Warrior (Twisted Sister #2) (2 page)

I feel like crap, as I lie in bed and stare up at the large boulders that make up the roof of my cave. My mind and soul just aren’t into this as much as it used to be. I spent the night patrolling the borders of Devilice, like I do every night, but something was missing. Flying over the lakes and thick forest cover, I just couldn’t bring myself to care, couldn’t find myself focusing on the need to protect and serve.

My heart ached to be set free, Dragon had to remind me several times to target on the task and slow down. In the end, he couldn’t take the stress or my recklessness, so he pushed my soul deep down into his keeping and took over control. In all my years of being alive, I’ve never been that distracted that Dragon has had to take over. I should feel bad about it, but I just don’t.

I knew this time was coming, the elders have been telling me to hold on and keep pushing forward. But what am I holding on so tight for? I am one thousand and two hundred years old, and there isn’t much I haven’t seen or done over the years. We live for one thing… our mates.

So forgive me, if I don’t want to keep hoping that Dragon will recognize his one true love and everything will be all right. The last woman I let into my life broke my heart and left me with a hole in my chest the size of America. Well, I let her go, because she never belonged to me. Not really. Turned out she was my best friend Marcus’s true mate. Even I’m not that much of a beast to keep her for myself when I know she’ll never really be mine.

Goddess Lylian wasn’t exactly nice when she created us. We were made so our souls recognized our one true love. The only problem with that is, our hearts don’t always do as they’re told. I fell in love hard with a Phoenix shifter and look how that turned out for me. Louise gave me the love I thought I needed at the time, but I was never settled. Dragon went out of control and wouldn’t obey me. He knew she wasn’t our one true mate. Then she met my best friend Markus, and I knew right then and there that I had to let her go. Markus was a High Lord for the Judadic council, and was killed by Sarah, his wife. Who also happened to be Louise’s sister. No matter how much I tried to hold on, she was never going to be mine. I saw the way she was drawn to Markus like a moth to a flame. It killed me day by day when she’d come home and cuddle up to me, but I knew she was thinking of him. Louise would try to block her mind from me, but Dragon is able to read anyone’s mind. No matter how much they try and put that wall up to stop it.

“Philli, are you in there?” Jay’s voice echoes around the antechamber of my cave, pulling me out of my dark thoughts. Jay is not only my friend but a High Lord on the Judadic Council, a position we share with me being Prince and Leader of the Warrior Dragons.

“In my room, Brother.” I sigh heavily, pulling myself up into a sitting position.

Jay stands in the doorway to my room, hands in his pockets. His large frame leans up against the side of the doorframe, his gaze lowered to the ground as he waits for permission to enter. His long dirty blond hair flowing freely down his shoulders.

This is very interesting, he never wears his hair out.

“Come in, Brother. Dragon knows you, so there’s no fear of me blasting your nuts with fire.”

He laughs while walking over and takes a seat at the edge of my bed. “Now you know, that blasting my nuts isn’t the only thing I have to fear.”

I raise my eyebrows and chuckle, remembering the last time that he came into my cave and entered my room without permission, I was completely naked and lying on my stomach passed out drunk. Since that day, he always calls out making sure it’s safe to enter. He told me for a long time afterward that I scarred him for life. But he’s always been a little dramatic when it comes to me.

“What do you need, Brother?” I ask laughing.

He sits at the edge of my bed and plucks at a piece of non-existent fluff on his pants—he’s nervous about something. I raise my head and sniff the air—dragons have a fantastic sense of smell and we can tell someone’s emotions just by the scent in the air—my chest tightening with all the emotion flying around the room.

“I wanted to come and make sure you were okay? I know you’d tell me if you weren’t. But…”

Mon Dieu! I just don’t think I can be the caring and understanding person that he needs me to be right now. Isn’t it okay for me to have a moment, once in my life? Must I always be the strong one, the one who everybody turns to in their time of need?

“Jay, we’ve been friends for a very long time.”

“Don’t play me for a fool. I was watching you last night.” He sighs loudly and looks over at me sullenly. “Just… fuck! I want you to listen to me.” He jumps up suddenly from the edge of the bed and glares down at me with his hands on his hips. His steel gray eyes pierce deep into my soul.

“Don’t…
fucking read me,”
I growl.

Disliking when he tries to do this to me, I don’t want anyone in my mind, no one has that right. I close my eyes and take a minute to collect myself before I set one of my most trusted friends on fire. When I open my eyes, I find him still staring down at me, his eyes softening slightly as he takes a step forward.

“Well, don’t play me for a fool. I know you want out. And let me tell you this right now, Brother, if you don’t want me holding your hand and watching you twenty-four seven, you
will
get rid of all those thoughts running around in your mind.” He sighs and makes his way back toward the door. “I can’t l-lose you.” His voice cracks slightly.

The vice that’s been squeezing my heart for weeks tightens even more after hearing the pain in his voice. He’s the last person I want to be hurting because he’s been through enough already.

“I promised you a long time ago, that I would always have your back. We may not be blood brothers, but we were raised together. I have you, Brother. I won’t leave you.”

I hate the words the minute they leave my mouth. That right there is exactly why I haven’t taken my life, and allowed Goddess Lylian to take my soul to the afterlife. I can’t leave him behind, I’m all he has left in this world. His brother went to the Buzzock, and we honestly don’t know if we can trust him. Yes, he helped the twins Lacy and Lucy when we needed it, but the problem is, that in all my years as Dragon leader, I’ve never heard of a turned Watcher coming back into the fold of the council.

Jay’s mother and father died when he was only two, and by that time his brother was already gone. So my family took him in and raised him as one of us. It’s why the Watcher has a thick skin and an attitude to match it. Being raised with dragons is not easy, we’re not a gentle species. We fight for everything.

“Good, now get out of bed, you big girl. I need to go do something, and you have an area to decorate.” He chuckles softly. His face quickly turns into discomfort, as he rubs the left side of his chest.

“You okay, Brother?” I ask, jumping up from the bed to check on him, but he swats my hands away when I reach out for his shirt.

“For a Dragon, you’re acting like a damn girl. I’m fine.”

“That’s not nothing, let me see,” I growl in frustration.

I tilt my head down making sure that he can see Dragon coming to the surface. I don’t like those I care about being hurt.

“I’m okay. It’s just an ache that comes and goes and it’s more annoying than anything,” he tells me softly while his hand comes up to rest on my shoulder.

He doesn’t have to stretch far as I’m only a couple of inches taller than he is. His eyes soften and we stare at each other for a moment. No words are needed. We both know that we will always worry about the other. I’m an only child, so Jay and I became close. He’s the closest thing that I have to a real brother.

“You tell me if it gets worse. I mean it. You know I’m a great healer.”

I don’t mean for it to come out sounding like a command, but it’s hard for me to control my emotions right now.

“I will, Brother. I swear it on our scales.” He chuckles as he drops his hand, spins on his heel and walks toward the door. “Oh, and Brother?”

“Oui?”

“Store your ego.” He laughs heartily as he walks out of my cave, not giving me a chance to respond.

The leadership ceremony is today, so I need to make my way over to the great hall to help set up. The sun is high in the sky heating my cool skin, and I smile at the sudden warmth flooding through my veins. You’d think having the heat of the dragon flowing through my veins that I would always be warm, but over the last couple of weeks, I find myself changing. I’ve hit the change, I knew it was coming, but I didn’t think it would come this soon. Unmated dragons go through a change when they’re around the thirteen hundred mark.

While most of the Shifter Dragons will only alter a little, others will change in dramatic ways. My hair was the first thing to change, going from a sandy blond to a light brown. My eyes change from green to a deep blue, depending on my mood, and I’ve gained a lot of muscle. No one knows exactly why we go through the change, but there’s a legend that explains that the change comes on to help us find the perfect mate. I call it cruel and unnecessary. We live a very long life as it is, so why go out of the way to change our direction after so long. It’s like a knife to the heart. In a way, it’s like the universe is screaming out,
‘Hey you over there, you aren’t good enough to get a mate being the way you are. So guess what? We’re going to change every last thing about you. Then, just then, you might be able to find your mate.’

Pft, like I need that. The birds dive and sing in front of my cave pulling me out of my thoughts, reminding me that I need to get things done. I shake my head and take a deep breath trying to clear the thoughts running rampant in my mind. Come to think of it, Dragon’s unusually loud, obnoxious, and snarky attitude, will normally surface when he hears my thoughts turning that way.

“Come to the surface, Dragon,” I send the order inward.

It takes a minute before I feel the tell-tale sign of Dragon waking. He moves under my skin causing it to stretch and itch.

“Why are we awake right now?” he groans sleepily.

“The ceremony needs to be set up,” I tell him simply.

“That requires you. So I ask again, what the hell am I doing up?”

I have to stifle a grin at his childish tone, as he huffs and moves over my skin, trying to get back into a better position for sleeping, so I send a warming blast of heat into my body.

“Don’t even think about it, Dragon. Come on. I’ll even allow you to shift and fly us over to the great hall.”

“You aren’t joking?” he asks suddenly with interest.

If I ever want Dragon to play by my rules, I just drop the little flying trick in there and he falls over his own tongue to get the job done. I’m not above begging, I’d like to think that I have all the control in the relationship between us, but the truth of the matter is that Dragon holds all the power over me.

“No, I am not. Now come on, are you awake? Or are you going to make me walk?” My body fake shivers in disgust over having to walk. He wants to play so I will play the game.

“We fly,” Dragon growls with so much excitement, I start laughing aloud.

Instantly I feel the change as Dragon starts to push his way to the surface. I hold my arms out to the side and hum in appreciation while my body starts to vibrate with the shift. I feel my back stretching, my nails elongate, and my nose lengthen. Dragon finishes the change by throwing his head back and growling low and loud into the morning sky. Birds scatter as the growl picks up in intensity. We hear the clan growling their good mornings, I’ll never tire of the way my clan love and appreciate me.

Dragon purrs with dominance as he commands, “Move back.”

Feeling the gentle push on my soul as Dragon pushes me deep inside my body and takes over, my body is now morphed into one of the largest dragons on the Island. Dragon’s emerald green scales shimmer in the sunlight. Being a green dragon is rare, it’s the color of the royals from centuries ago. One powerful downward swipe of his wings and he sets us airborne. I sit at the edge of consciousness, wanting to feel the happiness and freedom that only Dragon gains from flying. This feeling is his, not mine. But when I’m in his body, I feel his emotions like they’re my own. He flies us over the edge of the Trulane Forest. Dragon spots a group of pups on the edge of the tree line, huffing in excitement, so he lowers his head and dips us down low flying over them and puffing a cloud of smoke out as he passes. Dragon loves playing with the young litter.

One of the young pup’s barks with excitement and starts to chase Dragon down the tree line. Dragon slows his speed to allow the little one to think that he’s caught up to us.

“It would seem that the fun is over.” Dragon laughs as we see Jordi the wolf pack’s alpha running from the opposite direction.

Jordi in his black wolf form jumps up onto a fallen log and bares his teeth. He opens his mouth and snarls. The sound so lethal, that it shakes the leaves on the nearby trees. His alpha snarl reminds the little one of who’s in control. The silver pup runs back whimpering to join the pack at the tree line. He narrows his eyes and glares at Dragon as we fly past.

I feel a stirring enter my mind as Jordi’s voice pushes through laughing, “Dude, stop stirring my pups. You know how much of a big deal you are.”