Page 9

Chapter 9

Zayne

I t took me a long moment to pinpoint the exact feeling that had come over me in the past few days. Finally, I realized—it was optimism mixed with hopeful anticipation. It was a new feeling for me, and I was quite enjoying it.

Optimism for the future, for the flight team, for everything. With Ash by my side, it seemed as if I could do anything, like I was on top of the world.

Hopeful anticipation for whatever came next for Ash and me personally. We could be starting a family—we actually might have already begun. And even if we weren’t, we were starting our lives together, and it was new, different, exciting. At four hundred years old, I wasn’t used to the feeling. It had been a long time since I’d truly been looking forward to something. Being with Ash made me realize just how low I’d sunk into my funk.

Of course, we had our flight team to consider, and we needed to communicate the recent changes with them. Today was our first practice outside, and it was as good a time as any to broach the subject. They probably had already heard the rumors. It wasn’t as if we were being secretive, but this would be their first time officially hearing it.

When we held our classes outside, we generally worked at the lakeshore, where there were a set of bleachers for the students to sit on and a platform where the teachers could instruct from. A small table was available for note-taking, and we also had a tripod set up in case we wanted to film any of the practices. Sometimes, we liked to record the students flying so they could look back and learn from what they saw. All the footage had to be on an incredibly secure server to ensure it didn’t get into the wrong—human—hands.

One thing the academy was great at was making sure the teachers had what they needed to do their jobs, and that included classroom spaces that were unconventional.

Today would be more about getting a feel for how the team worked together and also introducing the subject of Ash and me being mates than any real strategy formation. It was pretty likely that the students had already heard through the grapevine about the two of us. The school operated much like a small town where news traveled fast, especially when we weren’t hiding it.

Once I stood up, the students went quiet. Scott and Christa sat at the front, as they usually did, setting a good example for the other three. Or at least that was the theory. There were times when they giggled or gazed into the distance—they were students, after all.

“Welcome, team. Today, we’ll do a couple of outdoor exercises, and you’ll have the opportunity to see me and your other instructors perform some maneuvers as well. But first, we need to talk about something.”

The students all scooted closer, perched on the edge of their seats as if I was about to deliver juicy gossip. Yeah, they for sure knew what we were going to say. They never paid this much attention to actual lessons. It would be fabulous if they did.

“After our class the other day, I spoke with Flight Leader Ash privately. The two of us discovered a few things.” A lot of things, and it wasn’t exactly talking as much as mating, but that wasn’t something we needed to be discussing. Being that all of my students were dragons—and the result of fated mates—I knew where their minds would go as soon as I revealed that Ash was my mate. I didn’t like them thinking about him in that way, but there wasn’t much I could do about that.

“Oh my goodness, you’re mates!” Scott didn’t even pretend to let us deliver the news. “I thought you scented different, but I wasn’t sure!” He clamped a hand over his mouth. “Sorry! I didn’t mean to—”

I held up a hand. “That’s quite all right. You are correct—Flight Leader Ash and I are, in fact, mates. This doesn’t change anything about the leadership structure. He and I will still be leading this flight together.” Ash stood next to me, always my equal, as we faced the group of students.

We were met with wide smiles and curious stares.

“Won’t he have eggs now?” Jay asked.

Jay had a filter problem, or more accurately, a lack-of-filter problem. At first, I thought maybe he was going to be a problem, but now I saw it as it was—he was young and in need of guidance. This team was going to be good for him.

“ He can speak for himself,” Ash said, his tone calm. “And yes, it’s quite possible that we will be expecting a clutch of eggs. We won’t know for a few days.”

I wanted to lace my fingers into his and offer him my touch, but I refrained. Ash and I discussed it, and we decided to try to keep our PDA to a minimum around the students. We knew better than to say it would be completely non-existent. That wasn’t how shifters were, and had we gone to that extreme, not only would the students think it weird, but out beasts would revolt. Nobody needed that.

And the reality was, when we were in class, we needed to be a Flight Leader team first. I didn’t love that arrangement, but it was important to Ash so the students saw him as a Flight Leader first and my mate second.

“But, like… if you’re expecting, shouldn’t you, like, take time off? I mean, stress isn’t good for the eggs, is it?” Jay asked. He seemed ever hopeful that he wouldn’t have to deal with Ash as a Flight Leader, and once again, I was beginning to think that his lack of filter was more truth serum than being young. Gods, he was tiring.

I crossed my arms over my chest and fixed my gaze on the young dragon. He seemed to shrink as I stared at him. Good.

“That will be a decision that Flight Leader Zayne and I discuss together,” Ash replied. “We will make the best choice for our family at such time that it’s needed, and quite frankly, the decision doesn’t need your input.”

My mate wasn’t one to let others tell him what to do. I loved it.

“Exactly,” I added.

I already knew that Ash would continue to work as long as he was able and it was safe for the eggs. Most omegas worked while they were carrying unless there were complications or they decided to be stay-at-home omegas. Ash wanted to work, and I didn’t blame him. He worked so hard to be here. Giving it up because he found me and was carrying our young wasn’t fair to him.

“For now, things are going to proceed just like they would if we weren’t mated.” Only with less arguing than earlier.

Jay folded his arms over his chest and scowled. I would definitely have to look into what his deal was. And to think I’d let his previous comment slide, making excuses for him.

“So, on our first day of outdoor exercises, we usually like to do something a little fun. When we were in the classroom the other day, we got to know each other in our human forms. Now, it’s time to get to know each other in our dragon forms.”

“Except the eagle,” Jay said.

I shot him a glare, and the smug attitude on his face washed away. “Yes, except the eagle, who will likely be flying circles around all of you.”

One thing Ash and I hadn’t done yet was fly together, and I was really looking forward to it. Ideally, we’d have done it in private, the two of our beasts getting to know each other, but the timing didn’t work out, and here we were. We planned to head out and spend a day, just the two of us, enjoying the nature around us and taking to the air soon. It was going to be fantastic.

The four of us got ready to take our beasts, the team acting as the spectators. We’d shown them parts of the routine and described how we would accomplish them, but they were going to be pretty in the dark when it came to what our presentation was going to represent. It had been an idea sparked by my mate, and it was going to floor them.

Starting first with the trainers, then with my mate, and finally me, we got into position. We stood in formation ready to take to the air. We’d planned this in very intricate detail, wanting to show our team what they could do. It was a dance in the sky. And that wasn’t what it was officially called, but that was how Ash described it when he came up with the idea, and he was right.

Ash began our performance, flapping his wings as he stood on the ground, giving us the tempo. His wingspan was mammoth compared to the size of his body. His feathers caught the light just perfectly, and you could see the subtle movements in them as they moved so gracefully.

I counted in my head, “1-2-3-4, 2-2-3-4-, 3-2-3-4-, 4-2-3-4,” and then up Hayden and Kellen went, making a big circle around the field. One, then two, then three of them. And that was when it was my turn to go up. I took to the air and went through their circle, over and around them, making a flower, petal by petal in the air.

Once I was completely around their circle, that was when my mate joined us. He came through as their circle got smaller and smaller and “plucked” the petals from the flower one at a time, following them down to the ground.

Of course, there were no actual petals, but the imagery was going to be there, at least. I hoped it was. We’d find out when we checked the cameras after the routine was over.

One by one, we landed, with my mate perching on my head. That had not been in the plan, but it thrilled me to no end. He was my mate and having him this close to me had my dragon wishing he could purr, but it was more than that. It showed the team that he wasn’t less-than, something that might visually be perceived if he was standing on the ground with my beast towering over him.

The team stood up, and their jaws dropped. Christa began to clap first, followed by the others. Even Jay joined in. We shifted back into our skin, grabbed our robes, and went over to them.

“I’ve never seen anything like that,” Christa began.

Her co-captain nodded along and added, “That was like when I was little, and I picked daisies with my mom and my grandma, and one by one, we plucked the petals watched them flow to the ground as we made our wishes.”

They got it.

They saw it for what it was.

Ash’s plan worked.

I grabbed my mate’s hand, not caring that we were at work, and gave it a squeeze. This season we were going to do it, we were going to nail it. We had this.

For the first time since last year’s horrible finish, I truly believed that we could do this. Ash had not only brought skill and amazing technical abilities with him, but he’d also brought creativity we’d been lacking. No, not we—me. I’d been lacking, and my trainers went along with it. No more. Now that we had Ash, the four of us were going to work together to highlight the best we each had to offer. We were going to give our students everything they needed to thrive.

This season was going to be epic.