Protected by the Dragon

by Kayla Wolf

  “—and I know that bioluminescence does a lot of the work for you in regards to lighting, but honestly, it’s sometimes not even enough to read by and I can’t keep getting Helena to fly me down to the local campsite to charge all my power packs, people are going to spot us or get suspicious or something…”

  “Whatever you need,” Alexander said solemnly. “We are both more than happy to help.”

  “I could use Samuel’s assistance, actually,” Lisa said, turning her bright eyes on him. “Nobody knows the caverns the way you do… if you wouldn’t mind taking me for a walk around sometime, I think I could find a good place to get some of the necessary infrastructure installed.”

  “Of course.” Samuel was pleased. Perhaps he could talk to Lisa about Jessica. After all, she’d been through the experience of falling in love with someone from another species entirely—she’d definitely have insight into the best way to proceed. And perhaps she could help him talk to Alexander about the prospect of bringing a wolf into their close-knit family group. If there was room for a human, there’d have to be room for Jessica, right?

  They arranged to meet later for a cursory walk-through of the upper caves—when he thought about it, Samuel could think of one or two abandoned spaces that should suit Lisa’s purposes. But for the time being, all he could think about was getting back to Jessica. He almost ran through the hallways to the kitchens to gather up some freshly-baked bread and preserves to share with her for lunch. He had so much to talk to her about—so many plans and ideas racing through his head.

  But when he stepped through the doorway to her cavern, he felt his heart sink to the soles of his feet.

  She was gone. There was the rock she’d slept on—the blanket he’d brought to keep her warm was neatly folded and sitting beside the pillow. Her bag was gone, her things, her clothing—he shut his eyes and breathed in, just catching the scent of her still lingering on the air. Or was he imagining it? But how had she gotten out? Had she walked through the corridors, found her way out through another passage? Or—no. A close look at the rocks that made up the passage showed claw marks. She’d changed forms, then, and clambered her way back up to where the crevasse opened to the sky.

  For a wild second, he considered going after her—he even scaled the rocks a few feet up before he lost confidence in his human form and dropped back down to the rock floor. He growled in frustration and he wandered up to the rock where he’d so often sat, alone, staring up at the stars. It was Jessica’s rock now, not his. He sat on it anyway and ate some of the bread he’d brought for them to share. Why had she left? They’d had such a connection—she must have felt it too, or why would she have made love to him? Was it because she was a wolf, and he was a dragon? Was she frightened of his family, or of hers? If only he could talk to her.

  He picked up the blanket, now, and held it to his face, breathing it in in the hopes of detecting a lingering trace of the scent of her. But as he pressed it, something crinkled, and he frowned. Upon closer inspection, he found a piece of paper folded up inside the blanket. Was it from her? Her name was written on it—along with a series of numbers. Was it some kind of code? What did it mean?

  Samuel flipped the piece of paper over, searching for some kind of clue. All that he found were two words, written in a jagged, abrupt kind of handwriting that made his heart ache as he stared at them in the light of the sun that trickled in from high above him.

  Sorry, Samuel.

  Chapter 5 – Jessica

  It felt good to be back in her wolf form. Hard to think, though, in wolf form. Not that she couldn’t think, or that she lost her senses, but there was just so much more immediate and pressing information to deal with. Like the cold of the snow, crunching beneath her paws. The chill in the air, the way the breeze stirred the hairs along her back. Every distant sound of prey or threat, moving in the distance as her ears swiveled to catalogue their distance from her position. And of course the scents, every breath delivering her a cacophony of information about her surroundings.

  She’d never been this far from home. This she knew, from the human-form trek into parts unknown, but in her wolf body, there was so much more to see and know and feel. It was as though the very magnetic fields of the earth were different, vibrating in her body, showing her that she was somewhere strange and new and magical. And yes, she was alone. She knew she was alone, and it bothered her, but gently, nagging away at the back of her mind like a loose tooth or a stone in her shoe. But for now, she was free, she was healthy, and she could run. That was enough.

  It had only taken a few minutes to decide that she couldn’t stay in the crevasse, couldn’t wait for the dragon to return to her. Things were beginning to get complicated—she was starting to think too much, and that was never a good sign. She was starting to consider staying with him, starting to imagine the prospect of settling in to live with dragons. They were dangerous thoughts, treacherous, seditious, even. And dragons were dangerous. She knew that—she knew that deep in her blood, knew that dragons were enemies, were evil, were worse than even human beings. Human beings may hate and fear wolves, but dragons hunted them. Humans left them well enough alone, so long as they stayed in disguise. Dragons would hunt them down and kill them no matter what.

  Word had reached them earlier that year, as it had a strange way of doing (some kind of ancient network of news distribution, her father had said once—nobody entered or left the village, but information made its way around) that there had been a run-in with dragons. Miles and miles away, in the almost-imaginary city of New York, a dragon had been sighted. A pack had tried to banish it and been gutted in response, their Alpha horribly disfigured and several of their pack members ripped limb from limb. All they’d asked was that the dragon leaves their territory. And leave he had—after he’d massacred them. Horrible creatures. Now she knew that they could also be charming, that they had a kind of charisma that was, in itself, a dangerous weapon. Who knew what Samuel would have brought back with him if she hadn’t left?

  Then why did you leave your phone number, you idiot?

  A moment of weakness, stupidity. Thinking too much. She’d scanned the rocks, realized she could probably make her way up and out with the added strength of her wolf form, and then—big mistake—she’d hesitated. Reached into her bag, found a pencil, used it to scratch her phone number and a brief apology on the back of a piece of paper. Dragons were evil, and Samuel was no exception, she told herself doggedly—but leaving that note, that had betrayed her true suspicions. Her true suspicions that Samuel was a good man, possibly unique among his kind.

  She slowed her pace, coming to a small stand of trees at the top of a small, shallow valley in the mountains that had a stream trickling through it. A beautiful place—and as far as she could tell, deserted by humans. It was getting harder and harder to find places like that. Even their village was getting more and more accidental visits from human beings, lost on road trips. Though none of the roads leading into or out of Fallhurst had any signs on them, still humans sometimes wound their way through town. All they found was an inhospitable little ghost town, all the shops boarded up, no sign of a place to stay or even to get gas while passing through. The wolves of Fallhurst knew what to do when a strange vehicle came creeping through town. Get inside, or get into the woods. They moved quickly when they needed to.

  But here was a valley without campers or hikers or any of the other silly habits that humans pursued. She could stay here for a while, surely. The faint scent of deer was in the air—that meant decent hunting when she got hungry later. And a cursory inspection of the stream revealed it to be full of cool, clear water that quenched the thirst she’d worked up, running from the dragon home.

  Samuel would have realized she was gone by now, she thought, feeling an unexpected pang of regret. He had been deceiving her, of course, she knew that… but it was so tempting to believe that he wasn’t, that he had been truly as kind and good as he had seemed. That version of Samuel was a fantasy, she t
old herself sternly… but still, she allowed herself a wistful moment to imagine him, sitting sadly on the rock that had been her bed, staring up at the crevasse through which she’d escaped him just in time.

  She sat by the stream for a long time, gazing down the length of it to where it disappeared over a collection of rocks at the other end of the valley. Water always seemed to know exactly where it was going. Hard not to be jealous of that kind of surety. Her entire life, she’d known that as well—her place was here, in Fallhurst. Sure, she and Angela had talked about running away together, but that was the silly, idle chatter of young girls chafing against the strict rules of their parents. Yes, she’d hated her father for much of her life. He’d been incredibly strict with her and her little sister, he’d been distant, closed-off, unkind, manipulative. But they’d needed that. They’d needed a firm hand to guide them. Hadn’t they?

  You’re thinking too much again, Jessica.

  There was nobody around—she knew that much. So she shifted back, sighing as the fur retreated to leave her skin to bask in the weak winter sunlight. The trick of shifting clothing had taken a little while to learn, but Jessica was glad she’d gotten the hang of shifting her pants, shoes, and T-shirt when she transformed. Angela had still not quite figured it out—she’d wind up shredding everything she was wearing whenever she shifted. Jessica felt a pang of regret for the way she’d teased her little sister. The girl was so young, and she had plenty of strengths in other areas—there was plenty of time to learn such little things.

  Jessica pulled her running shoes off and dipped her toes into the bracingly cold water of the stream, sighing with contentment at the sensation of the water running over her tired feet. This wasn’t too bad a place to be, now was it? She could stay here for now. It was hard to think much further than a day in advance—she knew she’d have to eventually, but for now, it was so easy to just sit in the sun. Would her parents be worried about her? Would Angela? Or would they simply accept that she had left the pack, and forget that she’d ever existed? Because that was what happened when you left Fallhurst.

  Her mother had once caught her and Angela packing their suitcases after a particularly ugly row with their father. She hadn’t stopped them, or yelled at them, as Jessica had feared—she had just sat, with tears in her soft eyes, and explained to them exactly what would happen if they left Fallhurst. Nobody would stop them, she said sadly. But once they were gone, they would never be able to return. And what was more, they’d be erased from the town’s history. As far as anyone else was concerned, neither girl would ever have been born.

  “You’ll forget about us?” Angela had asked, horrified. “Even you, Mom?”

  “Yes, darling. Even me.”

  Angela had looked around at Jessica, suddenly firm in her stance. “We can’t leave.”

  So they’d stayed. Jessica still thought about that night sometimes—imagined what it would have been like if they’d escaped, if they’d started a life together outside of the clutches of the village. It would have been hard, and lonely—but they’d have had each other. God, she missed Angela. If she’d stayed long enough to think it through, she’d have woken her sister up and brought her with her. But would she even have come? Impossible to know. Angela had been withdrawn lately, quiet, sullen—not at all the bright, energetic young girl she had used to be. They’d talked about it once or twice. Jessica knew the suffocating life in Fallhurst was starting to drain her bright little sister of her spark. But what could she do about it?

  You could have brought her with you, she scolded herself. But she hadn’t. She’d been so consumed by her own problems, her own hatred and repulsion at the idea of marrying the Alpha, that she’d just abandoned her entire family. Even her sister, who needed her. Poor Angela. How must she be feeling? Or—and a pang of horror split her chest—had she already forgotten her? Had Jessica already been erased from the pack’s mind? She’d never quite gotten a straight answer from her mother about whether the forgetting of those who left was a symbolic or an actual forgetting—were the pack’s minds actually tampered with, their memories removed? It was possible, with the telepathic links that existed between them. Or did they simply behave as though they didn’t remember those who had left? Jessica couldn’t decide which was worse.

  What she could do, though, was check her phone. She’d turned it off when she left the village, strangely worried that it would make a sound and give away her flight. The screen came to life happily enough, and she frowned at her battery indicator. About three-quarters left. She’d have to be careful with it—ration the supply the way she’d ration food or water. Hard to know when she’d get a chance to charge it again, and she’d probably need it sooner or later.

  There were several missed calls from her father and mother, as she’d expected. A couple of texts from Angela asking where she was with mounting concern. Well, they’d noticed she was missing. It was only a matter of time before she was exiled properly. She hesitated, unsure of whether to reply—but what could she say? Especially to Angela? ‘Hey sis, sorry, I’ve left home forever, I’ll probably never see you again, have a good life as you’ll probably not remember me in a day or two.’ Jessica shut her eyes, fighting the urge to cry.

  Unexpectedly, her phone buzzed. She stared down at it, a little confused—everyone in the village was saved in her phone, and she’d never gotten a call from an unknown number before. Before she could think about whether or not it was a good idea, she’d hit answer.

  “Hello?”

  “Jessica? It—it’s me. It’s Samuel.”

  Chapter 6 – Samuel

  “Samuel, are you okay? You’ve been tuned out since I started talking about wiring.”

  Samuel blinked, his focus coming abruptly back into the abandoned corridor he was standing in. Lisa was looking at him with her hands on her hips, a combination of exasperation and concern on her face. Right. Of course. They were looking around the caves for the best place to install—wires, or whatever it was she needed for them to have electricity. It seemed like a good idea, he tried to tell himself, working his hardest to try and summon up some energy or enthusiasm for the project—but he was miles away, still. There was a horrible weight in his chest and a dull, empty feeling that seemed to permeate his bones. How far away was Jessica by now? Wolves could move pretty quickly when they wanted to, he knew… was she already all the way back home? Was she thinking about him at all, talking about him even? What kind of stories would she be telling her family about the dragon she’d seduced—then left?

  “Seriously, Sam, I’ve never seen you this checked out. I’ve called you Sammy-Boy like five times, and you haven’t even yelled at me. You hate being called that.”

  “I do hate being called that,” Samuel agreed, but his heart wasn’t in it. Lisa frowned.

  “What’s up with you? Was it something Alexander said? Is he giving you hell about the party the other night? I keep telling him, those other dragons are going to come around in time, but he does have a way of taking out his frustrations on the people around him. That silent, broody thing he does.”

  “It’s not Alexander,” Samuel said, a smile stirring on his face at Lisa’s exasperated, loving tone. Nobody was more critical of the dragon King than his wife—and nobody loved him more, that was clear from the way her face lit up when she talked about him. He tried to imagine Jessica talking about him that way, but all he could see was the empty chamber he’d walked into, the scratch marks on the rock… and the mysterious piece of paper. He was still holding it in his hand, loath to let go of the last trace of her that he still had.

  “Then what is it? You’re his twin brother, remember? I know when that face is hiding something.” She jabbed him in the chest in warning—always a comical gesture. Lisa may have been about average height for a human, but here in the dragon labyrinths, she was a good head shorter than even the shortest dragon. She barely came up to Samuel’s mid-chest. But what she lacked in stature she made up for in presence. Nobody was capab
le of ignoring Lisa when she was pursuing something she was interested in. Like the reason for his disconsolate mood.

  Still, he hesitated. Lisa was his brother’s wife—how could he trust her to conceal what had happened from the King? There was a chance Alexander would be furious about what had happened, about the fact that Samuel had harbored a wolf—not only been kind to one but actively allowed one to stay in their home. The location of their valley home had always been a closely-guarded secret—it was all but impossible to reach the open caves any other way than by air. Even the crevasse Jessica had fallen down was there by accident—the fissure had opened up well after the original establishment of the caves, thousands of years earlier, and Samuel suspected that it was the reason for that whole wing of caves being abandoned. Dragons were a suspicious and secretive folk and the idea of a wolf stumbling into their home by accident… well, they wouldn’t react well. And while Alexander was hardly a typical dragon—being married to a human, for one thing, set him apart from every ruler they’d ever had—still, Samuel was rightly concerned that there might be conflict over the subject.

  Some indication of his reluctance must have shown on his face, and Lisa, with her usual knack for reading people, narrowed her eyes. “You don’t want to talk to me. Is it because of Alexander? Have you done something that’s going to make him mad?”

  “Sort of,” Samuel said, fighting the urge to evade her questions. He’d always liked Lisa, always trusted her. And at any rate… he shouldn’t keep secrets from Alexander. Not only was he their King, but he was also his brother. Whatever their differences, whatever their sibling rivalry, Samuel knew that his brother deserved to know the truth. Still, he hoped Lisa would give him a chance to talk to Alexander first. It would be a lot easier to defend himself if he didn’t also have to explain why he’d told the King’s wife and not the King himself…