We are just along for the ride.
“I-I want to be free, I want to live,” Kelly whispers, then her voice gets stronger. “I want to live!” she yells and then laughs, it sounds choked though. “Even if this baby is a monster, it’s mine. But first, how do we get out?”
“Hold on.” Dawn goes quiet then sighs. “My friend is coming, he can get you out, okay? I need you to trust me, he is a man, a bit surly, but I promise you he will never hurt you. He won’t even touch you, Kelly. Can you do that? You are your own hero here.”
“I can, I can do this,” she repeats, and then I hear them shuffling. Dawn appears in the door and I just stare at her.
I am beyond lost for words. I do not know how I got so lucky as to be a mate to such an amazing, strong, confident, and smart woman, but I will pray that I am enough to stay by her side. Because I want to be, I want to see where this world takes her, because for someone so strong, so fate touched, things are going to happen.
She must hear my thoughts, a side effect of her understanding the bonds she has weaved I would guess, because a smile covers her face. “You will always be by my side. Griffin is coming, but then he has to get back to work. We better go before he arrives and tries to kill you. I need to get to my minotaur.”
“He could try.” I shrug and she grins.
“You’re hot when you’re cocky.” She looks at the wolf then. “Stay and protect her? You can find me again, right?”
The wolf whines but nods and sits, looking at the woman whose hand is on her curved belly as she watches the wolf in confusion. Dawn turns to her and takes her hand. “Good luck. If you need anything, find a woman called Victoria, or Victor.” She reels off an address and the woman mumbles it back before tears fill her eyes.
“Stupid hormones, thank you,” she tells Dawn and takes her hand. “Thank you so much.”
“Give them hell.” Dawn winks and then takes my hand and leads us away. I glance back to see the woman staring after Dawn with a wondrous look in her eyes. Glancing down at my mate, I smile. She has that effect on people, she drives them to want to be more, to never give up even in the darkest of times. Because she is right there with you.
As are we. The monsters gathered behind her in the dark—horns, fangs, and wings hers to command. We will raze this world and rebuild it in her image. She doesn’t even realise it as she walks along next to me, but she is starting something here. Something that will change the world, that will change the fate of our people.
All because of one skinwalker.
Exiting the dragon’s car, I take in a deep breath of fresh air. It has been so long since I have been free, and now I have the world at my feet. I will find the woman who called to me, I will chain her by my side, and we will walk through this world together, my fire trailing in my wake. Chaos, war, and death blooming under my hooves.
She will want for nothing, she will be my very own pet.
Unlike the prideful dragon still arguing on the phone, I know the truth. Love isn’t real, it’s what humans and supernaturals tell each other to try and make sense in this world, to find someone to ride it out with. So when the darkness gets to be too much, they have something, someone to turn to. True love, mates, it’s all a game by the fates, a cruel one. Someone will always end up hurt, betrayed, and left—love isn’t real. But lust?
Oh yes, lust is real, and I am very much aware of that.
My little pet will be as well, she will worship at my feet, mine to do with whatever I want. And when I grow bored with her, I might let her free if she has been good.
I met a fate once, a vile woman she was. She possessed a human I was about to kill in a battlefield. Blood had sprayed us from all angles, the cries of the damned rising amongst the field as the war cry came from both sides. And there we had stood in the midst of it all, her soulless eyes locking on me as she dropped her weapon.
Those eyes, they saw everything. In them was the whole universe, the working and turnings of it, a constant stream of past, present, and possible futures.
She had told me, informed me, that one day I would be tested. That when the pull of life outweighed that of death, I had a choice to make. To save this wretched world or burn in it.
I had laughed in her face. I would always choose death, it is what I am.
She had looked at me sadly.
“Then you will all burn. Choose death out of fear, Serpent. Choose it because you dread the very depths of your soul and what you are capable of when faced with the entity of life and change and you doom them all. Humans and supernaturals alike. You alone can turn the tide. Choose wisely.”
She gasped and dropped to her knees as the warrior returned. Her silver armour stained red with hers and others’ blood, her sword on the ground beside her. Her brown hair was tied back into a plait at her side, her face wild and covered in dirt and blood. Those eyes had locked on mine, tears misting in them as she looked upon me and saw the truth.
In me she saw her death.
I picked up my sword and I took the life like I always do. As I turned and walked away, something bloomed in me. A thread of doubt...burn, she said.
Why would I not choose that?
A slamming of the door brings me back and I shake off the memory, turning to the dragon. “Ready?”
He nods, his chin high in the air. “How does this hop—”
Without letting him question me, I wrap my power around him and tear a hole through space and time and drop us out at the other end. My mist still swirls around us as I laugh. He groans, gagging as he bends forward. “Snake,” he hisses. “Warn me next time.”
“Fine, we have four more hops,” I drawl, bored.
“Four?” he roars as I do it again.
He falls to his knees this time, his eyes pinched in pain. “Four?” he repeats, eyes glassy as he glares at me.
“Yes, I cannot travel around this world in one, not with you in tow, it would drain me too much.” I shrug and hop us again.
He snarls this time and gets to his feet when we land and throws himself at me. Laughing, I hop us that last time, throwing him backwards. He lands on his back on the soil near the council’s mansion. Groaning, he lies there limply as I stroll over, sucking the mist back in until I am a man once again. He stares up at me.
“Tell me, do the great dragons struggle with riding time?” I taunt.
“Demon,” he grumbles, and tries to get to his feet, only to fall on his face. Groaning, he gets to his knees, panting, and waits. Rolling my eyes, I offer him my hand.
“Come, dragon, we have your mate to save, do we not?”
At that he lurches to his feet, his eyes ablaze with purpose and love. Spinning, he turns to take in the mansion from where we stand on the hill next to it. I turn with him, taking it in. “She’s in there,” he whispers.
“I would hope so, or otherwise this trip was for nothing. Come, let us go kill some beings, it’s time they are reminded who is really in charge.”
After rescuing the human female, I quickly fly her beyond the council’s reach before leaving her at a rest stop. I daren’t fly too far in case they notice my absence. That wouldn’t work well, they would punish me, and I need to be invisible to investigate who we can kill and who we can trust. I still don’t know what Titus is doing, but I know for sure we can’t trust Amos. That leaves Derrin and Greta.