Kellan's footsteps thundered down the stone tunnel. The dragon within him fought for freedom; his only coherent thought, protect the clan. His vision blurred as the dragon fought for control over his body. The dragon saw only the immediate threat; the man saw the consequences of each course of action. And right now, he needed to make sure that his immediate family was out of harm's way. He needed to reach Penelope, Jed, and Kiara. Needed to reach them, needed to warn them, needed to save them. He pushed his legs to run faster. The mountain shook as the canons beat against it. He had to get them out of the mountain; that was his first priority. The roars of dragons echoed through the chambers, bouncing through the walls, driving home the fact that Kellan's family was in danger. The clan was being attacked, and the members were rising to action. Hopefully, he could get everyone evacuated before there was too much loss. He skidded around the corner into his bedchambers to find it empty. "Penelope!" he cried. He ran into the adjoining room that his children shared, but Jed's bed was rumpled and empty, and so was Kiara's cradle. He called out his mate's name again, his fear slowly rising each second he couldn't locate his family.
"Kellan!" his mate's voice reached his ears. She was close, but not in their chambers. He ran further down the hall to find his mate, their five-year-old son, their newborn daughter, and his sister Chloe and her mate, Daniel. The group was in the process of fleeing the mountain, and they looked as relieved to see him as he was to see them. The dragon within him calmed at the sight of his family. The beast relented its battle for freedom for the moment. His family paused in their race toward the exit to greet him. "Kellan," Penelope's voice was full of relief. "What's happening?" Kellan folded her into his arms, his son between their knees and their daughter cradled between their bodies. He buried his nose in her red hair, inhaling her scent, letting it fill him with reassurance. He would get her and their children to safety. He had to.
"The humans, they snuck up on us while we were all sleeping," he said into her hair. "They have cannons and archers. We need to get out of here." Kellan lifted his head to address Chloe and Daniel as well.
"How?" Daniel asked. His question was not a challenge, but a pledge of loyalty. He would follow his Alpha's guidance, no matter what it took. Kellan met his eye in acknowledgement.
"Follow me, I have an idea," he stated and took off down the hall. As he took off running, he grabbed his son, who was trembling in fear. They needed to move fast and while Jed was faster than human boys, he would never have been able to keep up with the adults.
"Daddy," Jed whimpered as Kellan ran deeper into the mountain. Jed's little head was tucked into the crook of Kellan's neck, bouncing with each step. Kellan clutched him tighter, his strong arms keeping a steel grip on his offspring.
A deafening crash sounded above them, causing Jed to jump and bury himself further into Kellan's chest with a small cry. "It's alright, Jed. Everything will be okay." Although Kellan was aware that it wasn't. Half of the clan's strongest males were away on a mission to drive the Wildlings further from the clan, and the humans were getting better at fighting them; they were learning the weaknesses of the dragons. Another impact shook the walls around them, and Kellan knew that this time a dragon had collided with the stone. One of his clan, his family, who were trying to protect them, was just thrown into the side of their home. This brought his rage even closer to the surface, efficiently replacing the fear, and the dragon within him fought to break free once again. That couldn't happen inside the narrow hallway, so Kellan clutched his son even tighter to gain back some control over his emotions. Protect the clan.
He looked over his shoulder to check on his small group. Penelope was directly behind him, holding little Kiara to her chest protectively. He was shocked to see that the tiny bundle was quiet and calm, despite the excitement going on around her. Chloe was close behind Penelope with Daniel bringing up the rear. Daniel gave him a nod of acknowledgement. He knew that his second-in-command had his back no matter what. That fact gave him the will to run faster. He wasn't tired yet, but his worry ate away at him. What if the exit that he had in mind had been collapsed or the humans had found it? What if they couldn't get away in time? The second he was in the air, he was going to give the signal to have his clan retreat. No matter how fast the humans' steeds were, there wasn't a horse alive that could keep up with a flying dragon.
They entered a part of the mountain that likely hadn't been traveled in months. There were no torches lighting the way and the air was cool and damp. Luckily, Kellan had lived in these mountains all his life and knew every tunnel there was to know. And he knew that this one led to the side of the mountain that was opposite the one that was being attacked. They continued onward in the complete blackness, relying on their senses to keep from running into walls on slight turns. His followers trusted him wholeheartedly and said nothing as they ran after him into the bowels of the mountain. After what felt like hours of running, but in reality was less than ten minutes, a dim light could be seen. The entrance to the tunnel. He smiled in relief; they had reached the base of the mountain. The tunnel opened into a large cavern with a slightly smaller opening that a dragon could just fit through without getting stuck. It was the perfect escape hatch.
"Alright," he set Jed down and wiped the tears from the little boy's cheeks. His emerald green eyes were red and puffy, and snot was running from his pudgy nose as he hiccuped. "I need you to be a tough little man, alright? Will you shift for me, huh?"
Jed shook his head vigorously. He had only shifted once before, on the last full moon when he was finally old enough to shift for the first time. The full moon forced everyone to shift, which wasn't a big deal unless it was the first time. Kellan knew from experience that the first shift was difficult, scary, and painful. Poor Jed had had a rough time of it and couldn't shift back for a few days after the full moon, but that was common amongst first time shifters. Now the little boy was scared to shift again. Kellan knew that if he was going to survive the long flight they were about to take, at the cold temperatures they would encounter in the air, he needed to be a dragon.
"Please, Jed," Kellan begged, "I need you to do this so you can keep Kiara and Mommy safe, okay?"
Jed looked over at Penelope who gave him an encouraging smile. She knelt down next to him and pulled the blanket down so that he could see Kiara's pudgy face. The baby was only a few weeks old, but her eyes were already a startling sky blue, just a few shades lighter than Penelope's. "Will you help us protect your sister, sweetie?" Penelope asked softly. "We need you to be brave right now, okay?" Jed stared down at his little sister and gently touched his finger to her round cheek. The baby stirred and focused her eyes on his face. Kellan knew that was when his son came to his decision.
Jed nodded, pulling his hand away from his sister. The little boy squeezed his eyes shut, concentrating very hard on shifting. It took a minute, but finally he shimmered slightly and slowly took the form of a tiny emerald dragon. The more he shifted, the faster he would be able to do it. Kellan and the rest of the adults were able to shift in seconds.
Jed was no longer than Kellan's arm, but the emerald green dragon took on a fierce demeanor, baring his teeth as the mountain shook with impact once more. "Atta boy," Kellan praised, stroking the scales of his son's head and giving an ivory horn a gentle tug. "Now, Penelope, give me Kiara. I'm going to cast some spells on her so she'll survive the cold. You three take Jed and go. Kiara and I will be right behind you."
"Are you crazy?!" Chloe snarled. "You think we're just going to leave you behind with an infant?" Kellan rose from his crouch beside Jed and stared down at his little sister.
"I do think that. I will not have you waiting here, putting yourselves in even more danger. You know that I'm the fastest flyer here and the only one that can use magic. I want my son and my mate far away from these humans and I need you two helping me to take care of them!"
"Kellan, I'm not helpless," Penelope reminded him steadily. He met her blue eyes, which were suddenly filled with fire. There was the mate that he chose, the one who backed down from nothing, a mate fit to be Alpha female.
"I know that," he told her in a softer tone, "but Jed is going to be there with you."
He didn't need to say anymore to see that Penelope understood exactly where he was coming from. She nodded and put a hand on their son's side. The little dragon looked at them expectantly, waiting for someone else to shift. "Chloe could go ahead with Penelope and I could stay behind with you," Daniel said. Kellan realized that that was a sound plan, but the Alpha in him didn't want any of his clan being close to danger longer than they had to. He was also sane enough to realize that the longer they argued, the more time they wasted.
"Alright, yes, but Daniel, go with Penelope, and Chloe stay with me and Kiara," he reached forward and took the tiny bundle from his mate's arms after she gave the little baby girl one last kiss.
"You take care of her," Penelope told him. "And be careful." She kissed him tenderly, he tried not to feel like the kiss was saying goodbye, and shifted into her gorgeous, lithe dragon. Her royal blue scales glittered in the moonlight that entered the mouth of the cave. She rushed toward the door, Jed running right alongside her giant paws, and as she leaped into the air, she grabbed the tiny emerald dragon in her talons and took off into the night. Daniel clapped Kellan on the shoulder and shifted into his huge roan dragon in one fluid motion before chasing after Penelope. Chloe looked after her mate worriedly, but turned to Kellan with a look of pure determination.
"You might want to get a move on, brother," she said. Kellan nodded and set the baby gently on the ground before him. He knelt in front of her and wrapped the blankets tightly around her little body. Then he cradled the back of her head and he simply whispered an incantation to create a small barrier over her body that would keep her perfectly warm until he was able to remove the spell. She wrinkled her nose as the magic touched her, but remained quiet as she so liked to do. He stared into her bright blue eyes and smiled, his heart warmed at the beauty of his offspring. He stroked her chubby pink cheek and leaned down to plant a kiss on her forehead, just below where her wispy red hair stopped.
"Daddy will protect you, Kiara," he promised her and tucked her blanket tighter around her body. She was still amazingly calm despite the anxiety emanating from the people around her.
He felt a small hand on his shoulder as he stood back up, cradling Kiara in the crook of his elbow. "Everything is going to be fine, Kellan, you have to know that."
Kellan sighed and looked down at Chloe. "I know, but it's an Alpha's job to worry about his clan."
"Well, then we had better get everyone out of here. Once everyone's in the air, it'll be easy enough to outdistance the humans."
"It's just getting everyone in the air that I'm worried about."
"That's what you're for, Alpha," she teased with a kiss on his cheek before she scooped Kiara out of his arms. "I'll take her while you circle around. She and I will catch up with Penelope and Daniel and get as far away as we can, okay? I'll keep her safe."
"I know you will, little sister," Kellan hugged Chloe and pressed his cheek to the top of her blonde head. "Now go."
"We'll see you soon," she smiled and shifted into her dragon, forming perfectly around Kiara, who was tucked neatly into her huge paw. Kellan knew that was safest place for her and there was no chance of her falling, but the fear still rested like a rock in his gut. Chloe's spring green scales shimmered as she opened her wings and flew into the moonlit sky. Kellan released a huge whoosh of air from his lungs and finally let his dragon free. The beast sprang from the confines of Kellan's mind and rushed into the night as the powerful blood red dragon that was going to lead his clan to safety. He roared menacingly. It was the roar that only an alpha could possess. It held every threat, every promise, and every hope for his clan. It was powered by a magic so old it had been forgotten by everyone except for those who possessed it.
Kellan launched into the sky with a powerful push of his hind legs and strong strokes of his wings. As he rose into the night sky, where the stars welcomed him as old friends, he released another roar, one loud enough to be heard above the deafening noise of battle. At once, he felt the clan's mental connection click into one thought:
Alpha.
Their collective relief and newfound determination to destroy the threat that was influenced by the appearance of their leader caused warmth to bloom in Kellan's chest. A warmth that wasn't simply the fire stored inside of him. He soared over his clan and the humans, honing in on a particularly loud group of humans surrounding three cannons. He tucked his wings and dove toward them as they were reloading. One man spotted the diving dragon and screamed. That was the last noise he made before he was engulfed in the flame that erupted from Kellan's open maw. The smell of burning flesh permeated the immediate area as he flew through it, and it gave him petty satisfaction that humans smelled like nothing other than food when they were burned alive.
Kellan gained altitude once again, opening his jaws and letting loose another bellow, immediately followed by a column of fire. The signal for retreat. He wasn't sure if they had lost any clan lives, but he wasn't willing to take that chance by lingering. So what if the humans would win by driving them from their home; the cowards had attacked in the middle of the night. They knew that if they attacked when the clan was ready, they would have lost without so much as a soul to tell their story. They would have been erased from the world, only a pile of ashes remaining to ride the wind, but never tell of what happened on the battlefield that day.
The clan responded to his signal immediately, abandoning whatever fight they had been involved in, flying high enough to be out of range of the human weapons as they flew west. Leo, the Alpha of the Western Clan, would give them refuge until they could get back on their feet.
As the clan retreated, Kellan lingered so that he could keep bring up the rear. He looked around at the various puffs of light as the cannons went off, trying to catch the tails of retreating dragons. The twangs of arrows as they left the soldiers' bows reached his sensitive ears and he growled, but remained where the soldiers couldn't reach him. As much as he wanted to tear them apart, he knew that he needed to stay out of harm's way, now that the clan was out of immediate danger. As he was staring down at the enemies, wanting to tear them apart with no mercy, an agonized bellow echoed off the rock beside him. The guttural scream was that of a dragon. The familiar roar hit Kellan like a blast from one of the cannons below.
Chloe.
Kiara.
No, no, no, he roared in terror, spinning around mid flight with a rough adjustment of his tail and wings. His night vision lit up the world around him and he watched Chloe as she fell from the sky. The cannonball had collided with her side and one of her wings was crumpled against her bloodied scales. A small brigade of the king's soldiers had circled the mountain and were approaching the other side to encircle the mountain. What if they had caught Daniel and Penelope? The thought pushed him faster and faster forward, fueled by the sliver of hope that he could save his sister and daughter. Why was Chloe still anywhere near the mountain? She should have been long gone. And why had she been flying low enough for their cannons to reach her in the first place? It didn't matter, all that mattered was that Kellan reached them before Chloe hit the ground. She appeared to be frozen; she wasn't struggling or trying to right herself in the air. God he hoped Kiara was safe. Her large form fell below the treeline and he lost sight of her, but he could hear the soldiers' hoots of success as the ground shook when the heavy beast plummeted into it.
Chloe! he called to her with their mental connection. All dragons shared it, as it allowed them to speak when they were in their dragon form. There was no reply from his little sister. He folded his wings and dove into the forest, right where he had watched her fall from the sky with his infant daughter clutched in her paws. As he dove over the heads of the humans, he snapped one up in his jaws and before the man could react, bit him cleanly in two. Blood, bones, and the tender innards of the man spurted into Kellan's mouth with the act, but he paid no mind to that. He tossed the pieces back into the small army of two dozen men. They had been busy in their attempts at stabbing spears into Chloe's side, where she fought weakly, baring her teeth and growling and batting at them with one large paw, but the soldiers had backed off abruptly when Kellan had killed their comrade. Blood and gore dripped from his mouth as he stood protectively over Chloe's form and a steady, menacing snarl leaked from between his glistening teeth.
Kellan... Kiara, Chloe whispered weakly through their mental connection. She's okay. And yet, the baby was silent. Kellan didn't dare take his glare off of the soldiers, who were slowly regaining their confidence. Every parental instinct wanted him to check on Kiara himself, but all of his instincts as an Alpha forced him to take on these challengers to protect his family.
The leader of the men, a tall, bulky soldier with an eye patch over his right eye and a deep scar peeking out from above and below the patch, stepped forward. His voice did not waver, but rang confidently above the continuous snarls emanating from deep within Kellan. The man raised his sword and pointed it directly between Kellan's eyes, though his head rose high above the humans. "I will slay thee, monster, in the name of the king."
A sharp growl ripped from Kellan at his words, startling the soldiers. Kellan opened his jaws wide and felt the fire that was always in his belly rise from deep within him, up his throat and out of his mouth. The soldiers knew what was coming, for they rushed for cover as the thick stream of blue fire shot out of the wide-open maw, in a bright streak in their direction. A shriek from one of the soldiers sent a surge of confidence rushing through Kellan. So, he hadn't missed completely.
Though Kiara was bothered by very little, Kellan had discovered something that did not agree with her calm demeanor. She was not fond of the bright light and blazing heat from the flame that had passed right above her. Kellan risked a glance downward as he heard her intake of breath right before she began to wail in a way that only a frightened infant can. Her face was red with the effort of her screams, and she shook her clenched fists angrily from where she had pulled them free of the swaddle. Kiara had never cried like she did right then; Kellan was shocked at the amount of power in her tiny lungs.
"It has a human child!" the leader shouted. Kellan's stomach dropped as he recalled that the humans were unaware that the dragons were also men and women; they would never suspect that Kiara was one of them.
Kellan! Take her and go! I can't fly, but I can hold them off long enough for you to get away, Chloe began to rise to her feet, Kiara still tucked in one of her paws. The humans charged them then. All of their fear was gone, replaced by the determination to save the child they thought had been kidnapped by monsters. Kellan roared and leaped between Chloe and the charging men, taking out four of them with his muscular tail. This didn't even slow down the humans. Chloe backed up and he sensed her building up a flame of her own. Kiara screamed even louder as the noise and commotion rose. Chloe released her flame before Kellan had the chance to close his eyes. The bright light stung his eyes in a way that his own flame had not. Chloe's was bright orange, unlike his darker blue. The light was even worse for his sensitive eyes than it was for the soldiers and took him half a second longer to recover. In the time that it took his eyes to readjust to the darkness around them, two of the soldiers had skirted around his large form, toward Chloe and Kiara.
"Drop the child, beast!" the leader of the men demanded of Chloe. Ten of the soldiers charged Kellan's little sister, who limped back up against the trees, dragging her crumpled wing. Kiara was clutched desperately in her right paw while she used her left to swipe out at the soldiers. One of the humans threw their spear in a deadly line, and before Kellan could react it was embedded in Chloe's already-injured side, right between two ribs. Her roar rang through the night and she collapsed, nearly crushing Kiara underneath her large body. The humans' leader stepped forward, swinging his sword in an arch that would slice right through Chloe's neck. This time, Kellan's brain was quick enough to react. He leaped forward, right between Chloe and the sword.
When he hit the ground, it took a moment for his brain to register what had happened. His paw hurt in a way that he had never experienced, but when he blinked his eyes open to look at his leg, his paw was further away than he expected. And it was no longer connected to his leg. He blinked again to clear his vision and saw that his front right paw had been cleanly chopped off, halfway between the elbow and the wrist of his leg. He whimpered and glared up at the human, whose gaze was locked on him smugly. Kellan's blood dripped from his broadsword. Kellan tried to rise, but another soldier swung his battle axe to land a blow in the back of Kellan's head, right between the two horns that protruded from his skull, and the world dimmed. He observed in slow motion as the human bent down and lifted tiny Kiara into his arms and kicked Chloe's head aside as she tried to bite his leg in one last feeble attempt. Kiara's screams echoed distantly in Kellan's ears and he met Chloe's eyes. His sister's desperate gaze was the last thing he saw before the blackness took over. Vaguely, as the darkness swallowed him, he heard the roar of a dragon.