Page 19 of Queen of the Cursed Egg
I glide, holding us aloft, my wings straining with the effort, when his eyes blink several times and I can see when the humanity switch flips back on. The beast recedes, leaving the man in its wake. Shock fills his dragon’s gaze as he looks back at where we’re attached, realization dawning like a cold sunrise. Instinct can be a bitch overruling thought and reason in the heat of the moment. When he finally falls free, the separation sending a shudder through my body. We fly to a meadow close by and land, the tall grass bending beneath our weight, releasing the earthy scent of crushed vegetation.
Abraxis shifts back first, his dragon form shimmering and contracting until the man stands before me. He paces back and forth, pulling at his hair, his footsteps leaving bent stalks in the lush grass. The tension rolling off him is palpable. A storm about to break.
I shift back, my bones and muscles protesting the second transformation so soon after the first, and draw in a deep breath, the cool air soothing my burning lungs. Abraxis rounds on me and caresses my face in his hands, his touch gentle despite the turmoil in his eyes.
“Do you know what we just did?” His eyes search mine frantically,his pupils dilated with residual adrenaline, his breath coming in short, harsh pants that I can feel against my lips.
“Yes. I chose the two fathers of my first clutch,” I say with quiet certainty, watching his expression shift from shock to disbelief to a hesitant wonder. I search his face, noting the fine lines around his eyes, the scar that bisects his left eyebrow, and feel the embers in my chest cooling again. The fire of my heat temporarily banked. “I need to go to ground and shift. If I shift now, I won’t stay in heat, and I’ll lay the two eggs of my choosing. I’ll miss a month of school, and I’m fine with that. They will hatch over the winter break in a month.” I rest my hand over my abdomen, feeling like something had shifted within me. A subtle weight, a presence where there was none before. Dragon biology is amazing, efficient and ancient.
“Why me?” Abraxis motions to his weaker wing, the phantom of his injury clear even in his human form in the way he favors his left side. “I am not worthy of fathering a hatchling. My drake is injured and unable to defend you the way the others can.” His voice cracks on the last word, revealing the depth of his insecurity.
“You are my first mate and first love. Yeah, things got messed up along the way, but no one is perfect.” I lean in and kiss him, tasting the salt of his sweat and something uniquely him, a flavor I’ve missed more than I realized. When we break apart, I stroke down the bond, the gossamer thread that connects us to each other and to our other mates, and summon Ziggy to me, feeling the tug of his consciousness responding to mine.
Within seconds, an exhausted-looking Ziggy manifests before us in a blur of movement, his hair tousled from sleep, his eyes still heavy-lidded. “Why, hello daddy,” he says to Abraxis and slaps him on the shoulder, the sound sharp in the quiet meadow.
Abraxis arches a brow, looking at Ziggy, then me, then back to Ziggy, his gaze calculating. “You too?” Ziggy just nods, a smile playing at the corners of his mouth.
“We don’t know if it will work, but it’s worth a shot. Or four?” Ziggy laughs as he takes our hands, his fingers warm and strong around mine, and brings us back to our home, the world blurring around us as he phases us through space.
I walk down the hall, the stone cool beneath my bare feet, passing Klauth and Thauglor. Both males stop dead in their tracks and stare at me, their nostrils flaring as they catch my scent. “You’re with egg,” Klauth says as he catches up and sniffs near my ear, his breath hot against my skin, sending a shiver down my spine.
“You need to go to ground,” Thauglor says as he scoops me up in his arms, his muscles flexing beneath my weight. He wraps his wings tightly around me, the leathery appendages forming a protective cocoon as he moves swiftly through the corridors, his footsteps echoing off the stone walls.
“It doesn’t happen that fast, does it?” I hear Abraxis ask from somewhere behind us, his voice tinged with wonder and concern.
“Given our mate’s bloodline, yes. The amount of scales in her human form hasn’t been seen since Tiamat herself walked the earth,” Klauth’s deep voice echoes in the hallway, reverberating in my chest like a second heartbeat.
I hear Abraxis calling the others to the chamber that Klauth dug out for this occasion, his voice fading and returning as they move through the twisting passages. Thauglor’s wings open, the sudden rush of air cool against my heated skin, and I smell the limestone of the egg chamber off to the side of the main chamber, the mineral scent sharp and clean. A deep, resonant purr escapes my lips, and my dragoness is clawing at my insides, wanting out, the need to prepare my nest overwhelming all other thoughts.
“Shift, my beloved treasure. We will guard you,” Thauglor says before kissing my lips gently, his touch reverent. The love I seereflected in his eyes, deep and boundless as the night sky, makes my chest tighten, wishing I had chosen him too.
I step away from everyone, the stone floor cold beneath my feet, and shift. This time it comes slower, almost like my dragoness is being careful with herself, protecting the eggs that grow within. My bones elongate with a series of pops that echo in the chamber, and my skin hardens into scales, emerald green, and silver catching the light from the torches on the walls. I stretch out, feeling the pleasant burn of muscles realigning, then walk around the interior, my talons clicking against the stone floor.
I claw at the stone before striking it with my breath weapon several times, the acrid smell of burned rock filling the chamber. When the stone is pulverized into fine dust, I lay down, the warm powder conforming to my body, my wing draped to cover my stomach in a protective gesture. I pull my spiked tail forward and rest it in front of me, the deadly appendage now serving as a barrier between my vulnerable underside and any potential threat.
My other mates arrive, their scents mingling in the air—sweat, leather, the faint musk of their unique pheromones. Abraxis and Klauth catch them up on what’s happening, their voices a comforting rumble in the background of my consciousness. I lower my horned head to look at Thauglor, meeting his gaze directly.‘Can you shift with me in here? I would feel better,’I project the thought to him, the mental connection vibrating like a plucked string. I inch away from the wall, giving him enough room, the scrape of my scales against stone creating a rasping sound that echoes in the chamber. I know Klauth’s drake fit in here, so I know Thauglor’s will since he’s smaller, his form more compact though no less powerful.
‘I can, and I will,’his voice echoes in my mind, rich, and soothing, before he looks at the others, his human face serious. “Mina wants me to shift and lay with her. Bring her food, live if possible. It’s better for her and the eggs.” Thauglor says before he shifts, his human formblurring and expanding into his massive white-faced black great wyrm drake.
The transformation is mesmerizing, bones cracking and reforming, skin hardening into obsidian scales with that distinctive white markings on his face. He belly-crawls behind me, his movements careful despite his enormous size, then lays one of his massive wings over me, the weight comforting rather than restrictive. His body radiates heat, warming the chamber and chasing away the chill of the stone.
A nap right now sounds divine, my eyelids already growing heavy as I feel the steady rhythm of Thauglor’s breathing behind me, synchronizing with my own. Safe and protected, I allow myself to drift off, cradling the future within me.
CHAPTER 13
Zigmander
For once Ican out excel the other mates at something. I shift to my displacer beast form, feeling my body elongate, my muscles ripple and rearrange beneath my skin. The familiar sensation of my tentacles unfurling from my shoulders sends a pleasant shiver down my spine as I hunt. I phase my way across the forest, the world blurring around me in streaks of green and brown, the scent of pine needles and damp earth filling my heightened senses. I’m hunting the deer that run wild here. Their musky scent carried on the cool breeze. I know they’re small compared to a dragon, mere morsels for Mina’s appetite, but it’s what I can catch easily for my mate.
The male dragons of the nest have been switching out every eight hours, watching over Mina, their protective instincts on full display. While Thauglor and Abraxis are at the school maintaining appearances, Klauth is shifted, his massive beast curled protectively around Mina, holding her under his wing like a precious treasure.
I phase back into the chamber with a deer trapped in my tentacles, its heart pounding frantically against my grip. The static electricity of phasing still crackling across my skin, I materialize with the scentof ozone lingering around me. Mina’s head whips up hearing the deer’s panicked bleats, her nostrils flaring wide as she catches the scent of fresh prey. Her pupils dilate instantly, the gold of her irises reduced to thin rings. The minute I toss it her way, the deer’s hooves scrabbling uselessly against the smooth stone floor, she lunges out with startling speed for something so large. Her massive jaws snap shut around the animal before it can run, the sound of bones crunching echoing off the chamber walls. I shift back to my human form, bones contracting with a series of satisfying pops, and walk over to the water trough we brought in here. The metal is cool against my palm as I turn on the hose to put more fresh water in it, the splashing sound oddly comforting in the otherwise quiet chamber.
“Are you still hungry?” I stare up at Mina’s dragoness, taking in the majestic sight of her. The torchlight reflects off her emerald and silver scales, creating patterns of light across the chamber walls like living stained glass. She tilts her head to the side, her neck scales rasping softly against each other, then shakes it no, the movement sending a gentle wave of her warm, spicy scent toward me.
Sometime last night, the guys made a makeshift bathroom for Mina comprising a tarp and wood shavings. Unfortunately for me, I get the honor of phasing it out of the nest and back again after it’s been used, the unpleasant task falling to the one mate who can disappear and reappear at will.
Klauth shifts back, his massive dragonic form shrinking and reshaping into his human one with a sound like distant thunder. His bare feet slap against the stone floor as he walks around Mina to look at her stomach and then under her tail, his movements precise and clinical. “She’s getting close to laying her eggs.” He motions to her tail, his calloused finger pointing to the scales there. “The silver scales underneath will darken just before she’s ready to lay the eggs.” The excitement in his voice is barely contained, despite his attempt at a professional tone. He looks over at the dummy eggs that she’spainted black, their surface dull compared to the glossy sheen I imagine the real eggs will have. “We have to roll those in the birthing slime so she can use them to fool her father when she’s ready to.”
