Sorry for the delays in posting. Day job is kicking my butt. But, you get two today!
The next morning, we’re up early. When I get outside, Morgan is already there with Kaylani. If she had a human form, she’d be bouncing on her feet. Instead, her scales are rippling and the excited energy coming off of her is palpable. “So, this is a good training exercise for both of you,” Kaylani begins. “Both of you need to learn to have control of your element. Watch as Zephyr and I show you,” she says, and Zephyr pulls a small tornado onto her hand. “The key is to trust each other, Zephyr and I are sisters and have grown up together, so we know that the other can control their element. But you also have the responsibility when you mix elements to maintain control of your element. If ones goes out of control, they both do,” Kaylani says, as she adds water to the tornado, making it a water spout. As we watch, she begins to add too much water, making waves around the tornado, making the tornado sloppy and eventually it falls off Zephyr’s hand and splashes on the ground at our feet
As we fly to the city, I can feel my tiger purring on my back. If I turned my head, I would expect to see him curled up like a cat. I’m pretty sure he’s not, but that’s what it feels like. ‘I love riding on your back, Zephyr. It’s so different from the others,’ Ishir saysin my mind, making me growl. I don’t like my rider having ridden on another’s back, he’s MY rider. ‘Yes, I am now. But I wasn’t always, and it was never comfortable for me. Necessary, yes, but I never purred for them, my little dragon,’ he says seductively. ‘You know I’m not little, right?’ I ask him. I mean really, even in his tiger form, I’m much larger than he is. ‘Shall I sink my teeth into your neck again, Zephyr? I only need to be large enough to claim you, and once you’re in your human form, let’s not talk about how, what was Merethyl's word, dainty, you are,’ he says, making me shiver at the thought of his canines in my neck. ‘You like that?’ he purrs. ‘Yes. I like the way you claimed me. I like the mark
Okay, this isn’t how I wanted Zephyr to find out that she’s pregnant. “Are you sure, Ishir. I mean I know you have a good sense of smell, but…” I feel her pull the scent that I’ve been smelling from my memory. Her mind is in chaos, and I may have been nearly asleep a moment ago, but now, I’m wide awake, ready to fight the demons of her mind if I have to. However, as soon as she smells the scent from my memory, everything inside her quiets and she looks down, putting her hands on her stomach. “I’m having a kitten?” she asks quietly, her voice thick with emotion. She looks up at me, tears in her eyes and a tentative smile on her face. “I’m going to have a little girl version of you?” she asks. I reach out and cup her face, stroking her cheek with my thumbs. “I was worried about how you would handle this, but you seem….happy?” She nods and a couple of tears fall from her eyes. I swipe them away. “How long will I be pregnant?” she asks me. “I’m not sure. Tana’s and Merethyl’s gesta
I love that I’m pregnant again. I’m not sure how Ancalagon will feel about it, and knowing that my gestation will only be three months, I’m sure I’ll start showing any day. It’s a very short amount of time for a human birth, although, technically, this is a shifter/dragon birth, just in human form. It also means I have to start thinking about what we’re going to do with a young, human child that is completely dependent upon us. Will I have to separate from Ishir? Will he want me to stay home and take care of our child while he continues to go hunting for these missing hybrids and the other missing humans and shifters that he normally searches for. “No. That’s not what I want. I would like for you and I to talk about a way to bring our child or children with us as we search. It won’t be easy, and maybe we need think about not having children back to back, although the thought you having four our my kittens in the next year makes me very happy,” Ishir says, answering the thoughts in my
I begin following the scent of fire dragon and earth, making me believe that this young girl is a dragon/elf hybrid. If, as I suspect, these were once missing human children, its just one more reason to find them. If someone were to recognize them and worse, call the authorities, things would become really bad for the shifter community. It wouldn’t take long for the humans to realize that their children had been experimented on and who would they blame? One of their own or a shifter? They would always blame us. I follow her scent out of the city and into the forest. I come across other scents and I turn to look at Avani. “One at a time or do you want to divide and conquer?” I ask. “Divide and conquer,” he and Merethyl say at the same time. I lift my nose, smelling the scents of the others that passed this way. “I smell four. It seems like two are together. One male, one female and they both have the base of the dragon DNA, one earth, one water. Do you want to take them?” I ask th
I can’t believe that Oliver hurt this sweet little girl. I hate him even more than I did before. He doesn’t care about anyone other than himself. He truly is the monster that he claims that we are. “Ishir is the tiger’s name. He is my mate, my rider. Would you be okay if he came out to sit with us?” I ask Nova. “Will he hurt me, Zephyr?” she asks, her big green eyes looking up at me. “No, little one. He won’t. He finds missing children, like you. He helps them to find their families or for those without families, he helps them find a safe place where they can live,” I tell her as Ishir makes his way toward us. Nova snuggles into me. “You smell good,” she says. “What do I smell like to you, little one?” I ask her. “Snow. I like the snow,” she says. “I think she smells like freshly fallen snow,” Ishir says, cautiously coming out of the bushes. “Yes!” she says, but she’s watching Ishir cautiously. I lean in and sniff her hair. Beneath the dirt and grime, I can smell the fire on h
As soon as we’re in the bedroom I begin pacing. Back and forth, back and forth. “Ishir,” Zephyr says softly. “What if this sends you spiraling, Zeph? You’ve been doing better, you've been stronger for a while now. I don’t want to risk your mental state,” I say. “But this could save my life, Ishir,” she says. “And it’s the only reason I’m even considering it, Zephyr.” I turn, ready to continue my pacing, but her hand comes to my face. “It could save the lives of these juvenile dragons as well, Ishir. I owe it to them…” she begins. “NO, Zephyr! You are carrying my child. What if it hurts her? What if it hurts you?” I snarl. “We’ll ask the doc first,” she says calmly, and I can feel in her mind that she wants to do this, really wants to do this. “I will need an absolute assurance from him that this will not negatively impact you or our daughter,” I say to her. “If he can’t give me that, then the answer is no, Zephyr. Tell me you agree with me,” I say, and for the first time in my
I had wanted to help test the paralytic, but now that I can’t shift, there is no choice. Everett wanted us in our dragon form, and my little one is now far enough along that I can no longer shift. When Ishir puts me back on the ground, I put my hands on my stomach and look up at him. “I’m so worried about having a live baby. What if something is wrong and we don’t know it?” I say. “I can check you. I’ve checked both Tana and Merethyl. I am a doctor after all. I was a human doctor before I became a doctor for shifters,” Everett says. “He checked me when I thought I was a dragon,” Merethyl says, coming over and putting her arm around me. “I know it’s not the same, my body was made to birth live babies, but I trust Everett. And, he can show you an image of your little girl.” My head whips over to where Everett is still checking Avani, now in his human form. “You can do that?” I ask. “Yes. Since we anticipate that your child will be born more quickly than the others, it’s probably a