To Wake a Dragon - Naomi Lucas Page 0,57

and light, and all the suffering I endured to receive such a gift. Power, the power I once wielded over all the lands I claimed. This is the pleasure of soaring over the ocean, of breathing fire. It has all returned to me. Through Milaye.

She stumbled upon me. Touched my dead dragon form. And revived me with her strength. There is human and dragon in both of our souls now.

It makes sense. She is my tough, human huntress. She did not allow an alpha male to do all the protecting. She just needed to save me first…

And she needed to wake herself up as well.

Now that she is a dragon, there is no place in all of Venys we cannot go. We need no tribe, no other. Only each other. She and I against the world.

My light bringer. My lips cock into a smile. I am the luckiest male in all of Venys.

Milaye, panting, cants her sleek, feathered head in question at me.

But she is not fully a femdragon yet… The power she now wields is nothing to the greatest dragon gift of all. To experience invincibility.

She has no idea. No idea at all.

But soon she will…

“Fly,” I yell.

And I watch her assail the sky, vanishing into the setting sun.

21

Home

Two Weeks Later

* * *

I stomp the ground, pounding out the jungle soil around the old naga’s nest. I have spent the day clearing a path from the cave’s entrance to the beach. Not only that but, as to Drazak’s instructions, I have claimed the land north of Sand’s Hunters, marking it with my pheromones so any animal or beast that dwells here knows who it belongs to.

Me.

Nothing will harm me or mine once the creatures know my scent.

Drazak teaches me more every day how to be a dragon. There is much to learn.

I swing my tail out and snap two jungle bushes in half. Then I crush them into the ground as well. Birds flutter into the sky, and I lift my neck, gazing down the path towards the sea.

“Is it clear?” Drazak asks beside my wing.

I shimmy. ‘Yes.’ It’s easier to have him read my body’s language than to talk in a tongue that twists my mouth.

“Good.” His voice is deep and filled with appreciation.

It makes me preen.

He is my male, and he has won the right to rut me. Now that I am a femdragon, it makes perfect sense in my head. When I needily bare myself to him, he just laughs, ordering me to reshape into my human form for that. He runs his hand over my wing and steaks his fingers through my feathers, telling me how beautiful my dragon form is, and that there will be plenty of time to rut later… when I am truly ready.

Which relaxes me because I don’t want to release this ball of fire burning within me. Two weeks have passed since I transformed, and I’m afraid if I let the fire go, returning to my human form, that I might not be able to experience this again.

Not only that, but the sun is blissful on my scales.

Besides, I am much more useful as a dragon right now. I can help my sisters and brothers at Sand’s Hunters rebuild their huts, the ones I accidentally destroyed. It is much easier to gather wood, to drop them off a tree in this form. I have done it many times now, foraging for other resources in the process. I can access places I couldn’t as a human.

Rocks. Reeds. Even mouthfuls of fish. I load my body, carrying everything I can between the other tribes along the Mermaid Coast. Granted, most of the other tribes fled when they saw me, and I’ve learned to remain away from the villages between trips. But they know me by now.

They know Drazak too.

A new surge of supplies isn’t the only change to the tribes my new form has brought.

Not all the changes are good…

There’s been a resurgence of huntresses questing for dragons. I told them there were none nearby—I don’t sense any but Drazak, Zaeyr, and Kaos—but they would not listen. My words have only led the larger hunting groups to travel farther afield.

I know some will never return.

All I can do is scent my tribe sisters, to keep them safe during their journeys. Each member of Sand’s Hunters now wears one of my dragon feathers in their hair for protection. I will not stop them searching for a mate of their own. If they are