FIVE

As Lillah washed away the scents that were clinging to her skin, Gaz, the forest, Alpha Aaron, she contemplated her future. The dragons seemed nice, really nice. Alpha Aaron had never treated her with the respect and gentleness that these towering males had.

Neeri was awake now and she too was happy, entirely comfortable. Maybe too comfortable considering the way she kept trying to get Lillah to turn her head while washing to look at Beta Gaz. More than once Neeri’s fussing had caused Lillah to drop the soap.

That Beta is delicious… Neeri purred. Can’t you smell him?

Yes, I know. We were wearing his jacket – and his shirt. But we can’t breed with him. The Alpha King wants us to have ice dragon babies.

Well, we could still do that. Gaz said the dragon way was throuples… he could be our Male and we will have a Vermale as required.

Neeri… we don’t know anything about the Beta – he probably already has his own throuple or something.

On the other side of the room the Beta was having a similar conversation with his own counterpart.

Breeth, she here to help repopulate the ice dragons, we can’t have her.

Her Vermale might share…

You know dragons don’t really share…

Then hurry up and find a Vermale for ourselves, then we can be a cute throuple with the Omega girl.

I can’t just click my fingers and have him appear – these things take time…

She doesn’t have time, these wolf shifters have short lives. Breeth grumbled, growing aggravated.

Look, once she has been successfully bred, I’ll speak to our King about it but Lillah might not want us – she will probably be very happy with her Vermale.

Speak to him now – the ice dragon populus is on the verge stabilising. An entire generation will reach maturity over the next decade. I’m sure missing one hatchling from Lillah won’t send the population into decline. Breeth argued. Besides, we never ask for anything.

Just leave it, Breeth. By the Goddess you’re such a bone head sometimes. Gaz crossed his arms over his chest, thoroughly done with the conversation.

Feeling clean and relaxed, Lillah dried herself and dressed. The towels and clothes had the teeny, tiniest bit of Gaz’s scent on them from when he had picked them out. A couple of times she glanced over at Gaz only to see his arms crossed over his chest and an angry look on his face. She hoped it wasn’t anything she’d done.

“Ready?” Gaz smiled and uncrossed his arms when she came over, dressed in the clean clothes.

“For what?” Lillah stood in front of the seated Beta. Neeri was being exceedingly vocal about how she should just slide herself onto his lap.

“Come on, I’ll show you.” Gaz stood and Neeri huffed.

He showed her to an adjoining room. Lillah had no clue what this room was for. The only thing in it was a table covered in sealed jars. Each jar had a ball of cotton wool in it and nothing else. Curious, she stepped further in, but turned when she noticed Gaz didn’t follow.

“You’re going to pick which Vermale you will breed with.”

“From jars?” Lillah asked, eyebrows coming together in confusion. “I don’t get to actually meet anyone?” She was being much bolder than she would have ever dared with Alpha Aaron. Gaz seemed safe, with an even temperament. “Don’t get me wrong, I’m grateful that I get to choose anything at all, but I’m confused.”

“The jars have a cotton ball with pheromones on, from each of the available Vermales. Which ever smells the best to you is going to be the best genetic match and as the purpose is for breeding it’s the most effective way of pairing you up.” Gaz rubbed the back of his neck, trying to ease the tension that was growing there. “Open each jar, have a sniff and bring me the one you like the best.” He leant against the door frame.

Lillah gave him a smile. She took a moment to contemplate all the choices she would make if she were allowed to do whatever she pleased but sadly that was not the case and so Lillah turned her attention to the jars.

Gaz watched attentively as she opened each one. He drank in her facial expressions, all of them highly animated, making what she thought about each Vermales’ scent glaringly obvious. Alpha King Keegan had arranged for it to be like this from the very beginning. It was a smart way to do it and had resulted in very successful breeding with the Omega wolf-shifters. Although there had been some learning curves in the beginning – like not putting the jar lids on too tight and using ones that were small enough for the Omegas’ hands.

“There should be a second table in here so I can make a short list.” Lillah grumbled, placing a jar on the floor.

“No one has complained before,” Gaz laughed while Lillah reorganised the jars. “ When I’ve witnessed others choosing, they don’t usually make it though all the jars. One just stands out to them.”

“A couple of them smell very nice…” but not as nice as you, Lillah wanted to say but held her tongue. “Do I have to decide now?” She stared at the three jars on the floor.

“I’m afraid so.”

She doesn’t like any of those as much as she likes us. I can tell. Breeth boasted, puffing up his chest.

Shut up.

Instead of taking a light sniff, Lillah pushed her nose as far into each of the three jars as it would go and took a deep breath, getting as much of the scent as possible.

“This one,” She held out the jar. It had been the second one she’d short listed.

Gaz turned it over and looked at the marker on the base, telling him exactly who it belonged to. Immediately, he mind-linked the dragon-shifter, letting him know that he had been chosen and the time and place he should meet Lillah.

“Right, now that’s sorted I’ll take you to your room.”

 The Beta turned to leave.

“Beta? Why am I being paired with a fire Vermale and not an ice one?” There were a lot of questions on Lillah’s mind so she decided to ask them hoping it would distract her from what she really wanted.

“It’s to increase the gene pool.”

“Oh. How do we know it will definitely be a dragon-shifter baby and not a wolf-shifter baby?” Lillah stepped closer to the Beta, catching the fullness of his scent. It was so much more satisfying than the one in the jar.

“Dragon genes are dominant; all werewolf traits will be masked by the dragon ones.” He explained. The fact that Lillah knew next to nothing about dragon-shifters wasn’t strange at all. Even before the war dragon-shifters had mostly kept to themselves and since the war they were even more cautious so the information wolves had on dragon-shifters was sparse. With the little they did have, they liked to spread misinformation. Or perhaps it was that the information had been misconstrued for so long they now thought it was the truth.

“How many babies do I need to have?” It was bold question from the Omega, much more direct than most of them ever were. Gaz like it.

“Just one.” He smiled.

Just one… Lillah thought to herself. Everything Alpha Aaron had told her was turning out to be a lie. She wouldn’t be part of a harem and now it seemed she wasn’t going to spend the rest of her fertile years popping out babies – well eggs but she would rather hold on to the idea of babies as eggs seems, well, gross.