This trip was different. The plan was to find wives, any wives, and bring the women home before anyone knew the princes were missing. If they could prove they had been well matched by the gods with human women, they could convince the assembly of elders to keep the portals open.
And that is where things became tricky. To obtain ultimate happiness, a shifter needed to find his true mate. Tonight, they were taking any mate. They would be married to women who were not their true mates, obligated to pretend they had found their destinies. In doing so, they would save the future of their people. The princes would be forever joined in this secret that they’d be forced to carry.
Ivar never thought Finn would have it in him to make a sacrifice that put his people before himself. If this night went as planned, Ivar’s opinion of the dragon-shifter would be forever changed.
The Earth town looked familiar insomuch that it was alien constructed and appeared like the ones his people had seen on the transmission waves caught on his home world. No, Earth people called it television, not transmissions.
The structures were not like those on Ivar’s planet. They were fat and square and squished together. The area centered on a large white building encircled by a road as if to mark its importance by forcing vehicles to drive around it. Across the street on all sides from the showcased building, other structures pressed tightly together with balconies above the walkway, as if to keep those humans below from looking too far past the wares and foods being sold. There was no distant landscape, no fields and forests.
When the shifters had first started coming to Earth, they tried to blend in with the locals. Ivar had told women he was a drag queen, which he quickly found out wasn’t the best way to secure a bride. His people thought it meant royalty. It also turned out that Earth was diverse and had enough strange fashions and rituals that their native garb barely drew attention.
Whereas Ivar dressed like a Var, Finn wore a looser tunic style shirt over dark pants and boots common to dragon-shifters. Dragons only half shifted into what looked to be a man-dragon hybrid and did not need to strip out of their clothing. They both carried bags against their hip with thick straps across their chests. Each filled with Earth cash-money, and food rations in case they did not find anything suitable to eat.
Ivar did not want to be on Earth long. Everything about the planet made him uncomfortable. He looked around, hoping to see a woman he could take home to be his wife. It shouldn’t be too hard to find a female willing to be a princess, even if it was on an alien world.
Ivar would not be the one to introduce humans to the truth of the universe. The prince simply wanted to find a mate. He would then take her through the portal to his home world to live in the Var palace, and they would never visit this primitive planet ever again.
Surely the gods would bless him this time. He did his duty. He took care of his family and his people. He’d begged them to bless him. He did everything he was supposed to do.
If the gods were with them, they’d find their true mates and be home before an hour had passed. He glanced over the crowds, suspiciously watching the locals. The swish of a white skirt caught his attention as a woman disappeared around a corner. He had the urge to follow her but stopped himself.
Who was he kidding? He wasn’t sure the will of the gods could be heard in a place full of so much noise and clutter.
There were no women appropriate for mating that he could see. He’d thought the shifter scouts had marked this location as unusable because of the semi-public location of the portal opening when it materialized. In fact, it might have been because every female he could see was either too young or appeared to be wearing a marriage finger shackle.
Ivar thought of his younger brother. Rafe’s wife, Jenna, came from Earth and the two of them had a stable union. They’d met in a place where humans procured food. If his brother’s happiness were any indication, such a meeting place would be lucky.
Finn’s brother had found his wife in a tavern. Eve had been on a stage singing bizarre words. She’d also been drunk. Ivar would never question the will of the gods, and they chose Eve to be a princess, but he had come to the conclusion that most tavern women were not looking for mates. Ivar liked Eve well enough but did not want such a handful for his bride.
“You’re quieter than usual,” Finn said, as they moved down the sidewalk away from the town center. The further they walked, the fewer people they saw. Buildings turned into large houses that were set back from the street. “Are you having second thoughts about our mission?”
“No,” Ivar said without hesitation. “I was thinking that I do not understand why those dragons would choose to defect through the portal to live here permanently.”
Ivar instantly wished he wouldn’t have broached the subject.
Finn frowned. “One problem at a time. If we keep the portals open, I plan to find the lost dragons and bring them home. I think I have narrowed down which location they have been using. It is a place called New Orleans. I honestly believe the only reason they left our world was to find brides. I cannot blame them for that. By going through with our plan to prove happiness in marriage is possible, and to regulate travel, we can end future defection.”
“New Orleans? I am not sure I have been to that portal stop,” Ivar said.
“My brother has been there with his wife. When Eve was kidnapped by a cat-shifter from the Nutef faction and brought there to die, Kyran went after her. I have traced the time when the dragon-shifters left, and it seems to point to that location. We have extra guards assigned to prevent future problems. If I can get them to come home, it will calm many of the fears and rumors about Earth.”
Ivar didn’t speak.
“I know this was my idea, and I’ll understand if you change your mind,” Finn said.
“I will not change my mind.” Ivar again did not hesitate. He knew what needed to be done. “I don’t like the idea of taking women against their will, but I have not changed my mind.”
“Kidnapped brides are not what either of us wants, and I pray it will never come to that. I keep asking myself, what if the women don’t want to be married, or if they make us miserable? What if they are unkind or driven by vanity and ego?”
As much as he didn’t like Finn’s impetuous attitude, seeing him worried was almost worse. “Then we will have to smile, and lie, and pretend to love our wives for the rest of our hundreds of years. We agreed, and I do not wish to change my course. You were right. This is the only way to force the elders to keep the portals open. Without brides, our people die out. This will be the secret we carry to our graves. It is a sacrifice we must be willing to make.”
“I don’t think Lord Montague will ever be convinced to keep the portals open,” Finn said. Lord Montague was not only a dragon elder but also the stoic leader of the dragon council of elders. He was the most outspoken when it came to closing portal travel forever.
“If you convince the other elders, then there’s nothing he can do to stop it.” Ivar had never seen Lord Montague with anything but a look of disapproval and disgust on his face. He doubted the man liked anything.
They had sneaked through the portal for a reason and could not lose sight of that goal. Tonight was not about love. The odds of the gods blessing them were not great. They’d tried so many times before with no luck. Yes, they hoped to find their true mates, but if that didn’t happen—one way or another—they would be leaving with women.
The plan was to defy tradition and create their own blessing. They would take half mates, ensure the future of the shifter population, and never let a moment of discontentment show.
Cat-shifters had taken half mates in the past, but those were marriages of convenience. Ivar wanted a love like his parents had, like his brother had, but this wasn’t about his wants. He was a prince. He had a duty to his people as did Finn. What mattered more? The fates of two princes? Or the survival of thousands?
“I keep hoping women will walk up to us and say, ‘The gods sent u
s to you. We are your true mates. Take us home and prove to the elders that human women make viable wives and the portal should be left open so that others may come and be happy.’ But I know that is unlikely,” Finn said.
“If only it were that easy.” Ivar agreed the fantasy had appeal, but he did not want to be drawn into fanciful daydreams. “We should not place our bets on such horrible odds.”
A young man walked past them and gave them a strange look.
“We should use the Earth language.” Ivar hadn’t realized they’d slipped into their native tongue. They initially had learned to speak the Earth languages from the television transmission waves floating around space and then furthered their vocabulary as those first scouts came to investigate the portal openings.
“Like our talking about the decreasing population of dragon-shifters and cat-shifters due to a lack of females would draw less attention than our foreign words.” Finn laughed. “Maybe we should announce ourselves. Perhaps the women would line up to marry us.”
“I’m glad you find amusement in this.” Ivar’s tone expressed the opposite. He wasn’t glad. Not about any of this. He couldn’t help the sternness in his voice. The future of his people was not a game.
“I’m sorry, Ivar. I do not mean to make light. I know you do not want to be on this planet. You have made that clear on every trip to Earth we have taken.” Finn took a deep breath. “I don’t want to do this either. I want a wife, but not like this.”
“There is nothing down this road but houses and traffic,” Finn said. “We should turn around.”
“Agreed. We do not want to wander too far from the portal.” Ivar followed Finn’s lead, and they moved in the other direction. “We will stay close to that central location where there are many gathering places and hope that more women appear.”
They quickened their pace to hurry back toward the center of town. Turning down a small inlet with tables, they heard people talking. Children screamed, running with their hands in the air as they carried colorful ice cream cones.
Ivar lifted his hands wide to the side. “I did nothing this time to make them scream. I didn’t even look at them.”
“I think that sound is excitement, not fear,” Finn said.
“You have to come back here for a football game this fall,” a boisterous voice demanded. They turned to watch the commander from the balcony pass by the inlet. “We might not win all the games, but we never lose a party. The fun starts at the tailgating and doesn’t end until dawn.”
“I think ol’ Donald here secretly works for the tourist board,” one of the commander’s men teased. The group walked on, and Ivar let go of his captured breath. He did not want to be blamed for frightening more children.
“What is football?” Finn asked.
Ivar gestured that he did not know.
“Perhaps we will have better luck if we take different paths,” Finn suggested. “We do not have much time, and we can cover more ground apart.”
Ivar nodded. “The sound does carry here. Stay within shouting distance to the center. If that portal closes, we’re trapped for a year until it reopens. We both need to be gone before that happens.”
Finn’s expression turned unusually serious as he looked around. “No. Of course we wouldn’t want that.”
“The commander has left.” For some reason, Ivar was drawn to where he’d seen the woman in the white skirt. Perhaps if he followed in that direction, there would be more women. “I’ll head back the way we came. You can explore here. If either of us finds suitable brides, we will meet in the middle.”
“A fine plan,” Finn agreed.
Before the man could leave Ivar placed a hand on his arm to stop him. He wanted to say something comforting, but there were no words. “We have to believe that kindness in a mate will be enough and that happiness can be found in duty.”
Finn didn’t answer.
Ivar had seen the look on his brother’s face each time Jenna entered the room. He saw their love, their devotion, and their contentment. As pleased as he was for Rafe, their happiness over the last few years had made Ivar’s loneliness worse.
“We will not have that mad rush of passion that others talk about,” Ivar continued, “but in the end, our pleasure will have to come from seeing others find mates. If that is the sacrifice the gods demand, then we will pay it.”
“Yes. We will pay it.” Finn nodded sadly.
Before Ivar could say anything more, Finn took off through the inlet in the same direction the children had come from.
Ivar wondered if the dragon prince was reconsidering their decision. He couldn’t say it would surprise him. When the time came to decide, he wasn’t sure how Finn would act.
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Michelle loves to travel and try new things, whether it's a paranormal investigation of an old Vaudeville Theatre or climbing Mayan temples in Belize. She believes life is an adventure fueled by copious amounts of coffee.
Newly relocated to the American South, Michelle is involved in various film and documentary projects with her talented director husband. She is mom to a fantastic artist. And she's managed by a dog and cat who make sure she's meeting her deadlines.
For the most part she can be found wearing pajama pants and working in her office. There may or may not be dancing. It’s all part of the creative process.
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