“No Wren we are not entirely human.” Izzy shook her head. “If
you promise not to freak out, we’ll need to explore that alien from another
dimension theory.”
This just kept getting
better and better… not.
Freaking
hell.
Caleb reached out to take
his sister’s hand.
“We’ve lost too much being apart. We were a team once, family.”
Ethan took her other hand “Join us.”
Ethan spoke as if wishing to heal an old
wound between them.
Izzy whispered. “The beginning of a new age is upon us. I’ve
seen it in the cards. I’m with you, all three of you.”
The tone of Ethan’s voice defined the regal authority of a
monarch, matching his stature and bearing. “Isobeau, we will need you
Watching
for
us
,
now. We need someone on the inside. We’ve considered a need to unite the
Watchers organization with factions of our own cause.”
Caleb’s presence with Ethan and Wren hung heavy in the air.
Ethan’s stern expression and hard eyes asked for, more than demanded Izzy’s
submission.
Izzy half turned away from Ethan. She paused as if grappling
with her decision. When she turned back to him her eyes shown glassy with tears
and she nodded with a sense of formality to accompany the relief her smile
broadcast.
“Yes, Highness.
Wren intuitively knew they were dancing around telling her
some key points in the discussion, “Well, are you guys ready to clue me in on
all the stuff you’ve left out?”
Caleb reached for her but she stepped back, trapped by the
sink, throwing up her hand.
“Answers.
Now.
Talk.”
After having sex on the
table and feeling like her best friend trampled her privacy, she deserved some
answers. If she didn’t know better they were trying to keep her distracted from
what was really happening. Izzy sat down at the table giving Ethan and Caleb
the lead on dealing with her demands.
Wren clearly heard Caleb’s mental call.
Ethan, we have to take a chance and tell her.
She shouldn’t be able
to hear someone’s thoughts. The idea freaked her out a little more which with
the kind of day she’d had so far seemed impossible.
She stared Ethan down. “Yes you do. I can hear you talking to
each other, inside your heads. Izzy says it’s a sign of our bonding?”
Izzy interrupted “Potential bonding.”
“Okay, potential then.” She needed answers. Wren wanted a
better explanation than what Izzy provided. Too much had happened since her
scare of falling through the stairs, she had time to examine what was going on
and realized how far from a normal retail Wednesday her day had eroded.
They just stood there together more delicious than any men
had the right to be.
Caleb had the decency to look chagrined. He got up from the
table and started to pace while his twin rose to plant in the middle of the
room like a wall.
Ethan stood with his hands fisted on his hips. No, she
couldn’t think about how good his hard pectoral landscape would feel beneath
her hands.
“I can feel what we’ve told you tearing at you. It’s a lot to
absorb. You’re going to be fine Wren, just a bit of information overload at the
moment. Trust us. Give us the time we need to explain this whole thing in
manageable bits.”
Ethan gave her his trademark look from beneath a cocked
eyebrow then pulled her into his arms with tenderness and an intimacy that
transcended the brief hours they’d known each other. She’d not expected any of
this when she’d left her apartment that morning.
Wren placed one hand on his hard chest and the other on
Caleb’s arm. An odd surreal quality gripped her. A sense of connectedness
enveloped her. Sometimes you had to accept family where you found it. These men
and Isobeau could be her family. The one she’d longed for since losing Gram.
She decided to be honest about her state of mind no matter
how farfetched it felt. “I’m being pushed and pulled by my emotions and I can
hardly tell what is real anymore.”
He
leaned against her, hard against her thigh. She strained to stay focused on the
conversation when his presence begged her to consider just how big he was, and
how wonderful he would feel, ah, they would feel inside her. She needed to hear
a logical explanation.
“I got the idea you guys were rulers of your own country, or
going to be. Izzy claims we’ve started a bonding together, like I don’t even
have a choice. I don’t even know how you eat your pizza? Do you bush your teeth
with the water on or off?
“Good Goddess, I don’t even feel comfortable enough around
you to pass gas yet and she’s saying I’m destined to be your Queen.”
She pushed up from the table. “I don’t think so. I’m not
destined to be anything. I just want to sell soap and herbs.”
≽
∞
≼
Ethan guided her
to sit back at the table. He talked slow carefully divulging a piece at a time.
“
So you aren’t going to be patient
and let us reveal
this
in stages you can process are
you?”
“I’m more of a rip the band aide off kind of girl.”
“We most definitely did not come here bride shopping. The
Goddess led us to you on a premonition this morning, one of danger. We can only
speculate at her reasons
”
He pushed
out his exhale and frowned.
“Our
people
,
are the Drakin people of
Wyrmarach. A place you’ve probably never heard of and yes we are the royal
princes until our time of ascension to the throne comes. We can’t predict when
that will happen, only the Goddess knows.”
Yes, only the Goddess knew, if Wren didn’t accept them as
mates or the bonding they’d started, he wasn’t sure if he and Caleb would ever
be able to break the link to her. They may never be free to bond with anyone
but her. This was some messed up shit. They couldn’t tell her that. It was a
massive FUBAR
She snorted, a completely indelicate sound that he found
endearing.
“Home?
Wyrmarach?
Is that how the alien thing fits in, as in illegal aliens from somewhere in
like, Europe or something?”
“Not Europe,” He sighed with a gusty exhale. “Wyrmarach is
the other side of a dimensional veil.”
He waited watching her piece it together, shamelessly
listening to her public thoughts.
Other side of the dimensional veil?
I’m missing something in all this information. Ah,
not human
and…
transform, rise
. Her face drained of color.
“Princes
from another dimension-- real Doctor Who shit.
Wait, Transform and rise
to what?”
He gave her another taste with
his thoughts as he had a couple times before with a light wisp through her mind
freedom, power, soaring.
Ethan and Caleb spoke together. “We shift into dragon form as
we hope you will.”
“Dragon?” the word fell from her lips in an awed whisper.
“You are of the blood. Possibly Fae and dragon kind have to
be in your ancestors. This couldn’t have occurred otherwise. There is a
possibility that some recessives can find their own change.” Caleb and Ethan
started and finished each other’s sentences speaking in their twin speak
synchrony. It was critical she embrace her new life with a healthy attitude.
“Flying.”
Wren sighed, unable to hide the longing in
her voice.
They allowed memories of flying to flood into her
. Goddess, to be able to feel that kind of
freedom any time I want
.
She bit her lip. “When I say Goddess, I could be talking
about any one of 30 deity of antiquity. When you call on Goddess you are
talking about a specific patroness and a personage. She’s not a random epitaph;
she’s real to you, isn’t she?”
He and Caleb nodded fighting to contain the sense of success.
The feral golden light shone through Caleb’s eyes causing a predatory intensity.
Easy
brother.
Ethan grasped Caleb by the side of his neck with a shake.
She spoke surer, as if seeing how what they’d told her would
sound out loud. It came across with less belief.
This is insane
-- “Dra-gons, from another dimension?”
Ethan knew she couldn’t absorb all they were telling her. She
got up from the chair to move farther away from them as if distance could give
her room to think clearer. She stood alone struggling against the emotions
assaulting her. Ethan reached toward her.
“Don’t.”
She threw her hands up to ward off more words
from the two while fear and confusion intruded her shared thoughts. She
couldn’t shake the bewildered feeling. Transforming into a dragon? That had to
be impossible. Even though they had barely known each other a few hours, the
feelings she had for the twins ran deep and poignant. They expected her to be a
d
ragon, freaking Queen
.
Dragon shape shifters, alternate dimensions, they were crazy,
no insane. Something closed in her mind with a firm rigid snap pushing him out
of her whirl of emotion and thoughts.
“No freaking way this can be real. There’s really no need to
worry about my protection. In light of this really, safety is the least of my
concerns. Believe me I appreciate your help this morning. I’m very grateful. This
has nothing to do with you guys. Trust me it’s me. I just can’t…”
She turned pointing toward the back door. “Get Out.”
≽
∞
≼
Caleb squeezed
the bridge of his nose trying to block out the pounding that had taken up
residence in his head. The overstuffed cushion of the couch in the Royal
Apartments in Wyrmarach enveloped him in a cloud of goose down.
Wren’s shouted, “Get Out” echoed in the empty vacuum of
thought.
They’d driven out to their house in the forest and promptly
traveled through the established portal to their home on the other side of the
dimension. Re-grouping in their executive quarters in
Wyrmarach
seemed the logical thing to do under the circumstances.
“I can’t think anymore. We should have eaten some of that
pizza.”
“I didn’t see her exactly offering after we dumped a portion
of
Hail-to-the-Queen
drama in her lap
with a size order of
we shape shift into
a dragon
.”
“Dragons” Caleb corrected.
Ethan quirked his eyebrow at his twin.
Caleb clarified. “We weren’t clear on the singular part.”
“Fuck.”
A tap sounded on the door.
Caleb scooted to a defensive position on the wall to be
hidden, and hissed. “No one knows we’re here.”
“Obviously someone does.”
Ethan opened the door and after a mumbled murmur of voices
three young warriors spilled into the apartment. The first two were dressed in
their battle armor; stretched leather covered their skin, dragon leather as
grown from their personal
sidhartha
.
After the first shift in puberty a portion of skin was cut
from an individual in dragon form. In a sacred ceremony that skin was applied
to the human’s body where it absorbed. In that way an individual could always
manifest dragon skin for protection while in human form. A dragon shifter would
never be caught naked in the woods after their change.
The third man must have been their property as he wore a
leather breaching and harness on his chest.
“I see you’re well informed to know we’re back.” Caleb sized
up the three, returning to the center of the apartment. A sandy haired man
preceded the other two into the room. The red head behind him had a pinched
nervous expression on his face.
“I’m Cameron.”
He
clasped his fist over his heart, their customary sign of allegiance. “This is
Duncan” He pointed to the red haired warrior who flexed hitting his chest so
hard it thumped. Cameron nodded to the left. “Imal” indicating the man in
leather harness. His hair was shoulder length and stuck out like a lion,
scruffy facial hairs around his mouth and chin added to the feline appearance.
He too thumped his chest with his greeting of respect. “I am from another place
but you have my loyalty this life and beyond.”
“Tracker.”
Caleb confirmed.
“Yes, I was involved in a Ve’negta battle for property and
ended up on the losing side. Now I am Limaneha to our opponent.”
Ethan nodded to the men with Caleb accepting their displays
of fealty. Limaneha was the title given to male sexual servants. Not like
Trackers to be satisfied with being house pets, it was not surprising he’d
joined the other two men’s surveillance teams, in spite of the risks.
Cameron continued. “We have eyes everywhere. We see
everything.”
“A great skill to have-- now how about telling us what brings
you here so late at night.”
Duncan spoke up his blue eyes flashing with emotion. “Kiernan
didn’t go rogue. You’ve imprisoned the wrong man. We want his freedom.”
“Really now, that’s not the report we got.”
Cameron gave Duncan a glance then spoke. “We’ve taken great
risks coming here. I hope you will consider the information we bring you. The
Queen sent him over to investigate Dirk, a shifter that’s stirring up trouble
on the other side of the veil.”
Dirk the name echoed in Caleb’s memory, a real trouble-making
son of a bitch.
“Investigating is our job. Just for your information, we’re
still hunting him.”
The young blond shifter shrugged. “I’m not in the habit of
telling the Queen who or what she can investigate.”
Duncan shook his head, his hands moving to animate his speech
as dramatically as his face spoke of worry. “You don’t understand. He was
leading the resistance before he was sent Earthside. One of the Watchers turned
him in as Rogue.
“We figure that maneuver fit into their agenda. We guessed
you’d captured him. If not, he’s gone so deep underground even we can’t find
him. There’s been no word for over six months. If you don’t have him then we’ve
really got reason to worry.”