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Chapter Thirty-Seven

Anaki

“ W hat the fuck is wrong? Is she hungry?” Scales panicked, and, for once, I was dumbfounded by the dragon.

“You think she’s hangry? She just lost her grandmother …”

“When females are upset, aren’t they usually hungry?”

I internally groaned.

Dragons are idiots. Maybe Hawke had a point.

I pulled Elena closer to me. Her heart was fluttering as fast as a hummingbird’s, and if it went any faster, I feared it would just stop.

Can a human’s heart stop?

Scales took over for a moment and thumped our tail. “Most likely! And they only have one! Fix this!”

I cradled Elena in my arms, gently swaying her back and forth.

A low, rumbling sound resonated from my chest, a mix between a growl and a purr, filling the space around us.

My tongue traced a slow, deliberate path down the curve of her neck, while she squirmed slightly, her body pressing closer to mine with each movement .

“Please, please don’t. You can’t die. You can’t shift, you can’t do it. I don’t know if you would survive shifting into a dragon right now!” My voice cracked.

The dense foliage rustled ominously behind us, and I instinctively let out a low growl in sync with hers. Her sharp claws, tense with alertness, pressed against my scaly hide, sending a sharp twinge through me that made me flinch.

“Mama?”

Luis’ head popped out of the bushes.

That boy was in trouble. “I thought I told you to—”

“Mijo! Come here!” Elena wailed and held out her arms while I kept her tight within mine. He ran as he wailed, his hair sweeping back from his forehead.

“Mama, Idris took her. He really took her!” He buried his nose in her chest.

Her heart rate slowed, and I swore under my breath in relief. He was calming her. At least one of the men in her life could calm the Latina.

Both of my loves pressed heavily on my stomach, leaning insistently against my chest. I forcefully pulled them away, determined to get a good look at them.

My chest still vibrated with a deep, resonant purr, and I felt my eyes blaze with an intense glow.

Elena had sprouted light pink scales that shimmered brilliantly under the light of my eyes.

Scales’ anger radiated out of my voice. “How do you know about Idris, Luis?”

Luis showed no fear when he looked at me. Just determination. “Abuela told me that Idris would take her. She told me the whole plan.”

Elena’s voice caught as she wrapped her hand around her throat.

“He’s going to be pissed when he gets down there to try to take Emmie. It won’t work, though.” He shook his tiny head .

Elena sniffled. “If I wasn’t so upset, I’d scold you for cursing.”

Luis clung to Elena's neck in desperation, his grip fierce and unyielding.

She held him with the fervor of someone grasping a lifeline in a stormy sea, and I entwined myself with them both, anchoring us in our shared grief.

This was not how I envisioned our family bonding time—entangled in sorrow, mourning the loss of their grandmother.

“I could go down there,” I said with determination. “I can stop it all, I can leave now.” I slid them off my body and rose.

Luis kept his body wrapped around Elena and shook his head. “No, you can’t. Abuela says you have to go to the lake.”

A relentless pounding throbbed in my head once more as jagged bolts of lightning tore through the darkened sky, illuminating the chaos above. Beside me, Elena clutched her forehead, her fingers pressing into her skin, and let out a cry.

“Mama, what’s wrong?”

She rubbed her temples. “This headache is getting worse!”

I shook my head in disbelief, my tail instinctively curling in on itself, coiling tightly like a resting snake.

Elena sat on the ground, looking pale and weary, while Luis hovered over her, tending to her with gentle care.

Meanwhile, Scales, the fierce presence within me, was roaring with a ferocity that echoed through my being.

Suddenly, a sharp, cracking sensation erupted inside my mind, as if a colossal tree had splintered and shattered within the confines of my skull.

The wind picked up, and Elena and I both stared at each other.

“Pay attention; reinforcements are coming, ” Bear grumbled. “Hawke to the west, and the fae are approaching.”

Scales and I stood up on all fours. This was unbelievable. There was no possible way that I was in a link. Dragons don’t establish links. Links were for pack animals, but they somehow did it. They included me, a reptile shifter, in the pack.

That means Sizzle and Surkash would be a part of the pack, too? Or would they need to be mated? Too many questions for right now.

“I-I can hear you?” Elena touched her temple. “I can hear you thinking. I heard Bear speak in my head. How—”

“Don’t ask me how it works, I’m not exactly sure. But the fae—”

“Go.” Elena closed her eyes. I didn’t think it was possible for someone to cry as much as she had. Elena took her shaky hand and pointed to the forest. “Go help them. Save who you can.” Her lip wobbled, and she grabbed onto Luis. “We can go back to the village, and we can—”

I cleared my throat, but mind-linked her instead. “Go to the cave, don’t go to the village.”

Elena stared at me for a long moment before she nodded. She must have looked inside my mind, for she knew what had happened.

“And try not to get upset. I can’t have you shift.” I stepped forward and rubbed my neck along them both to conceal their scents. My tongue slithered out of my mouth and slowly ran up her neck. “Stay safe, stay hidden.”

Elena rubbed her head against mine. “Don’t tell anyone what Abuela did. That she could change herself.”

I stood still and searched through her mind. While we could see each other’s memories before, with the bond, it felt so much easier to comb through. My eyes widened in shock the more that was revealed.

Abuela was a fierce female.

“You have my word, love. No one will know.”

Before Scales could persuade me from leaving and taking care of only our immediate family, I slithered into the forest with speed.

It didn’t take me long to reach the lake.

Voices were constantly going through my mind.

Bear, Hawke, Locke, I could hear them all.

Where they were and how I could find them.

The link was strange, and Scales didn’t know what to do with it.

We were not programmed to hear other people’s thoughts, only emotions.

I wasn’t supposed to have a dragon speak to me, but here we were.

The lake enveloped me with a soothing embrace as I plunged into its depths.

It felt inexplicably right—not to my physical self, but as if I had found the place where I truly belonged.

Slowly, I descended to the bottom, where the world above faded away, and I waited, nestled into the soft, cool embrace of the sediment that cradled me like an ancient, welcoming bed.

Only weeks ago, I thought I should stay down here forever as a human, and let my life be taken from me. Thank the goddess I hadn’t.

As I gazed upward, the moon boldly pierced through the heavy clouds, its luminous glow struggling to reach the earth below. The silvery light danced delicately across the surface of the lake, shimmering faintly amidst the gentle ripples that disturbed the otherwise tranquil water.

There was a commotion on the shore, and with the link, I tried to pinpoint who it could be. It was two powerful entities, and Scales immediately recognized it as the source of our mind-linking abilities.

Alpha and Luna.

Locke and Emm.

We propelled ourselves upward, slicing through the water with powerful strokes until our eyes and nose emerged into the open air.

The cool surface of the water kissed our skin as we hovered there, barely allowing our ears to rise above the surface.

From this position, the muffled cacophony of the battle reached us, a chaotic sound of bullets whizzing, animal roars, and shouted commands.

Every fiber of my being was poised to surge out of the water and join the fray, yet a persistent whisper in the recesses of my mind urged patience, forcing me to bide my time.

It was a battle for Emm that she must do on her own. I listened to it, and it seemed familiar. I only listened to it for so long until I couldn’t take it anymore.

There was more fighting and yelling. Locke struggled into a position where he couldn’t move. He was yelling, then grunting, but again, it was like I was frozen in place.

If Locke knew I was there, he would’ve had my head.

But again, I watched.

Scales was pounding in my mind to go, and I was holding back as hard as I could, but slipping.

“Wait. ” The voice called to me.

I squeezed my eyes tight as I watched my new Luna take a hit that would hurt later. I somehow know she needed this pain.

“Almost.” The voice was the goddess. I was listening, waiting. If it were any other member of the Fang, I was sure they wouldn’t listen. No male would listen to her, but I did. She gifted me a mate, and I would do what she said. A mate, a son, and my dragon’s voice.

I owed her.

I watched for what seemed like forever, as I witnessed the pain and destruction that all parties seem to do to each other’s bodies. I didn’t look away, I watched it all. Scales’ anger rose, while my worry for my friends grew.

Until the final word tickled my ear. “Now!”

Scales took over.

I was utterly powerless over my own body, as if I were a puppet on strings.

We surged up from the lake, the water cascading off of us in shimmering droplets, and there he was—the imposing figure of Duke Idris himself.

. The shoreline was a gruesome scene. It was splattered with crimson streaks of blood.

Emm lay sprawled on the ground, motionless and vulnerable, while Locke stood poised, every muscle tense and ready to deliver the decisive blow to the Duke.

Idris was unmoving, cackling like a madman, ready to die.

Locke would want to kill him, slowly and painfully. But Scales and I could smell Abuela on his clothes, and in my hearts, I knew she was already gone.

Scales lunged forward with a swift, menacing grace, his massive jaws opening wide to clamp down on Idris's torso. Idris's body stiffened in our grasp, a tense rigidity taking hold of him, and just as abruptly as we had surged from the water's surface, we yanked him back into the dark depths below.

Scales shook him violently, thrashing with a relentless force that drove our sharp teeth deeper into his abdomen, tearing through flesh and sinew.

The water churned around us, a chaotic dance of bubbles and blood, as Scales ensured his suffering would be prolonged.

His struggles grew weaker with each passing moment, his eyes wide with terror and pain.

We could sense his impending doom, knowing that soon he would succumb to the watery depths.

Only then, once he had drowned in the murky embrace of the water, would we feast upon his lifeless body.

At least Scales would eat him. I’d ignore him.

The thought sickened me, but it was the only way to be sure he was dead. Once his movements ceased, we released him to eat him headfirst, but as soon as we did, black smoke surrounded his body and dispersed into the water.

We shook our head and searched in the water for his body, but there was none to be found.

We continued to search as I sank to the bottom to see if he had escaped us. We kicked up the sediment, and the fish swam away in panic.

“Anaki?” My name came in loud and clear in my head. Locke was trying to reach me, and I winced at what this could mean. Pissed he didn’t get his shot to kill Idris or just straight up wondering what the hell was going on.

I rotated my body and swam to the surface. He was patient as I slowly emerged from the water, thankful we had a mind link. I’m not sure if I was ready to speak in my dragon form to him. He would have more questions than I wanted to answer.

I was ready to get back to Elena and Luis. They were my priority, now that Idris was no longer present. Dead or not.

“ Alpha-” Scales used his voice through the link. He was doing it to protect me. My voice would have shaken if I did. “I apologize. It’s been a while since I’ve had to control my instinctual side.”

Locke stood on the shoreline, staring right at me like I was the enemy. He has never seen a dragon in his life, so I won’t fault him for that. “I get it. But where the hell is Idris? He better be buried underneath a rock in the deepest part of the lake,” he sternly said.

I curled my body and looked back at the vast emptiness of the lake. “His heart stopped beating, and I held him in my mouth, but he disintegrated. Is that how the fae die?”

Because hell if I knew.

Locke snarled and ran his claws through the fur between his ears. “I don’t know. We will have to speak to Bram. He knows more. Where are your mate and her son?”

I took my long forked tongue and wiped it across my lips. “Safe within my cave. Her grandmother ran off and said she must fulfill her destiny. I tried to stop her—”

I hated lying, I really did. Because I absolutely sucked at it.

Scales tutted in my head. “He didn’t even ask for that information. Why are you giving it?”

“I’m so nervous!” I snapped. “ It makes me antsy.”

Locke shook his head and held up his hand. “She fulfilled it. But she is no longer with us.”

I slumped my shoulders and turned away. “I failed her,” I told him.

“No—” He shook his head. “It had to be done. It was her destiny, and I’m sure the goddess will bless her in the afterlife.”

I’m sure that was true. The goddess had kept up on the promises she had given thus far. Unfortunately, the result of Abuela being gone will leave heartache on both of her granddaughters.