Chapter 5

"Too many," Leon replied, his enhanced hearing parsing the sounds from above. "At least twenty. Military-trained. They know what they're hunting."

Another bolt ricocheted into the chamber, this one trailing silver wire that sparked against the stone. Where it touched, Maya felt a wrongness that made her newly awakened dragon nature recoil in pain.

"Silver-core ammunition," Darius rumbled, his earthen skin hardening to granite. "They're not here to capture."

Maya's vision blurred as another wave of transformation rippled through her. She could feel her human form beginning to dissolve, her consciousness expanding beyond the confines of flesh and bone. Soon, there would be nothing left but raw power and instinct.

"Choose," Xander said, his void-touched voice cutting through the chaos with unnatural clarity. "Choose, or we all burn."

Maya looked around the circle of dragons—her potential mates, her anchors, her salvation or destruction. Above them, the hunters were breaking through the museum's defences, their silver weapons ready to end a bloodline that had existed since the dawn of time.

Her dragon stirred again, and Maya didn't fight it this time. She let the ancient consciousness rise, let it evaluate the males surrounding her with predatory calculation. And in that moment of surrender, she felt something click into place—not choice, but recognition.

"I choose all of you," she said, her voice no longer entirely human.

The words hung in the chamber like a physical force, and for a heartbeat, absolute silence reigned. Even the sounds of battle above seemed to pause.

"All of them?" Vivienne breathed, her composed mask slipping for the first time. "Maya, that's not—the prophecy speaks of seven bonds, yes, but a primary mate must be—"

"The prophecy is wrong," Maya interrupted, her golden eyes blazing as power coursed through her with new purpose. "Or incomplete. I can feel it—my resonance doesn't want to choose between them. It wants to harmonise with all of them."

Leon stepped forward, his shadows writhing with agitation. "That's impossible. Light dragons have always bonded with a single primary—"

"Light dragons have been extinct for three centuries," Maya cut him off, her voice carrying harmonics that made the chamber crystals sing in response. "Maybe the old ways died with them."

Kai laughed, the sound carrying both delight and something darker. "A seven-way claiming bond. The Order will lose their collective minds."

Another explosion shook the museum, this time closer. Dust rained from the ceiling as the hunters' assault intensified.

"Theoretical discussions can wait," Cassius said urgently, electricity dancing across his skin. "The silver weapons are disrupting the chamber's protective wards. We need to move."

"The bonding ritual requires—" Vivienne began.

"No ritual," Maya said firmly, her transformation accelerating as her human logic finally surrendered to dragon instinct. "No ancient protocols. Just this."

She reached out with her resonance, not to one dragon but to all seven simultaneously. The response was immediate and overwhelming—seven different harmonies crashing into her consciousness like a symphonic tsunami. Fire and shadow, ice and storm, earth and void and light, all spiralling together in a pattern that should have been chaos but somehow resolved into perfect, impossible harmony.

The pendant above them exploded with radiance, its light fracturing into seven distinct beams that struck each dragon simultaneously. The chamber was filled with the sound of reality restructuring itself, and ancient magic was adapting to accommodate something that had never existed before.

"Impossible," Vivienne whispered, but her voice carried awe rather than denial.

Maya felt the bonds snap into place—not one primary connection, but seven equal threads linking her consciousness to theirs. Through the links, she experienced Kai's fierce joy, Leon's calculating satisfaction, Kieran's cool approval, Cassius's electric excitement, Darius's stone-deep contentment, Lucian's radiant warmth, and Xander's void-touched hunger.

The destabilising resonance that had threatened to tear her apart suddenly stabilised, and her chaotic power found anchor points in seven different elemental frequencies. For the first time since her awakening began, Maya felt truly in control.

"Well," she said, flexing fingers that now trailed wisps of golden light, "that's one crisis resolved. Now, about those hunters trying to crush our party.”

Above them, the sound of splintering wood announced the hunters had breached the museum's main floor. Maya could hear their coordinated movements, smell the cold metal of their weapons, and sense the malevolent intent radiating from their minds like a physical stench.

"They're using suppression fields," Leon observed, his shadows flickering as they encountered invisible barriers. "Military-grade anti-magic tech."

"Since when do dragon hunters have access to that kind of equipment?" Kai demanded, flames dancing around his clenched fists.

"Since someone with very deep pockets decided our kind needed to be eliminated," Vivienne replied grimly. "The Order has been evolving, just as we have."

Maya felt the bonds with her seven mates thrumming with shared purpose. Through the connections, she could sense their individual strengths, combat experience, and readiness to protect what was now theirs. The sensation was intoxicating—like having access to seven different types of power simultaneously.

"They don't know about the lower chambers," she said, certainty flowing through the bonds from Leon's tactical mind. "We could escape through the old tunnels."

"Running isn't an option," Darius rumbled, his granite skin gleaming in Maya's golden light. "They've tracked us here. They'll track us anywhere we go."

"Then we fight," Cassius said simply, electricity crackling between his fingers with renewed intensity.

Maya felt her dragon nature surge in agreement, no longer the chaotic force that had threatened to consume her, but something focused and deadly. Through her bonds, she could feel her mates' approval, their recognition of her as not just a female to be protected, but an equal partner in whatever came next.

"Seven dragons and a newly awakened light dragon against twenty trained hunters with military weapons," Kieran observed, his breath frosting the air as his temperature dropped. "I've faced worse odds."

"Not me," Kai admitted cheerfully, "but I'm looking forward to improving my record."