1. River
Ipulled into the student parking lot, sliding my MC20 Cielo into neutral and setting the emergency brake. My body was a bundle of nerves. My dragon was subdued for the moment, letting me fully take the reins. Control wasn’t always easy for me, and it took many years for my grandparents to teach me how to contain the beast inside me.
Now I was the picture perfect model of control, the last time my dragon overtook me without my permission was when I got my period at thirteen. That was a disaster, we had to move shortly after the occurrence because we couldn’t explain to the school how the giant hole in the side of their building happened.
I ran to the bathroom when I felt it, but it was already too late. Blood stained the back of my leggings, and all the kids around started pointing at me and laughing. Pre-teens could be such assholes sometimes, and my dragon broke through the carefully crafted cage I had her in. I made it to the bathroom just in time for the shift to overtake my body, breaking through the bathroom wall. Thankfully, it was an outside wall of the school. No one caught sight of me flying away toward home, but we had to pack up and move anyway. There was no talking my way out of the dragon-sized hole I made in the side of the building.
“Hello. Earth to River.” Natalia waved her hand in front of my face, snapping me out of the memory. I shook my head, banishing the rest of the memory, and looked over at my friend’s wide eyes.
“Where did you go just now?” She asked, worry lacing her brows.
“Nowhere, just a stupid memory. Come on, let”s go.” I stepped out of the car and pulled my bookbag from the trunk, sliding it over my shoulder. Natalia slammed the door behind her, clearly upset I wouldn’t give her any more information than that. “Damn, I’m going to need a crowbar to pry that door open now.”
She narrowed her eyes at me, and I groaned. I hated when she was mad at me. “I was just thinking about the last time I lost control okay. It was nothing, just a nervous memory entering my mind.”
“Do you want to go home? All we’re doing is getting our schedules and touring the campus anyway. I can grab yours for you.” She told me, concern filling her eyes.
I shook my head, my white-blond curls bounced around my face. “No, I”m good. I promise.”
She looked at me wearily before turning and heading in the direction of the auditorium. We were told to go there to get our schedules for the semester. I caught up to Natalia as I looked around the campus. The fresh snow from last night made it look like a scene out of a fairytale. The thick white blanket dusted over every horizontal surface, glowing like a million tiny diamonds in the sun.
The trees were white-tipped, a stark contrast to the brown limbs. This school was magnificent. There were five different buildings, each one looking like a mini castle. A freshly shoveled sidewalk connected each of the buildings with a thick main walkway down the center.
Lampposts lined the stone walkways, surly to light the path at night. Small willow trees danced in the wind, swaying with the chilly air. No wonder they called this place Willow Hollow. There were willow trees everywhere I looked. They were literally everywhere.
“Witches were not made for the cold. Why couldn’t this school be located on some private island in the Bahamas,” she whined, zipping her thick pastel pink coat up further. Her short black hair was hidden underneath the giant matching hat on her head. I got to give it to her, the pink color did make her green eyes pop. Her whole wardrobe consisted of various shades of pink and tan.
I laughed as I looked down at my light gray jacket, I wouldn’t even classify it as a coat, it was the thinnest material I could find while giving the illusion of being thick and warm. I was already hot and would take it off if people wouldn’t look at me like I’m crazy, so for the sake of fitting in, I left it on.
I blew out a cloud of steam toward my bestie, warming her face. The pink on her nose and cheeks from the cold disappeared as my warm steam engulfed her.
“River,” she hissed, “Knock it off, we”re trying to blend in remember.”
I smirked, bumping into her side. “Relax a little. I can smell the supernaturals around us, and to a normal human, it would just look like a breath of cold air from the freezing temperatures.”
She rolled her eyes at me as we continued our trek to the auditorium. Once we were inside my senses were on pure overdrive. The amount of supernaturals in here was insane. I inhaled deeply, trying to determine all the different creatures from their scent.
“What do you smell?” Natalia whispered next to me; her voice so low I would have missed it if it wasn’t for my enhanced hearing.
I took another deep breath, the scents swirling around me. “There’s some vampires, witches, fairies, mermaids, banshees, golems, and a whole onslaught of shifters.”
Her eyes widened as she darted her gaze around the room, trying to see if she could pick any of them out of the crowd. All supernaturals were capable of glamor, hiding their true form from the humans, allowing us to blend into the masses. We only revealed ourselves in our safe space if we could help it, and all those tales of vampires bursting into flames in the daylight were bullshit. Vampires could walk in the sun like any other supernatural. They just preferred to hunt in the shadows of the night. So, people automatically assumed they couldn’t come out in the sunlight. It worked for them, though. They could literally hide in broad daylight, and no one would ever know.
“Can you tell what different types of shifters are here?” Natalia asked as we headed to the back of the line. It wrapped around the whole place, weaving in and out of the isles. I had a feeling we would be waiting for a while.
I turned to look at the different students filling the area. Smelling the air as I went, I tried not to be suspicious as I sniffed. That’s all I needed was the title of ‘weirdo who liked to smell people’ on my first day.
I tried to zero in on the shifter I smelled. “There’s definitely a wolf pack or two,” I told my inquisitive best friend. “Yup, definitely wolves,” I said, inhaling again.
I tried to see where they were, maybe the group of eight or so students standing all huddled together. Wolves tended to stick to their pack and didn”t like to mingle much. That didn’t bother me one bit, dragons didn’t like people at all. Natalia was an exception to that rule because everyone that met her loved her. It was her trustworthiness that drew me to her, causing our friendship to be instantaneous. I could do without her sassy attitude, but she wouldn’t be Natalia without her sharp tongue.
I, on the other hand, was not a very friendly person. I would rather be alone than surrounded by people, most dragons did. It wasn’t completely unheard of for more than one dragon to be in a horde together, but it was uncommon. I believe the most popular one I know about is the Kailua Horde, which contains around fifteen dragons.
I inhaled again, trying to sift through the smells, putting my senses on high alert. There was so many different scents swirling around me. Fresh rain, dirt, mint, blood, fire, it all consumed me and I was having a hard time separating them all.
“River your eyes,” Natalia hissed at me. I snapped my gaze to hers, taking a few deep breaths through my mouth, calming myself.
“Better?” I asked as I felt myself relax.
“Yes, what happened?”
“I don”t know. I think all the smells from the different supernaturals are causing my body to go into overdrive.” I told her honestly. I really don’t know what caused the shift in my eyes. It was easy to reel in the dragon with small shifts like that. When my eyes or talons shifted, I was still in control, but once the scales started covering my body in waves, there was no going back. My only hope was to get somewhere I could safely shift, and pray I wasn’t seen.
“They really weren”t lying when they said this was a highly populated supernatural school. Do you even smell any humans?” she asked as we moved up in the line. It curved in and out of the aisles, putting us next to different students with every step we took.
I turned to look behind us at the multitude of students still entering the auditorium. “Yes, there”s a small amount of humans, but it”s mostly supernatural beings. I’d say probably a good eighty-twenty split.”
“Holy shit, that”s a lot of supernaturals in one place. Aren’t they worried about the hunters finding them?” She gaped at all the people around us.
“My grandma told me this place is warded against them. That there are multiple universities all over the world hidden from them. We”re safe here, from them at least.” I shared the information my grandma told me before I left home. They didn”t live far from Willow Hollow, which was comforting to know we were so close to them if we needed them. Natalia”s parents, on the other hand, lived in North Dakota, so they were a bit of a drive away. It’s only a short flight, though, when she agreed to fly on my back. It had to be extremely hot for her to agree on a flight to see her parents. My witchy friend really did not like the cold, and it made me wonder why she wanted to live in a place where it was freezing more than it was warm. I knew deep down she did it for me. There was another university in Florida, but my dragon complained about the heat the entire time we visited. She didn”t even like the summer here, even though it didn’t get that hot.
I swear my beast would be over the moon if we moved to Antarctica, constantly cold all the time. She purred at the thought, and I snorted. There was no way I could move there, although the cold didn’t bother me, the snow was not my favorite. I wasn’t the most graceful person and ice and I did not agree with each other.
If there was even a hint of ice on the ground, I was falling on my ass every time. I don’t know why people thought dragons were these graceful, majestic creatures. We were complete klutzes, well I was, at least. I couldn”t speak for every dragon since I’ve only ever met one dragon other than my parents and grandparents. We were not made to walk on two feet. Now, the sky, on the other hand, was a whole other ball game. I could fly circles around the best fighter pilots.
We slowly made our way through the line in comfortable silence. Taking in all the different people around us. My senses picked up as we drew closer to the front. A tangled smell of embers assaulted my nose, I instantly knew it was another dragon. I frantically looked around, trying to pinpoint who the scent was coming from. My beast stirred at the thought of another dragon in such close proximity to us.
I couldn’t seem to find the source of the dragon”s scent. No one looked like they were out of place, like they scented another dragon in their mist. Natalia was the next person to go up to the table. I watched her saunter up to the girl who called “next.” She put a little more sway in her hips than normal, and I chuckled at my best friend. She swung both ways, male or female, it didn”t matter to her. She appreciated sex no matter who it came from.
“Next.”
The sultry voice cut through the air, pulling my attention from Natalia while she shamelessly flirted with the pretty redhead behind the table. My eyes collided with the man whose voice still rang in my ears. It was like the sweetest caress, and I couldn”t shake the feeling.
I slowly made my way up to the table. My beast was on high alert at the unease swirling in my gut. As soon as I stopped in front of the man, his smell surrounded me, and my eyes widened.
“Dragon,” I whispered so low I was surprised he heard me. He raised his eyebrows, inhaling deep, coming to the same conclusion about me.
His eyes bore into mine, they were a beautiful shade of brown, with dots of black swirling deep in them. We could never fully get rid of our dragon eyes, they always showed as little flakes within our human color. That just solidified my guess of him being a dragon. He had a sharp jawline and long blond hair twisted into a bun on top of his head.
“Name,” he growled, narrowing his eyes at me.
Well, it looks like he wasn”t interested in being my friend, suits me just fine. I’d rather be alone. Natalia was the only friend I needed anyway. “River Moonstone,” I said in my most asshole tone. If this guy thought I wasn’t going to throw his anger right back at him, he had another thing coming. I didn”t play well with others, and he was no exception, dragon or not.
“Moonstone?” he asked, his eyebrows raising in surprise. It was commonly known in the dragon community that my parents were murdered while trying to hide me away from not only the hunters, but also from the Kailua Horde.
Killigan, the alpha of the Kailua Horde, wanted me to join him. He wanted to breed me to give birth to more dragon heirs, but my mother would not have it. He was angry when she told him no and has been hunting me down ever since. Although he wasn’t the one to kill my parents, he definitely wasn’t blameless. He continued his pursuit for me long after my parents died, causing my grandparents to constantly move for fear he would find me. Like they didn’t have enough on their plate trying to keep me hidden from the hunters.
“That”s what I said, isn”t it.” I snapped, putting my hand on my hip as I shifted my weight and popped it out to the side.
The black specks swirled in his eyes, overtaking the brown completely until his pupil blended with his iris. I couldn”t tell where one stopped and the other began. I made a sharp inhale, gasping at the sight.
I placed my hands flat on the table and leaned in close, whispering so low, making sure he was the only one to hear me. “You need to control your beast.”
He closed his eyes and inhaled only to pop them back open to settle on mine. “Mate,” he growled. I stumbled back in shock, he’s got it wrong, he didn”t smell like my mate…just another dragon.
“Ummm can I just have my schedule, please,” I said, now uncomfortable in my own skin. My beast was slamming against her cage, needing to see if what he said was true. There was no way I was letting her out though. No. Way. In. Hell.
He sifted through the packets in front of him, glancing up at me every couple of seconds. My whole body screamed at me to run, run far away, and never look back.
After the most intense, suffocating few minutes he finally pulled a packet out of the stack in front of him. My name scribbled across the top in black sharpie. He held it out to me and I reached out to grab the edge of it. Before he released the packet, he pulled it towards him. Instead of releasing it like any normal person would do, I held on tight and was yanked forward. I stumbled, catching myself before I fell onto the table between us.
“I’ll be seeing you around, mate.” He purred in that sultry voice of his.
His smell surrounded me, caressing my body in a seductive caress. I inhaled deeply as the smell of a thunderstorm filled my nose. His nostrils flared at me scenting him. I snatched the packet out of his hands, pulling it tight against my chest, and backed away from the table.
He smirked at me as I turned to leave. I caught sight of Natalia waiting for me and hurried over to her, glancing back to look at the dragon over my shoulder. His eyes were still glued to me, tracking my movements through the crowd as I made my way to Natalia.
“What the hell was that about?” she asked, looking around me, “Holy fucking hotness, River.”
“Can we go? I need to stretch my wings.”
“Ooh girl, you need to tell me everything.” She looped her arm through mine as we headed out of the warm auditorium and into the cold. The fresh air, free of all the different scents of the auditorium instantly calmed me. I groaned at the thought of telling her. I can only imagine what my crazy best friend would say about me finding my possible mate.
She was a romantic at heart and would be thrilled for me. But I didn’t want a mate. Nothing ever came good from finding a dragon mate. Your mate would consume you, and you wouldn’t be able to breathe unless you were with them.
Nope, I was not interested in that. I liked being on my own. A mate would only complicate that situation.