Page 2 of The Silent Mountain
“You are good with them,” Alana says while one of these elegant animals rubs its nose against my shoulder.
“I’m just pretending to be,” I admit. “I have no idea what I’m doing.”
She chuckles. “You know,” she says after a while. “I feel for him,” she admits. “I mean Elio. He just wants to help.”
“It’s not like I can’t sympathize,” I say. “I understand where he is coming from, but he didn’t have any education for years. And, as the only prince of my lands, I need him one day to step up as my advisor or in another high rank. I can’t always be his friend. At the moment, I am unfortunately his father, his brother and his king.” I pause. “Quite frankly… I wish it were different.”
“Don’t worry, I understand.” She closes the door of the stables and turns to me. Her gaze lingers on me for a moment, and there is a hint of red on her cheeks. I’m not sure if it’s because of the cold or because she is finally warming up to me. She brushes through her hair again. “I have younger siblings too,” she says. “And I’m lucky to only be their sibling and nothing else. But you and Elio, you lost so much. I don’t even know how you manage to deal with it…”
I want to lie to her and tell her we are coping well enough, but the bond that connects us is too strong and real to lie to it. I feel like lying to her face would disgrace the mate bond that connects us. “It’s going to be a longer journey,” I say. “I know that Elio is still having trouble sleeping.”
“And you?” she asks quietly. When I don’t answer, she takes my hand. “Are you sleeping?” she asks with a surprising amount of concern.
“It’s not that I’m not tired,” I say, “or that I don’t want to sleep. But when I close my eyes, I’m scared to be a prisoner of my dreams and mind again.”
Her eyes sadden, and I almost regret having said it out loud.
“It won’t happen again,” she reassures me. “We dealt with the threat; you were part of the last battle too. The threat is gone, and I’m here now, as well! I will protect you and Elio.”
“I know,” I say. “I know we won. But sometimes I feel like something is still out there, waiting in the shadows to hunt us.”
She furrows her eyebrows, and I feel like an idiot for laying my fears and paranoia out there, worrying her further.
“It’s probably still part of the nightmare I was caught in,” I add. “The aftermath.”
“But if you feel danger is approaching, please tell me.”
“I will.”
For a while, we walk in silence. “How many dragon shifters did you manage to find and return to the Silent Mountain?”
“Approximately sixty,” I say. “There are a few more that will move soon. And then there are a few who settled in the human realm. They have human partners now.”
“Do you want them to return?”
“Previously, we dragon shifters didn’t really mate outside of our own kind,” I admit. “But I think it’s long overdue to loosen this rule.” Especially with me being fated to a werewolf, but that’s not the only reason. We were elitists for too long, to the point that we were all alone when we fended off the danger threatening our whole species. “A lot of these dragon shifters did what they needed to do to survive. They have partners now, and I want to honor that.”
“But they don’t have their dragon spirits, do they?” she asks.
“They don’t. As the leader of the dragons, it’s my task to grant them their dragon spirit. It’s a whole ceremony when someone comes of age.”
“I almost forgot you can do that,” Alana says. “That’s amazing. But how come Elio got his dragon spirit? You were still in a coma when he shifted for the first time.”
“That’s because I took precautions,” I explain. “I granted him his spirit when we parted ways, and he went into hiding. His body was just too small to shift at that time.”
“So, once you find those shifters who live with the humans or who live as humans, will you grant them their dragon spirits?”
“Of course. They did nothing wrong. If that’s what they want, I will grant them their dragon spirit.”
“If you want, I can help reach out to them,” she offers. “Wolves have some connections to the other realms, and if any of your kind are hidden somewhere in the werewolf kingdom, it would be really easy to find them and talk to them.”
“I would appreciate your help,” I say. “I had a similar idea but didn’t want to impose my own political issues on you.”
“You are not imposing anything,” she says. “Remember, I am here to help and to learn more about the dragons.”
“Well then, should I take you on a ride?” I offer.
I can see the surprise on her face, and it’s obvious how she battles her emotions. I can see the curiosity in her eyes, but I also know she has her pride and dignity. She is a princess and a warrior after all.
