“They asked the same thing you did, you know,” Mira told him with a grin, nodding to the wolves. Vee was kneeled by the fire circle, fumbling with kindling, Ren watching on and making occasional comments that even Conrad could tell were distinctly unhelpful. It seemed necessary to have a fire burning. The presence of the elements felt… right, somehow. Mira was a Virgo, an Earth sign, but it still felt like they needed all four to be present.
“What did they ask?”
“How I’d lived so long without turning into a dragon out of nowhere.”
“That’s not how I put it,” Conrad objected, ruffled by the phrasing. “I simply meant… it’s difficult to explain. My dragon is always close to me, always at the ready, like a reflex. Shifting is a mechanism that keeps us safe. And you’ve been through a lot in your short life, Mira. It’s a wonder that instinct hasn’t arisen in you before.”
“Maybe I’m not a dragon,” she pointed out, her voice suddenly quiet as she stared out at the valley that stretched from this point onward, the paddock giving way to thick trees that made Conrad homesick. “Maybe all this was just a coincidence. Maybe my mom just had a good skincare regime, maybe—”
“Maybe,” Conrad cut her off, voice firm. He was getting better at noticing when Mira was starting to spiral. “Maybe you’re a human, like you thought all along. In that case, we’ve lost nothing—and gained knowledge. An excellent potential outcome.” But the worry didn’t seem to have left her face. “Mira? Is there something else you’re worried about?”
“What if I’m—a bad dragon?” He frowned. She’d spoken a little awkwardly, clearly unsure of the choice of word.
“Bad…?”
“I mean… my dad was a human, right? We know that much for sure. You’ve all met his sister, you didn’t sense any—shifter resonances, or whatever.”
“Right, so—”
“So, even if my mom was a dragon—even if that’s what my dad had wanted to tell me before he died—I’m still only half dragon. What if that makes me… I don’t know, broken, somehow?” Her face in the moonlight was stark with worry. “What if I manage to shift and I’ve only got one wing, or something? What if I’m deformed? What if my organs are all messed up and I die as soon as I change shape? What if—”
Conrad grabbed her by the shoulders and squeezed, mercifully stopping that train of thought before it derailed itself completely. “You’re going to be fine,” he told her firmly. But she didn’t look reassured.
“How do you know? Do you know any half dragons?”
He hesitated, biting his lip. “No,” he said, unwillingly.
“Exactly. So how do you know this is going to be okay?” She was pacing back and forth now, frowning down at the grass beneath her feet. “We shouldn’t be doing this. We should go back inside, focus on something important—”
They were interrupted by a whoop of triumph from Vee. The small fire had finally caught onto the larger pieces of kindling, and the little fire was comfortably ablaze as the four of them gathered around it. Conrad looked at the young wolf’s silver eyes, shining brightly in the light of the fire, and felt a pang of guilt for how suspicious he’d been of the two of them. They’d offered their help to a pair of near-total strangers, charging into an incredibly fraught situation bravely and without complaint. They could have left at any point, too. But no—they were still here, still offering their support and camaraderie. And an idea occurred to him, quick as lightning.
“Ask them,” he told Mira, nodding at the wolves. “Ask them if they know anyone who’s only half shifter.”
She looked at him for a moment, then nodded, turning to speak in that strange language to Vee and Ren. The wolves nodded almost immediately, as though she’d asked the simplest question in the world, and there were half a dozen names in the rapid-fire response that Vee offered. When Mira turned her gaze back to Conrad, there were clear signs of hope rekindled in her expression.
“Vee says basically their whole pack,” she said, her smile widening. “Vee and Ren, their parents were both wolves, but the others… some had a human dad, some had a human mom. Vee said her mate’s grandparents arecoyotes.”
Conrad felt relief move through him—not just for the reassurance the wolves had offered Mira, either. He’d been wondering for quite some time how partnerships worked between different species. There had been no need for such questions before Queen Lana had arrived—dragons and wolves barely interacted with each other at all, let alone fell in love. But with the Queen mated to a wolf, and with Acantha falling for the human mage Cato not long after… well, he had some good news to bring back to his friends, that was for sure.
He took a deep breath, fighting to recall one of the words Mira had taught him. “Thank you,” he said, carefully. It felt strange and rusty on his tongue, but both wolves looked up with sheer delight at the sound. Vee spoke at once, an unbroken and incomprehensible barrage that made him blink helplessly and look to Mira for help.
“She says you’re welcome,” Mira said, and he felt relieved to see her smiling again. “Now. Enough messing around. Let’s do this. How do I …?”
She moved a little away from the fire, tilting her head back to let the moonlight fall across her face. Conrad took the opportunity, as he always did, to admire her… the way she moved, the way her hair fell around her face, her silhouette cut out against the backdrop of the distant forest behind her. She had her eyes squeezed shut, clearly concentrating… then she opened one, shooting the shifters at the fire an impatient look.
“Well? How do I…”
Vee called something, taking a few steps towards her and shifting from foot to foot. Conrad could hear her hesitation as she spoke, clearly struggling to find words to put to the feeling she was trying to describe… they had that much in common, he thought with a half-smile. The young wolf trailed off, and then there was a sudden tingling in the air, and the young woman was gone. The shaggy black wolf standing in her place was smaller than the wolves he’d met back home, but that could easily have to do with Vee’s age. He tried to fight the adrenaline that was surging through him, ancient instincts singing in his ears. The sight of a wolf had always meant battle, at least until very recently, and old habits died hard.
Mira, on the other hand, was having an entirely different reaction. She had frozen with shock when Vee had transformed, and he realized that she hadn’t actually seen a wolf before. He held himself still as she approached the shaggy black wolf, golden eyes shining with delight, reminding himself that Vee and Ren were friends, that there was no reason for him to feel so protective of Mira. Ren was still standing by the fire, and the young man’s eyes were fixed on Conrad. He cleared his throat, a little worried about what his expression had given away.
A peal of laughter caught his attention, and he looked back to see Mira with both hands buried in the wolf’s shaggy fur. Vee was panting happily, her tongue lolling out of her mouth as she accepted Mira’s caresses, and he tried not to look at the sharp teeth gleaming in her jaw. These wolves were friends and allies, he told himself. Friends and allies. Like Seth and his pack.
The diversion with Vee didn’t seem to help much, to his dismay. The night drifted on, with Vee and Conrad taking turns to offer hopeful suggestions to Mira, who would close her eyes for a long, frozen moment before exhaling with more and more frustration each failed attempt brought on. Conrad considered suggesting they call it a night, but the hard glint in Mira’s eyes warned him that the suggestion would not be welcome.
“It feels like… stretching your muscles after a long day of sitting still,” he offered now. His dragon was wide awake under his skin, a little aggrieved by the way he kept summoning it without actually letting the shift move through him. “It feels like moving your hand instinctively to wave away an insect. It feels like—”
“This isn’t helping,” Mira snapped, her voice suddenly sounding close to tears. “You’re both saying the same stuff over and over in different languages and none of it’s helping. Maybe I’m just a dragon who can’t shift.” She sat down hard on a tree stump by the fire and buried her head in her hands. Vee and Conrad exchanged helpless looks—the wolf clearly didn’t need a translation. Mira’s tone had said it all.