Kaida lay on the ground with her eyes closed and heavy breathing. In his mind, Beckett knew that she was just asleep and recovering from what she endured in her dragon form. However, in his heart, he just saw his mate on the ground after falling from the sky. He noticed Arlo kneeling down to check on her and roared at him. Arlo jumped away from Kaida with his hands up in surrender. Beckett immediately scooped Kaida up and headed into the house. He needed her in his room and surrounded by his scent before his dragon lost it. Everything was a blur as he ran to his room. He could hear his name being called, but it didn't register until he placed Kaida on their bed and pulled their blanket over her.
"Dude. What the hell happened?"
Arlo's voice caused him to growl. Beckett tried to tell himself that he saved Kaida's life, but he was still in panic mode. Kaida's black and purple hair was sprawled out over the pillow while her face was pointed up. Her skin was paler than usual, which caused Beckett to be alarmed that what happened took more of a toll on her than he’d thought.
"I can go ask the Faerie and Witch if they have anything to help the process along to heal her."
Beckett growled, "They have names, Arlo. Use them."
"I honestly don't know them."
Beckett shook his head, "For someone who is interested in Kaida, you'd think you would learn the names of her friends."
Arlo tried to suppress his gasp, but it didn't work. Beckett still heard it. He knew that Arlo and Esen had been looking at Kaidathe way he did when she first arrived. They had been trying to ignore it and trying even harder to hide it, but for some unknown reason...it felt right for them to feel a pull to her.
Beckett's dragon was only mad that his mate was hurt and someone not mated to Kaida touched her. While she was falling from the sky, his dragon wanted it to be HIM that caught her because it was his duty as her mate to protect her. He was not the one that kept her safe. He wasn't even the one who protected her from whatever happened on the peninsula.
"I'm not growling at you for wanting Kaida. I'm mad that I wasn't the one who kept her safe. I should have just had her walk back with me. I should have had her shift and walked back. Or even had her sleep it off before she flew. I am so fucking stupid."
"How could you have known that her dragon would have cut out when it did? No one can predict these things from freshly shifted dragons."
Beckett chortled at that, "I did. We encountered something today. Something that our parents have told us about."
"Oh?"
"More on that later. Call the others. We need a meeting. There is a lot we need to talk about."
"You sure that's a good idea with Blaze?"
Beckett thought about it for a moment and sighed heavily. No, he wasn't sure if being around Blaze after this morning was a clever idea. If anything, Beckett needed to be on the opposite side of the island, away from Blaze right now.
But we also need answers on Plasma Dragons and why three men feel the pull to one woman. That's unheard of in dragons.
"Where is Blaze, by the way?"
"I honestly don't know. I think he mentioned going to the club to cool off. He said it as he was growling; and we all know none of us can understand his ass when he talks like that."
Beckett thought about it for a moment. "I don't want him near Kaida without me here, but we need to discuss some things. We also need to do some research in the archives."
"Who is the 'we' in this conversation?"
"Me, you, and Esen. Blaze will only cause issues with what we are looking into."
Beckett turned around and narrowed his eyes to Arlo. His blue eyes had some mischief in them. Beckett wanted to smack him for giving him grief, but it did get him out of the mood to kill someone. How? Beckett didn't know. Arlo had a way with these things. One minute, they could all be at each other's throats; the next, they were all buds again. Arlo claimed not to have the ability to manipulate emotion, but sometimes Beckett thought he was keeping that secret.
"Alright. I'll track Esen down and meet you there. I honestly don't think Blaze will be home anytime soon. He usually doesn’t roll in until dawn after a meltdown."
Beckett nodded his head in agreement and then looked back at Kaida. He heard Arlo's feet rescinding from his room and then down the stairs. Kaida's color was already returning to her face, meaning she was healing. Beckett was relieved not to have to run to her friends for help, knowing that all four of them would tear him a new one for letting her get hurt, especially the Lycan.
If she has managed to connect that well with those four and draw in three males... I don't want to imagine what else is possible for her. But I guess it’s time to find out whether I’m ready or not.
As Beckett walked down toward town to meet Arlo and Esen, something caught his attention from the corner of his eye. He glanced to his right and noticed a few men were raising their voices at one another, and the conversation seemed to keep getting more heated the longer it went on. Beckett stopped and observed the exchange, waiting to intervene if he must. Two of the men took a step closer to each other, their faces inches apart. Beckett could see that their skin was even turning a shade of red as they continued to yell at one another. Their voices were loud and speaking so fast that Beckett couldn't even understand what they were saying. Both of their eyes turned black for a moment. A blink and Beckett would have missed it. He looked again, but their eye colors were back to normal.
What the hell is going on?
I don't know. But I am still too weak to be able to help.
Beckett swore under his breath and continued to watch the men. He was thankful that two other men were trying to calm the ones losing their tempers. One of them stopped arguing, andBeckett heard the other scream, "Next time, look in the other direction. We don't need no filthy dogs around here."