Chapter 30
Chapter
Thirty
Ileaned back in the doctor’s chair with my eyes shut. Ebony was next to me, rubbing my arm while her other hand was holding mine. It was day three of these injections. They warned me it would hurt. They were right. Not only that, but they left me exhausted and weak.
I knew I needed to do this for us. No matter how much it hurt. It felt like my soul was cracking sometimes, too.
The first injection, I broke down. Not from the physical pain, but because I felt like I was breaking into pieces.
My whole soul shook, and it felt like losing my dragon all over again.
My heart broke, and I sobbed into Ebony’s shoulder.
She held me tight, making sure her touch helped ease the pain.
After the second one, I was able to hold myself together.
I’d almost collapsed to the floor, but at the very least I didn’t cry.
Since this was an experimental drug, they didn’t have enough data on how it would affect me each time, simply because I was a dragon and an Alpha-10.
Things didn’t really work as strongly as they should, which is why they were spreading the five doses over each of the days.
“Alright, I’m administering the shot now.”
I nodded, feeling two fingers push into the top of my shoulder.
The needle slid in between two scales, and I held my breath.
Slowly, the nurse pushed the liquid into my body.
It hurt, and I held Ebony’s hand tightly.
The needle left my shoulder, but I was too busy trying to struggle through the pain of it going through my body.
“Alright. Just hang tight for a moment. We can see what kind of reaction you will get this time and make sure you’re alright before you leave.”
Again, I nodded, but didn’t open my mouth. I clenched my jaw, my teeth tight as I worked through the pain. Ebony continued to rub my arm, nuzzling her cheek against mine. My hand was shaking, but I couldn’t do anything about it.
“Are you sure you want to go today? Isn’t your mom’s birthday on Friday?”
Taking a deep breath, I let it out slowly. “I wanted to talk to my dad first and make sure he knows that I’m not taking what they did before lightly. I need to and it should just be him. He’ll most likely be at the Archives today.”
Ebony hummed before I saw her shoulders sag. She had been struggling with coming here and seeing my family, even after agreeing to it. Reaching out, I brushed her cheek and brought her eyes back up to mine.
“I’ll be fine. If anything happens, I have my phone on me. I’ll just fly back to your parents and we can go home. Easy. I just don’t want you to walk into that house without knowing if we were heading into a storm.”
“I get it, and I appreciate it. Sometimes, I just want to run back home and leave them all.”
Chuckling softly, I nodded. “I understand. Trust me. Except that we have hundreds of years that we need to deal with them. They will always be my family. Dragons sometimes break from their families for a time, but we end up making our way back to each other. It’s just a thing that happens.
So I might as well pave the way for us to be part of the family for a long time. ”
She nodded. “I trust you. If anything happens though, you will call me? Not a text. Call.”
“You know I will.” I kissed her forehead. “This one doesn’t seem nearly as bad. Maybe it gets better as the injections go on.”
“How about we wait for you to stand up and see if you can still shift?”
Snorting, I shook my head. “You have so little faith in me, my mate?”
“Not even. I just think you are overestimating yourself.”
“You’re terrible, my love.”
Ebony laughed. “Only for you.”
We lapsed into a quiet for the fifteen minutes I needed to wait.
The nurse came back in and took down my symptoms. Right now, the only thing I had was a migraine.
I could stand without issue and walk around.
When the nurse checked my vitals, she noted my slightly elevated heart rate, but otherwise, I was fine.
Walking out of the clinic, I rolled my shoulders.
Today, Ebony was planning on taking her old car back to the Dark Night pack alone while I fly up to the Archives.
I hoped to have this conversation quickly with my father.
I was going to fly back down tonight, stay with her, get the last two injections and then head back up with Ebony for Mom’s birthday celebration.
At least, that was the plan. It could vary, but for now, that was it. Ebony reached up, wrapping her arms around me and planting a kiss on my lips. I held her sides softly, savoring her kiss. When she finally leaned back, I could see the worry reflected in her eyes.
“I’ll be alright, Eb, don’t worry. I’ll be back tonight.”
“If anything happens?”
I fought the smile on my face. “I’ll call.”
“Good. Remember. You are my mate. Mine. No one else’s.”
“Yours.”
She nodded and stepped back completely. I jogged over to the empty area behind the businesses. This place was on the edge of the city, and I could shift this far out. Pulling off my clothes, I stuffed them into my bag before taking a deep breath.
Since losing my dragon, it has been a struggle to shift.
It took a lot of willpower, as if my body were trying to fight the shift.
I was able to get it, eventually. Bones cracked, and it was slow, sounding terrible to everyone around, but eventually I stood at my full height.
Taking a deep breath, I let out a bout of flames and Ebony laughed.
After a moment, she got into her car and pulled out. I jumped into the sky, straining a bit, but able to catch the wind to help lift me. Once I had warmed up, it was fine. It was easy to shoot above the clouds and fly at full speed through the air.
Since being the Fiji, I haven’t really shifted much.
Ebony did once in a while, and I enjoyed her panther form.
There was something so beautifully powerful about it.
As a dragon, I was big and displaced just about everything I stepped on.
So I kept my shifting to a minimum and on the far end of the island.
The miles flew by as I made the trip up to the Archives.
It turned cold quickly, and it definitely had more of a bite to it now.
The mountains here always had snow on them.
Dad had a theory that because the lair was so close, the first dragon who created the lair leeched the warmth and the magic from the surrounding mountains to pull into the lair.
It turned the mountains here into a perpetual snowy landscape.
We were pretty sure that the Archives had been here before then, but no one really knew.
The Archives contained so many scrolls and so much information that no one had translated from Ancient Draconic, making it impossible to know for sure.
I snorted. My dad had his work cut out for him when he took over, and I knew he was going to work at it for the rest of his life.
Probably roping in one of his own grandchildren to take over for him.
I could see the building, and I banked, fighting the wind a bit before I landed hard on the marble ground.
As quickly as I could, I shifted back and ducked into the changing room.
Opening my bag, I slipped on my slacks and button-up before locking my bag into one of the cubbies.
Shoving my hands into my pockets, I jogged from the changing room to the entrance.
Sighing as the warmth from the magic hit me, I pushed open the front door.
It was quiet, as usual, and the scent of books filled my nose.
Although the books here didn’t really appeal to me, it was a welcoming scent.
Other than the air in Fiji, this was my favorite scent.
Something I missed, but Ebony made it easy to forget about it.
I passed the front desk, knowing that Dad would probably be somewhere within the shelves.
Every aisle I looked down, but didn’t see him anywhere.
There were so many that I’d probably hurt my neck if I didn’t slow down.
The shelves broke for a second and opened up into a seating area. My brow furrowed.
This was not my dad’s style. Dad was very old-school.
Old leather chairs, dark woods, and even darker lamplight.
This looked far more like a modern library.
It wasn’t bright, per se, but it was brighter than usual.
As I stopped to admire how nice and relaxing it actually looked, I heard a grunt off in the corner.
My eyebrow rose, and I walked down three or four more aisles before I saw someone. It was odd because I hadn’t smelled them. There was no scent to them at all. They were tiny in every possible way. Shockingly light-blonde hair fell down their back, even with their hair pulled up into a ponytail.
They were struggling to get a book back onto the shelf. It was probably two shelves too high for them. They didn’t have a ladder by them either. The book tipped back, ready to fall, as their fingers barely held the bottom part of its spine. I bit my lip so as not to smile.
Coming up behind them, I reached up easily to grab the book from them. Our hands touched, and I felt a stinging pain where we had touched. I ignored it as I easily slipped the book into the empty spot they had been trying to fill.
“Did you need a hand?”
I must have scared them, because they jumped and turned on their heels.
Their eyes were wide, the bright blue and silver color fascinatingly beautiful.
However, they slammed their back into the shelf, hard.
Books rained down from above, and I stood over them, shielding them from the onslaught of falling volumes.
A few bounced off me, and I winced. My eyes looked down and caught their eyes. They were as wide as saucers, shining as if they were about to cry. I didn’t know if one of them hit them, and I lifted back up.
“Sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you.”
Their mouth opened, but nothing came out. What did come out were tears. They slipped down their cheeks. They were searching my face, or maybe my eyes, for something. Reaching out, they stopped a couple of inches from my face. I cocked my head to the side, confused.
“Are you okay?”
I realized a little too late that they were about to pass out.
Their hand fell, and then their body right after.
My hands shot out before I even realized what I was doing.
Catching them before they hit the ground, their eyes closed.
Swallowing, I lifted them into my arms. Or rather, lifted him in my arms.
He was so light. Unhealthily so. I couldn’t imagine that he weight more than a hundred pounds.
I’d noticed that he was a stick when reaching up to the shelf, but this was crazy.
This would be intervention level if he were a student at the college.
Walking out of the aisle, I called out into the vast space.
“Dad? Dad!”
I looked down at the passed-out boy in my arms. He was still breathing, but it seemed as if he were struggling. It didn’t help that wherever my skin touched his; it stung as though someone had slapped me too hard.
“The hell is going on…?”
My eyes widened as Laila, my brother’s mate, walked down the aisle. She looked from me to the boy in my arms. It was like a switch. Her body coiled up, horns exploding from her head and her arms partially shifting into claws.
“What do you think you are doing with him?” Her voice was so deep and angry that it was shocking.
“I…nothing! I just…I think I scared him. He passed out. I caught him before he fell. I just…didn’t know…” I stumbled over my words.
Laila’s presence surprised me. Last I heard, she was missing. Peter had called me, but I didn’t remember everything about the interaction. Just that she had disappeared from the shifters he sent to watch her. If she was here, that meant that I missed much more than I thought.
The level of protectiveness over the boy in my arms. She looked as if she were ready to fight me. I could feel her ready to tear into me. If I weren’t an Alpha, I might have bared my neck to her. Swallowing, I watched as she stepped forward tentatively, claws at the ready.
“Give him to me. Now.”
Nodding, I held him out to her. It was weird. I knew Peter was her mate, but you would think this boy was her mate too. She reached out and snatched him out of my arms. Pulling him close, Laila actually bared her teeth at me.
“You should go.”
“Wait…!”
She had already turned and strode out of the sitting area. I threw my hands up before following her.