Page 24 of The Eternal Choice

One bond formed while the other shattered. It’s a hard realization but crucial for my own future as well as our clan’s. All the details might not be clear and yet my gut instinct is something I cannot and will not ignore.

“I gave you an order.” I step forward and make him take one backward. “Even if my mate is pregnant with a new generation, she’s not the kind of woman who will back down for anything. Lilliana is skilled beyond belief and does belong on the battlefield. At. My. Side.”

Lilliana moves with me, and I close the door to our cottage, leaving my brother with a stunned face. I jump into a jog and head for the mine. I glance to my right when I hear Lilliana’s voice.

She’s talking into her phone and when she hangs up, she says, “Reinforcements are twenty minutes out.”

The roaring of dragons is loud and I raise my voice to ask, “What reinforcements?”

Lilliana grabs my shirt and pulls us to a stop. “You didn’t just swoop me away when we mated, Ernestino. We might not be officially married yet, but our bond is considered sacred in the eyes of my family. Which means they will support us, and our clan in any way. Lucian, the president of a centaur motorcycle club is on his way with a load of biker shifters. My parents and brother as well as a few other supernaturals.”

Pride surges through me by the sound of her words.

I reach out and cup the side of her face to bring us close. “Our clan.”

“Damn right,” she replies and raises herself on her toes to brush her lips against mine. “Time to kick some ass and protect what’s ours.”

Pulling her close, I give her a quick and hard kiss, letting my tongue glide against hers to taste her one final time before facing what lies ahead of us.

“They’re inside,” Pierre, one of my soldiers, screams as he stumbles toward me. “Someone opened the gate. They’re inside. We need more men, now.”

I grab his shoulder. “Who opened the gate, Pierre? It doesn’t open for anyone unless they know the code.”

“I don’t even know the code,” Lilliana mutters. “Could they have flown here and disabled it?”

“Go get more men,” I tell Piere and face Lilliana. “Our land is surrounded by mountains. Through the sky wouldn’t go unnoticed because we have a detection alarm in place. The only way to disable it and come inside is through the gate and it has double protection. Someone high in rank must unlock it and it’s also guarded by two of our soldiers.”

The screams become louder and there’s an instinct to protect. “I have to shift and help hold the line.”

“What can I do?” Lilliana asks.

Fuck. I’m torn. Every single person in my clan can shift into a dragon, each of us have the same abilities…except for my mate.

I freeze and voice the dreaded words, “I don’t know.”

“No one knows anything until a choice is thrown at our feet,” she states with determination in her voice. “Shift and I’ll follow. This is not my first battle and I might not have faced dragons, but I’ve fought a whole lot of scary and powerful other beings.”

Her words are meant to soothe my restlessness while all they do is rile me up. Fire above us followed by grunts end our discussion. I move away to create the distance I need to shift. Mentally, I step down and let my dragon take lead. The shift is quick and fluid. Leaving my mate on the ground, I jump up and push my wings up and down to climb up into the sky.

Looking down gives me a wide view of what the hell is going on. A handful of our soldiers are fighting back near the gate. A blast causes a shift in the pressure of the air and I adjust my body mid-flight. A ball of fire is heading straight for me.

Dragons are born to resist fire. Our scales are made to block out the heat. I close my eyes and fly through the fire to get closer to the mine. There are people fighting on the ground. Bodies in chunks, crimson everywhere.

I recognize Ivano who is stumbling out of the mine, his arm looks mangled by the blast. Leaning forward as I retract my wings, I gain speed to lose altitude. Just before impact I spread my wings to catch the wind and break my fall as I quickly shift back to my human form.

Ivano’s arm is starting to heal before my eyes when I ask, “What the hell is going on?”

“I don’t know, boss. They came out of nowhere from all sides. Leandro and I were in the mine when I got the call of a guard who was on patrol near the gate. There was no time to flush the tunnels. Leandro and I split up to each take on as many as we could. It was like they knew what we were about to do and attacked before we could do anything.” Ivano rolls his shoulder and winces.

“Where’s Leandro?” I ask and glance around.

“Duuuuuuck,” Lilliana bellows and Ivano moves with me as we both rush forward while glancing back.

We just dodged a man swinging a sword in our direction when Lilliana points and snaps her fingers. The man implodes and the sword falls to the ground.

“What the…how…did she just…motherfucker, how the hell did you do that?” Ivano asks, and I’m wondering the same damn thing.

She bites her bottom lip and keeps an eye on her surroundings when she states, “Can we skip the question and stick to the fact I saved your asses?”

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