“Get away from my pups!” My wolf growled.
I swallowed the sound before it reached my lips.
“Seems we have company, Brendan,” the man laughed. “Come join us. I’ve waited a long time to meet the man who married my step-son.”
Fire danced in my mind. Half-shifted bears twirled around the fire dancing and chanting.
“Atsilv ko. Atsilv ko. Atsilv ko. Atsilv ko. Atsilv ko.”
“RHETT! BE CAREFUL! IT’S CORDEN!” Brendan roared from inside the egg room.
With each chant the fire danced higher giant arms reaching for the stars.
“ATSILV KO!” The words bubbled over my lips before I could stop them. I rounded the corner with my hands extended. Pain shot through my palms, but the fire didn’t stop there. The blaze caught the strange man mid-turn. He roared in pain and flailed to the floor. His robes burnt as he rolled and flopped attempting to extinguish the flame.
Fire or no fire, I pounced. Later I’d wonder about how the shaman’s chant worked for me, but now wasn’t the time. This imbecile had the balls to waltz into my home and threaten my mate and unborn children. Corden was a dead man casting.
He wriggled under me and muttered half a word. I drew my fist back and punched him hard in the mouth.
“Try casting a spell with a fat lip, fucker!” I growled and drew back to punch him again. “You’re lucky I don’t rip out your bloody tongue!”
This time my fist found empty air where Corden had been. He stood laughing on the other side of the nest. His dark hair was scorched and one of his eyebrows completely gone.
“You talk a big game for such a filthy mutt,” Corden shook his head. “I took down the Moonscales. What makes you think you stand a chance against me?”
“The flight link,” my wolf whispered.
I felt along our mating link for the ridge that led to Clarence and the others, but it wasn’t there. Something about Corden’s presence on the island blocked us from the rest of the flight. Out of habit, I tried for Seth, but he wasn’t there either.
“Eat him!” My wolf let out a desperate howl.
My hands still stung from the spell, but that didn’t stop my charge. With desperation twisting my gut, I shifted and leapt over Brendan’s head and our eggs.
“WATCH OUT!” Brendan shouted as the mad man raised his hands above his head.
“Anis…” I knocked Corden into the wall before the spell left his lips. The words came out a tangled mess. Daisy sprouted from the stone floor.
“Planting a garden?” Brendan roared behind me.
When it came to magic, I was in over my head and our best bet was for me to stop him before he casted. My pounce missed his throat but Corden hit the wall hard. He cried out in pain and shoved me away. Shifting back, I ran headfirst into his gut. The air whooshed out of him in a grunt. He brought the heel of his hand down hard on the back of my head. Growling, I sank my human teeth into his belly. He punched my head and I lost my grip. His slick blood stuck to my tongue hindering my sense of smell.
“Deku…”
“Not today fucker!” I punched him in the stomach again.
He caught my arm in a fiery grip that seared to my shoulder. The pain twisted me until I bent over trying to clear the heat induced fog from my head. Drawing on the strength of my wolf, I drove my elbow into his thigh as hard as I could manage.
“FUCK YOU!” He hissed and drew back his fist.
I twisted hard and broke free from his fiery grip. Brendan whispered to himself drawing a chalk circle around the nest. It was the same barrier spell he used to protect our waterfall hideout. Corden raised his hand in his direction and I charged again shifting midair. I landed with a thud on top of Corden. He grabbed my ears trying desperately to escape my snarling bites. I landed my teeth into the side of his face, but he disappeared leaving me with only a chunk of flesh in my mouth. I spat it out and twisted to find where the snakey bastard slithered off to this time.
Brendan’s protection circle glowed blue. I breathed a sigh of relief until I realized he wasn’t inside of it with our eggs, but on the outside with me and Corden.
“Which one of you would like to die first?” Corden laughed from the shadows.
I spun on my heels searching him out. The shadows blended together hiding him. I tripped over Matthew’s cold dead hand and nearly face planted. Corden charged. I braced for the impact. His shoulder hit into my gut. Brendan swung the empty wine bottle and shouted a word I didn’t quite understand. Corden disappeared again.
“Where the fuck?” I swore wiping his blood away from my mouth.
I spun ready to swing or shift when I located him again.
“ALPHA! STOP! HE’S IN HERE!” Brendan shouted over the storm roaring outside.
“What?” I twisted to face my mate with my fists still up ready for another round with the intruder.
Brendan held up the wine bottle with a trembling hand. He said something I couldn’t hear over the sound of my pounding heart.
“What, babe?” I asked keeping my ears open for any sign of Corden.
“I trapped him just like Bashi did. Bashi trapped him in a bottle and tossed him out to sea,” Brendan said.
The bottle slipped from his trembling hand. I scooped and caught it at the last second before it smashed into the stone floor. Squinting, I held it up to a torch. The fire danced illuminating the inside of the bottle. Inside, Corden banged at the glass. His mouth stretched open in a scream, but nothing came out.
“How did you…?” I asked at a lost for words.
“My dragon knew the word. I can’t say it now. I can’t say it without shifting my tongue to draconic,” he shook as he spoke.
Gripping the bottle’s neck with one hand, I pulled Brendan close to me. Fear tinged his scent. I sniffed for blood, but only smelled Matthew’s and traces of Corden’s.
Brendan stepped back and looked at my free hand.
“Where did you learn that spell? I’ve never heard it before. We should get some saltwater for your hands. I’ll go when the storm passes.”
“I’m okay,” I pulled him back into my arm. “Don’t worry about me. What about you? Are you hurt? Our eggs?” I stepped towards the nest, but he pulled me back.
“I’ll take down the shield in a minute. I just want to make sure the bottle spell sticks. I’m just a little shell-shocked right now. I can’t believe he actually came back. I can’t…” Brendan dissolved into tears.
“Shhh. . . Baby, he’s not going to hurt you. He’s not going to hurt anyone. This time we’ll put him somewhere he’ll never escape from. Somewhere he can’t wash back up on the beach from.”
Chapter Thirty-Four
Brendan
The tears wouldn’t stop coming. Rhett kept the bottle full of Corden tucked under his arm as he pulled me into the torchlight. The first rays of the morning sun shined through the windows as he looked me up and down again and again searching for any sign of injury. Whenever his hand brushed too close to my skin he cringed in pain and swore under his breath.
“Where did you learn that spell from? I’ve never heard of it.”
He pressed his head to mind and shared a memory of half-bear men chanting around a tall spindly fire.
“Atsilv ko,” my dragon repeated to himself committing the newly learned spell to memory.
“I’m okay really, Alpha,” I pushed his hands away. “You need to rest and eat. Food will help you heal. Here, sit him down in the corner. I’ll put up a shield that’ll hold him even if he breaks out.”
“Are you sure it’ll work?” He asked me.
“Do you doubt me?” I sniffled.
“No, I just…”
“Alpha, I can do my part. I’m not a weakling. Besides, I’m not taking down the shield around the eggs until he’s locked up,” I put my hands on my hips. “So, if you want to check on the eggs sit the mad man down over there.” I walked to the farthest corner of the room away from our nest.
Rhett followed me and sat the b
ottle down. Corden kept pounding on the glass, but I ignored him as I drew the chalk lines to create the barrier. If I faced off with him after my magic came to life I would have won.
“You’re going to rot in there,” I told him as the spell activated. “You’re never going to hurt anyone again. It might have taken me centuries, but I told you I wouldn’t let you away with using my father for your sick games!”
With trembling hands, I took down the spell around the eggs. Rhett stood halfway between the nest and Corden’s magical prison.
“Come tell our babies it’s okay, Alpha,” I held a hand out to him.
Before then, I’d never seen Rhett so angry. Not even when Matthew snuck onto our island.
“We need to take him out of here. I’ll call Clarence soon. He can take him back to his family. He was an asshole, but he didn’t deserve this. Last I heard, he was in some reform school for young Alphas. Some sort of boot camp. He must have been home for the weekend.”
I stayed with the eggs as Rhett scooped up Matthew and carried him out of the room. In some twisted way, he brought about his own demise by sneaking onto Moonscale Island. He also bought us more time by taking Corden away with him.
“Juda, bless his parents. No one deserves to lose a child so young,” I sniffed and settled in between my eggs.
Rhett came back a few minutes later in a clean shirt. He’d washed his hands and face and picked what was left of Corden out of his teeth. He stepped into the nest and settled between the eggs with me. I moved onto his lap facing him and wrapped my arms around his neck.
“We did it,” I whispered. “We did. I froze when he showed up. I couldn’t even call for help. Then you showed up and I knew I had to fight, because we had a chance of winning together.”
“I love you,” Rhett kissed me. “I love you so much. I shouldn’t have left you alone tonight. I’m sorry you had to be alone with that horrible man.”
“I’m okay,” I said and meant it. “It’s finally over. I don’t know what to do with him now, but it’s over. We know where he is. I’m not looking over my shoulder everyday waiting for him to show up. We faced my worst fear and beat it.”
A crack filled the room. Rhett leapt to his feet pulling me up with him. A crack the sized of a gold piece ran down the side of the silver egg.
“Fuck! Where’s my phone? We gotta call Enda,” Rhett felt on his pockets. “What did he do? I didn’t think he got a spell off…”
“Alpha,” I grabbed his hands. The burns on his palms were fading.
“We need to call the doctor.”
“No, we don’t. Corden didn’t do this. Nature did. Our hatchling is breaking out of the egg! The fighting riled them up.” I squeezed his hands. “Come sit with me. Be here when the babies hatch. Don’t let Corden take this moment from us. We’ll never get it back, Alpha.”
We sat in front of the silver egg and listened to the scratching coming from the other side. As if answering the scratching of their sibling the hatchling inside the black egg began to do the same. I scooted in front of the black egg unsure who would come out first.
“We’re going to be daddies,” Rhett said.
His expression was elated bemusement.
“Soon,” I squeezed his hand without taking my eyes off the eggs.
A crack split the black shell open and a piece fell off. A big blue eye looked back at us.
“Hello, baby,” I said.
The hatchling worked faster squirming and stretching their wings out. Soon, a little head peeked out and snorted fire.
“Hey, baby girl,” I said and sat on my hands.
Hatchlings needed to make their own way into the world to ensure they grew strong enough to survive.
“You can do it, little one,” Rhett cheered the baby on.
A piece of silver shell plopped off and landed in Rhett’s lap. A big green eye looked out.
“There you go, big guy,” Rhett laughed. “You’re already kicking ass.”
“How did you know he was a boy?”
“I’ve met enough dragons that it’s getting easier,” Rhett laughed.
“And you can hear him over the flight link too.”
“Yeah. There’s that too,” he laughed.
“You can do it, Stacy,” I cheered as her little black scaled foot broke from the egg.
She let out a shriek and burst her head through the top of the shell breaking free of the shell. Then exhausted from the struggle she shifted into her tiny human form in the center of the shell and cried to be picked up. I pulled my shirt off over my head and wrapped her in it.
“I’m going to go clean her up at the sink. Stay with Elwin,” I grinned at Rhett.
As I stood the silver egg split and Elwin puffed his first wispy smoke into the room. His tiny wings fluttered before he gave up and shifted into his human form too.
“I’ll bring our boy,” Rhett picked him up.
The shock of Corden’s return clung to my sweaty skin but holding Baby Stacy reminded me of what we fought for. I’d do anything to keep the small pink bundle of joy safe and happy. I’d fight Corden and any other madman every day if I had to. A smile tugged at my lips despite the adrenaline still surging through my veins.
Chapter Thirty-Five
Rhett
After Baby Stacy and Elwin were clean, we cuddled up with them in the nest. Holding the sleepy pink balls of joy was better than I ever imagined. Happiness pumped through my veins. I kept an eye on the bottle in the corner but didn’t stop smiling like a fool. Our twins chose one hell of a morning to hatch. Exhaustion pulled at the corners of my mind. My hands still burnt, but that didn’t stop me from holding our little ones. Somehow it all fit together. All the loose strands of the past were tied up in a knot that couldn’t unravel our future. Baby Stacy came in after a hurricane not unlike the one who swept her namesake out to sea forever.
Baby Elwin slept soundly, but Baby Stacy shifted into her tiny dragon form to flop around whenever she wasn’t the center of someone’s attention. Before meeting Brendan, it amazed me that I loved someone I never met. I ached and longed to touch the face of a total stranger. Holding the twins only amplified my amazement. I loved them from the moment I knew they were on their way. Before I ever laid eyes on them. Love is a huge web connecting us to the past and the future. To those we haven’t met yet but are destined to. Everything else runs out the more it’s used, but love keeps growing. The only thing left to do when I was ready to break our happy nest bubble was to call Seth to announce he was an uncle.
“And to eat Corden,” my wolf grumbled.
“Shhh… Alpha, relax. He’s in a bottle. He’s not going anywhere,” Brendan’s dragon cooed.
Brendan scooted closer and reached for the flopping baby Stacy. Her wings stretched out wide as he scooped her up.
“She’s already trying to fly off,” I laughed and kissed Baby Elwin on the forehead.
He stirred in his sleep but didn’t wake up.
“They have their whole lives ahead of them,” Brendan said. “It’s amazing. They’re amazing. We made two little people. Two perfect little people.”
“They look so much like you. They’re adorable.”
“Yes, they’re blondes like me when I was a baby, but Elwin has your nose. Your cute nose,” he leaned over to kiss the baby’s nose.
Stacy let out a little puff of smoke to regain his attention.
“I think she’s hungry again,” I said.
“She eats almost as much as me,” Brendan laughed.
“She’s a growing girl.”
“She’s a growing dragon,” he chuckled. “She bit the nipple off her last bottle.”
Wind smacked against the windows and Brendan hit the floor covering Baby Stacy. The babies cried as Brendan’s nervous scent filled the egg room.
“The storm’s gone,” I stood up with Baby Elwin tucked under my arm. “Shh… Babies, it’s okay.”
I peered out the window and shook my head. Clarence soared across the isla
nd with a blurry dot of a passenger riding on his back. Squinting, I could barely make out Seth’s form.
“We have visitors,” I laughed.
“Who?” Brendan looked up at me from the floor.
“Clarence and my brother,” I held out my hand to help him up.
“Take the baby, please,” he said.
I scooped up Baby Stacy and Brendan walked to the window.
“Did you call them about Corden?” He asked.
“Clarence likely felt it over the flight link once Corden was captured. Whatever he did made it impossible to reach out for help.” Brendan’s scent was agitated.
“Do you want me to tell them to leave?” I asked him.
“I think they’re okay,” Brendan bit his lip. “Maybe. We’ll see. Don’t let me bite anyone. Dragon’s are notorious for being overprotective over their hatchlings.”
“Do you want to bite them?” I arched a brow.
“No, but they’re not inside yet,” he said and opened the flight door.
Brendan sat in the nest and reached for the babies. I kissed each of their soft blonde heads and handed them off one by one. Despite knowing they were safe I missed the warmth of their tiny bodies pressed against my chest.
Clarence circled the castle one more time before landing. Seth climbed off his back pulling down several bags with him. The gift bags were blue and pink with fluffy storks on either side of the bags. With his burden relieved, Clarence shifted to his human form. Seth started to enter the room proper and Clarence stopped him with a hand on his chest.
“Do we have permission to board?” Clarence looked to Brendan.
“Slowly,” Brendan said.
“I’ll never understand dragons,” Seth laughed.
“Just respect boundaries and you’ll be fine,” I told him.
“We brought gifts for my niece and nephew,” Seth held out the bags like a peace offering.
“You may approach the nest to leave your offerings,” Brendan smirked.
“Thank you, oh Lord of Dragons,” Seth chuckled and sat the bags down on the edge of the nest.
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