Chapter 84

Irina
We watched as my human was dragged up the stairs by her hair. She was forced into the stocks next to us and she gave us a pleading look.
“Irina, I hope you’re still in there. I am so sorry for all of this.”
I weakly push forward. Those crystals have done a number on me, but I was quickly recovering. I had seen Galina on the way out here and I knew that she was recovering, too. We just had to bide our time and eat all those motherfuckers when we were told to. I watched my human breathe deeply. I could feel her anger from here and all I wanted to do was burn this fucking place to the ground. She should have let me the last time we were here, but she thought some of them were innocent. She growled at me, almost as if she could- wait. I looked at her. Her eyes flashed black. I rolled my shoulders back and made the little human growl. My human’s head whipped around to stare at her. A tear fell from her eye.
“Rin,” she whispered.
I nodded. Her green eyes went black again and I instantly knew she wasn’t alone. My heart sank when men threw Aiden on the ground in front of us. My human’s ‘mother’ stepped up behind him and we both growled. She smirked.
“So, you didn’t die. I had heard the two of you were granted immunity to dragon’s bane from the Goddess.”
One of the men handed her a dagger and she held it up to Aiden’s throat. His eyes met the little human’s and I pushed forward. He smiled sadly and mouthed ‘I love you, Rina’, before looking at my human. His head was pulled back and Anastasia laughed in his face and every drop of her spit that hit his face made me even angrier. Something rose up in me and I got confused.
When I looked at Aiden without Mikhail, he was nothing but a puny human. He had always just been my human's mate, so what was this feeling? He had not earned my forgiveness for treating my human the way he did, so why did I want to tear her head off for touching him? I glanced at my human and tears were pouring down her face. I could see Mikhail lingering just behind her eyes and all I wanted to do was be with them. All of them.
“Any last words, you pathetic excuse for a king?,” Anastasia asked him.
“Ash, I love you.” He closed his eyes for a second, before looking at my human. “Kill this bitch.”
Anastasia roared with anger and slid the blade across his throat. The entire world shifted and time slowed down. I began to thrash as my heart shattered like an icicle hitting the ground. I cried out with every ounce of pain that tore through me as our mate bond began to weaken. My body jerked and contorted. Lily screamed in agony. I started flapping my wings and trying to escape from this prison my human had put me in. I was going crazy. I needed to get to my mate and heal him, before he bled out. The puddle of blood was growing steadily bigger and darker with every drop of blood that poured from his neck. Suddenly, my space got even more cramped and I stopped moving. I backed away from the front as my brother’s dragon entered into Lily’s mind. I narrowed my eyes at him.
“There’s not enough room for three dragons,” I growled.
“Three?”
I quickly tilted my head to Lily’s dormant dragon and his eyes widened, before he turned back towards me.
“Go back to your human, she needs you. Only you can avenge your mate.”
As soon as he finished talking, he breathed fire out, it wrapped around me and forced me out of Lily’s body. My human’s eyes widened as I flew towards her. She opened her mouth and drew me back in. I wrapped myself around her mind again and she immediately allowed me to reconnect. I settled back in and looked at Mikhail. He looked sad and I knew that watching his human get killed was the highest torture any dragon could go through. Anastasia clapped her hands excitedly and pointed to Lily.
“Kill that one next. She is unprotected,” she announced smugly. “I knew that would get you out of her, dragon. Now, shift or I really will kill you.”
Mikhail nuzzled into my side. “Do you trust me?”
“Yes.”
He melted into my body and I moaned at the sparks that made my body buck. He began to show me how to shift and my body heated quickly as Anastasia walked up on the stage. She rang a bell and about 35 men came out of the house she had been keeping us below. The one on the stage approached Lily who whimpered and closed her eyes. The blade was raised high above her neck.
“Shift or I will have her killed.”
I glanced at Aiden and was shocked to see the wound was sucking the blood back in. My eyes scanned the area and when I saw Melissa almost fully hidden behind a bush, seemingly unconscious, I gave a small prayer that my mates hadn’t come alone.
“Fine. Have it your way. Kill the girl.”
“NO!,” my human screamed.
The blade neared her skin and started to melt. Anastasia ran across the stage. “Impossible.”
“Think again, Mother.”
I looked across the field to see my human’s brother coming closer. “She has Gideon and he won’t let you harm her.”
Mikhail expanded my wings and made me grow bigger. I felt my body merge with my humans and she moaned softly, pulling back. Anastasia fired a spell at Lukas and he jumped out of the way. She jumped off the stage and went running towards him, throwing spells at him that he barely avoided. The men began to surround them and there were a few growls. Half a dozen dragons swooped out of the forest and began to bite at the people. Some of them began to shift and others started throwing spells.
“Focus, Rina. We need you to shift,” Mikhail once again drew my attention back to the task at hand.
Wood splintered near us and he covered my head with his wings. He nuzzled into me and the image of Anastasia slitting my human mate’s throat open came back with a vengeance. I let out an angry yell and my human screamed out in pain. I pushed forward harder and she fled to the back of our mind. I dug my feet into the dirt below me and let out a stream of fire that surrounded my human’s body, hiding that her body was getting larger and more dense. Bones cracked and elongated. Our body grew hotter and my anger rose. I felt Mikhail move and I forced him to disconnect from us. My giant paw- wait. My paw.
I looked down and happiness exploded inside of me. My head snapped up and I stepped off of the stage towards Anastasia. I moved slightly to my left where Galina stood guard over Aiden and Lily. She moved out of my way as I approached. I breathed out and forced Mikhail back into his human’s body. Aiden took a breath and I relaxed, knowing he was going to be okay. I turned back to the fray that was happening behind me and I set my sights on the bitch that thought she could destroy us. She was distracted by Lukas who was laughing at her as he darted around avoiding her spells.
I reached down and snatched her up in my teeth. I bit down hard and took the deepest pleasures in her screams of pain. I kept chewing until her bones were pulverized and there was nothing solid left to her. For good measure, I let my fire fill my mouth cooking her remains, before I swallowed. I pulled Sasha forward to meld with me fully. I let her shift back down to her human body. I could feel her disgust that I had literally eaten her mother, but hey, I am a carnivore. What did she expect?
She threw her hands out and our power radiated out. Sherri, Ana and Raven were surrounded by a small group and they were trying to dodge attacks, but they were slow, being new shifters. Nikita snapped one up and threw him in the air. He screamed and Thalia grabbed one end while Nikita grabbed his other end. They ripped him in half. She slowly turned in a circle. Dayan was making quick work of his group and Artyom and Isla were tag teaming yet another group. Melissa was off to the side throwing and deflecting spells from 8 witches. My human began to laugh and the louder she got, the more attention she drew from the enemy. Lukas took her hand and began to draw on her power. He looked towards Lily.
“Gideon!”
Lily breathed out and the fire shot towards Lukas. I felt the immediate rise in his power and I smiled.
“Do it!,” I ordered.
“Lily, close your eyes.”
Galina shifted back to Kalani’s body, keeping her wings out to shield Lily. Lukas expelled white flames out of his mouth and it circled everyone on the field. People tried to run, to escape, but it caught them. It passed through the rescue team, leaving them unscathed, but left the enemy burnt corpses. The still shifted dragons from our team quickly incinerated the bodies, before shifting and almost collapsing on the ground, panting and completely exhausted. My human rushed over to our mate and we threw ourself into his arms. She slapped him across the face and then kissed him all over his face.
“Don’t ever do that again,” she told him.
He kissed us deeply. “I love you, too, baby.”
“So, does that mean this is over?,” I asked out loud.
My human looked around. Mates were holding each other and everyone else was huddled in the center of the field. Lukas pulled Lily closer to his side, nodding.
“This part is, but we need to get back to the castle. Dad is dying,” he said.
Kalani sighed. “We need Sasha to heal him.”
My human stood up and stumbled. She hit the ground and our mate groaned as he picked her up. He kissed her forehead.
“I’ll carry you home, baby. I told you the first shift is the hardest.”
She nuzzled into his chest and I urged her closer. ‘Ours,’ I whispered to her. ‘He gave up his life for us.’
‘I know. He truly loves us.’
My heart ached again for what that bitch had done to him.
“So, Sherri, what were you gonna tell me?,” Raven asked.
Sherri laughed and I felt my human relax. She was happy that all of our people had survived, but we were both worried about our father.
‘Let’s go home, Sasha. We can not lose Dad.’