Page 48 of His Fate
Yellow flames.
Smoldering ash.
Blood curdling screams.
Women and children crying.
The smell of burning flesh.
Then, nothing.
No people.
No kingdom.
No warriors.
No family.
All gone, destroyed and wiped out so that one power crazed elder could rule over everyone. But he left no one to rule over. Just a small group, less than two hundred of his own people because not only did Cyril destroy my clan, my family, he exterminated the other seventeen dragon shifter clans based in the old country as well as most of his own soldiers.
We were not the only ones attacked that terrible night.
We were not the only ones slaughtered while we slept. Our homes and shops, every structure in our city set ablaze with yellow flames to ensure no one would be left standing.
And now, now Cyril is bringing his war, his death and destruction to my new kingdom.
Andrej called to tell me that he received word from Karel, our mother's brother and last of our kin, that Cyril has left the Old Country and is headed this way.
Shifters were already a dying breed, years of mating with humans, adapting to technology and evolving to the way the world has changed eliminated the need for our gifts, tamped them down. Apex predators survive because we are stronger but there are still far less of us than there used to be and it seems what remains has scattered, left our natural lifestyles to blend in with our surroundings more and more.
And now there is an even bigger threat to our kind than something as simple as humans discovering our existence.
Cyril has set out to eliminate what is left of any shifter royalty in order to rule over all of them, and since he is now aware that my brothers and I did not perish in his futile attempt to completely kill all those of the Dragovihk Clan, he is bringing his fight to our front door.
A fight I believe he started twenty years ago in this sleepy little mountain town I have come to view as home.
I instructed Andrej to meet with all of the other shifters in Ashland and have them reach out to any and all members of their packs or prides or clans, any other shifters they may be aware of in the surrounding area or their original homes. If we can find out whether or not the type of murders that took place in Ashland have happened elsewhere at any point in our history then maybe we can build an army large enough to take Cyril head on.
There is too much at stake to sit idly by and let our kind be wiped out by one of our own. And if I know Cyril of the Molnarva Clan at all, I know that this is only part of a plan to rid the world of humans by using an army of shifters to do his will.
Andrej's phone call was of great importance and I'm glad he made me aware of our uncle's warning but that was not how I wanted to spend the rest of my night. Not even close and after a two and a half hour phone call, I imagine my original plans will have to wait.
Which is going to be fucking brutal because every time I think about Posey's acceptance of my dragon, the way she complimented us, the way she so reverently and lovingly touched us, it drives my need to claim her into a frenzy.
Relieved is not a strong enough word to describe how I feel knowing that my confession and demonstration did not send her away. Once she saw me, both sides of who I am, it was as it had always been. A fact I am glad for because if anyone knew I had shifted in front of her without mating first? I'd never hear the end of it.
But my beloved Josephine accepted me and my dragon, believing without doubt after I gave her proof and she still loves me.
No, she has not said the words. Posey has not said aloud that she loves me or verbally acknowledged I am her fated mate but I know she feels it. I can see it, smell it, feel her love for me just as strongly as I feel my love for her.
But we will not mate tonight.
I just need to keep reminding myself that it will happen soon or else I fear I will have eternal blue balls in her presence.
And just because we will not mate tonight does not mean I can't enjoy some of the other benefits of finding my mate.
Like sleeping in the same bed.
