What do you think of Cal hiding in the room and listening in to their conversation?
I really do like it here. The only thing that would make it better is if Iniko were here and safe. I hate knowing that he’s out there and we can’t find him.Today I have a full class schedule. I have Tana’s fire element class, along with another class of Doc Everett’s, although this one is about dragon anatomy. I am excited about that one. And I also have one on mate bonds. That one I’m even more curious about to see if what I know from Iniko is the same as what they are teaching. And then, there’s the rider's class. That one I’m most curious about. Thankfully, it’s the first one of the day.Anala and I get ready and we head down for breakfast together. “What do you have first today?’ she asks as we head to breakfast.“The rider's class. Do you know anything about that one?” I ask.“Dragon here, I’ll never be a rider. And that class only has people who have claimed a dragon, so today will be Aithlin’s first day in that class as well. I know Kano and Fenian are also in that class.”“Who
Anala takes me to my first class, the rider’s class. This one, unlike the others I had yesterday, is inside. Today, it’s Cedric who is teaching the class.“Hello, Eliane. Welcome to rider’s class,” he says with a smile. There are very few people in this class. Since there are a lot of dragons and hybrids, I'm guessing it's not as easy for others to claim a dragon as it was for me.When we’re all here, Cedric begins by talking about our claims, about how injured everyone was and how we were healed immediately once our dragons submitted to us. I look around and see everyone nodding their head in agreement with him. I wasn’t injured at all.“And by now, you’ve realized that it’s very important to heal your dragon. We, as riders, have a responsibility to our dragons. They give themselves to us, wholly, completely. That means that if you injure them, they suffer that injury until you heal them. You should never, ever, lash out at your dragon in anger. The responsibility that we have to care
I know my mother feels drawn to Eliane, not only because she’s my mate, but also because she’s Iniko’s rider. It’s not comfortable for me, knowing my mate claimed another dragon, but I do appreciate that my mother loves her for both our sakes.“What direction did you feel the pull to Iniko, Jewels?” Ishir asks.She turns her giant head, larger than my mother’s in her dragon form, and sniffs the air, then she turns to me.“The tiger?” she asks.“Yes, Ishir is my mother’s mate and he has the best nose of anyone, with the possible exception of Tesha. But she has polar bear DNA, and is pregnant, which is why she isn't here,” I say, stroking her snout. I know she’s nervous around all of the dragons and their mates that she isn’t used to.“He’s in that direction, tiger,” Jewels says to him.“Well, I think we know where she gets her penchant for calling others by their species rather than their name," Cedric says, walking up to her. “Do you remember me, Jewels? I am Cedric, Tana’s rider.”“Th
I don’t know why it hadn’t occurred to me or any of us to check underground. Maybe because we couldn’t find Iniko and Eliane and they weren’t underground. Either way, now we’ve found them.As Jewels begins digging up the earth, I hear the sounds of screams coming from inside.“ISHIR!” I exclaim.“Humans! I hear them!” he yells, leaping off my mother’s back and shifting into his tiger as he falls into the hole Jewels has created.I hear my father’s threatening growl. There are many sounds that a dragon can make, but my father and I are the same in this one. We are most deadly when our angry sound is soft and low. When I look, I see him and Merethyl facing off against what smells like an elf hybrid. He must think very highly of himself if he thinks he can take on my father and a royal elf princess. He doesn’t last five minutes before my father eats him.When I turn back, I notice Jewels is turned away from the hole, growling a low, menacing growl of her own. I look and see a fire dragon
**Slight Trigger Warning: Aggressive/Violent sex**He’s gone! I can’t believe he’s gone. Pyralis is dead, eaten by the earth dragon.“What the fuck, Truda. What the fuck just happened?” Banari asks me when we finally find a place to stop and rest. The dragons left, taking all of the prisoners with them. I’m not sure if Banari is more concerned about losing Pyralis or losing the harem he’d been creating. Many of those females were pregnant by him, Maccha, or Fordin, but mostly, I’d say Banari. He’s the one who was in there mating them every damn day, multiple times a day.“What do you mean what happened, Banari? The dragons just fucking attacked us and nearly killed us all for taking one of their own,” Galeus says. He, I know, is distraught that Pyralis is gone.“We need to find Iris. She’ll know what to do,” Banari says. For all his bravado and machismo, he’s a first-class coward. He isn’t a leader and never will be.“You idiot! She ran off with Gideoni and Fordin! She left us! We’re l
I watch my mate sobbing over my brother. We had tried, all of us had tried to heal him. We can mend cuts and broken bones, but we can’t replace scales that have been brutally whipped from a dragon’s body.My mother’s distress had been bad enough. Then there had been my father, who was causing the ground to shake and shift, only balanced by Merethyl’s own earth element, keeping him steady. And now, I have to watch my mate fall apart because her dragon, my brother, has been whipped so hard that he may never fly again.We were, at least, able to heal his nerve endings, but without scales, flying would be too painful and he would never be able to carry Eliane on his back again. When Yhendorn and Kenna arrived, I asked him if his books had anything in them about dragons regrowing scales. He didn’t recall anything but said he would look.“How long before you’ll know if you can save him?” Eliane asks, still laying over his snout.“I don’t know. I haven’t had to treat a dragon with injuries th
“Ajax, are you in this class?” Cedric asks him.“No, I was making sure that Eliane and Cal got breakfast. There was an…incident.”Cedric looks at me, assessing me for a moment.“Jax, why don’t you stay. It’s Eliane’s first class and Cal looks like he needs to hit someone. You have enough control to spar with Eliane and then I can give Cal someone to fight full on,” he says. I don’t care much for the wolves, but I do like Cedric. Maybe that’s because he’s a rider, or maybe he’s a rider because he’s different than other wolves.“It's her first class, so you want me to teach her technique?” Jax asks.“Are you comfortable with that?”“Yeah, plus you’ve got Kendrick here, so if I screw it up, I’m sure he’ll set me straight,” he says, smiling at the Alpha wolf.“You know it, Jax,’ Kendrick says, smiling back as he warms up.Cedric turns back and looks at me, nodding his head for me to follow him. I grab the sword that I always use in this class. It’s my mother’s sword from her family, so no
Avani is a very patient teacher. I wasn’t expecting that. He’s really good at helping me to connect with my earth element and according to him, since I have elf DNA as well, it should be the easiest element for me to connect with.“Close your eyes,” he says, his voice mesmerizing, like ancient words floating on a breeze. I do as he says.“What do you smell?”“People, elves mostly, but also a mix of scents, probably the hybrids.”“What do you smell beyond that?”I stretch my mind and my senses out. “Dirt, grass, trees, different types of trees,” I say.“And beyond that?” he says softly, making me feel like I’m going into a trance.“The cold of the mountain tops, the snow and ice up there. And then, there’s the heat from deep in the earth, the lava rolling around from deep down.”“Very good. Can you grab hold of that lava? Are you able to pull on it?”I frown. It’s a liquid, but I’m surprised when it seems to respond to my desire to capture it.“Yes,” I say.“Good. See if you can bring i