“It didn’t seem like a short time when we were sitting in that dungeon,” he replied.
Micah rose into the sky. Nyfain lifted his head to watch, and Micah circled him lazily, taunting him, showing him what he lacked as a dragon.
Pain vibrated through the bond from Nyfain. My heart lurched for him. My dragon bristled. I couldn’t fight this battle for him, though. That much I knew.
“He’s drawing a crowd,” Hannon said softly.
Dragons hovered in the air, beating their mighty wings, watching. Others, including the wolves, watched from the ground as the alphas faced off…except only one was participating. The other was watching, unable to engage.
“Fight back, damn you,” I said through clenched teeth, power pounding through me. “Get mad. Where is your rage?”
The pain continued to throb in the bond, worsening, blackening. And suddenly, I saw.
All of Nyfain’s fears were coming true. Micah was mocking him in front of their peers, rubbing his changed appearance in his face.
“I cannot abide by this,” I said through angry tears. I’d never been mocked for what I looked like, but it had always overshadowed my accomplishments. I’d never been seen for me, all of me, including my oddities. Until Nyfain came along.
I loved him—faults, hang-ups, and all—and I’d never gotten the chance to tell him. Nor could I tell him now.
“Micah is doing this to show you what you’d be missing,” Hannon murmured sadly. He felt bad for Nyfain. “I heard what he said to you, and now he’s proving it. That was probably his intention all along.”
“How do I fix this?” I asked Hannon.
“How do you usually fix him? You’re the only one who seems capable of it, from what Hadriel says.”
Rage.
Rouse his dragon, I told my dragon. Rouse him. He’s letting the man’s fears muddy his mind. Shove down the man so they can win this fight. Win this battle and claim us as their mate.
My dragon surged up unexpectedly and shifted, her pain and anguish at watching Nyfain’s shame fueling her haste to do as I said.
Don’t battle for him, though, I cried in desperation. She got crazy when it was time to battle; I’d just seen that firsthand.
I’m not an idiot.
I often beg to differ.
She waited for Hannon to scrabble backward, his eyes wide, before she beat her wings two times, hard. It lifted us up off the ground, and we hovered there for a long moment, gathering everyone’s attention, before she curled her wings in with a snap and slammed down onto the ground. With a mighty roar, she set the ground to trembling.
Weston, to the side, shifted into his wolf. The other wolves around him followed suit. And then he lay down, his head on his paws. The wolves behind him, as one, did the same. Sable and Dash sat down next to Father, their eyes hard. In the sky, the Wyvern dragons dropped gracefully, stopping at about the height my dragon had reached before snapping in their wings and dropping as well.
For a moment, no one moved beyond treading air, the dragons from the villages contemplating their choice. They either sided with one of their own, a powerful alpha, or a foreign prince who had lost his identity as a dragon in trying to keep his people safe.
Movement caught our eye.
Across the field, Vemar walked forward with a powerful strut. He stopped with a hard expression, staring straight at me, then shifted and rose exactly like I had. He hovered for a long moment, like he was debating whether to continue into the sky to support Micah’s treatment of Nyfain. Then he snapped his wings, slammed down onto the ground, and sent up a savage roar.
One by one, the dragons in the sky lowered, some slower than others. Most didn’t make a show of it, touching down on the ground and then closing up their wings, but a few did. A few added their roars to Vemar’s, showing their disappointment in the man they knew.
Finally, the pain and suffering within Nyfain eased a little, letting his dragon have more space to take matters into his own hands, as it were.
Rage built, hard and hot. Power leached from us, his dragon taking from us after all those times it had done nothing but give. I added some heady pleasure into the mix so Nyfain would know I was here for him, eager to help in any way that I could—the equivalent of a little kiss on his way to work.
Micah didn’t give up his circling, though he dipped in his flight a little now, just out of reach.
I knew Nyfain wanted to leap off the ground to try to grab him, but he held still. And built. And built. My dragon kept supplying power, feeding him all we had.
Silence drifted through the spectators. The ruffle of Micah’s wings filled the vast space.
And then Nyfain exploded with a roar so loud, so intense, that it seemed to freeze the air. Micah wobbled, his wings flapping like those of a startled bird, and tilted dramatically. Nyfain launched up, higher than Micah could’ve ever expected, I was sure, plucking the other dragon out of the air and pulling him back down to the ground. He was on Micah the next moment in a vicious attack that churned my stomach even as it sent desire flaming through my blood.
Nyfain ripped scales off Micah’s side with his sharp, well-used claws. He tore lumps out of his flesh with a practiced jaw. And although Micah fought his way to standing, Nyfain quickly swung his tail and sent spikes into the other dragon’s side.
Nyfain’s savagery was unparalleled. This was a showcase of his constant fighting for the last sixteen years. He was brutal. Feral. He knew no rules. He’d long since abandoned decorum for the sake of survival.
His prowess showed and then some.
In a moment, it was over. Nyfain stood over the bleeding form of his opponent, stopping short of killing him, and sent up a thunderous roar in victory. The ground quaked. My blood froze. Desire flooded me.
Shift, I thought, as though tapping her shoulder so she’d notice me. Shift!
I want to take that dragon right now.
He can’t fly, and watching two dragons trying to hump in a field will add insult to injury. Besides, I need to claim him. Shift! Hopefully breaking the curse will give him his wings back. Then…no, I don’t want to be a part of that. Never touch his dragon.
Sure, yeah. Let’s pretend I’m going to listen to you.
She relented, giving me free rein. Before I could push the shift, though, Nyfain expanded his chest and sent a huge jet of fire blistering into the sky. It could’ve been directed at Micah. I knew from the others that fire wouldn’t kill a dragon, but it could blind them, suffocate them if directed at them for too long. Or, if the blast were strong enough, it could punch through their wings.
That blast would’ve been plenty strong enough.
The dragon showed restraint in their battle, my dragon said, dripping with gooey love and devotion. He could’ve disfigured the other dragon with a blast like that. It was in his right to kill, but he withheld. Why?
I knew why. Because even though Nyfain thought Micah crossed a line when it came to his female, Micah had also come to Nyfain’s aid. He might’ve done it for me, or said he did, but he still did it. Nyfain clearly thought that was worth sparing the other dragon’s life, and I agreed.
I shifted, walking forward, my clothes in tatters on the ground behind me. I didn’t care. All I saw was the dragon and, in a moment, the man. My man.
He didn’t spare anyone else a glance. He didn’t look back at his fallen enemy. He only saw me, his emotions raging from victory to pain, love to loss. He reached me in a rush, and I grabbed his hair in two fists and dragged his mouth down to mine.