Chapter Thirteen
Celeste
We gathered in a stark room. It made me think of the term ‘war room’. There was a large table gathered in the middle with laser visuals showing where the rebel base camp was going to be.
It was a struggle getting Caridan in without eyes on him. Many dragons spotted him on the way in and their eyes passed with recognition, perhaps aware they knew him from somewhere but not entirely remembering the details. It was when some spotted Ariella that the recognition dawned. He wasn’t dead after all.
Galsthenn, the leader of the Koth, took this as a good sign.
We’d been worried that he would mark us all as traitors for bringing a banished Weredragon back to Udora, but instead, he used Caridan’s return to boost morale.
Back from the dead.
The son of Brenem, the dragon Caridan had killed, was also in the war room, along with Caridan’s two children.
Sigisvult worried that he would be violent, look to exact revenge for his father’s death, but he seemed more excited to meet his aunt than anything else. His mother was Ariella’s sister, after all. The two embraced warmly, and he and Caridan shook hands.
The shifters present looked at Fhalanae with shock and awe, fascinated by her movements and the female features on a Weredragon. I looked to Sigisvult and watched as his eyes moved away from her over to me, smiling as he did so.
Ikar rallied the group of Weres together at the war table and instructed exactly how the pack would head into the rebel base.
Today would be the day the struck; they wanted to get the jump on the rebels in case anyone got word that Caridan had returned from the grave. Returned to wipe them out.
Sigisvult was going out with them, along with an army of hundreds of Weredragon soldiers. The mass of them was amazing and unnerving to see in the same breath. I couldn’t imagine what it was going to look like seeing them fight against a flock of like rebels.
I stood in the room at the back near the dark maroon walls, leaning against the plaster and listening intently to the plan. There were only a few mates allowed in the room, myself, Rosalyn, and Ariella included.
It was only when the dragons began to file out that my soul felt like it was being crushed under an unseen weight. It all became real then.
They were heading out to war. To fight their final fight against the rebels, to decide the fate of their planet. And my shifter was going with them.
Everything we had worked for was coming under fire, literally. Our relationship, our journey to Chavatov… our child.
I watched as the room grew empty, the men readying themselves for battle by strapping on leathers and Ariella finding mysterious Marraflowers for the dragons and creating a paste for them. She was the one who had originally studied the flower, thought it would help heal the glands that had been damaged over time and evolution that prevented the dragons from breathing fire.
Anything might help, she offered.
Galsthenn had, of course, granted the couple and their children immunity on the planet. Un-banished. Forgiveness. I wondered if that would hold up even if they lost.
I was the only one left in the room. I walked out into the hallway and saw Sigisvult standing there, waiting for me. I smiled at him and drew a ‘come hither’ motion to trap him back in the board room with me.
He followed slowly, his scales vibrant and his eyes wide with information and emotion as he approached me.
“This is it!” I said excitedly.
He gave a single nod, quiet today. He looked down at me with his beautiful face and crooked nose and kissed me, lip to lip, our passions dancing against one another with heat and breath.
I pressed my body against his and reached down to feel the hardness prodding in his pants. I grabbed it and stroked it with the base of my hand, grinning wickedly.
I pressed into him and let his hand explore under my shirt, my skin cold even under my clothes. I set my hands on his face and brushed his hair back over and over. “Nervous?” I whispered.
To my surprise, he nodded and kissed my forehead, watched me search his eyes and halt to a stare. “You?”
“Yeah,” I said and tried my hardest to grind against him, breathing raggedly as he kissed me. “You just have to have faith in the legend,” I cautioned through kisses.
He chuckled at the sentiment and kissed me passionately, his lips lingering on mine with ever disconnect, ghosting hot air over my mouth and leaving me begging for him to continue. The way he kissed me now was so… different.
“Weren’t you the one who told me the legend was for the rebels?” he teased.
“The legend is a legend for anybody to believe,” I scoffed. “I want to take back this planet.”
“So you can rule over it, right, Princess?”
I grinned and shook my head. “I want to bring it back to be the place that you loved.”
He looked down at me, his strong and confident veneer suddenly cracking as he traced his eyes over my body.
“Celeste,” he said lowly. “I want you to know…” He shifted uncomfortably. I continued to grind against him and paw at his body until he became unresponsive: until I felt him shaking.
“These months with you…” He pursed his lips unsurely. “What you’ve done for me,” he began to correct. “You’re a pain, but…”
“What is this?” I asked, backing away from him suddenly, my voice relenting to a choke as he thumbed over my small arms.
There was an affinity in the air that was overwhelming me with sickness, a feeling as though everything was irreversibly wrong. My eyes followed his lips carefully, and I felt an overwhelming urge to run, to follow.
“A goodbye, maybe,” he said with a breath. He smiled, despite himself. Neither of us could believe the words.
“I’ll be right there,” I said assuredly, grabbing his face in my hands and reaching up to place gentle kisses on his mouth, trying my hardest to act ladylike, to be what he wanted.
He closed his eyes and pressed his cheek into my hand, cupping my fingers with his palm. “Not this time. I mean it.”
His tone was his usual self, firm and annoyed, but the way he was looking at me sent a shiver down my spine. His eyes terrified me.
“Bullshit,” I spat. “I’m going with you. We’re in this, whether you like it or not.”
“Why?” he gave me another stern look and gave a miserable laugh. “Why would you do that?” he pressed. “Think about it. What can you do out there? All you will do is get in the way.”
“That’s charming.”
“I’m serious,” he forced. “We have fire-breathers. We have weapons. We have our claws and our strength. What do you have? All I’ll be able to do is worry about you and wonder if you’re alright when I should be fighting alongside my people. Please, let me do that.”
I pushed away from him. “No. No way.”
“Celeste, I am begging you.”
“And I’m saying no.”
With a deep inhale, he grabbed my shoulders and pressed his forehead against mine, our breaths mingling together as he began to tremble at my stubbornness. His blue eyes opened slowly, and he couldn’t have sounded anymore sincere as he whispered, “Please.”
I swallowed and began shaking my head absent-mindedly.
“No.”
He pushed away from me and stormed to the other end of the room, punching the wall as he got to the doorway. “I won’t do this again!” he screamed, a roar deep within shadowing over his voice as he yelled. “I won’t lose you,” he said, storming toward me with his finger pointed.
I set my jaw, unshaken as he stood before me.
“Don’t you understand?” he asked.
I shrugged helplessly at him, and he reached out and grabbed my arm, encouraged me to touch him. Reaching out numbly, I touched his arm, and his whole body lit up with a wild glow, his scales shimmering with warmth.
My eyes went wide, and I looked up at him in surprise.
“You’re…” I stammered. “I’m…”
“You’re the one,” he said simply. “Please, don’t take that away from me.”
I gave him a disobedient glare, and he shook his head at me. He leaned in and kissed me sweetly and then nodded as if to say that was final. My heart sank, and I burst into tears, his neck growing wet as I cried into it. He gripped my fingers hard, my one hand against his shoulder and the other wedged between our embrace. He wrapped his arms around me and rubbed my back, tickled the flat plains above my waistband for only a minute before the contact quieted my sobs into rigid breaths.
“Can I say something that,” he began to laugh, “if we survive…you can’t use against me?”
“Alright,” I whimpered.
“I think I love you.”
I went breathless. “You think, or you know?” I echoed his response from weeks earlier.
“I know,” he smiled, brushing the tears from my eyes. “I knew it as soon as you jumped in the crater after me, and maybe even before that.”
“Are…” I stuttered and then laughed as a blush overwhelmed my face. “Are you just saying what I said or, do you mean it?”
“I mean it.”
“And you’re not just saying that to make me stay?”
He shook his head, relenting to his own feelings.
I nodded slowly. “Alright then.”
“Then you’ll stay?”
“I’ll stay,” I said begrudgingly. “But I’m expecting you to come back.”
He laughed, but the smile fell from his face as he ran his hands up my waist and then glided over my stomach. “I love you,” he whispered.
“I love you, too.”