Page 2 of Driven By Dragonblood
Rain and cloudy skies surrounded me, a mirror of the heaviness upon my shoulders.
Sniffling, I tilted my head down, forehead on my knees, hugging myself tighter.
I’d fled the comforts of home even though I’d never truly felt a sense of belonging in the Teton Mountains. An urging deep inside, the whispering of my inner dragon, had insisted it was time to fly and seek out our fate. I’d left my newly met grandpop, Dolyn, behind with his alpha and female in the cavern of our ancestors, where they would mate and raise a family. Having seen their love and how they belonged to each other, I wanted nothing more than to experience the same. The thought of returning to the Tetons alone and having to witness their happiness made my stomach twist.
But where else would I go?
Stay.
My throat tightened as my inner dragon attempted to soothe my emotions. She’d been as silent as my human half for days on end, overrun by thoughts of despair.
“And do what?” I whispered aloud, since no one was around to accuse me of being mad from talking to myself.
Seek.
“That’s all we’vebeendoing,” I stated, straightening to swipe my arm over my wet eyes even though rain continued to batter my face.
My dragon half went quiet once more.
The feeling of urgency that had sent me flying south through the winter winds to the warmer southern state had calmed to where I barely felt a hint of my dragon’s assurance we were in the right place.
So why didn’t I sense my mates?
Were they even of lesser blood than Grandpop’s alpha and female that I couldn’t perceive or communicate with their dragons? I was a Blood Born with the rare ability to hear all inner beings of those with dragonblood in their veins. Even the most minuscule from those I’d come into contact with on the few times Grandmother and I had gone into town for supplies before her death.
But it seemed no such creatures inhabited the southernmost parts of Arizona.
Perhaps I’d missed my fated mate by a mere mile. Flown past where they resided, their supernatural halves unknown or somehow hidden away from their consciousness. What if both my alpha and beta had managed to suppress what they didn’t understand, burying their true self deep enough our souls couldn’t call to one another as, according to the ancient texts I’d studied, fated mates ought to be able to do?
I lifted my face once more, eyes closed.
Rain sluiced through the branches overhead, soaking through the old-fashioned, large shirt and the long skirt that flowed around my ankles while I’d walked listlessly across the park in search of a sense of belonging. The material would stick to my legs now, clinging and itching, reminding me how much I hated the restriction of clothing.
North.
I sniffled but didn’t bother attempting to wipe the wetness from my face. “We can’t return to what used to be home,” I whispered, my heart aching for my mates.
The canyon.
Heaving a sigh, I straightened my legs, shoulders still slumped. “What about it?”
Let us soar over its beauty once more.
A huff of sad laughter escaped me. Thanks to Grandpop sharing his ability to cloak our true selves, my inner dragon had released and been able to fly during daylight hours, invisible to the human eye. Diving deep into the reaches of the Grand Canyon, shooting skyward in a rush of wind, rolling and tucking my wings to glide above the winding river at its base, was almost as pleasurable as winding through the peaks of the Tetons.
I had been in this form for far too long.
Standing, I stretched my back, filling my lungs. Three steps took me from beneath the semi-shelter of the tree, exposing me to the full force of the elements. Wind and rain buffeted me, whipping the soaked skirt around me.
But a torrential downpour didn’t compare to my stubbornness or my beast’s strength.
My mind’s desire to cloak myself from sight blinked me from visual existence. I removed the sodden clothing from my body and stuffed it into the drenched duffle bag I carried everywhere before straightening once more.
Communicating with my inner dragon came as easily as breathing, and the shift rippled through my physical body like a bend of light, morphing my human form into that of a pale golden dragon, the same color of my waist-length hair, scales, spines, and all.
Front claws of our left foot wrapped tight around our duffle, and we launched into the stormy sky, our grief-filled roar masked by the thunder rumbling around us.
We will locate them.
