Page 82 of His Greatest Treasure

“Not yet. Quickly, Alfie, go and hide.”

“But what if they—?”

My father swept into the room. Already, he was drawing power to himself and I could feel the chill of it along my spine as he siphoned off power from me and every one of the clan. Was that what elders did?

“Alphonse, come with me.”

My mother stepped in front of me. She actually stood between me and Lord Somerville, facing him.

“No,” she said.

He stared at her, his cold eyes growing hard, like shards of ice. “Step aside,Regina.”

“No. Please, he’s so young. He’s only just learned to shift.”

I huffed, “I’m notthatyoung.”

After all, I was a man now. I had a dragon and a mate and I wanted to take care of my clan. That’s what dragons did.

Whether he heard me or not, Lord Somerville agreed.

“He has shifted. He is the golden dragon. He will need to use his power, or he will die.”

“What?”

Thatmade me jolt in surprise.

He turned to me, so calm, and said, “Our borders are under attack. It is the hag. She has come for you.”

“But she- she won’t get in, right? I mean, our territory is safe. We’re all safe.”

I was still holding Blaze’s hand and I only realised I must have been gripping it too tightly in my anxiety when he let out a tiny grunt of pain and I released him, grabbing his hand and massaging it.

“Sorry, sorry. I didn’t mean to do that. I was just worried. But- but there’s no need to be frightened, Blaze. We’ll protect you.”

My dragon wasn’t trying to burst out of me, which was weird. I had assumed that it would, if ever we were in danger. And right now seemed like a really good time for that to happen. Like when the territory was being attacked.

It stayed where it was, though. Inside, pressed tightly against my skin. It was watching, listening and waiting.

Unfortunately, I’d drawn my father’s attention to Blaze.

“How did the fire spirit get out of that room?”

“Oh, uh, I let him out.”

I was about to tell him that we had mated and show him my claiming bite on Blaze’s neck, which was concealed by the collar of my coat – Blaze’s coat that he’d taken back – but Lord Somerville stepped forward, his face dark.

“I will deal with this disobedience later.”

“But I—”

“You will follow me to the boundary and hope that you have the power to repel the hag. If not, you will die, just like your brother did.”

Something clicked into place.

“Alexander was a golden dragon, too,wasn’t he?”

My mother gave a sob and I felt bad for reminding her of her dead son. She was shaking, and instinctively I reached out to her. My hand touched her shoulder gently.

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