Page 76 of Gift from the Stone

“You and your animal talk to one another?” Walker asks, looking at me like I’m crazy.

“I mean, not like we’re talking right now, but I can ask her things and she sends me feelings or impressions back that I can understand.”

“Draken, do you and your dragon do the same? And is he always at the forefront when you use your dominance?” Vince asks.

“Yeah, to both for the most part. But he’s far less cooperative than Willow’s dragon when it comes to communicating and honestly, I’ve never paid much attention to how my dominance comes out. It just does,” he admits, attempting and failing to produce a growl now that he’s focusing on doing it without his dragon. The same gurgling, hacking noise that I made comes out of him.

“See, it’s not natural.” I point at Draken’s surprised face.

“Interesting. Willow, try again without her taking over, but with you,” Vince orders.

Without asking for her guidance, I solely think of the power and dominance we wield as one and like a fine-tuned guitar, my growl rolls smoothly right off my tongue, aimed directly at him.

He immediately uncrosses his arms, balling his fist to his side as his body shakes, fighting off my command. Thinking with the intention of letting him go, I cut off the sound and his body instantly stills.

“Most animals aren’t like that. Most of us can separate the two easily, like an extra gift. It seems dragons are a little more intermingled. It’s no surprise that the two of you are different, though. You’re the only two in existence. We’ve never had your kind to study to figure out the inner workings of your shifter nature,” Vince states.

That’s so crazy to think about. I mean, I obviously knew that, but hearing it said out loud, it’s so trippy to acknowledge that in this entire realm, in all the realms, the two of us, standing side by side, are the only two of our kind.

Lacing my fingers through Draken’s, I give him a tight squeeze. For fourteen years, he was completely alone in this. Now we’re in this together and I’ll forever be by his side.

“I don’t feel any separation from her. I mean, other than the obvious. She’s me and I’m her. Working with her feels far more natural than trying to fight against her or push her to the side,” I explain.

“Same. Me and my dragon work seamlessly, unless something’s wrong with Willow, then he tries his hardest to take over,” Draken states.

“Then going forward, we’ll switch our training up to doing everything together with your dragon at the forefront with you. If you work best together, it’s going to be your greatest strength,” Vince declares, nodding and looking between me and Draken like his most prized pupils that he can’t wait to mold into beastly perfection.

“That’s enough for today. We need to get Willow some lunch,” Corentin announces, coming to stand behind me. As if he knew it was coming, my stomach growls not a second later.

“I’ve worked up an appetite with all this hard work,” I joke.

“Come on then, princess, let’s get you some food before you go to combat.”

Ugh, I still don’t like that class.

Thirteen

Caspian

I release a deep breath the moment my eyes settle on her.

There’s still blood dripping from my knuckles and my adrenaline pumps from the brawl I just left behind, but the moment my gaze lands on her, the demons hush and peace fills my senses. The chill of my water gliding across my busted hands cleans away the evidence of what I did, not even an hour ago.

Fuck, even in her sleep, she calls to me like a lighthouse, guiding my way out the depths of darkness.

Watching my tiny Primary sleep cuddled up between my brothers may calm my rage, but it also causes the ache in my chest to multiply. I’ve been nonstop fading through the shadows, traveling the realm over the last few weeks, spying on the other shifter packs, prides, colonies, whatever the fuck they want to call themselves, making sure they haven’t fallen down the deadly slope of the Mastery.

So far, I haven’t seen any signs that the others are involved, but I’m sure those slimy fucks are in every territory, hiding, waiting like the damned roaches they are. Corentin ordered that I keep my distance, stay in the shadows since I have no backup with me, and before my little Primary, I woulda scoffed and told him to fuck off and truly went hunting, but now I know his order is coming from more than just a place of his own worry. If I were to screw up, it’d destroy more than just him and the other two.

I kept my word the entire time until my last stop. Checking the last city on my list, Pippa, a section of Pyrathia, I came across a group of centaur fuckers trying to take advantage of a little Pegasus girl while I was traveling the secluded, darkened streets looking for Mastery scum. She couldn’t have been more than eighteen years old and couldn’t force her shift with those pieces of shit groping her and tossing her around.

It wasn’t until I killed all five of them that she finally shifted and flew off. I didn’t get to check and make sure she was all right, but I helped enough. She survived. I just left that little mess for my dad to deal with.

Those types of shifters and creatures don’t have an alpha like we see in wolf packs, but they all seem to herd together because of their horse-like similarities, so my dad will just have to deal with their counsel, maybe find the girl, get her side of the story. Regardless, I couldn’t give a fuck. They deserved to die for trying to rape her, so that’s what happened.

Since I’ve been out scouting, I’ve only been here for a handful of breakfasts, no dinners. I have just enough time to randomly pop up, check on her, check in with them, and then leave again, only to return when they’re all asleep, and I take to my room, alone.

The time spent away from her has been wreaking havoc on me. My bond and demons fight one another constantly. When I’m near her, close to her, her light blinds them, keeping them at bay, but this time spent apart, it’s been a fucking uphill battle daily not to listen to the lies they whisper in my mind.

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