Page 37 of Possessed by the Dragon Alien (Zarux Dragon Brides #6)

TWENTY-SIX

The shuttle bucked and shuddered as they streaked toward the gap in the mine field.

Madrian gripped his armrests, wings folded tight against his back as he pressed into the seat’s padding.

Through the small viewport, he could see Zarux growing larger—his homeworld, stolen and corrupted by the empire he’d served.

“One pik until we hit atmosphere,” Razion called from the pilot’s seat. His gold-scaled hands moved over the controls with the easy confidence of someone who’d flown through hell more times than he could count. “You ready for this, brother?”

Brother . The word still felt foreign on Madrian’s tongue and in his mind.

Until recently, he was alone. He’d believed himself an orphan and had been grateful the Axis had given him a purpose and a position.

Now, surrounded by males who shared his blood, his heritage, his stolen past, he felt something he’d never experienced before.

Belonging .

“I don’t know,” he admitted quietly. The honesty surprised him. As a high chancellor, he’d never shown weakness, never revealed doubt. But here, racing toward what might be his death, pretense felt pointless.

Razion glanced back at him, storm-gray eyes serious. “What part are you worried about? The jumping out of a perfectly functional shuttle or the transforming into a massive fire-breathing dragon you’ve never been before?”

“Both.” Madrian’s laugh came out hollow. “But mostly the transformation. There are no instructions for this. No protocol. Fek, I never thought I’d miss protocol so much. I fear the Axis conditioning runs too deep in me.”

“It better fekking not,” Razion drawled. “But I don’t think it will. You want to know how I know?”

Madrian nodded.

“Because when Lilas was in danger, when those bastards were trying to take her from me, I didn’t think about shifting.

I didn’t plan it or prepare for it.” Razion’s hands tightened on the controls.

“One moment I was Razion the raider, the next I was something else entirely. Something that would burn the universe to ash before letting anyone hurt my mate.”

Through the shuttle’s communication system, Madrian could hear the conversations happening in the other two craft.

Ellion’s steady voice was asking Takkian how long it took to melt through the metal door when they were escaping the Slarik Arena.

They had both gone through this process, but Cyprian was making jokes to ease Stavian’s nerves.

The ex-Axis mine controller had also not completed the transformation.

That was partly due to a chemical he’d been hit with that stalled it.

Six brothers, preparing for the most dangerous moment of their lives.

Madrian sighed. “I would do anything to protect Nena. Anything . I just wish I had some training in dragon form before…this.”

Razion chuckled. “The dragon doesn’t care about training. It doesn’t give a fek about conditioning or memory implants or whatever else they did to us. The dragon cares about one thing—protecting what’s ours.”

“And if I can’t let go of what they made me?”

Razion was quiet for a moment. When he spoke, his voice was gentler than Madrian had ever heard it. “Think about your mate. Think about her hands in your hair, her voice saying your name. Think about the future you want to build with her. That also will keep your mind off the pain.”

Madrian looked over in surprise. “It hurts?”

Razion flashed a grin. “Like all your bones breaking at once.”

“Well.” Madrian sniffed, thinking about the beatings he’d received as an Axis trainee. “I can handle pain.”

The shuttle lurched as they hit the outer atmosphere.

Warning lights flashed red across the console as the hull began to heat from friction.

Through the viewport, Madrian saw the energy dome that protected Axis Central.

There was his target. There was the barrier that stood between them and freedom.

“Incoming fire,” Razion reported. “Axis fighters are trying to intercept.”

Energy blasts streaked past the shuttle, close enough that Madrian could feel the heat through the hull. One caught them with a glancing blow, sending sparks cascading from an overhead panel.

“We’re losing cabin pressure,” Razion said grimly. “And the hull’s compromised. We need to jump now.”

Madrian’s heart hammered against his ribs. This was it. The moment everything they’d planned for came down to. Six brothers leaping into the void, trusting in instincts they’d been trained to suppress.

“Ellion and Takkian’s shuttle is already gone,” Razion reported, watching his displays. “Cyprian and Stavian are about to jump.”

Through the communication system, Madrian heard his red-scaled brother’s voice, tight with concentration. “See you on the other side, brothers.”

Then, silence, as Cyprian’s shuttle emptied.

“Our turn,” Razion said. He hit the emergency release, and the shuttle’s rear hatch blew open. Wind howled through the cabin as the planet’s atmosphere rushed in. “Remember—think about Nena. Don’t fight the dragon. Just let it come.”

They jumped together.

For a heartbeat, Madrian felt nothing but the rush of air and the sickening sensation of falling.

He spread his wings and slowed the decent.

He felt the leather go taut with the strain of trying to catch himself.

He winced as the bones and tendons of his wings braced hard against the wind and fast decent.

He’d flown many times. It wasn’t difficult, but what alarmed him was how the rest of his body was still him .

Around him, he could see his brothers. All of them had at least begun to change.

Takkian was nearly fully shifted already.

His clothing hung off his limbs in shreds.

Long green limbs stretched with power as he let out a roar and controlled his flight effortlessly.

Transform , he commanded himself. Shift. Change. Become what you were born to be.

Nothing happened.

Panic clawed at his throat. The wind rushed up and around him at terrifying speed.

All his wings could do was steady his decent.

They were not strong enough to change his course, and they certainly couldn’t stop him or make him fly upward.

If he didn’t get this done, he was going to hit that energy dome and be disintegrated on impact.

Nena , he thought desperately. I have to get back to Nena.

Still nothing.

He could feel something stirring inside him, some primal force trying to break free, but it was trapped behind walls of conditioning and control. The Axis had done their work too well. They’d buried his dragon so deep that he couldn’t reach it when he needed it most.

The dome was getting closer. The translucent, shimmering waves of energy moved like water between the nodes that kept it energized. It was at full power, nearly crackling with its maxed-out energy output. Beyond that, the gleaming towers of Axis Central rose like spears toward the sky.

He was in trouble. Soon, he would hit that surface at terminal velocity. There would be nothing left of him. It would be as if he never existed.

She believes in you , a voice whispered in his mind. Not his own voice, but something deeper. Older. Your mate sees the dragon. She’s not afraid.

Heat began to build in his chest. Not the controlled fire of an Axis weapon, but something wild and primal. Something that belonged to him, not to the empire that had stolen him.

You chose her over everything , the voice continued. Over power, over position, over the only life you’d ever known. What does that make you?

The heat spread, flowing through his veins like molten metal.

His bones began to ache as something fundamental shifted inside him.

But it still wasn’t enough. The transformation wavered, caught between human and dragon, leaving him trapped in a nightmare of half-change.

His tenuous hold on flight crumbled. His wings, already strained to the point of breaking, gave out. He began tumbling toward the dome.

That’s when Ellion caught him.

Massive claws closed around Madrian’s torso, not gently but with the desperate strength of someone refusing to let his brother die.

He looked up to see Ellion’s huge purple head angle toward him.

He looked nothing like the male who had stood on the command deck with him, but when those large, silver eyes gazed down at him, Madrian felt it.

Connection . Through that contact—claw against scale, dragon against the dragon trying to emerge—Madrian felt something snap.

Family . The concept hit him like a physical blow. Not the cold hierarchy of the Axis, but this . Brothers who would risk everything to save each other. Males who shared his blood, his loss, his stolen heritage.

The heat in his chest exploded outward.

His bones cracked and reformed, growing longer, stronger.

His spine stretched as his neck extended.

His wings enlarged. His shoulder blades molded into the huge, meaty things they needed to be to support him.

His jaw elongated into a snout filled with teeth that could crush steel.

Scales thickened across his skin into deep aqua that caught the light like cut gems.

Razion wasn’t wrong. The pain was unreal .

The transformation made every nerve scream as his body rebuilt itself into something magnificent and terrible.

But underneath the pain was a sense of rightness that took his breath away.

This was who he was supposed to be. This was what the Axis had tried to steal from him.

Ellion released him, and Madrian spread his new wings for the first time.

His dragon-self knew exactly how to move through the air.

The sensation was like remembering how to breathe after nearly drowning.

Like sunlight on the face after many cycles in space.

He rode the wind with instincts that dampened out his complex thought.

He could think about Nena, about what they were trying to do there, but beyond that, his dragon mind couldn’t process much more.

Around him, his brothers took their positions.

Six dragons circling the energy dome that protected their stolen home.

Each one was magnificent in his own way: Ellion’s deep purple scales, Razion’s burnished gold, Cyprian’s brilliant crimson, Takkian’s emerald green, Stavian’s shifting sapphire-blue.

And Madrian himself, deep aqua. They were the colors of their mother’s royal offspring and they were there to retake the home that had been stolen from her.

They formed a spiral pattern around the dome’s primary node.

Each dragon took his place in a formation that felt as natural as breathing.

Madrian could feel the power building between them.

It was more than their individual fire, something greater.

The combined might of the Zaruxian royal line, amplified by the bonds they shared with their Terian mates.

Through his connection with Nena, he felt her presence like a warm flame in his chest. Her faith in him, her love, her absolute certainty that he would succeed. It fed his fire, making it burn hotter and brighter than anything the Axis had ever created.

They didn’t need to speak to know what to do.

Six streams of dragon fire converged on the dome’s surface.

But this wasn’t a controlled, measured flame like that of a plasma blaster.

This was creation and destruction in equal measure.

It was a fire that could melt mountains or forge new worlds.

The power of their ancestors, channeled through bonds of love and brotherhood.

The energy barrier held. Madrian felt the heat from the swirling band of fire that poured from each of their mouths, merged into a thick white stream and blasted against the shimmering energy dome.

He could smell metal and ozone and fire.

He could feel the sparks of energy hit his scales like painless pricks. Then, the dome began to crack.

Fissures of light spread across the dome’s surface as the ancient technology failed under assault it was never designed to withstand.

The cracks widened, deepened. The node they had focused on split apart.

They held their positions, pouring fire down on the dome until the structure gave way in a cascade of shimmery sparks.

Axis Central lay exposed beneath them. The seat of galactic oppression, stripped of its defenses.

Madrian felt a roar building in his chest. It wasn’t one of rage, but of triumph. They had done it. Six stolen princes had reclaimed their birthright and torn down the empire that had enslaved the galaxy.

Below them, he could see the rebel fleet pouring through the gap, ready to finish what the dragons had started.

And they would follow to take down the gleaming spires, until nothing of Central remained.

But for this moment, suspended in the sky above his homeworld, Madrian felt something he’d never experienced in his life.

Peace .

He was exactly where he belonged, with his brothers at his side and his mate’s love burning in his heart. The Axis had taken almost everything from them, but they’d failed to take the most important thing.

Hope .

Madrian spread his wings wide and dove toward the surface, ready to finish what they’d started. Behind him, his brothers followed, and ahead of them lay the future they would build together.