Page 24

No matter the thoughts of any of the world leaders, all of them had been driven underground by their destructive acts, individually and collectively—all their power stripped.

It would stay that way if it were up to Aodh and all preternatural council members.

Come, Aodh. Let us not sailplane like old wyrm. Let’s fly. Liekki’s dragon arched his long neck toward the clouds. Me first.

Aodh told himself that he did not take to the air to play games but to think and convince his dragon to accept Kai. But he watched the force of his brother’s wings as he went higher and higher until he disappeared into the cloud, only tracked by his loud screeching, provoking Aodh to join him.

Unable to resist the chase, Aodh’s dragon shot off after the red-horned creature.

Using his keen sight and steering with his tail, Aodh tracked the fast shadow in the clouds.

He and his siblings often played this game when they were dragonets and juveniles—when they had freedom.

Once they entered adulthood, there were numerous responsibilities before them that kept them from wild abandon.

Dense, white, smoke-like clouds swirled around them, hiding and revealing their beasts.

They zipped through the clouds, going higher and higher as they tracked, pursued, and eluded each other.

The air was crisp up here, flowing over leathery skin, a balm to Aodh’s dragon’s heated flesh.

His dragon inhaled deeply and filled his lungs with icy coolness as he stretched his wings wider, to the point of pain, as he spun three times.

He half-played and half-searched when he caught a glimpse right below him of a quicksilver shadow zipping upward fast for an attack.

Aodh’s dragon banked left a moment before Liekki’s beast rammed him along the underbelly. Only to come back around and end up behind his brother. He closed in on the red-tipped dragon and sank his teeth in his tail above the broad speared tip.

“Rrrrrr...” his brother’s dragon’s roar split the sky.

Damn it, Aodh. Let me go.

Submit.

Liekki’s growl erupted in Aodh’s head. He knew his brother hated to concede. Because of that fight, if Aodh were in a battle, the only person he’d want at his side would be Liekki in any form.

Fuck! The caught beast turned his head and snapped once, twice in Aodh’s direction.

I’ll take that as surrender . Aodh chuckled as his dragon unlocked his jaw and released his brother.

They dropped below the clouds and continued flying around the perimeter. When Aodh saw the clearing at the edge of the northern border, his dragon waggled his large head, signaling his brother to set it down.

The two dragons arched their wings high, allowing the air to catch and slow them down as their hindlegs stretched with claws out toward the ground.

Their landing and shifting happened simultaneously.

“Shit, Aodh. Having your teeth mark in my dragon’s ass was not the start to the day I was looking for,” Liekki groused.

“You’ll survive. It’ll be healed before you shift to head home.

” Aodh swiped his pack from the ground and started toward a fallen tree.

He’d send the building team out to claim it.

They didn’t cut down trees anymore but still utilized what Nature brought down.

“As a consolation prize, I’ll share my meal with you. ”

Liekki arched a brow and pretended to consider the large satchel Aodh hauled. He grinned. “I’d never pass on food Tana prepared. I swear it’s not fair you got the position and Tana.”

The chuckle rumbled up from Aodh’s chest. He knew his brother was not jealous of him leading their thunder, but Tana was another matter. “Well, you should have spoken up. I’d have considered letting her work for you.”

“Bull shit.” Liekki shook his head. “Even when we were hatchlings and youths, you treated her as yours. Making me and our sister request permission from you to ask Tana to do something as simple as fix us a snack. Hell, she was our lessons instructor.”

Aodh chuckled. His attendant’s dragon had barely been at the young adult phase when she started working at the territory school when their sect was in Europe before the Great Catastrophe.

She’d been newly mated, pregnant with her first hatchling.

For that reason alone, Aodh had felt the need to protect her.

Her mate, a doctor who treated humans, had been struck by a missile while shielding a nursery full of babies. The infants had survived, but he did not. It was why his mother had assigned Tana to him, to help her through her grief.

With Tana’s offspring already in their positions and mated, she needed someone to focus on.

He shook away the memories of how often he’d found Tana crying for her loss when she thought no one watched. Aodh had seen and ensured she knew how much he needed her for support.

“Green is the perfect complement to your red horns,” Aodh teased his brother as he began to remove the large amounts of meat and fruit from the pack.

They sat in companionable silence for a few moments while they devoured the food, both seated on the fallen tree in their thoughts.

“You didn’t come and get me while I was with Kai. I assume it’s because this border has been secured.” Aodh sank his teeth into an apple. He would always prefer meat over any other food, but when he had to eat something else, apples were top of his list—kale could burn in hell.

“Yes. The security team tripled the patrols along all the boundaries connecting with the wolves and set up several new outposts.” Liekki shoved several pieces of meat into his mouth with one hand, squeezing fresh orange juice down his throat with the other.

Aodh nodded. Edjer his security leader knew his shit. Knowing Edjer, he was probably more pissed at himself because the situation had happened.

“Next week at the council meeting, Grady better have some fucking answers.” Aodh was still pissed that such behaviors were happening.

If not for the situation with Kai and his Thunder needing him, he would have sent word and requested an urgent council meeting.

“Anything new with the situation on the Asian continent?”

“No.” Liekki frowned. His shoulders drew high with tension as he hunched forward.

His brother hated inaction. If there was a reason they needed to cross the Great Heath of the Atlantic to fight back the humans, his brother would be ready and willing.

However, Aodh didn’t see it coming to that.

He had faith in Asia being able to handle whatever situation occurred in Siberia.

Aodh was more curious, so he knew what to look out for when it came to the humans behind the wall on his continent.

Time and time again, the humans showed they couldn’t be trusted.

“Have they at least halted the forestry destruction?” Aodh began to shove the empty containers back into the bag.

“Yup. Their council does know one thing for sure.”

Aodh stopped his action and eyed his brother. “What’s that?”

“The humans are building up on their land fast.”

Aodh frowned as he leaned forward with his forearms on his knees. “What the fuck for? I know they have been trying to get their numbers up as we have, but could they have increased so soon, to the point of raising more structures?”

Liekki shrugged as he rose.

Aodh stood as well, but the ease he’d felt after his flight dissipated under the weight of his responsibilities.

His dragon was resting soundly now that he’d soared and was full.

Aodh could only pray to the Great Spirit that the stubborn beast within him would not take too long to claim Kai. His thunder needed him.

The only thought that took the sting from his guilt was that once his thunder could breed, it wouldn’t take long to increase their strength because dragon-shifters could produce multiple offspring simultaneously. And dragons grew faster than humans and lived longer.

“Let me show you the new posts.” Liekki started down a path in the thick forest.

Sliding the pack up one shoulder, Aodh followed his brother as he shoved the heavy concerns to the back of his mind to deal with later. But, hell, he was quickly running out of time.