Flight of Dragons(24)
She tilted her head to the side, trying to look at herself, then grunted when she couldn’t quite do it.
The first time Brycen had shifted as a teen had been one of the best days of his life. The ultimate freedom, the liberation from being stuck in his human form, he hadn’t ever wanted to shift back. Of course, as the day had worn on, and his energy had waned, he’d resumed his human form. But the rush, the exhilaration of shifting had never gone away. The fact that Stella had resisted her shift for so many years after adolescence showed just how powerful a bloodline she had.
“Let’s get out of here,” he said. Already his dragon was pushing to the surface. It had been patient so far, but it needed to shift—needed to be with its mate. “I’m a little bigger than you are, so you’ll have to step to the side a little so we can both fit in here.”
Once he had enough room, he let the change take him. The joy filled him as it always did, only this time it was deeper, richer. He wasn’t alone.
He came close, stroking the side of her neck with his head, then almost purred when she returned the caress. With a gentle nudge, he directed her toward the cave entrance.
Brycen leaped from the rock-face first, roaring long, and loud, letting his clan mates know that he’d found her. If they didn’t see the two dragons in the air, they wold hear him and go home. There was no point in wasting their time climbing the mountain when he already had her safe and sound.
He flapped his wings, showing Stella that it was safe to jump. Her dragon didn’t need instructions to fly, it was an ingrained ability just as natural as breathing, but having never done it, he figured she might be apprehensive. He needn’t have worried. The moment he was in the air and turned to watch, she leaped after him. The dark purple of her scales sparkled in the sun. Stella flapped her wings in long, measured strokes as though she’d done it all her life. Flying high into the sky, she half turned to look at him. That was when the shock of recognition finally hit him. He knew where he’d seen those scales before—those eyes. Where she had beautiful hair that looked like spun gold, Jace’s was black as coal, but the eyes were the same, and so were the scales.
He had met Jace a few months after the hunters decimated his clan. They had both been alone, and so they had banded together, watching each other’s backs while seeking revenge on those who had destroyed their families—their lives. Those bastards were dead, he and Jace had seen to that. The other eight Dragon Blood men had come along later, but they were as much of a clan now as any blood-related clan was, maybe more so for all the horrors they had survived together.
His heart pounded, and even though the dragon couldn’t smile, inside, he was grinning like a fool. If his suspicion was right, he wasn’t the only one whose life was about to change.
Chapter 12
Everything Stella had gone through over the past few weeks, the fear, the frustration, the agony of her body’s transformation, it all melted away. None of it mattered. In her wildest fantasies, never had she come anywhere close to imagining how wonderful soaring across the sky with her mate by her side would be. She glanced over at Brycen, who flew next to her. The same joy rushing through her shone in his eyes.
Through the eyes of her dragon, everything was sharper, clearer. The colors were brighter than ever before. She took a deep breath, and the smells of the forest down below came up to greet her. How could she have been part of the same world and not seen it the way she now did?
Far below a farmhouse with a big red barn looked small enough to be a child’s toy, yet she saw it clearly. A small dog ran across the yard, yapping at them as their shadows crossed the landscape. When she dipped in for a closer look, Brycen put on a burst of speed and flew beneath her, urging her higher once more.
She flapped her wings harder, cresting higher than she had before. Enjoying the rush as her body hurtled through the air. Muscles she’d never used before burned under the strain of flight. She never wanted to stop, but she was slowing. As much as she wanted to keep going forever, when Brycen turned them around and took her back toward the cave, she didn’t resist.
The moment they got there, Brycen transformed. His shimmering blue scales shrunk and compressed until his skin emerged again. From start to finish, the whole thing took only a few seconds, but it had her heart racing. The smooth transition was as gorgeous as the man, and dragon were.
When she was done ogling him, she brought her human form to the forefront of her mind, willing the change, but nothing happened.
Brycen had said that the dragons had connected in their mating, and they had, but what if it hadn’t been enough, or it had been too late? Her lungs burned, but she couldn’t take a breath around the constriction in her throat. She pictured her blond hair, her eyes, her body, but still, nothing. A strangled sound rose from her throat. She was stuck.