by Maia Star
“I’m going to offer you a chance, Kyle,” James said, spitting out his name like it was ash in his mouth. “You can kill the Omega right now and be offered mercy for your obedience, or you can both die in my talons.”
I could tell that he was getting ready to destroy us. His talons curled, and he looked at both of us with such hatred that I was surprised we weren’t dead already.
“I’m not going to kill her,” Kyle said. “How about this: let both of us go and no harm will come to any of you. But the moment you make a move against us, I cannot guarantee any mercy.”
James threw back his great dragon head and laughed. “Oh, is that so? What are you going to do, a little Omega and a sniveling traitor against a whole clan? Even if it was just me, you two would be sorely mistaken if you think you are both going to get out of this alive.”
“Why don’t we take this outside then, and we can see which of us is sorely mistaken,” Kyle offered, a gleam in his eyes.
“And let you two try to fly off into the night? Hell no. We’ll do this here, and we’ll do this now. Unless you want to change your mind and take me up on my offer. Kill the Omega, and all of this will be over in an instant.”
I looked at Kyle in fear. I knew that he wasn’t going to do it, but I was still afraid. What if he valued his own life more than mine? Then he would definitely want to take James up on his offer.
“Never. Not in a million years,” Kyle growled, then lowered his center of gravity until he was in a position to leap at James.
I recognized then that we would have to do something as quickly as we possibly could. No one had shifted yet, but the moment the clan thought that their Alpha was in danger, they would mobilize, and then we would really be dead.
James was blocking our only exit if we wanted to escape in dragon form—the windows.
We were going to have to hope that we could overpower him and fly through those.
Kyle made his move first. He lunged right for James’s throat with his teeth bared and his talons extended to grapple him. James dodged him easily and swiped at his side, leaving a nasty gash.
Then Kyle turned sharply and managed to land a quick hit on James’s arm, leaving a shallow cut that began to bleed.
“You’re going to regret that, dirty mutt,” James growled. He and Kyle began to circle each other. I recognized that I had to do something then, but what?
I had never been good at thinking fast. I had never been in a fight before. I had never been allowed to play with the other kids when I was young or attend any lessons on the matter. I was completely in the dark except for my own natural instincts, which weren’t much.
I was an Omega, after all.
But I wasn’t about to let Kyle fight James all on his own. Not in a million years. We were both going to die if I did that.
So when James’s back was turned to me, I lunged, leaping on top of him and swiping at his wings with my front talons.
He screamed and began to thrash around as I tore through the sensitive skin.
At the same time, Kyle leaped at him and snapped his jaws at James’s throat. He managed to get a hold around the base and bit down hard.
For a second, I thought we were going to be fine. But then sharp claws dug themselves into my sides, and I was dragged off of the Alpha’s back and thrown to the side.
“You bitch,” a regular clan dragon breathed in my ear. Her breath was hot and sticky. “You’re going to regret that.”
As I got up, I glanced over to see that two other dragons had started attacking Kyle, making him release his hold on James in order to defend himself.
More clan members looked as if they were considering shifting, and the horrible realization that we were going to lose came to me then.
We were going to lose, and there was nothing that I could do about it, nothing at all but fight with all of my might until they had squeezed the last drop of life out of me. I was going to make them regret ever attacking us.
I got up and whirled around to face the dragon who had dragged me off of James’s back.
She was a sturdy-looking dragon with a mean face and deep blue scales. She grinned, her teeth white and sharp. They glinted in the light, and I gulped.
“Regretting it now, aren’t you,” she said.
“I’m gonna make you regret it,” I retorted. “You can’t throw me around like it’s nothing and expect me not to fight back.”
“Oh, I fully expected you to fight back, little Omega. But I’m more than enough to handle you. You’re nothing without your precious Beta protecting you.”
“Don’t underestimate me,” I hissed. “You’ll regret that.”
“Oh, will I?” She took a step forward, glaring down at me in a way that I knew was supposed to be intimidating. But I was past being intimidated. I wasn’t about to let this dragon throw me around.
So I swiped, landing a blow clear on her nose. Blood began to ooze from the slashes, and she looked at me, surprised, as if she had just expected me to roll over and expose my belly to her and accept death.
She held one clawed foot up to her face and hissed. “You’re going to pay for that.”
She swiped at me, but I was ready and I dodged it before leaping forward and trying to bite her. She stepped back, avoiding me, and swung again. This time I wasn’t so lucky, and a shallow gash opened on my neck.
We continued to dance, exchanging blow for blow. Granted, she was landing more than I was, but I still felt pretty good that I was managing to hurt her.
I kept trying to look for an opening, but whenever I tried to dart past her, she would swing at me again and throw her body in my way so I knocked into her and was forced back so she wouldn’t keep landing hits on me.
I couldn’t even tell what was going on with Kyle. I just hoped that he was okay. I hadn’t heard any screams that sounded like him, so I assumed that he was doing fine, but I just couldn’t imagine him being okay while fighting against an Alpha and two other dragons.
We had to get out, but there was nothing else that I could do. I was fighting my hardest just to stay alive.
“Ready to give up yet?” the dragon I was fighting demanded. “If you roll over now, I promise to make it as fast and painless as I can.”
“Never,” I hissed, lunging for her again. But she sidestepped my attack, and I landed nose-first on the ground. Before I could get up, she was on top of me, and her teeth were clamped around my neck.
This was it, I realized. I was in a death hold and I was going to die.
I tried thrashing around, but the other dragon was larger than me, and it was no use.
“Kyle!” I screamed as my vision began to go black. He was the final thought on my mind.
Chapter Eighteen
Kyle
My head turned sharply to the side the moment I heard Catarina call out for me.
And then I saw her. There she was, her beautiful little form pinned beneath a larger female. And she was dying, I could tell.
When dragon-shifters get close to death or become very weak, they are unable to maintain their dragon form and revert back to human.
And this is exactly what happened to Catarina. I watched in horror as her form became human again. I knew that I only had a few seconds before the female finished the job and Catarina was lost to me forever.
Screaming at the top of my lungs, I pushed past James and the two other dragons that were attacking me. I threw the female to the side, who wasn’t able to resist in her surprise.
And then I grabbed Catarina in one of my front talons and turned towards the windows.
I didn’t know it happened. Adrenaline was flowing through my body and my mind went blank as I barreled past James and the other two dragons. Maybe they were just too surprised to do anything, or maybe the adrenaline really did make me stronger. Whatever it was, it didn’t matter. I was barreling through the floor to ceiling windows, tucking my wings close to my body and taking a dive.
Then, before I got too low, I sprea
d them. An updraft caught them, and I was sent up and up into the air.
I knew that I was going to be followed, so I put all of my energy into flying east as fast as I could. I knew that I had to get Catarina to a hospital, and soon. She was losing strength and blood, fast. But I couldn’t stop too soon, or we were both going to die.
I needed to lose my tails first.
So I flew as fast, faster than I ever knew that I could, and then faster than that. I flew and I flew until I thought I couldn't fly anymore, and then farther than that.
I kept looking over my shoulder, and once I was sure that no one was following me anymore, I began to look for a hospital.
Thankfully, it didn’t take me too long to find a city, and not much longer to find a hospital. I swooped down to land in front of the entrance and roared, knowing that it would get me the immediate attention that I needed.
Instantly, people began coming out to see what was going on; that was when I lowered Catarina gently to the ground and shifted back to my human form.
I must have not had much strength left, for the shift was not voluntary. But I had to keep consciousness, so I forced myself to keep my eyes open as people called for a doctor.
I followed them inside as they lifted Catarina onto a stretcher and rushed her inside.
I was soon stopped by a nurse as they entered the ICU.
“I’m sorry, sir, but you can’t go any further,” she said.
“I need to stay by her side,” I insisted and tried to brush past her, but several others came to stop me, and I knew that I didn’t have the strength to fight them on this.
“Sir, she needs attention, and the doctors who are treating her can’t afford the distraction.”
Then she took a better look at me. “And you’re not looking too good yourself. We need to get you treated; follow me.”
I shook her off. “I don’t need your help. She needs it more than I do.”
“Sir, she is already being treated. You need treatment too; now follow me.”
I tried to shake her off again, but I didn’t have the strength anymore. Before I knew what was happening, I had fallen, and my vision was going black. The nurses around me were calling for help, and I felt someone lift me as I completely lost consciousness.
I didn’t know how long I was unconscious for, just that when I woke up, it was no longer dark outside, and I was aching all over. I really did push my body past its limits, and there were bandages all over me. I assumed it was from where I had been scratched flying out the window and cut during my fight.
Catarina.
I had to check to make sure that she was safe.
But the moment I tried to rise from my bed, a nurse entered the room.
“Oh no, you don’t,” she said, coming over to me and pushing me down. I didn’t have the strength to fight her. “Your body is still exhausted, even if you’re awake. You need more rest, or you’ll just make things worse and reopen all of your cuts.”
“What about Catarina? Is she okay?” I demanded.
“You mean the girl you brought in? She’s okay, but not out of the woods yet.” Her face softened. “Don’t worry, she’s in good hands, and you brought her in just in time. She’s going to be just fine.”
I sighed and laid back. “If anything happens to her...” I started threateningly.
She just laughed a little. “Don’t worry, we know. We’re taking good care of her. Now get some more rest.”
It took another day before they let me see Catarina, and then she wasn’t awake. They told me that it might take a while for her to wake up as her body had been through a lot and she was still recovering strength and healing. They assured me that she was fine now and that she would recover within time; I just needed to give it to her.
I waited by her bedside, reading and chatting with the nurses for several days. Each day I asked them when they thought she would wake up fully.
Sometimes she would come to consciousness for a moment enough to eat something or mutter something under her breath, but she was never in any condition to talk, or even to recognize me or that she was alive.
Finally, the day came when she awoke, and fully this time.
She looked around the room, blinking sleep from her eyes. Then her gaze landed on me.
“Kyle?” she asked, tears brimming.
I was about to cry too. “Yes, It’s me. You’re safe now.” I flung my arms around her, careful not to squeeze her too tightly. “You’re safe now,” I whispered in her ear. “Everything’s okay.”
“Thank you,” she whispered. “Thank you so much. I’m so glad.”
“Of course. There was no way that I was going to let them kill you. Not one chance, not after everything that we’d been through together.”
I pulled away so that I could have a good view of her face. “You’re so special to me. I’m not going to let anything happen to you, ever again.”
“Thank you.”
“Of course, and I have something to tell you.” I took a deep breath. I had had days to prepare myself for this moment, days to practice exactly what I was going to say when the time came. But now that I had a chance to say it, the words just seemed to leave me.
“You mean so much to me, and that’s never going to change. It’s not changed by the fact that you’re an Omega, and it’s certainly not changed by the fact that you’re infertile. I don’t care. I just love you. And I want you to be my mate, officially. No one else gets to have you; I want you to be all mine.”
She wiped the tears from her eyes and smiled wide. “Kyle, there’s nothing more I’ve wanted in my life than to be your mate. Not to be free, not anything. Of course, I’ll be yours, as long as you’ll be mine.”
“Oh, Catarina, I’ve been yours for a long time now. I don’t know how, but you managed to capture my heart, and now it’s never going to leave your side.”
“You mean it?”
“Of course I do. I’ve never meant anything more than I mean this. You’re so special to me.”
We shared a quick and passionate kiss before the nurse came in to check on us and looked at us both with a smile.
“Good to see you’re finally up. He’s been waiting by your side the whole time, you know,” she said with a wink. “Now, how do you feel?”
“If I’m being honest, a bit hungry,” Catarina said with a grimace, her stomach growling as if to punctuate her statement.
“Well, of course you are, you haven’t been able to eat much recently. I’ll go grab both of you some food. Be back in a moment.”
“Okay,” Catarina said cheerfully, waving as the nurse left. Then she turned back to me. “Is the food here any good? I’m a bit worried.”
I couldn’t help it; I laughed. “No worries. The food here is actually plenty good. Surprising, right?”
She nodded. “I guess I’ll have to see for myself.”
It took a few more days before Catarina was discharged from the hospital. In the meantime, I got a hotel nearby and visited her every chance I got.
When I wasn’t visiting her, I was researching places for us to rent and applying for jobs nearby. With my impressive resume, it didn’t take long before I had a start date and a little apartment for us to stay in until we could find a house that we liked.
I wanted to buy a house with her. I wanted to find a cute little country cottage with a large garden and plenty of space for us to stretch our wings outside.
We weren’t going to be able to fly to our new life, though. Even though Catarina was being discharged from the hospital, she was far from strong enough to make the journey as a dragon. She was still healing, after all.
So instead I got her release date from the nurses and bought us train tickets to Virginia, where our apartment and my new job was located.
On the day of her release, I headed into the hospital to pick her up with a few things. I had packed and had everything in the car I had rented waiting for us. But first, I had a few gifts that I wanted to give her.
/> “Catarina?” I said as I walked into her room. “Happy release day!”
She smiled up at me from where she was sitting in her bed. “Thanks, Kyle.” She looked exhausted.
“You okay? You look like you can barely keep your eyes open.”
“I was too excited to sleep last night. I should be fine once we get going.”
I let out a little laugh. “That’s good to hear. Though I’ll be driving, so you can sleep in the car and on the train if you need to.”
“That’s true. What have you got there?” she asked, tilting her head to the side to try to see what I was holding behind my back.
I smiled, taking a few steps closer, and then pulled out a wrapped box. “Why don’t you open it and see?” I handed it over to her and watched as she carefully peeled off the wrapping paper and then opened the box.
She gasped. Then she began to pull out the things I had packed it with.
First came a coloring book and a nice set of colored pencils, to keep her occupied on the train ride. There were some of her favorite snacks, and then a couple of romance books that I was pretty sure she hadn’t read yet.
And, finally, my favorite part.
She pulled out the printed sheet of paper, looking it at in confusion first, then she looked back up at me in question.
“Wait, really?”
“Yes, really,” I said with a smile.
She squealed, then got out of the bed and flung her arms around me. “Thank you, thank you so much. I can’t wait.”
On the paper was a picture of a cute little Australian sheepdog puppy and a note explaining that I had gotten all the paperwork in order to adopt him as soon as we got to Virginia. Since I knew she wasn’t going to be feeling comfortable working yet, I wanted her to have a companion while she was at home. And I knew that a high-energy puppy would probably be the perfect thing, especially when it was one as emotionally sensitive and intelligent as a sheepdog.
“What do you think you’re going to name him?” I asked.
She considered this for a moment and then let out a little laugh. “I think Fabio would be the perfect name.”