The Bloodline

"Why do they look like me?" Briton asked again, but louder.

Jamie didn't answer. She was too focused on Hemston, whose body convulsed in her arms.

The scales kept spreading, each one appearing with a sound like glass breaking.

"We need to get her out of here." Kade shifted back to human and grabbed the attackers' clothes and wore them. "She's going into shock."

"She's four years old! This shouldn't be happening!" Jamie's hands shook as she tried to hold her daughter still. "Baby, look at me. Look at Mama."

Herston's eyes rolled back. Her small body arched, as they tried to reshape themselves. Then she started crying.

Briton moved toward them. "Let me help."

"Stay back!" Jamie's wolf surfaced, her eyes glowing gold. "You've done enough."

"I haven't done anything except try to save your children." Briton crouched anyway, close enough to see the scales up close. They weren't like anything he'd seen before. "What is she?"

"She's my daughter."

"That's not what I asked."

Kade appeared beside them with rope from his bike. "We need to restrain her before she hurts herself."

"I'm not tying up my baby!"

"You want her to break her own bones?" Kade didn't wait for permission. He started wrapping the rope around Herston's wrists. "I've seen this before. The shift will stabilize but only if she doesn't fight it."

Jamie stared at him. "You've seen this before?"

"Not exactly this. But close enough." Kade finished with the rope and met her eyes. "She's got dragon blood. But this kind usually skips generations."

The factory went silent except for Herston's labored breathing.

"That's impossible." Jamie's voice was barely a whisper. "Dragons are extinct."

"Are they?" Kade pulled off his shirt. Across his back was a tattoo spread from shoulder to shoulder. Not just any tattoo. It was that of a dragon with its wings spread, done in silver ink that seemed to move. "I'm A Dragon Guard. I have been for ten years. My job is to find and protect the remaining bloodlines."

Briton processed that information while watching Herston's convulsions slowly ease. "You're saying Jamie has dragon blood?"

"I'm saying her daughter does. Which means she does too." Kade looked at Jamie. "Your grandmother was The Last Dragon Queen of her line. When she died, everyone thought the bloodline ended with her."

"My grandmother was a werewolf." But Jamie doesn't even believe herself as she spoke. "She died when I was ten."

"She was both a wolf and a dragon. And she hid it from everyone, including you, because the Dragon Council has been hunting her family for three generations." Kade's expression hardened. "They want the bloodline ended. No heirs or any threats to their power."

"That's why they've been attacking me." Jamie looked down at Herston, whose breathing had finally steadied. The scales remained but she'd stopped shifting.

"They've been watching you for years, waiting to see if the blood would manifest." Kade stood and surveyed the factory. "Tonight was their move. They tried to kill you at the gala and when that failed, they went after your kids."

Briton's wolf snarled inside his chest. He looked at Hemston, still tied up and terrified on the floor. "The boy. Does he have it too?"

"I don't know yet. Dragon blood is unpredictable, it could be both kids, it could be just one too." Kade walked over and cut Hemston's ropes. The little boy immediately ran to his mother and buried his face in her neck.

"Mama, I was scared. The bad men said they were going to hurt Herston."

"Shh, baby. You're safe now." Jamie held both children, tears streaming down her face. "You're both safe."

"No, they're not." Briton stood. "If what Kade says is true, the Dragon Council won't stop. They'll keep coming."

"Then I'll keep fighting." Jamie's eyes met his. "I've been doing it alone for five years. I can keep doing it."

"You don't have to do it alone anymore."

"Don't I? Where were you five years ago when I needed you? Where were you when I was pregnant and terrified? Where were you when these babies were born and I had no one?" Her voice were shaking real bad already. "You don't get to play hero now, Briton. You made your decision….."

"I didn't know…."

"You didn't want to know!" Jamie stood, still holding both children. "You chose Leanora. You chose your perfect human girlfriend over your mate. So don't stand there and pretend you care about my children."

"Our children." Briton stepped closer. Before Jamie could talk again, Jai's voice came through the radio. "We've got company. Three black SUVs just pulled up with many armed personnel. And they're not cops."

Kade cursed and grabbed his weapons. "How many?"

"At least a dozen. Maybe more." Jai's voice was tense. "They're surrounding the building."

"Dragon Council." Kade looked at Jamie. "They knew we'd come here. This whole thing was a trap to draw you out."

The factory doors burst open as armed guards flooded in with their weapons already set. But they didn't wear masks this time. Each one had a silver dragon emblem on their chest.

And walking through the center of them, calm and composed in a business suit was Leanora Thornton.

"Hello, Briton." She smiled. "I tried to warn you."

Briton's breathing stopped for a while. "What are you doing here?"

"My job." Leanora walked forward. "I'm one of the Dragon Council, or lemme say I have been since before we met. The relationship, the girlfriend and fiancée shit, it was all a cover up to get close to you." She looked at Jamie. "And through you, to her."

"You used me." Briton said in disbelief.

"I did what was necessary." Leanora stopped ten feet away, with guards on both sides. "The Dragon Queen bloodline is a threat to the natural order. It should have ended generations ago. But here we are, with not one but two heirs running around with unstable magic."

"They're children," Jamie said through gritted teeth.

"They're abominations. Half-wolf and half-dragon are completely unpredictable." Leanora's expression didn't change. "The Council has been very patient with you, Ms. Olive. We gave you chances to surrender quietly. But you refused."

Leanora gestured and the guards raised their weapons. "Surrender the children and we'll make it quick. Fight, and everyone in this building dies."

Kade stepped in front of Jamie. "You'll have to go through me first."

"That is not a problem." Leanora said and pulled out a silver blade. "I was hoping to avoid this, but if you insist on protecting her, Dragon Guard, then you die with her."

Briton's wolf roared to the surface. He shifted, placing himself between Leanora and his family.

“Leanora you can't hurt my family”. Briton said in wolf.

Leanora sighed. "So be it. Kill them all." Immediately the guards opened fire.