Chapter 6
Konrad
It was the same thoughts over and over. Were we ever going to get out of here?
What was it about these shackles that stopped us from shifting?
Would those of us that had been taken be able to figure out how to escape?
Would the alphas from our village come searching for us?
It helped that we were able to talk loud enough to hear the ones in the rooms next to us.
But how much longer would we be able to keep our wits about us?
I missed my family. Especially my brothers. I was certain they had grown considerably in the time I’d been gone. Would they think that we’d all run away in the night and not bother coming for us? These were questions that we’d all asked ourselves more than once.
I’d given up trying to get comfortable long ago. I had no sense of time anymore, only that I had lost track of the days and nights. It had been months though; that much, I was sure.
The one meal a day we were served had been tossed at me hours ago, and although it was never enough, it was better than nothing at all.
We’d not been given a full meal since the one time they’d put something in it, and we all slept for the better part of a day.
We had discussed it as much as we could through the walls and wondered if it was that they’d expected different results.
The chains on my wrists had started to get irritating again, and because of the short chains, I wasn’t able to lie completely down.
I could move around enough to use the chamber pot, something I was grateful for, even if I’d long ago given up any pretense of being clean.
I tried to think of the bathhouse that my fathers had and dreamed of the tub.
I wanted to sink down as far as I could and stay there until the water became too cool to remain comfortable.
My thoughts were interrupted by noise outside my door, my advanced hearing alerting me that someone was coming down the hallway. That was unusual as we didn’t often have visitors after we were given our scraps of food.
I waited. There was nothing more that could be done, wondering if something was finally going to happen to us this evening. Would they end us? Would we ever know why we were taken? Was it the creepy old man that liked to stare at us? I’d not seen him in some time.
Someone stopped outside my door, and I heard a thud, followed by the door’s sudden creaking, and then it was on the floor.
The thing had been pushed completely off the frame and was lying on the floor.
I heard a low growl, and when I met the dark eyes of the man standing there, my dragon swirled in my mind for the first time in what felt like forever.
Mate!
The loud roar that came from the man standing there could only come from a dragon, and I held my breath, wondering what it would mean for our survival. The man rushed over, kneeling down in front of me, and I lowered my eyes. This was an alpha, a strong and powerful one.
“Why are you here?” he asked harshly.
“We were taken from our home north of here,” I said in reply. I watched, fascinated, as the alpha in front of me simply ripped the chains from the ring in the stone wall. We had all tried to do such a thing for months now.
“Can you shift?”
I shook my head. “I cannot bring my dragon forth. He is here,” I said, touching my chest and head. “But he cannot come out, no matter how much I ask him to. We have all tried.”
A serious look had me lowering my gaze again, no matter how handsome I thought the alpha.
He obviously found me lacking. Not that I blamed him.
He was clearly above me, and I was an omega that currently reeked and had nothing to offer.
I knew I looked a sight, but there was nothing I could do about that at the moment.
“The others, they are with you?”
“I believe so, yes. There were several of us that were taken from our village. None of us knew why. We are a peaceful thunder. We are farmers. We grow our food and raise animals. We trade our goods for things we need.”
“Do you know who took you?” he asked.
I shook my head. I’d never seen the men before, nor the old one who came in once a week to stand at the door and stare at us.
“Come with me,” he said as he simply turned and left the room.
It took a moment for me to stand completely upright, my legs and back protesting a bit.
I hurried after the alpha as fast as I could, and when he pushed open another door, I saw Lukas chained to the wall, much like I was. I squeaked and rushed to him.
“Konrad,” he said, reaching for me at the same time I did for him. A low, rumbling growl caused both of us to freeze. I looked over my shoulder at the alpha that was with us and found his dragon very close to the surface.
“Lukas, can you walk?”
“I’m not sure. I wish we could just shift. Are you all right, Konrad? Who’s that?”
I stepped back when the alpha approached Lukas and once again pulled the chain from the ring in the wall. Neither of us seemed sure of what was expected of us, but when a gruff “come” was said, I helped Lukas to his feet, and we quickly followed behind the tall alpha.
“You didn’t say who that was,” Lukas whispered.
“I’m not sure. He pulled my chains from the wall like he did yours.”
We froze in the hallway, voices coming from down the stairs. That was not good.
“They come. They will have weapons. Always,” I warned the alpha and tentatively touched his arm.
He glanced back at me and grinned.
“Their weapons do not scare me, mate. Into the room with you two,” he said as he pushed another door open.
Lukas was tugging on my arm as we were pushed into the room that had Wilhelm in it.
The door was pulled almost closed, and although I knew we should try to free Wil, I could not move away from the door for fear of something happening to my mate.
He recognized me. He acknowledged me. Did that mean he wished to claim me as his?
“Mate?” Lukas asked. We heard another roar in the hallway, and when I went to open the door, I was pulled farther into the room, back to where Wil was chained to the far wall.
“Yes, mate. You must let me get to him. I need to help.”
“Konrad, you have to realize that alpha out there has more strength than all of us combined,” Lukas said. He pulled me over to Wilhelm and handed me one side of his chains. Wilhelm stood up, staring between the two of us, confusion written all over his face.
“I missed something, obviously.”
“Very much so. Konrad here has a mate that has come to rescue us. Some sexy, hot alpha that I would not mind spending a heat with,” Lukas said.
I looked at my recently former friend and screamed out, ready to claw his eyes out. Wilhelm stopped me mere inches from Lukas’s face.
“Good. Now use that anger to help me pull on Wilhelm’s chain instead of standing there thinking about your alpha.”
“Not my alpha,” I grumbled but did as he had said and pulled. It was no use though. Whatever it was that was keeping us from shifting also kept our strength to a minimum. We were no stronger than what a human would be.
There was another growl that could only come from a dragon, then screaming from men, followed by the sound of stones falling.
“Do you believe he shifted in the castle? There is not enough room in the hallway,” Lukas said, pulling harder.
“If he had to, I’m sure he did. What if we all three pull on it together?
” I asked as a loud crashing sounded again, followed by more screaming that ended abruptly.
We all looked at one another, knowing the fate of at least one person that had been coming up the stairs.
The wall behind us suddenly pushed inward, and we all crowded against the wall where Wilhelm was chained.
“That is the biggest dragon I have ever seen,” Lukas whispered.
I nodded because I had to agree. He was easily twice, if not three times, the size I was. The massive dark blue head came closer, and when he reached out, snapping the chains on Wilhelm’s arms, our friend sighed and let his hands fall to his sides.
“At least you are free now,” Lukas said.
The dragon grunted, turned, and left, leaving us to follow.
“If that is your mate, Konrad, you got a grumpy one,” Wilhelm said. Lukas chuckled, and I kept quiet. I had to agree to some degree. I did not even know his name as of yet. But he was good at giving commands. And, apparently, breaking chains from walls.
We left the room, discovering a giant dragon-sized hole in the hallway. The exterior walls were missing, as was some of the floor as well as the roof above us.
We walked to the edge, peering down to the floor below us.
“Now what? We cannot jump that distance without added strength. Even then, I am not sure I could make that jump,” Lukas said.
I pulled him and Wilhelm back as the dragon’s body started to move out of the destroyed wall on our right.
Elias followed the giant head out of the hole in the wall, quickly rushing over to us and throwing his arms around me.
I hugged him back, trying my hardest to not cry.
We’d been kept the farthest apart over the past months.
It was only a little reassuring that Lukas or Wil were able to talk to Elias and pass on messages to me.
“We cannot make that jump. How will we get down?” I asked the dragon alpha.
His scales shimmered, then paled. As they were replaced with skin, I once more could not deny how handsome the alpha was.
“Are there more of you that were taken?” he asked.
“If there were, they were never with us,” Lukas said. The alpha seemed to accept that, nodded, then moved to the edge and looked down. He looked up, then decided against that and ushered us back into the room we had just left.
“I will shift, and we will go out the wall. You four will climb onto my back, and I will fly us to safety.”