Chapter 14
FOURTEEN
Samantha
It’s been days of rounding up dragons, and I’m standing outside with my men next to me. Specter Inc. is busier than I’ve ever seen it before. In all directions, male dragons have shifted into naked human men, and the staff is helping guide them into this new life. Tables of food are set up in the grass, and the male dragons swarm them, eating their fill until they’re ready for the next step. Zane had made it clear that the way to a dragon’s heart was through his stomach, so if we wanted them calm and friendly, food needed to be in large supply.
But my favorite area was where they have tents set up for putting on clothes. The staff is doing their best to show them how to dress and what goes where, but half-naked dragons keep emerging from the tents, sometimes with underwear on their heads, other times with the shredded remains of clothes dripping off their forms. It’s hilarious.
I guess Zane isn’t the only dragon who hates clothes.
“So, what’s it like to be surrounded by male dragons?” Granger teases, but I suspect there’s a little jealousy underneath his words.
I flash him a smile. “Different. I don’t know what I expected, but none of them smell horrible, like Malikay and his dragons, but they don’t smell good either.”
“See any you want to add to your harem?” he asks.
I laugh and pull him into my arms, running my hands through his hair. “Absolutely not. The four of you are more than enough for me.”
Zane laughs too. “She would never choose a beta male. We have nothing to worry about with these tiny men.”
Granger looks a bit calmer. “Still, there’s a lot of dick here.”
“So much dick,” Aydan mumbles.
“There’s no safe place to look,” Evander adds on, gesturing at a guy who is currently scratching his sack.
Zane laughs again. “I forgot how strange you are about penises and toes. Your people must cover up every inch of flesh, for reasons no one knows.”
I pull out of Granger’s arms and kiss Zane. “You have no idea how funny this whole thing is for us.”
Near us, two dragons bend over and their butts touch. Aydan and Evander flinch, and I start cracking up. Yup, I’m sure balls are on balls right there, but the dragon men don’t seem to care, so why should we?
Many of the dragon males look my way pretty regularly, but they avoid eye contact when our gazes meet. I’d be bothered, but I prefer this to Malikay and his gang. These dragons seem to be terrified to be near me. I wish the asshole dragons were.
Although I’m sure it doesn’t help that my men haven’t left my side.
“I should check on Miu soon,” Zane says, practically purring the cat’s name.
“How’s it going with her?” Granger asks.
The cat has started doing better, letting us pet her, letting us play with her, but she is a moody little thing, friendly one second and angry the next. I wonder if that’s just her personality, or if Zane can really “love” the moody out of her.
Zane lifts up a mangled hand. “Better. She just needs more time to warm up to me.”
Granger’s gaze darts from his hand to his face. “What makes you say she’s warming up to you?”
The ice dragon’s eyes twinkle with happiness. “The tricks were the easiest part, because she gets rewarded with treats. The rest has taken longer. She has begun snuggling with me in the morning. If I don’t move, or breathe too much, she’ll stay curled up with me.”
“Ouch!” a dragon male says nearby.
We turn to the area where they are putting trackers in the dragons. It’s a quick pinch to the back of their hands, but I don’t think the dragon expected the pain. He glares and thumps his chest.
Granger springs into action as the staff member cowers back. “Don’t! It’s supposed to hurt a little!”
To my surprise, the anger melts from the dragon’s face, and he bows low as he cowers back. Many of the dragons in the nearby area are bowing to Granger and avoiding him. It’s like he’s their king, but he doesn’t even know it, which is kind of funny.
“It’s fine,” Granger says, awkwardly. “Just remember that humans are more fragile than we are. One wrong blow, and you could kill one.”
“Yes, storm dragon,” he says, then doesn’t move until Granger is back beside us.
“Weird, right?” Granger asks.
“Definitely weird,” Aydan agrees. “I mean, they’re on guard around me, but with you? It’s like they’re terrified of you.”
“He’s the storm dragon,” Zane says, as if that answers everything. “The only one still alive. The most powerful of the alphas. King of the dragons.”
“I guess that makes me the queen,” I tease.
Zane looks sincere. “You are the queen of the dragons. It just means different things than it does with the humans.”
I don’t know what he’s talking about, but I’ve learned to roll with the things Zane says. Usually, they come back up at a later point and make more sense with context. Given that I doubt I’m any kind of a queen, I figure that this will be one of those conversations.
Even though I wouldn’t mind a crown. Maybe I need to talk to Evander…
“Dragons!” a staff member shouts in a warning tone.
Our sensors are on high alert, looking for dragons, but the weapons have been deactivated unless needed. Sure enough, two small beta dragons in varying shades of green land near the cliff. Both are sleek, obviously water dragons, and Zane rushes out to meet them, practically skipping.
We follow more slowly behind. Zane strides up to them without the slightest bit of fear and spreads his arms wide. “Welcome, Cavar and Nalbe, I have been waiting eagerly for your arrival.”
After a moment, both dragons shift into naked young men. One has long blond hair and the other has dark brown hair. They seem tense and wary as they regard us over Zane’s shoulders.
“We were given word to come here,” the blond says. “Are we safe amongst your alphas?”
His words are so similar to the other dragons that it makes me wonder just how things work amongst the dragons. Should my men and I be angry and territorial with the other betas around? In the past, did we give these betas a reason to fear us?
“You are safe amongst my alphas. We sent the invitation out, and we will be helping all of the dragons adjust to this new world. Are you hungry?” Zane asks.
Both men stand up taller, and the blond answers again, “Should a dragon ever say no to such a question, let his wings be broken, and his eyes blinded.”
Zane laughs. “Then let me show you to the food. Things to remember: do not harm the humans, and do not approach my female, or you will be torn to pieces.”
Both men nod, like they expected Zane to say as much, which makes me grin. Zane leads the men off, telling them about being tagged, and about the requirement of silly garments to restrict their cocks. We follow them, feeling a need to keep an eye on everything, but not quite being sure what our place is here.
A security officer hurries up to us and says, “Sir, we have a man at the gate. He says that he turned into a dragon this morning and is looking for help.”
This is Aydan and Evander’s time to shine. Finally. Zane was put in charge of the Awakened Dragons, which has kept him very busy, and Aydan and Evander the sleeping ones, although no Sleeping Dragons had come to the base yet. Until now.
“Send him right to me,” Evander tells him.
“Yes, sir.” The man hurries away, and we wait.
“A Sleeping Dragon,” I say.
“Our first,” Aydan adds.
“He’ll need a different kind of help,” Granger says. “He won’t need to learn how to be a human. Instead, he’ll need to learn how to be a dragon.”
It takes a few minutes for the guard to bring the man from the gate to our area. But when he does, we see a tall man with flaming red hair, a red beard, and green eyes. There’s something Viking-esque about him.
As he approaches, he begins to sniff harder and harder until his gaze lands on me. When the guard stops in front of us, the man makes a beeline for me, which is instantly met with a fist to his face from Zane. They hadn’t even given me a second to process it before I was gaping at the man on the ground.
Zane squats over him and says, “Are you alright?”
The man doesn’t seem concerned. His gaze is on me. “Why does she smell so damn good?”
“It is because she’s a female dragon. Female dragons smell amazing to male dragons. But the thing is, she is our female dragon.” He points to the four men. “If you should try to go near her, you will be torn to shreds. Not only are we four alpha dragons, but he is a storm dragon.” He points at Granger, who looks like he's trying really hard to look mean and scary. “He is the mightiest of the mighty. The most powerful of the alphas. He will gobble you up and leave nothing, not even your bones. Do you understand?”
The man on the ground nods rapidly, and Zane helps him up, then looks to us.
I take a step forward. “The three of us, like you, thought we were ordinary humans just a short time ago. Since then, there’s been a major learning curve, but we’re happy to help you figure out the things that took us a longer time to figure out.”
He leans forward, sniffing.
Aydan steps up beside me. “Seriously, man, you’re going to get yourself killed.”
He visibly swallows and nods again.
“Everyone else here so far is an Awakened Dragon, so they were dragons that were sleeping underneath the earth, waiting to awaken again. They’re focused on learning to be human, to be a part of this new world without causing problems. With you, we’re going to teach you how to be a dragon.”
This time, he won’t look directly at me. “Okay. Yeah, that would be good, especially how to control it.”
“How did you turn into a dragon?” I ask gently.
He hesitates, then begins. “I was driving my car pretty fast on the freeway. I saw that the cars up ahead had stopped, but when I pushed on my brake, it didn’t work. I had this moment where I knew I was going to die, where everything slowed down, and I felt hot, and like my skin was too tight. By the time I’d hit the car in front of me, I’d exploded out of my car as a dragon.”
My heart goes out to him as he wraps his arms around himself. “I flew around for days, terrified, unsure of how to get back to my human body. I ended up collapsing on this hill, just wishing to turn back… and then I did. I went home to my wife and stepdaughter, but I just kept thinking about what would happen if I shifted again, and then I heard your message on the radio. My wife agreed this is what I needed to do, so I went.”
Note to self: check out the wife, since dragons tend to find each other.
“Well, you made the right choice,” I reassure him.
Suddenly, my phone rings. I excuse myself and answer Dahlia’s call, hoping she’s staying safe out in the field. “Hello.”
“Guess what?” She sounds excited.
“What?”
“I found a freaking dragon!”
I blink slowly. “What do you mean?”
“A dragon!”
“I got that part, but, like, in the sky or…?”
She laughs. “No, the Dragon Finder, that’s what I’m calling it, by the way, went crazy on this one guy. We think he’s a dragon who hasn’t shifted yet. We’re going to send him to base, and see if you guys can force a shift.”
“Whoa, that’s amazing!”
“That’s right! It’s working! We’ve found a way to figure out Sleeping Dragons before they shift. This is going to change everything.”
It will. It’s an amazing breakthrough.
A thought comes to me as I think about our new Sleeping Dragon. “Oh, and we have a woman for you to check out. The wife of a Sleeping Dragon. When we get all her information, I’ll send it out to you.”
“A female dragon? Awesome!”
“Well, keep up the good work!”
“Will do.”
“And stay safe,” I add.
“You know I will.”
We say goodbye and end the call. I tell the guys, who are in the middle of their own conversation, and then everyone decides that we should shift and show this new man, Gael, a little more about being dragons.
Zane leans in. “Granger must make sure to be a mighty and frightening alpha when we shift. The betas must be sure that we are a power to be feared.”
“How am I supposed to do that?” Granger asks, looking skeptical.
“You shall figure it out,” Zane says, patting his arm.
We go out to the cliff and walk Gael through how you shift and unshift, reassuring him that we’ll be there every step of the way. After a few minutes, he shifts into a pale yellow dragon, much smaller than us, and we shift into our dragon selves.
On the base, the dragons gather to watch us in human form. Granger leaps into the air first, a massive black dragon, and a storm rolls in over his head. The sky swirls with blackened clouds, lightning strikes, and thunder booms. If I didn’t know him, I’d be afraid of his power. It feels… like being inside a bolt of electricity.
It’s pretty awesome that he’s learned to control it, rather than being scared of it. The process wasn’t quick, but he mastered it, just like everything else he does.
Granger throws back his head and roars before shooting fire from his mouth. My heart races a little faster, and I realize that I find him attractive, human or dragon form, it doesn't matter. This whole display is doing things to me. But because I have no desire to fornicate in dragon form in front of dozens of witnesses, so I swallow the feeling down.
We launch into the sky, and Granger slowly clears the storm away. We show Gael how to ride the wind, and how to defend himself in the air. By the time we’re done, he seems more confident. We land once more and shift back, another thing he seems to be happy to be able to do.
As we start walking back to the dragons, I realize they’re all still watching, and if I thought they were wary of us before, it’s nothing to how they are now. As we pass, heads bow and gazes dart, usually from me to Granger.
Zane strides into the middle of them, and they flinch when he claps his hands together. “Now, for our next lesson. An important lesson. Who is ready to try a toilet ?”
I try not to laugh as I look at Aydan, Granger, and Evander, but we’re all grinning. Toilets. A definite requirement around here, and the next step to this new era of dragons.