lot. Power rushed into me filling me with more than I had ever felt. My bones hummed from the amount of raw energy coursing through me and filling me. The wound in my gut healed up some, but not all the way.

  The poison became a living thing I felt in me moving. The power from my pack shifted and moved with the leading edge becoming a fine point. It hit the poison like a drill tearing into it. The poison fought back and we were stuck in a stalemate. The poison destroyed was replenished and it took from my body to do it. I needed more.

  I pulled going up to one hundred percent. A message popped up.

  You are taking one hundred percent from your Tua. The wolves will only feel seventy-five percent due to the Connection skill. If you take any more, however, you will hurt everyone you take from.

  This was it, it either worked or it didn’t. No way was I pul;ling any more than this. As I watched with my mind’s eye the power pressed harder against the poison. The poison held and swelled briefly, then it gave. The power pushed into it and through it, tearing the poison to pieces and eradicating it.

  The wound in my side closed. Every scratch, bruise, sprain, and tear also healed. I was whole and healthy once more. I let the power go, missing it as it left me.

  My eyes opened and I saw a bunch of weary-looking people staring back at me. “That was rough,” Dris said.

  “I’m sorry.” I looked away.

  “Did it work?” Dris asked.

  “It did.”

  “Then don’t be sorry. We are all glad to have been able to help. But now I think we are going to take a nap.” He sat down then laid back and started snoring a second later.

  “Yeah,” Juan Carlos added. “What he said.” The short man went prone and also snored.

  “We all need a rest now, my Alpha,” Andrea said. “I’ll find someone who can stand watch for a while, then have them rotate.”

  “No,” I said. “I’ve been supercharged. I’ll stay up while everyone gets some sleep.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “Positive. I’m healed and wide awake. I couldn’t sleep if I wanted too.”

  “Alright. In that case, I’m going to curl up with the twins and get some sleep. I’ll see you soon, my Alpha.” Andrea stood and wobbled for a second before walking away.

  “I’m glad you are okay,” Cassie said. “I’m not tired so I’ll stay up too.” she leaned close and whispered. “I think being a dragon gives me a bigger reserve of energy than the wolves have.”

  “I think so too, I felt the crazy amount of juice flowing through you. I’m glad you are on my side.”

  “Always and forever.” She kissed my cheek. “I’m going to check the rest of the building and see about locking up the stairs so we can have some safety.”

  “Okay, but be careful.”

  “Thank you, Terry,” Roo said. She yawned as she tried talking more but had to stop until she was done. “I’ll talk to you later if that’s alright?”

  “Yeah, we have plenty of time. Get some rest.”

  Riley smiled and waved at me. She took Roo by the hand and lead her away. Then I was alone with my thoughts and my idea for how I could fix the rest of my Tua. It saddened me that I had to wait, but I was sure now that I knew what to do.

  Chapter 37

  While everyone except Cassie slept, I took time to go through my skills and get them all sorted out.

  I started with my spheres and planned to go to the individual Tua trees after. First, I associated them to my Tua, like the wolf tree was Miranda's. But now that I had so many wolves, I had to start thinking in terms of species.

  Excited to see what it would contain, I selected the new Dragon Sphere. It opened giving me a list of four Abilities. In addition, I saw that I now had three Dragon Ability points to spend. Right off the bat, I selected the Connection skill which gave me fifty percent more energy while reducing the drain on my Tua by fifty percent. Then I read over the other three Abilities.

  Dragonshift:

  Grants you dragon claws, dragon wings, and dragon fire breath for a duration of 5 minutes.

  Cooldown: 48 hours

  Cost 1 AP

  -lvl 2 10 minutes cost 2 AP - lvl 3 15 minutes cost 3 AP

  Dragon Stats:

  Boost strength, stamina, agility, and intellect by 10%

  Cooldown: N/A Permabuff

  Cost 1 AP

  -lvl 2 20% cost 2 AP -lvl 3 30% cost 3 AP

  Dragon Touched:

  Boost the stats of all your Tua by 10%

&n
bsp; Cooldown: N/A Permabuff

  -lvl 2 20% cost 2 AP -lvl 3 30% cost 3 AP

  The abilities gained from having a dragon fully tamed were incredible. It made me wonder if dragons had been a thing at one time and Cassie was close enough to the ancient beings that the bracelets recognized her as one. Or did they generate the abilities and skills because I had tamed her?

  That was a question for another time. I chose two abilities. Dragonhshift, because, hell yeah. The second was a harder decision, but I decided the team needed to grow stronger since I could pull their energy for temporary boosts. I chose Dragon Touched giving all of my Tua boosted stats. I would circle back to Dragon Stats one day.

  With that done I went to the kangaroo sphere to see what abilities it had to offer.

  *Select Roo Abilities*

  Satisfied with my selections I moved on to the Drop Bear sphere.

  *Select Drop Bear Skills*

  Again, I was satisfied that I made the best decisions possible. My Tua had to be growing by leaps and bounds, and I was just getting started. Next was the species builds. It was time to give them some control over their own skills. Or so I figured that was how it worked. I never bothered to ask my Tua if they were able to activate the skills I gave them or I was supposed to do it. Something to look into.

  I went for the Dragon skill tree excited to see the possibilities. Just like the other skill trees I had seen there was a tiered system with four base skills that fed up four tiers with what I guessed was an ultimate skill. I wasn’t able to see what was above until I purchased the skill below it.

  Dragon skills in order from left to right:

  *List Dragon skills*

  From there I went to the kangaroo skill tree.

  Kangaroo skills in order from left to right:

  *List Roo Skils*

  Then finally I went through Drop Bear Skills.

  Drop Bear skills in order from left to right:

  *List Drop Bear skills*

  The choices were tough since there were more choices than points. That was the way of games though, so I figure it fits here as well. The next hurdle was discovering how to gain more points.

  “Hey Terry,” Cassie said as she sat next to me.

  “Hi Cassie,” I responded while closing the windows. “How do we look from a security standpoint?”

  “I’m no expert, but I think we are good enough for now. I went ahead and zip tied all the teens hands and feet together. It should hold them unless they shift. If that happens we will have to deal with another round of fighting.”

  “That was good thinking. I looked around for the first time in a long while seeing all the hybrid teens now in human form and bound. “I wonder who’s side they will be on when they come around?”

  “I was wondering about that too. We can’t let Claude take control of them again. We need to find a way to free them.”

  “I agree, Cassie. Maybe the answer is on the third floor,” I replied.

  “I never thanked you for saving me, Terry.”

  “You never have to thank me for that, Cassie. I’ll always come for you and do everything in my power to help you.”

  “I know you will.” She leaned over and kissed me. “Now let me help you.”

  Cassie pushed me back until I was laying on my back as we continued kissing. She opened my pants and I helped her by pushing them down. She grabbed my hands stopping me. “We have to make this quick. I don’t think we have much time before others start to wake up. I don’t want to put on a show for the teens.”

  “Maybe we should go somewhere else?” I asked.

  “Too late for that,” Cassie replied.

  She slid her leg over me straddling my hips. With her hand, she guided me in and we enjoyed a brief moment of bliss. It ended with the two of us climaxing at the same time and fighting back the urge to cry out. Once it was done we dressed quickly.

  “Now we can go see the command center,” Cassie said.

  I smiled at my dragon shifter. She enjoyed the idea of possibly being caught by someone who shouldn’t see us. While I couldn’t read her thoughts I could feel her emotions and gleaned it from there. Cassie had an adventurous side I was looking forward to exploring more when we had the time.

  “You know,” i said as we entered the stairwell. “It seems like we never have time to stop and enjoy life. There is always some emergency or battle that needs fighting. I wonder if this is how life will always be now?”

  “I doubt that. Eventually, we have to beat Arnold and his goons. I’m sure at the very least we will get a break for a little while. I don’t doubt that there will be another big bad to fight, but there have to be breaks between them, right?”

  “I hope so.” I held the door to the third-floor open. “After you.”

  As Cassie walked in with me behind her Andrea sent me a thought. “Where are you, Terry?”

  “Third floor with Cassie. We are checking out the control room,” I sent back my mental reply.

  “I’m on my way, and I’m bringing Princess to finish getting us control.”

  “What are we going to do about miranda and the other girls?” Cassie asked.

  “I actually think I have a plan to fix that. I want to wait till we get back and find out for sure.”

  “That’s great,” Cassie’s face lit up as she looked at me.

  “Andrea and Princess are on their way here now. We could possibly get control of this place soon,” i said.

  Soon turned out to be three hoours. Princess spent the entire time punching away at the keyboard like a woman possessed. It was impressive and enough to give a man a head ache. The keyboards were mechanical, whatever that meant, and made a lot of noise.

  “I have the system that controls the Lycan freaks,” Princess said. “We can take control of them now.”

  “Can we free them?” I asked.

  “Yes, but if you want it to be permanent we need to deal with the implant they all have.”

  “Alright. We know what has to happen, now we need to make it happen. Good job, Princess,”: I said.

  Chapter 38

  “Sir,” Princess said looking up at me from her work station. “We have movement on the other side of the facility. It looks like a decent sized force coming this way.”

  “First thing,” I replied. Don’t call me sir.”

  “Sorry,” Princess said. “I’m not sure how this hierarchy thing is supposed to go.”

  “It’s new to all of us,” I replied. “Just call me Terry. Now that that is out of the way, what can you tell me about the force on the way?”

  “I can do better than tell.”

  A large screen on the far wall came to life with a wide angle view of a group of people running. It was hard to tell their numbers and who exactly they were due to their distance to the camera. “Princess, can you get me a closer look?”

  “I think… there it is.”

  The view zoomed in giving me a good look at a group of people older than the age we typically see the kidnapped hybrid Lycans. One of the people stood out to me as being the handler who held the leash of the Lycan that sniffed out Roo and I. She was back to human and looked no worse for wear. Then I spotted Claude. He ran at the back of the group still in his winged wolf form. I wondered why he hadn’t changed back like the others and thought back to his comment about not being ready. He must be ready now though.

  “I want to meet them out there before they get to the building,” I said. “This is our building now and I’ll be damned if I let them near it.” Turning, I looked to Andrea. “Do we have enough wolves ready to fight?” While Andrea was up and about I knew they were all still worn down from me draining them. Cassie and I might be the only one still capable of fighting. If that was the case, then so be it. They were going to get the fight of their lives and I would be putting an end to Claude.

  “I’ll take Cassie,” I turned to leave the platform in the center of the control room.

  Andrea grabbed my arm stopping me and turning
me to face her. “You will take Cassie, me, and a handful of wolves. Fighting is what we live for and I’ll be damned if we miss out on this one.”

  “Alright. I’ll meet you in the lobby. I’m going to make sure there aren’t any others sneaking in while we have our eyes on Claude.”

  “Good. We will be down in a few minutes. Be ready to run,” Andrea said.

  The lobby was quiet and deserted. I stepped outside looking for any signs of trouble. The guns were as we left them on the truck flatbeds and the ammo was untouched on the ground. My sense of smell still didn't work, but I didn't hear anything outside of the building. The area was clear, which was a relief. We had enough to worry about with Claude and what could only be some of Arnold's pack on their way.

  “Ready?” Andrea asked as she stepped out of the building.

  “I sure am.”

  She came to stand next to me and took my hand. “I feel your excitement and I know you want to finish this thing with Claude, but you have to be careful. I don't think he would be coming if he thought there was a chance of losing. Doesn't seem his style.”

  “I agree. Fair fights don't seem like the thing he goes for. But things have changed. I'm a lot more prepared for him than I ever have been,” I said.

  “That is what I like to hear,” she said. “Let's move.”

  Andrea took the lead shifting into her wolf-Tua form and running. I joined her running at her side. Pulling, In borrowed ten percent from the pack giving me the strength and stamina to keep up.

  “Yah Hoo!” Cassie yelled as she soared by overhead. She continued toward the enemy and I feared she would try taking them on herself. She gained altitude as she went then turned and flew back toward us. She went over us then banked again and landing next to me. While she touched down her legs were moving and she made a running landing look effortless.