Dragon 6 Chapter 15 - Edit (Patreon)

I picked myself up out of the stream and padded out through the grass. I knew that my mates were all still together where I’d left them. I hoped Trina was able to keep her wits about her, because at least most of them were under my protection. And together, they could escape Ikta and whatever plan she had for them.

I looked down at the bracer on my arm, realizing all of their belongings and camping gear were with me. They’d have to rough it for a bit as I figured out a plan. And while I had all the gear, without somebody to keep watch for me, I wasn’t going to be able to sleep anytime soon.

Both of our groups were now at a disadvantage.

Turning towards where I felt their marks, I headed off in their direction. We had a plan for when we were separated, and if the girls weren’t fighting off Ikta, I knew that they would keep to it.

As I walked, I worked to take in my surroundings, now not only watching for arches, but also for any flowers that looked like what had been next to the Winter Queen.

Despite the risks, it was a beautiful scene. I very quickly wished the others were with me as I pushed the grass out of the way and waded through it.

I couldn’t believe that I’d finally found Maeve’s mother, only to be freaking portaled away to who knows where in the Wilds. I hadn’t anticipated that The Dreamer was deadly enough to give Ikta an excuse to move me for my own safety. And now I was paying the price.

I’d have to find my way back to Maeve. But I’d made up my mind. I was going to make her my woman and shove away any of the reasons not to. We’d save her mother, and I’d be back to my wedding in no time. I wasn’t going to accept any other outcome.

I fast forwarded in my mind past the wedding, to where I might convince them to all join me in a big pile of gold after. The thought of all of them covered in glittering, glistening gold made the beast rumble inside of me.

Yes. Gather them all up and put them in my hoard.

The idea made me grin. “I’ll do just that.” My own voice seemed odd in the open plains.

I paused, the aloneness seeming odd. For the first time in a long while, I had no honor guard or mate. There were no other dragons hanging out nearby. Dragons might be solitary creatures overall, but the feeling was uncomfortable after so much time with others.

I pushed through, speeding up a little.

The plains quickly shifted to rocky slopes and then into thinly wooded forests. At the moment, I seemed to be heading uphill. The pines around seemed to go straight up, and I relaxed a little as I was navigating around fewer arches. I kept heading up, hoping to get a better view of the surrounding land.

A twig snapped and my ears twitched in that direction.

I paused, crouching low and staring through the trees for any sign of life. Squirrels jumped about above, but nothing moved on the forest floor. I was alone with no one to watch my back, yet I was still pretending to be human.

Slipping out of my clothes, I put them in my bracer and let myself shift to my hybrid form. I was far sturdier in that form, and I couldn’t risk somebody getting the jump on me. It was a little bulkier, but so were some of the monsters we’d seen before.

Without seeing anything, I couldn’t do much, so I continued to follow the slope up the hill, making sure to keep my eyes and ears open. My red and gold scales caught the sun, making me stand out amid the forest.

The slope continued upwards, and I was starting to have to take large lunge-like steps to make headway up the hill. When the slope finally eased, I breathed heavily and looked back.

I had hiked up a large hill and could see for miles. The landscape was funny. It was odd seeing where it changed rapidly from one kind of forest to another. For a while, it was a pine forest, then it switched to the plains, and further past that it became a desert for a while.

I turned another direction, noting that there it went from pines to a dense tropical jungle. I turned to the direction where I could feel my mates, staring at towering hills with rocky tops.

There was a fucking mountain range between the girls and me. When I got a hold of Ikta, I was going to strangle her.

My back itched, and I had a deep desire to fly over the mountains. Maeve had told me not to fly, but maybe it wouldn’t be a bad idea for just a little while.

Climbing those mountains was going to be an absolute bitch, and if I waited too long, they might end up going through an arch and ending up somewhere totally different after I’d crested them.

Another twig broke, and when I snapped my head to the side, I spotted someone’s bright red hair swish behind a tree. I smiled, my predator instincts taking control.

Stepping quietly in that direction, I went to go see who had been following me. The pine needles underfoot softened my steps, even though I weighed more than a professional linebacker.

I crept up on the person and rounded the tree, only to find nothing. But an instant later there was something pressed into my back.

“That’s him,” a familiar voice barked.

They had me surrounded.

A troop of six women stood around me with spears, and the red dragon that I’d fought with earlier was among them. She smirked as she stepped in front of me, keeping her spear leveled.

“Remember me, oh ‘king of dragons?’” She sputtered at the end, and all of them laughed at her words.

“He actually called himself a king? Dragon’s don’t have kings.” A tall, busty blonde laughed hard enough that her abs rippled.

“Change your scale colors. Show them.” The red dragon jabbed me with her spear like I was some damn circus animal.

“Fuck you,” I replied, frowning at her.

She only licked her lips. “I’d very much like that. You’ve got some fire in you.”

“You promised us that a fiery male was out here—I want my turn.” A brunet scowled at the red dragon. “He has a lot of fire. But once his dragon is gone, he’ll become as mellow as a kitten. I’ve dreamed of taming a rogue male.” She grinned at me.

The red backed up. “Well then, first we should subdue him.”

The dragons chuckled and backed up further.

I looked between them, trying to figure out their next move and trying to decide if I should break free of them. Part of me was curious to see their village, but after the bindings, I also didn’t want to underestimate them. It might be better to run and come back on my own terms.

The red pulled out a bola made with the same vines she’d used earlier on my wrists. “Come on. Don’t tell me you are just going to surrender. We like the chase.”

I decided to make them regret giving me a chance.

Fire spewed out of my mouth right at my feet, igniting the pine needles and debris on the ground. Thick smoke filled the air, and I got low, breaking through their encirclement as the blonde backed up so that she didn’t get caught in the smoke.

Too bad she wasn't my target. I collided with a girl crashing both of us into a tree and knocking the wind out of her before turning and running.

A spear lashed out, catching my shin.

I fell into a roll. Trained by Morgana, the move was natural. Then I used my body to spring backwards, making a full turn as I landed back on my feet.

The whistle of something in the air behind me made me dart around a tree as a bola wrapped itself around the trunk.

“Screw all of you,” I shouted.

They cheered. It was some sort of game to them, and my dragon was going wild.

Out of the corner of my eyes, a raven-haired amazon shifted. Green scales dotted along her body as she matched the height of some of the other women. She threw her spear at my legs, but she missed when I vaulted high into the air.

Another whistle of a bola sounded behind me.

I moved instinctually, but it caught my leg and threw off my maneuver. The weighted rocks then spun around the first, tangling up my second leg. I landed unceremoniously, rolling to stop myself from injuring my legs.

“Good shot, Hiplina. Get him,” the red dragon chuckled from behind me.

My clawed hands worked at the cord, trying to free myself before they reached me. But whatever they used to make the binds was incredibly tough. I was getting small bits of progress, but not nearly enough.

The green dragon jumped on me, breathing an excited puff of acidic breath. My scales rippled to green and brass.

“His scales do change!” she called out excitedly. “I don’t even have to control myself. Want to give me your children, little fiery male? I will make it worth your while.”

My scales changed again to blue and bronze as I blew her off of me with lightning. “No. I will be returning to my mates.”

The others who had reached me were in various states of a hybrid form. All of them were chromatics. There were no metallics among them. It figured if they had descended into such chaos.

Again, I shifted my colors, breathing out a fog of death around me to drive them back as I broke the last of the tough cord and stood.

“Britanica, get him.”

The blonde came through my death fog with black scales dotting her skin as she caught me in the chest with a mean hook, but I packed on enough mass that it didn't do much more than make me grunt.

In return my fist came around in a punch that caught her in the face, sending her flying into the nearest tree trunk.

The women were on me and I gave as good as I got, but it was six on one. After I sent two sprawling that weren't getting back up, they got serious.

"Tie his legs up and bring him down." The red barked.

Fuck that. Crouching, I exploded upwards. It was time to get out of here.

I caught a branch, digging my claws in and pulling myself higher before kicking off the tree and shifting wings onto my back. I flew into the air just above the pine forest and glided towards the open plains. I was done with this, I'd escape and find this village on my own.

“Get him!” The red sounded genuinely angry. Apparently, they weren’t having fun anymore.

Trees started snapping behind me as several giant dragons started to take shape. I wasn’t about to go toe to toe with them in my hybrid form, so I shifted to my full size.

Choosing to be black and copper, I glided over the forest and headed to the plains. I kept moving, glancing over my shoulder, only to realize that they had grown far more than I’d expected. All four of them that had shifted were as large as Brom, if not larger.

My mind spun. What the fuck had they been feeding these girls?

But even as I thought it, I knew the answer. We were in the Fae Wilds. They’d been raised on an endless supply of mana-rich monster meat.

The giant red took to the air, her dragon face scowling at me as she quickly overtook me and flew above me. “Get out of the air,” she warned before dropping on me.

A blue and a black dragon joined her in the air. My only option was to tussle with her in the air or fly lower. I slowed, trying to turn and outmaneuver her, but the red folded her wings and tackled me out of the air as the other two came down.

Her claws immediately tore at my wing, ripping the webbing out. “You endangered us all by flying. The game is over.”

Four dragons cornered me.

A black, a green, a blue, and a red dragon all glared at me. And the red was still currently pinning me to the ground with the other looking like they were about to pounce. The green had two unconscious girls in her claws.

I tried to summon the aura of the Dragon King to drive them back or weaken them, but it did nothing to them besides make them chuckle.

“You are too young to intimidate us, little Dragon King.” A black dragon, the blonde from earlier, bent her head down to mine. “Shift and stop fighting. Maybe Regina will go easy on you.”

I struggled my body protesting from the bruising, but Regina, the red dragon, had me fully pinned. The others circled me, and I knew that the game was up.

Grumbling, I let myself shift slowly.

Regina took her weight off of me, but she kept a claw hovering over me to prevent my escaping once more as the others shifted back to their human forms.

Britanica, the tall blonde, came with cord and tied my wrists tightly behind my back and then went further and bound my arms all the way up past my elbows.

“Do not fight further; we must hurry. You flew in the wrong territory.”

Regina was the last to shift back, tossing her red hair and glaring at me. “Idiot. Let’s go. We need to move quickly through the arches.” She took the lead, and Britanica didn’t let go of my bindings as she moved. I was forced to run at a dead sprint next to them to keep up.

There was a loud boom in the distance, as if some leviathan was waking from a slumber.

“The Quezalcoatl has woken,” the green said, looking over her shoulder.

Off in the distance, a giant green serpent uncoiled itself from the mountain rage. Rather than dragon horns, it had a feathered crest on its head.

“What is that?” I asked. I’d never seen something so large before.

“Ancient God. No longer worshiped on Earth, it resides here.” Regina looked at me like I’d been hit in the head. “Then again, maybe you just dream of being a king all day.”

The head rose above the mountains as feathered wings fanned out, and its body loosened from around the mountains. Its size put the six women to shame. I wondered if Brom could fit between its teeth.

The women hustled me, and I didn’t need much pushing after seeing the behemoth of a monster. I too wanted to be out of whatever it considered its territory.

Regina led the group through an arch, and the forest changed.

I looked over my shoulder as we stepped into the new land, but even then I could still see the Quezalcoatl further off in the distance. The dragon women took a sharp right and went through more arches, taking turns.

“Are you just taking them at random?” I asked as we went through another.

“No.” Regina touched her shoulder, looking at me curiously. “We share our marks with other dragons in the village. Brit can feel where they are and take archways that pull her in that direction.”

I frowned, annoyed that I hadn’t known that when I’d been trying to get back to my women. But it was useful knowledge if I could just get free of them.

As Regina brought me up to another arch, I decided to give it a go.

I tried to feel the archway with my sense for my mark. My instincts told me it would take me further away from my marks, yet when I stopped, Britanica shoved me through.

“Don’t slow. We must get away. Dragons make tasty snacks for many things here. Or worse.” The black dragon shuddered. “How you survived so long out here on your own is interesting. Regardless, we must get you back.”

“He wasn’t on his own. Can’t you smell two women on him?” Regina wrinkled her nose. “Yet he isn’t marked by either of them, but he seemed to be trying to follow his own marks.”

“What self-respecting dragon would let a male mark her?” Hiplina scowled. She had been one of the blue dragons.

“Not one of ours, that’s for sure. Could it be true that there is another village in the Wilds?” Britanica asked Regina.

“Unlikely. Are you going to tell us, or must we force it from you?” She looked over her shoulder at me as she continued to lead her hunting party.

There was no point in me lying. “I’m from outside the Wilds. I grew up in Philadelphia.”

“What’s a Philadelphia?” the green asked, curiosity in her eyes.

“No idea. Maybe a new conquest of the eastern lands?” another suggested.

I sighed. “Across the Atlantic. It’s on a continent that I’m now realizing you have likely never heard of based on when you came to the Wilds.” My voice tailed off.

“We are aware of the continent you speak of. The people who worshiped the Quezalcoatl lived there,” Regina replied, proud of herself.

“You are a little too far south in that one, but sure. Close enough.”

“North.” Hiplina wrinkled her nose. “I never understood the desire for the colder climates.”

“Probably has too many whites.” Britanica laughed.

I realized that none of the dragons I’d seen so far were white dragons.

“There are more dragons left?” Regina was asking the right questions while the others jabbered about senseless things.

“Yes. Though, there are no more reds,” I said.

She snorted. “Of course. That must be why there’s a king now.”

“There always has been,” I tried to reason with them.

“Tiamat is never reborn as a male. She has been our ruler since she killed Ares. When we get back to the village, she will decide your fate. I am not sure how you could have her blood. It is concerning.” Regina wasn’t quite sure what to do with me.

I cleared my throat. “You mean the current reincarnation of Tiamat is alive?”

I stumbled, my head spinning. This Tiamat was most likely my biological mother. My heart started to hammer in my chest.

Holy shit.

But would that mean I was born in the Fae Wilds?

So many questions swirled in my mind as Britanica urged me forward. When my brain caught up, I actually started keeping pace with them. A new excitement coursed through me at the chance to meet my mother.