Chapter 20
CHAPTER TWENTY
Mount Eternal, Blood Kingdom
Aurelius
I roar at the antlered fuckers below who dare to hurl their spears at me from the rich fields of farmland between fig and date trees.
How dare Shadow Humans challenge me, the feared Golden Dragon?
Burn them, Hadrian whispers inside me, louder in dragon form as he always is. Melt the skin from their bones for their insolence. Raze this city in a surprise attack. Fly our mates out of danger back to our kingdom. Then you will become the feared emperor.
I swoop higher into the cloudless sky, twisting my sinuous neck.
I won’t.
If I conquer Lanlin like that, becoming Hadrian, then I will have lost.
My belly is filled with flames. My sharp-toothed mouth tastes of ash.
The Shadow Humans’ spears bounce off my golden scales, which glow under the hot afternoon sun as brightly as a second sun. The iron-tipped weapons are as harmless as gnats bothering a crocodile.
I narrow my serpentine eyes at the Shadow Humans far below.
Brave deer.
Fanatics.
Would they throw away their lives for the vampires?
Would any of the kingdoms who bend the knee to me truly defend Draca Kingdom, if we were threatened? Don’t they only fear us and not love us?
These Shadow Humans must love the Bloods if they are prepared to face me with no more than a spear.
How is that possible? Why are the featherglass so committed to Daire?
Why are they relentlessly petitioning me for their fallen leader’s return?
Would anyone care about me this much? My Golden Family? My army?
Do I trust them to stand by me?
I skirt the walls of Sheut: The Shadow Vampire capital that I always dreamed about visiting as a child.
Lanlin would excitedly sprawl in Mother’s rose garden playing with one of his rats, while telling me about the courtyards with honey-scented blue lotus pools, thrones built out of bone, and pyramids that reached to the skies.
He graciously told me that he would take me on a tour when I had finished my training at the Shadow Military Academy.
He would chatter, lying under the moonlight like we were both safe in the dream, about how one day he would find a way for us to live together, uniting our kingdoms of sand and gold
Except, we both needed to wake up sometime.
He didn’t know that I spent most of the time he told me about his kingdom, planning to fly into his territories as soon as I was old enough and steal my best friend away on my back from the High Priestess who hurt him worse than Caligo (or even my uncle), did me.
Who called him little monster and forced him to wear gloves.
Yet I didn’t because then our kingdoms went to war.
Yet I never stopped thinking of Lanlin as my friend, hoping that we could still unite our kingdoms, until the day that I saw him with his fangs in my brother’s throat.
I flap my wings, flying lower over the limestone Void Pyramids. The sun glints on their giant sides.
On the Shadow Gods, I’m risking enough. I may as well take the tour now.
Lanlin’s capital is spectacular but silent. I wish that I could see it at night.
I wish that this peace could be real.
I heard a roar somewhere close. I know that the Shadow Vampires can’t get to you during the day, but still, what the fuck? What happened to keeping a low profile? Freya’s voice demands in my mind.
Ask the buck fuckers who threw spears at me. I drawl. They weren’t very welcoming.
Those buck fuckers are dear to me, pun intended. To my surprise, Daire’s voice sounds strained. Why would the Shadow Vampire’s Blood Lovers matter to a fae? So, no burning them, aye?
You take away all my fun. How far away are you from Mount Eternal?
We’re climbing up the side now. Freya sounds out of breath. You didn’t tell us that it was a sheer cliff.
Then I would have taken away your fun. I squint through the bright sun toward the sandstone cliff face of Mount Eternal, which shimmers brown but with a pink hue beneath the sun.
I can make out two small figures who are struggling up the side of the mountain. They’re almost at the mouth of the main cave.
I circle over their heads several times, enjoying the creative cussing from Daire in my mind, before I land in the entrance.
I transform back, smoothing my crimson cloak and straightening my gold crown.
My heart is already lighter than it has been from the moment that Maximinus dragged my consorts and I apart, after he caught us in Mount Primo.
I am finally together with my pack — in real life and not a Dream Bond — without needing to wear a mask or play a role.
Although, when was the last time that I truly stopped doing either of those things? Does Daire ever?
My head is hot and aching, however, and my pheromones hang in a thick, dominant fog around me.
I can’t be…
Not here…
My knot throbs, while my cock hardens.
I adjust my cock in my tight breeches with a pained hiss, before growling when my elongated golden claws rip through the fabric.
I must hold on. My mates need me. And I can’t be vulnerable like this here in enemy territory.
I march further into the dark cave. Sweat drips into my eyes. My canines grow longer.
I am partially shifting into a wicked beast, becoming feral.
By the Shadow Gods, I must control my emotions.
Since this new love for my wolf Goddess, which has taken over my mind, body, and soul in ways that I don’t understand, I have struggled to hold the feelings behind the wall that I erected when I was only a child and sent away to the academy.
Freya has been breaking down that wall brick by brick. Yet she doesn’t understand just what she is releasing.
Who.
I clench my hands.
My eyes become molten, swirling amber.
My knees buckle, and I stumble with a grunt over something hard.
I catch myself on my hands, grazing them.
When I look up, I startle. “May the Shadow Gods preserve me.”
I’m staring into the giant skull of a dragon. Its full winged skeleton curls around the cave.
In horror and sadness, I push myself to my knees before my dead ancestor, who is only the first in the piles of bones; fae and dragon intermingled.
It is the same when two sides fall on a battlefield. The crows peck the eyes from both armies equally; worms also don’t discriminate.
I glance to the side.
When will I be able to stop fighting?
I have endured years of suffering on and off the battlefield under my uncle all to stop more bones whitening in the sun.
Will this move against Lanlin be the last one?
Funny that my ex-friend will never thank me for what I am doing. I don’t expect Lanlin to, when I will destroy him completely with this betrayal from the Omega who he loves the most.
I know more than anyone that Lanlin has never loved or trusted an Omega before.
Except, he should thank me.
Isis, of the Crocodile House, will become the new dynasty to rule as the puppet leader under my control, when I capture Lanlin.
It was Isis’ plan. Only, she wanted Lanlin to be killed.
She offered to have her son do it. She has offered it repeatedly.
That fanged fucker, Lan, has no idea how many times I have saved his life.
“Fly eternally with the Shadow Gods.” I rest my hand on the dragon skull. I close my eyes for a moment. “Rest well now. Your King thanks you for your service to the Draca Kingdom.”
It doesn’t seem enough.
It’s too fucking little.
Dracanians have been left here without the honor of funeral or shrine.
I bare my fangs, rumbling a growl.
I will erect a shrine in Bael for all these unknown dead. I will pray for the abandoned dead on all sides to find peace.
I shudder, remembering the giant boulder that I saw at the entrance.
What must it feel like to be walled up here?
Are you okay? Freya’s panicked voice demands.
I’m fine. It’s hard to sound calm, when so many spirits around me clamor for peace. Why?
I don’t know, maybe because your growl sounds like you’re about to burn someone to ash? Daire sounds calmer but still worried. Or maybe because the feeling through the bond is like you’re…weeping?
I bristle, pushing myself to my feet. I brush the sand off my knees, which only leads to my claws ripping my breeches worse.
I’m losing control.
I growl again, stalking back to the light that is bleeding through the entrance.
I try to speak to reassure my consorts again, but my thoughts are too jumbled.
I blink.
What’s happening?
Shit, I’m truly going into rut.
My curved, golden horns grow longer. Sparks ignite like dancing fireworks along their length.
I shiver, struggling to hold onto my last control.
When I hear a noise like falling rocks and scrambling from the cliff face, I lean against the cave entrance.
I cross my arms, watching as Daire drags himself over the side clumsily like a bedraggled dove with broken wings.
My lips quirk.
So much for his typical elegance.
He is breathing hard, struggling to catch his breath. He is dressed in a plain but pretty linen robe. His disheveled curls cover his face.
“Bloody hell, next time I am choosing where we meet for our date,” he rasps.
It appears that I have finally found something that Freya’s soulmate isn’t good at.
I open my mouth to taunt him, but then, I stop.
Something is wrong with him.
My eyes narrow with worry. I am about to take a step forward, until I see Freya swing herself over the lip of the cave.
I hold myself back with difficulty.
All I want is to rush toward her, nuzzle at her neck and kiss her rose scented lips.
Instead, I hold my hands smartly behind my back, although my expression softens. “My Omega.”
My eyes widen, however, when she stalks toward me.
Her eyes are flashing with rage. “You dickless fool of a troll sucking dragon.”
“And I’m pleased to see you too.”
Freya pushes me against the cave wall, nuzzling against my neck. “Do you know the type of risk you just took?”
“I’m aware. It was my risk to take.”