by Kate Rudolph
With a rough tug the blindfold came off and the dim light of the forest at sunset was almost blinding. And though I’d never been here before I could immediately tell where we were. The portal.
I don’t know what I’d pictured, but it lived up to my expectations. A giant swirling vortex lived under a natural looking stone arch. I didn’t know if Earth was on the other side, and my body rebelled at finding out. You’d have to be pretty damn desperate to jump through that thing and hope it spit you out the other side. I didn’t know if this was where my ancestor had jumped through when leaving this planet but the bravery it had taken was staggering.
Even when I’d wanted to go back to Earth I don’t think that I would have been able to force myself through. It looked like it would tear me apart the second I dipped a hand inside. And I was uncomfortably close. It generated an unnatural wind that muffled my hair and sent electricity crackling along my skin. Not fun.
I scrambled back, but one of the captors clamped a hand down on my shoulder and tried to drag me closer. I finally got a look at who had taken me, but I couldn’t put a name to the two dragons. And I was pretty sure they were dragons, soldiers under Veyne’s command.
Did he really think that I was such a potential problem that he’d kidnap me and expel me from the planet before Drikal had a chance to form too deep of an attachment to me? Too late, motherfucker. If he’d approached me a few days ago and offered me a way out, maybe I would have taken him up on it, but now it was too late.
Two alpha dragon soldiers versus me weren’t odds I liked, but I wasn’t going to let them separate me from my mate. I’d made a decision and I was sticking to it.
The first dragon tried to drag me, but I jerked myself away and managed to crawl, putting several meters of distance between me and the portal. My skin no longer crackled, though I felt the faint wind. But the dragon soldier was between me and the portal, and that was better than I’d been.
Of course, in concentrating on the first dragon I’d lost sight of the second, and a blow to my back sent me falling towards the portal again, splaying on the ground and getting dirt in my mouth.
Gross.
Now would have been a really good time to tap into those wyvern powers. But they didn’t seem liable to manifest just like that. If I couldn’t be powerful, I’d have to do what I’d done my entire life and be scrappy. I dug my fingers into the dirt and came up with a handful of pebbles that I chucked towards one of the dragons. It didn’t do anything to hurt him, but he flinched.
“We’re not supposed to hurt you,” the one who’d tried to drag me to the portal said. “So just go back to your home planet.”
The aches and bruises already blooming begged to differ, but it was true that they hadn’t done any permanent or even debilitating damage. Not yet.
“That’s not going to happen.” I made a break for it, spinning around and running in a random direction. I didn’t know if it would take me back to the keep or not, but all I wanted was to get away from the portal.
Fire singed a path behind me and I picked up the pace. When the forest suddenly dropped away and I saw the cliff, there was nothing I could do to stop my forward momentum.
I don’t know what made me do it. If I’d had time to think there was no way I would have even tried it. But the edge of the land came closer and closer and when I reached the end, I leapt.
I hung in the air for a second before I started to fall. Looking down there was no way I’d survive, but I could feel the heart of that flame deep inside of me and I let it take me over, finding my inner wyvern and letting her out.
And I soared.
Behind me the beating of dragon wings told me I wasn’t the only one to shift form, but there was no way they could force me through the portal like this. They could hurt me, and their fire heated the air, but I climbed high and fast, trying to get out of range.
The two dragons danced in the sky behind me, their skills clearly trained for years and honed in ways I couldn’t hope to understand.
But when a roar went up through the sky my heart lifted, and I let out a roar of my own, fire following in its path.
Drikal.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Drikal
My mate was a sight to behold, her fury as hot as her flame. I could sense the dragons at my back pause in indecision. A wyvern was being chased by two dragons and in this land that could only mean one thing. Or it had, until recently. But I put myself between my people and my mate, flying close and shielding her from any harm.
I couldn’t do it for long. There were still two rogue dragons who were even now trying to make their escape.
I sent a stream of fire after them, a clear sign to give chase, and the dragons behind me followed the command.
On any other day I would have gone with them, but this time I nudged Kristen with my snout and turned towards the keep. After a moment she figured out what I wanted and followed behind me, her wings beating powerfully against the darkening sky.
The keep was in disarray when we arrived, landing in the central courtyard. The guards who’d remained had weapons at the ready, but with me beside Kristen they didn’t have them aimed. I changed back, and after a blink my mate was in her human form once more.
I scooped her up and hugged her close. She clung to me as if she wished never to be parted.
“It was Veyne.” She had to say it twice before I actually heard her. “I went for a walk and he pushed me at those soldiers. They blindfolded me and dragged me to the portal.”
I didn’t want to believe it. Veyne had stood by me since I’d assumed my position as alpha. But he’d been acting strangely since I’d revealed that Kristen was my true mate and this afternoon I knew that he’d lied to me about where he’d been.
I turned to the nearest keep guard. “Find Veyne. Bring him here.”
My mother found us just as the guard fled to do as commanded. She looked at me holding Kristen and approached, pulling my mate towards her and giving her a hug of her own.
“My dear girl,” my mother said with an affection she normally kept hidden from anyone but family. “This has certainly been a day.” She kissed Kristen’s forehead before handing her back over to me.
It took several minutes for the guard to return with Veyne. It might have been wiser to settle this business within the keep, but it needed to be done now. And everyone needed to know that harming my mate held dire consequences.
When Veyne stepped into the courtyard, he wasn’t bound, but his shoulders were slumped and when he saw Kristen with me, he shrank even further.
“My true mate has charged you with attempted kidnapping,” I told him. Whispers broke out at the news that Kristen was my true mate, but they quieted almost as quickly. “Even now your two conspirators are being brought to answer for their crimes. How do you respond?”
He had rights. There was a process for these things. Veyne could demand an investigation and a trial, and though my anger at what he’d done boiled to the surface I’d be forced to allow it. He could also challenge my position. I couldn’t say what he’d decide. I wanted to rip his head off and burn his corpse to cinders, and even now fire played across my fingers. Seeming to sense my rage, Kristen entwined her fingers with mine, not flinching at my flame.
More whispers started as those closest to us were given proof of how true our bond was.
“I did it for our people,” Veyne said, his voice ragged and eyes red. “For you. You can’t take a wyvern as a mate! We are dragons! You are the dragon alpha.”
“And as the dragon alpha my decision has been made. Do you deny the charge? Or will you submit to punishment?” I wanted to scream, but instead my voice came out cold.
“She was never supposed to get hurt. All she needed to do was go home.”
“I am home,” Kristen said, taking a step forward but not letting go of my hand. “And if you think two little soldiers are enough to take me down, you’re out of your mind.”
“What will it be, Ve
yne?” Justice could be swift, and it needed to be done before I lost all control.
“I did what needed to be done. You’ll live to regret this.” He looked ready to take a swing, but he kept his hands at his sides. If he’d made one move against me I would have cut him down.
“Take him to the portal,” I ordered the guards. “He wanted to send my mate away, now he will suffer the same fate.”
It was not a common punishment, but for this crime I could not trust him to be rehabilitated. Not when my mate was at stake. And if she’d been harmed beyond bruises he wouldn’t have escaped with his life. But there were limits to even what an alpha could get away with if he wanted to maintain his position.
Another guard went to fetch chains and a vehicle to take Veyne to his fate. There would be no appeal, no second chance. By morning he’d be long gone and we’d be on our way to healing.
I took my mate inside and didn’t spare my former second a last glance. He didn’t deserve it after his betrayal. My heart hurt for the loss of my friend, but a man who could act like that had never truly been my friend, no matter what he claimed his motivations were.
And only once we were inside did I realize that now the entire keep had confirmation that my mate was a wyvern. But that was a problem for tomorrow as well. For tonight I needed to hold her close and remind myself that we were both alive and well. All worries beyond that could wait.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Kristen
I didn’t expect to sleep well, but once Drikal and I made it to our quarters I crashed and slept until afternoon the next day. I woke alone, but given the hour I could understand it. And when I saw my mate sitting in a chair near the bed I smiled. He’d brought his work into the room so he could watch over me. That kind of closeness might be too much all the time, but given what had happened yesterday I wouldn’t hold it against him, especially not when I wanted to spend every waking minute with him as well.
“I was worried I’d lost you,” he confessed once he saw my eyes were open.
“You can’t get rid of me that easy.” I offered a smile, but the weight of what had almost happened pressed down on me. “I love you.” It burst out of me like it had been waiting to be said for months rather than hours. But how could I hold it back when I’d only just been shown how short life could be? Maybe I hadn’t been at risk of death, but we could have been separated forever.
Drikal smiled, and it was like all of his worries washed away. “I love you, my true mate.” But then his face grew serious. “Veyne was not our only problem yesterday.”
“No?” What else could have happened? Wasn’t an attempted kidnapping enough excitement for the entire week?
“Rumors of your existence have reached Greer, the wyvern alpha. He claims that you may be a long lost cousin. He wants to meet you.” He kept his voice even, but his eyes betrayed his worry.
“That sounds… messy.” I’d gone from no history to speak of to too much history to bear. But at this point all the revelations were starting to roll together and I couldn’t even be shocked anymore. “I don’t exactly know all of the politics of this, but he’s going to want me to go back to the wyvern lands, isn’t he?”
“That’s not going to happen,” my mate rushed to assure me.
I threw off the covers and stalked towards him, pushing him back into his chair and setting myself on his lap. I twined my arms around his neck and gave him a kiss, making a sound of pure satisfaction when we broke apart. “I’m not worried about you giving me up. But I know that there’s responsibility that comes from being your mate. So I want to know what to expect.”
Drikal ran his hands through my hair, twining the dark strands around his fingers. “He may try to claim that you are one of his subjects and therefore have no right to live in the dragonlands.”
“Even if I am his cousin or whatever, that’s not going to happen. Your mom is the political genius lady, right? I bet she could find some way to foil him.”
His grin was a bit disgruntled. “I am perfectly capable of making decisions on my own.”
I grinned back, unrepentant. “There’s no shame in asking for help. It’s the sign of a good leader. And I think I’ve got a political idea of my own. One that just could turn the uneasy peace between dragons and wyverns into something real. Something you don’t have to worry about.”
“We’ll always worry about it.”
“Do you trust me?” I wasn’t exactly a political genius, but some things were so obvious that anyone could figure it out.
“With my heart and soul,” he said.
My own heart flipped over. I didn’t know what I’d done to deserve this man and I wasn’t going to give him up. Not ever. I kissed him again just because I could. “Want to get hitched?”
***
Okay, so it took a minute to explain to Drikal what exactly “getting hitched” entailed, but when he understood it he was on board. We kept calling ourselves mates, but it wasn’t official until we were bound. Not that I was going to walk away or anything, but if this being official made it easier for him to be my mate, then we’d be bound for good.
And once I’d suggested it I wanted to do it immediately, but to do it right, to do it strategically, we needed to give it time. After all, inviting the wyverns took maneuvering.
But Greer wanted to meet, and once we spoke over the hologram communicator, I was pretty sure he was sincere. Maybe he’d try and pull shit, but I wasn’t going to stand by and let shit get pulled.
So we had two months to wait. Each day brought Drikal and me closer, and each day we had to wait just made me want to be bound to him more. And finally the day came.
The wyverns arrived with a flourish of ceremony, landing a respectful distance from the keep and walking in a procession the last kilometer to show that they came in peace. Greer led them with three of his wives. I tried to find some sort of resemblance between us, but other than our dark hair and eyes we could have been strangers.
Drikal stood with the gathered court behind us and waited to greet the wyvern alpha. In the last two months, things hadn’t gone as smoothly as we’d hoped when it came to winning over the court. Some of the old timers had been reticent to accept a wyvern mate for their alpha, but enough had come around that we didn’t fear too much more upheaval. And every day more people seemed to believe that I wasn’t suddenly going to turn into a spy and murder Drikal in the night.
The only reason I’d do that was when he started to hog the covers, but when he did that he managed to keep me warm in other ways that I couldn’t complain about.
There were formal greetings to go through, but when Greer got to me he smiled wide. “You look just like her,” he said in awe. “We are well met, Kristen Mora. And though I know it may be hard to call me family so soon, I hope you know that I want to be your friend.”
These words hadn’t been planned, unlike everything else, and I knew I had to play this carefully. “My mate and I thank you for joining us on this happy day. And I do hope that you can tell me more about my mother. I have found my family here,” I laced my arm through Drikal’s for emphasis, “but the more I get in touch with my second form the more I find myself wishing to know about where I come from.”
I could see Riga give a satisfied smile out of the corner of my eye. At least I hadn’t blundered that too much. And it was the truth. I hadn’t realized how much I wanted to know about where I came from until it was within reach, and now I was willing to find out things I’d never cared about before. But not at the cost of Drikal. If Greer wanted to pull shit, he was on his own.
“I hope I am able to help.” The receiving line moved on as we greeted Greer’s wives and the rest of the members of his own court that had come with.
The spectacle of our bonding ceremony was more than I would have wished for, but that was what happened when you married a dragon alpha.
Once the politics were over we led the combined courts out to our favorite meadow. Drikal and I took flights at least e
very other day and more often than not we ended up there. Once my identity had been revealed to the court there was no reason to hold back on me taking my second form. I didn’t want our people to think I was ashamed of myself, and I hoped that the more they saw me flying proudly through our lands, the more accepting they would be of peace.
It would take time. There was a lot of history to cut through, but I had faith in us. Fate and the Celestial Mates had brought us together for a reason.
Unlike a wedding back home there was no officiant. This whole thing was between Drikal and I, no matter who we’d invited to act as witnesses. And we’d been tempted to seal the bond between us before doing it in front of spectators, but in the end had decided to hold off. We’d invited the court to watch a bonding ceremony between true mates and we had to live up to our word.
And once we were in the meadow, I didn’t care about the onlookers. This was about me and Drikal and the rest of them didn’t matter, not when I had him.
We’d decided to keep it simple. Drikal held out his hand and I placed mine in his. “Kristen Mora, I know you to be my true mate and love. Will you bond yourself to me?” His voice was loud enough to carry, but his eyes were only for me, and as I watched the fire dance in them I couldn’t help the giddy grin that lit up my face.
“Drikal, dragon alpha, you are my true mate and love. I will bind myself to you.” They were simple vows, but more than enough for both of us. We were mates, we loved each other. It was what we needed.
Fire ignited in Drikal’s hand, tickling me as it licked over my skin. I summoned my own flame, something I’d been practicing over the last few months. I still wasn’t perfect at it, but this time it went exactly as I wanted.
Then I held up my free hand and summoned flame to that one as well. Drikal summoned flame to his free hand and we laced those fingers to make it abundantly clear to anyone who hadn’t realized it.
We stayed there for a long moment before exchanging a kiss. Apparently that wasn’t a normal part of dragon binding rituals, but I’d insisted. I was happy to call Drakus my new home, but that didn’t mean that I wanted to forget where I was from completely.