Chapter 26
Auren
I’d had just about enough of insolent males interfering.
Fern’s heart beat like a rabbit’s, far too fast and thready for it to be healthy.
Dimly, I was aware of a hereditary memory about shock being a state humans easily fell into and the possibility of it killing her.
My body moved of its own accord, settling around Fern.
My tail whipped across the keep roof and didn’t that have the males jumping, human and dragon alike?
With a snarl, my head rose above Fern’s, making clear they would all have to fight their way past me to get to my bondmate.
But that would never happen.
You are precious, my father had told me yesterday, but when I snorted, he shot me a sidelong look.
In the way gold is, jewels are, I replied, remembering the box of gems Viridian had gifted me. I waited for my father to contradict me, wanting, needing him too, but those words didn’t come.
This isn’t the fate your mother wanted for you. A deep sigh had him hunkering down lower. Nor me. I tried to protect you from this attention when I removed you and your sisters from Wyrmpeak as young dragonlings.
But now you can’t.
I had grown to my full size two years ago and yet it felt like only now I understood what being a mature dragon meant.
A mature female.
When an essential commodity like water or food is scarce.
My father’s eyes met mine and it felt like I could see a world in those bronze depths.
A world I didn’t like very much. Dragon behaviour, human, even animals change.
The need to survive, to procreate and pass on your genetic legacy grows more pronounced.
Males in particular, they grow aggressive, fighting amongst themselves to be proven the strongest, therefore being the one to mate with the few females left.
Fight…? My throat worked, my rattle starting up, even though the threat he spoke of wasn’t here in the cave with us. Mate…? And how exactly do these males think they are going to mate with me?
He tried to reply, but I rose up to my full height.
Not as large as my father, but Hadrian was from an ancient line, when dragons, male and female, were so large they could blot out the sun as they passed by, wreaking havoc on the world below.
I wished then that I had more of my father’s lineage, making me a terrible and brutal queen.
By harassing me to the ends of the earth with their intrusive fawning? I replied.
Perhaps. It was then that I knew my father saw me as a mature female, because he didn’t try to soften that blow at all. But you asked me about silver dragons…
I shook off the memory, coming back to the keep roof abruptly, just in time to see dragons landing everywhere.
My throat worked as my rattle made clear that none of them should come any closer, not even the ones that whined and creeled, their wing membranes pocked with holes created by Viridian’s acid breath.
And that of the silver dragons.
“General, sir—” Fern began, but I did not like her placating tone at all. I was raised to become a queen, but humans seemed determined to clip the wings of their females.
What happened? This general’s head whipped around when he felt my voice inside his head and I noted the way his nostrils flared, the thin line of his mouth.
Humans had more subtle ways of conveying anger, but I saw them all right now.
My bondmate and I participated in the training exercise as instructed.
“The wing lost control of their beasts,” Viridian’s rider said as he slid from his bondmate’s back. “They were acting like idiots, trying to impress Auren.”
Depriving me of my target. My rattle grew louder as I remembered the way each one of these beasts swooped in front of me, crowding me in.
Putting themselves in harm’s way as well as…
My tail curled tighter around Fern, as if someone would try and take her from me again.
That she slipped from my saddle… The need to lash myself with the anger that raged inside me was almost irresistible, but I realised I would not have been forced to rise up so abruptly if these…
males didn’t insist on getting in my way.
Almost killing the one reason why I’m entertaining this conversation in the first place.
“Is this true?” The general didn’t ask me that, but the human males who were now dismounting onto the keep roof. “Is this what happened?”
You dare to question my word, human?
My head rose then, ready to strike.
Auren. I glanced down to find Fern’s hand resting on the base of my neck. It was such a tiny thing, but somehow the comfort it provided far outweighed its pressure. You don’t have to protect me from the general.
Protect us, I corrected.
“Yes, sir.” The purple dragon, his rider stepped forward, looking suitably abashed. “Spark wasn’t listening at all.” The stupid beast shoved his head into his rider’s side and he rubbed at the dragon’s eye ridges absently. “He’s never behaved like that with Cora and Lumina.”
My sister and her rider sat very still in one corner of the roof.
Because the males are your brothers, I said.
Cora is going to mention that to the general, Lumina replied. I’m just not sure when. She says its best not to contradict the male when his face is all red and flushed like that. Apparently that is a human male threat display?
Threat display…?
My focus shifted back to this male with all the pretty silver insignias. I wanted to pluck each one with my fangs and then see how threatening he’d try to be.
The human general raked his hands through his hair, then flung them in the air.
“This is why I don’t like queen dragons participating in training exercises,” he said. “It used to be that queen dragons stayed quiet and safe inside the keep.”
My claws made an alarming screeching sound as they raked across the stone used to create the roof, but before I could give voice to the rage that flared back to life, another female voice cut across all of us.
Quiet and safe? I knew that voice, because it was one of the first I heard when I hatched from the shell.
Not my mother, I knew that, but Zafira was as close as I would get in this life.
She was Lumina’s birth mother and she returned to the keep to help raise all of us when we were only dragonlings.
I’m sure you meant to say enslaved, forced into docility, broken.
Zafira’s rider, Hazel, jumped from the saddle. I always liked this human. She didn’t bow and scrape for any male, human or otherwise, and she marched up to the general right now.
“Hazel—” he started to say. She silenced him with an upraised hand.
“I’ve heard the news.” With a glance over her shoulder, she surveyed the now crowded roof. “Dragons are such terrible gossips. It’s plain to see what’s happened. Like lads at the market, showboating to impress the girls, these dragons are trying and failing.”
She nodded to me.
“To try to impress a queen dragon they can actually mate with. They don’t do the same with Lumina because she is their sister.
Auren.” A nod to me and I returned it. She was just as constant a presence in my early years as Zafira was.
“Is not. This is a tricky situation, but as dragon consul.” The human woman was a conduit between dragons and humans.
She advocated for our rights in the places we couldn’t go like the human parliament.
“Surely Zafira and I should’ve been brought in to consult on this issue earlier? ”
“I intended to send word for you.”
That admission felt like it was dragged from the depths of the general’s soul, growled out between clenched teeth.
“Good, good.” She clicked her fingers as she turned to the other riders.
“Willis, take a few of your riders and bring out a table and some chairs. Jones, to the kitchens and ask the ladies there for a tea tray. See if they have those lovely coconut biscuits.” Her hands went to her hips.
“I’m quite parched. The ride from Zafira’s den to here takes it out of me. ”
What is this tea ritual? I asked Fern.
Dried leaves are steeped in hot water. My head jerked back as my muzzle wrinkled, because that sounded disgusting. We drink the water and toss away the leaves, she explained, with some milk, sugar or even lemon.
And these leaves have a narcotic effect? I suggested. They will help befuddle this… general and persuade him to keep his snout out of that which doesn’t affect him.
She smiled then, and I found the baring of her fangs somehow reassuring. That and the fact her face was no longer so very pale.
No, but humans find it relaxing. I think this dragon consul wants the general to calm down before she starts talking to him about what happened.
A haunch of lamb would make me feel a lot more relaxed, I huffed, settling my head on my tail and Fern’s hand rose to scratch at my eye ridges. My back claw raked at the stones, imitating her movement. But I will ensure you have some of this leaf water. Your heart beats far too fast for my liking.
Then I will request some lamb is brought up for you. As for me. Fern sat down abruptly on the coil of my tail and that had me shuffling closer. I think I just need to… sit down for a moment.
You will never slip from the saddle again, I promised. If I have to flame every male that dares to get close, I will do it.
That is a luxury queens who exist in the human world often are not afforded. Zafira moved closer. One your mother and I have fought hard to ensure you enjoy.
For that, you have my gratitude, foster mother, I replied. But you and Father raised me to be free in ways you never were. You can hardly expect me to cede that willingly.
Quite.
With a snort, Zafira settled down behind Hazel’s chair when the furniture was set out on the roof. The general stepped over to pull it out for the dragon consul, helping her sit before he did the same.
“Now, these young males lost control of themselves trying to impress a queen they could potentially mate with?” Hazel asked as she picked up a tall vessel, pouring out a steaming liquid into the cups as a male human approached me carefully, tossing a haunch of lamb my way before skittering away.
The smell of raw meat helped erase the stink of this tea, the astringent scent making my nostrils tingle. “Is that their excuse?”
“As I haven’t had time to investigate the matter fully, I can’t say.
” The general’s stiff reply earned him a dark look from the consul.
“But yes, I believe that is the crux of the matter, and if Rider dragons are at the mercy of their instincts the moment a potential mate comes near, then steps will need to be taken.”
“To suppress perfectly natural responses?” Zafira’s eye flicked open to regard the general as Hazel posed the question, passing him a cup of this tea.
Perhaps it was a potion of sorts, because the male settled back in his chair as he took a sip.
“When you and I both know how well what went before? The heart wants what it wants and nothing in this world or the next will stop that.”
I liked Hazel and trusted Zafira implicitly. They were a kind and gentle presence for the entirety of my early years, so I thought I could relax now, letting the tensions of the training exercise fall away.
“If that’s the case…” Something about the general’s tone had my muscles bunching, my wings shuffling. “Then perhaps the answer is to pander to these perfectly natural responses.”
“Rex—” Hazel said, her fingers gripping her cup tighter.
“Auren must find her mates and fast.” The man bared his fangs in a way that would be considered smug in a fellow dragon. “Because when she is bound to suitable mates, then all the other males will stop taking ridiculous risks, trying to get her attention.”