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Chapter Thirty

Anaki

I didn’t know one could smell arousal in a dream-like state, especially one when the goddess had willed it. Yet my mate was determined to push every boundary.

My younger self was currently in the middle of pulverizing a male who dared to touch me and tried to claim me as his own.

I never condoned that sort of violence but touching me was a hard fucking ‘No’!

I hated people touching me unless I welcomed it, and of course, this forced my first shift to be quick, painful, and violent.

It had turned my mate on watching me destroy an enemy. Now I don’t feel as bad. I smiled into her hair and chuckled softly.

“Anaki, look at you go!” she whispered, but it rang in my ears like a yell of praise. I closed my eyes and reveled in it.

“You little praise-kink slut,” my dragon snorted at me.

I let out a puff of air through my nose, rustling Elena’s hair. Yeah, she knows of my praise kink, and she will probably realize a lot more about me now she can enter my mind. I’d take her love anyway I could get it.

I turned my head and lay my cheek on her head.

Her chest rubbed against mine as I felt her nipples pucker against the thin fabric of the dress she wore.

Even in the dream, she felt like heaven to me and while the chaotic scene unfolded, I wanted to rip off the dress and eat her pussy like a starving male.

“The goddess is right there,” my dragon hissed. “Have some respect.”

What I really wanted was for my mate to disrespect me. I supposed I should wait for that until the entire event was over.

A roar ripped through my younger self when my dragon came into its full shift.

The fins on my back and on the lower part of the arms flipped open and sliced more pieces of skin off of Armeleo.

Dragon shifters’ humanoid forms were weak compared to the dragon’s scaled armor.

He tried to shift, his scales trying to protrude out of his body, but with one snap of my jaw, I crushed his skull with one bite.

“Mierda!” Elena shouted and turned her face into my chest. “You bit his head right off!” She turned her head back to the scene where my dragon spat his head onto the ground toward Caelen and Desani.

I held onto Elena even tighter as she watched Caelen's face morph into shock.

“I lost control of the shift,” I told Elena. “It was my first time, but when any shifter shifts for the first time out of anger, it can be… disastrous. There isn’t any control on the human side, and I had no control over my emotions. He was too strong.”

Caelen shifted as Desani backed away from him. Her salty tears were nothing compared to the coppery stench of blood that filled the air. “You killed him!” she screamed at me, but even her voice was weak as she backed away.

Caelen was now fully shifted into his stained-red and salmon colored dragon. His teeth were long, his fins similar to my own, and the rounded coral on his head made him appear to have a large battering ram ready to run me into a tree .

My dragon stood its ground. I remembered not having any fight left in me to fight my former mate. I knew he wasn’t mine, that he had rejected me for a female who had also rejected her own mate somewhere.

How dare she hurt someone else too?

I remembered my dragon’s feelings at the time on the matter. He was furious with her for agreeing to such a thing.

While our dragons had no ability to speak to each other, even to us, I had felt with every fiber of my being what he was going to do. Kill them both.

I had never killed, never had the desire, but my will to live anymore after that heartbreak was bleak. I didn’t care what my dragon did.

I let my dragon unleash his animalistic side. He jumped forward, and Elena, the goddess, and I, watched the chaos unfold.

My dragon opened his mouth wide, the sharp teeth of his fully shifted form scraping the air as he charged towards Caelen's dragon. The two beasts collided. Caelen’s blunt head hit my dragon’s chest while my claws raked down his back.

The roars shook the ground, our shorter legs rolled us into the dirt, hitting the thick trees of the forest and making them quake.

Our bodies weren't designed for soil, since we were meant to fight in the water. I could remember vividly the bark and rocks that brushed up against our scales, and my dragon craved to be in the water to fight this battle.

There was none, but his anger was still too strong to stop.

Elena gripped me tightly, her heart pounding against my chest as she watched the battle unfold before her eyes. The goddess stood aside, observing the scene with calm detachment. We both knew how this ended.

As my past fought in front of me, I couldn't help but feel the burden being lifted. Elena knew about my past. She will know it in its entirety, and I don’t feel any resentment or anger from it.

I held Elena close, feeling her heartbeat synchronized with mine. I realized that amidst the chaos and destruction she’s who I was supposed to be with. While the goddess is a being with power, fate ultimately had different plans.

My dragon lashed out with its tail, striking Caelen's dragon on the side, causing it to lose balance. He recovered quickly, sunk his talons into the dirt and pushed forward to get up under our body. My dragon faltered, and the razor-sharp fins sprouted from Caelen’s dragon’s back, slicing us into our underbelly.

My dragon yelped and crawled behind a tree to assess the damage.

Caelen’s dragon licked its tongue across its mouth and wiped the blood away. I remember feeling my dragon's anger and the finality of his decision about what he wanted. Caelen’s blood smeared all over our body.

We slithered away from the tree and stayed low to the ground while Caelen’s dragon puffed up to appear larger.

His dragon swiped across my face when we grew close.

My dragon roared but ignored the pain and leapt on the coppery dragon with all its might.

We had him pinned. My clawed foot pushed his head to the side, a claw pressed into his ear.

The dragon body beneath me slithered and squirmed.

Caelen jerked its body like a snake with its head cut off.

He tried to whip me off of his body, move me so he could be free of my weight.

My dragon pinned our body to his torso. His tail whipped and tried to slash me in the face.

I ignored the slashes of his fins; they only superficially scratched my scales.

Caelen’s dragon hissed, and my dragon didn’t think twice, sinking his teeth into the long neck.

My teeth pierced through the scales like butter, and my dragon pulled with all his might at his neck.

The sinews of the meat, tendons, and muscles took time to rip.

The strength of any dragon was powerful, but mine was determined to take out our former mate with one blow.

As we looked on, I watched blood spurt from Caelen’s wound. I held my breath. I once felt sadness at what I had let my dragon do. I let him kill our mate.

I no longer felt that way.

Not with my love holding onto me tightly, right now, exuding that sweet-smelling scent.

I gritted my teeth when I heard the gurgle of blood rise from Caelen’s throat. It was almost over; it would end at any moment.

“That bitch!” Elena pointed and watched as Desani ran off into the woods. “She didn’t stay to save her new mate? Didn’t even shift?”

The goddess made a tsk noise and shook her head.

I smirked, no longer interested in the scene. My mate was so engrossed, I found it utterly adorable. Would it be bad to take her behind the tree, where I once hid, and fuck her there?

The goddess hummed a chuckle when we saw Desani trip and fall.

“Aren’t you going to get her?” Elena snarled, my cocks immediately stood to attention and pressed against her hip. She stilled and bit her lip when she looked up at me.

“Does that turn you on for me to chase down another female?” I raised a brow.

She pressed her chest against mine. “Only if you are going to kill them for hurting you.”

My dragon lashed his long, sinuous tail, sending it crashing into the towering trees with a resounding crack.

The mighty trunks trembled under the impact, and a cascade of shattered branches and scattered debris rained down around Desani.

She tumbled to the ground once more, sprawling over the jagged rocks and splintered limbs that fell like a chaotic shower around her.

My dragon snarled, slithered across the ground with expert precision. He gripped her by her waist with our maw and lifted her. She screamed, our teeth piercing her stomach. Her body tried to shift from instinct to protect herself, but it was too far gone.

This is where I felt the most sick, killing a female who had done nothing to me.

Elena grabbed me by the chin with one hand and made me look at her.

“You don’t feel guilty! She tried to have her sicko brother rape you,” she said fiercely.

“Don’t you dare feel guilt over killing any of them.

You are too sweet and kind for this world.

You stopped them from doing it to anyone else.

” She pulled me into a fierce kiss and missed, where my dragon flung her into the air to swallow her whole.

When Elena let go, my dragon had already begun to work on the other bodies. I tried to keep her face away, but she was an insistent woman and watched in fascination. “You ate them!” She gagged and turned away, so we were both facing the goddess.

The goddess smirked and folded her arms in front of her. “It’s what saved his life for so long and ensured he had not gone rabid sooner. If he didn’t, he wouldn’t be here with you today.”

Elena tilted her head in confusion.

I sighed and rubbed the back of my neck. “Rabid is a term we use at the club for rejected souls who have no control over their human selves. Their animal takes control. They go crazy and ultimately harm everyone in their path.”

The goddess nodded for me to continue.

“The Iron Fang was created by Locke and Grim. Rogues are those who are rejected by their mates but still have the ability to keep their animals contained. The shifter world will not accept us because we are a liability. We have no packs or clans, and no one to care for us. We are meant to die alone.”

Elena wrapped her arms around me and shook her head.

“After the club's creation, rogues of all kinds arrived. Not everyone gets in, it's a process. Some that were rejected needed to be. Only the good ones get in.” I winked.

“Rogues who stick together lengthen their survival, we don’t go rabid as fast. Bones is even working on some meds that can help keep rabids calm enough to keep them locked up, so we can do something with them in the future. Before we… have to put them down.” I hung my head.

I was never part of that, and never wanted to be.

“Your sister is the only one who has pulled a rabid shifter out of their funk. Emm has given everyone hope. Once again, Locke has given people a reason to live longer, even if they go rabid. He created the Iron Fang to help those who were suffering, to help us live a little longer and not be… completely alone.”

Elena’s eyes glistened with unshed tears. “Were you close to becoming rabid?”

I blew through my nose a little too hard and bowed my head.

“Oh, my sweet dragon.”

I pulled her to me, and her face planted into my bare chest. “It’s alright, love. I’ve got you now. I’m not going anywhere.”

“Mierda,” Elena whispered. “I need you right now.”