Chapter Four
Rilark
“There’s been an attack,” Grayna said to me in hushed tones. “We want you to take guard of the new chosen. Her name is Rosalyn.”
“I know,” I said tersely, fighting off a roll of my eyes as I stared at the screen to gaze at the redhead on the other line. “Everybody knows by now. She’s practically royalty.”
“Soon she will be,” she snarked. “Don’t be jealous.”
“Of all that fame and glory and power?” I chuckled. “Who would be jealous of that?”
“Stop now,” she hushed and craned her neck; to look at what, I couldn’t see. Her attention focused back on me and continued, “Galsthenn has asked for you personally.”
I raised a brow at the request, and Grayna burst into giggles at the reaction, causing me to smile despite myself.
“Galsthenn wants me on security?”
“There was an attack last night,” she repeated.
“You said that, but that’s not what I asked.” I stared at the monitor, and she gave me a lecturing look. I sighed and rolled my fingers, signaling her for more information. “Where did the attack happen?”
“Out by the mines,” she breathed. “Dozens of Weres were hurt. Thank goodness it wasn’t at the welcoming ball.”
“That was weeks ago,” I said, bored. “Bomb?”
“Fire,” she said simply.
Fire? I frowned deeply. Research from a decade ago showed promise in restoring red dragons’ ability to breathe fire, but it had yet to be completely successful. I should know: I was, after all, a red dragon.
“Curious,” was all I said. “Soldiers?”
She nodded.
During the choosing ceremonies, Riddell would line up more women than there were Weredragons attending the choosing. The women who weren’t chosen would then be brought back to Udora to study our planet and take what they wanted. Sometimes they would even take shifters back to Earth to cultivate for them. A practice I found disgusting.
The scientists were usually provided shifter foot soldiers to accompany them to the mossy fields. The fields housed a collection of stone spires with deep mines underneath. They were dangerous to enter but housed many plants and stones that humans found valuable.
Just another unfair trade-off between the humans and the shifters.
“There was about a dozen hurt. Five shifters, the rest humans. All in critical condition.” She scratched her arm absent-mindedly and then rested her chin on her fist. “At Forlag,” she spoke of a high-end hospital in the rich end of the city.
I furrowed my brows, my voice thick with sarcasm as I asked, “Am I supposed to go and visit?”
She sighed as though I hadn’t been listening. “I said you’re acting as personal security to Rosalyn.”
I blinked. “And?”
“And she’s at the hospital!”
“Mother,” I snapped. “Please, give me the whole story so I don’t have to keep asking you a million questions. Was she hurt? Is she there as a publicity thing? What?”
“She is there,” she enunciated in the way that always proves to irritate me, “because she is a nurse. She is nursing the patients. Understand? And yes,” she relented, “Bromis thought it would look good to the public to have her acting in a crisis. Happy?”
“Ecstatic,” I said with a forced grin. “And does your husband know I’ll be acting as chief of security?”
“It doesn’t really matter, does it? It’s what Galsthenn ordered.”
“That’s a no!” I laughed. “Why does Galsthenn want it?”
Her face went somber then and her full eyes closed. She sighed in frustration. We’d had the conversation too many times to count. “Because he’s your brother.”
“Not really,” I teased.
“By the fact that you are my sons, he is your brother.”
“Trust me, the lifestyles aren’t exactly par.”
“He wants you because he knows you’re the best.” She gave me a warning look, and I showed her my yield. “And because he loves you.”
“Right,” I scoffed. “And I’m sure you had no hand in this.”
She stared at me strangely, but I could see a smile curve up the corners of her lips and settle there. “Are you eating? You look thin.”
“I’m eating,” I said tiredly. “I’m always thin.”
“I’m sending food to your apartment.”
“Mother,” I protested, pinching the bridge of my cracked nose. “I’m fine. Please, just make sure there’s clearance for me when I get to the hospital.”
“You are the most talented soldier under Koth rule,” she assured me. “Everybody knows that.”
“Well, I know that,” came my cocky response. “I just don’t know if your son does.”
I clicked the phone off and blinked. So, Galsthenn wants a security for his new little missus? I walked to the mirror by the door and holstered my gun to my side, strapping on any little extras I might need. I wasn’t exactly moved by the rebel hit; I didn’t know anyone working in the fields that day, but I was more than a little curious to meet this Rosalyn.
Even more curious as to why Galsthenn had chosen me. My mother was taken captive by rebels 30 years ago, or so she claimed. She was impregnated by the rebel leader there. And that’s the happy story of my conception.
Bromis, leader of the Koth and Galsthenn’s father, was furious and swore revenge. I was kept a secret from the public, as was my mother during her pregnancy. Bromis had the good sense to leave me alive since our species depended on it. But I was immediately placed into housing and was trained as a soldier ever since I was a teenager.
The next time my mother emerged in public, she was already pregnant with Galsthenn.
To Bromis’ chagrin and my mother’s behest, I was taken in as part of the royal Koth security. It was her way of keeping me close. Galsthenn and I were raised by her knowing we were brothers. As children we played, but the older we got, the farther apart we grew. His father’s influence meant a great deal to him, and so I was to be kept at a distance.
And now he wanted to put me in charge of his little Earthling?
I scoffed at the thought as I walked into the immaculate and intricately decorated hospital. Things were not this opulent in my district, to say the least. I made my way from building to building until I found where Rosalyn was serving. Of course, there were newscasters in front of the barriers set up by security, reporting on what a good girl their soon-to-be Koth’s little wife was. How she immediately ran to the aid of those hurt in the attack.
With a roll of my eyes, I made it up to the top floor of the green building, the clearance ready to welcome me into the high-class world of the Koth.
Nurses scattered around the heavily guarded floor in what seemed to be utter chaos. Humans lay on stretchers, bleeding without attention and brutally burned.
The patients were silent for the most part, though a few still managed to hum or make other sounds, though they probably didn’t know they were making noise. It was a little weird at first, but I quickly grew accustomed to the noise. I reached up to the cracked and broken bridge of my nose that was never able to reset and sighed inwardly. It wasn't exactly my first run-in with the rebels.
The room I now inhabited was filled with beds, every one of them occupied by a variety of disheveled individuals. The occupants seemed handicapped, or in some sort of psychosis, mumbling to themselves and staring with scary, dead gazes. After a quick glance around the room, I noticed a severe lack of help. No guards, no doctors. No one. Just a handful of human nurses who were clearly overwhelmed.
I pressed my feet into the marble floor below. Even through my boots, I could feel it was freezing. I approached a young girl laying in one of the beds, maybe fourteen or fifteen. She had large curls of blonde hair and wore a hospital gown. She repeated an ‘H’ sound over and over, almost as if she were calmly hyperventilating. She stared straight ahead and gave no regard to me, even though I was just steps away.
I raised a curious brow and reached my fingers to her freezing cheek. She didn’t react at first, moments passing before her eyes glanced to mine.
Then I spotted her: Galsthenn’s woman.
She stood hunched over a shifter who was hissing violently, his dragon features fully retracted so that only a few scales were showing and his swarthy skin burned and oozing. I cringed at the sight and looked up at the girl. Her eyes flicked toward me, and she had a noticeable reaction.
My colors were striking, I’d been told, especially to humans who weren’t familiar with shifters. I was a red shifter with black wings, red scales, and a red mask of discolored skin that ran from temple to temple and across my eyes. Growing up, I hated that, but now I knew how to use it.
My enemies feared my unique appearance, and women were drawn to it. I wasn’t the biggest fan of humans, but their women were good for something, at least. I’d bedded dozens and never had an encounter I didn’t enjoy. It was the aspect of actually talking to them that bored me to tears. Their ideals were strange, and there was little I cared for after the sex was over.
I scraped my sharp teeth against my bottom lip as I inspected this Rosalyn. She was short, with long, mousy-brown hair that fell just above her backside. The length of it made her look that much shorter. Her face was square, brows curved in a high arch, and she had full lips. My eyes fell to her ample breasts, and I smirked to myself.
Could be worse.
“You scared the hell out of me!” she cried out, shuffling backward after catching sight of me. Can I help you?” she snapped rudely, squeezing a handmade salve all over the yellow shifter beneath her.
“I’m your security,” I said tersely, crossing my arms with a smug arrogance as I leaned against the wall behind me.
“Off the wall,” she said with a gesture of her thumb, never turning to look at me. “I don’t really think I need security right now, but thanks. You can wait outside.”
I frowned deeply at the reaction and couldn’t help but laugh. “Orders of your beloved, I’m afraid. So, much as I’d like to head out, it’s not happening.”
“Okay,” she saw with drawn-out vowels. “Then, can you at least help?”
“Not my job,” I shrugged. “Where is everybody, anyway?”
“Overwhelmed,” she snipped.
“Yes,” I said with annoyance. “I see that.”
“And you’re not going to help so, just, scoot, or something.”
“Scoot?” I repeated.
“Scoot,” she sassed. “As in piss off.”
“Now, now,” I tisked. “That’s not very ladylike. Hardly the kind of language the future Missus of a Koth should be using, especially not with all those cameras outside.”
“I’m not in the mood!” She yelled and moved past me in a hurry, reaching for the last of the salve and rubbing it into the dragon’s wounds. “Move!”
I frowned and backed away in a hurry as she rushed through several portable shelving units, desperately searching for something. The yellow shifter couldn’t hold back any longer, erupting into painful screams that sent an uncomfortable tinge through my legs.
“Shouldn’t you be helping him?” I narrowed my brows.
“Yeah, I’m trying,” she snapped.
As his screams grew more intense, I became endlessly uncomfortable and frustrated with both the situation and her performance. “Shouldn’t he be under anesthetic or something?”
She nodded in haste and began laying bandages down over his wounds and patting them gently, one by one.
“And you just decided to skip that step for giggles?” I scoffed. “Or are you seriously that undertrained?”
“Take a look, genius!” she yelled at me. “We have no supplies!”
“This is the Koth district,” I said with no small form of shock. “This district is made of money. How is that even possible?”
“Seen the news lately?” she mocked with a roll of her hazel eyes.
My eyes flicked to the television in the corner of the room and watched as the shot of an exploding building was played on repeat. Another strike by the rebellion, and it just so happened to be the biggest supplier of goods in the city, including medical supplies.
My forehead creased with worry as I looked back at Rosalyn, who had a ‘duh’ expression on her face.
“I find that hard to believe,” I said quietly, watching her hands scramble against the
“Seriously?” she said incredulously.
“The rebels have a problem with the Koth, not with civilians.”
She rolled her eyes. “Sounds like you’re well informed.”
“I see no reason for them to attack that building. There’s a mistake here somewhere, mark my words.”
“I’m sorry, I have a massacre on my hands. I don’t have time to play conspiracy theory guy.”
“Oh,” I raised my hands in defense. “I am not that guy. Trust me.”
“I don’t trust you. I don’t even know you! In fact, I don’t even like you right now, so…”
I shrugged. “That probably won’t change.”
She let out a frustrated humph and snapped her fingers as she said, “Unless you can do a magic trick and make some supplies appear then…” her voice tapered off, and she stared down at the shifter below her.
The scales on the dragon faded to a dull white, and the shifter grew uncomfortably silent. Rosalyn’s face fell into a panic. Her movements were erratic; her hands were shaking wildly as she filled a needle with a creamy liquid and injected it into the right side of his neck.
She watched him with bated breath and then suddenly whipped the needle to the ground in a huff. He had no reaction. She bit her lip in frustration as a wave of emotion crossed her features. She carelessly whipped a sheet overtop the dragon and pulled the cords from his monitor before rushing off to the next human.
“Hey!” I said in fury as I carefully adjusted the sheet overtop the shifters face. His charred skin was already cold to the touch. I’d seen soldiers die in battle before, but I’d never seen them tossed aside with so little reverence.
I looked over to Rosalyn and raised my brows in surprise as she was already working on one of the girls.
“Hey!” I repeated, more forcefully this time. “There’s another shifter who’s hurt!”
“Yes, but I’m working on her right now,” she said.
“He’s a shifter,” I insisted, grabbing her arm and pulling her toward the dragon.
“They take more resources and are harder to revive,” she seethed, jerking her arm from my grasp. She marched back over to the human, and I silently fumed. I stared at the girl with fury and stormed out of the room. I wasn’t about to stand around while she ignored our shifters. I ground my teeth for the next few hours as I paced the hallway.
This was the woman Galsthenn wanted? I’d heard rumblings that as soon as Rosalyn had landed my brother had nearly disappeared from the public eye. That was what usually happened once someone started getting deep in a human.
It was almost normal that once they got into relationships, they would spend more time with the girl, alienating the rest of their lives as though their independence never existed. Not me, though.
The whole thing wasn’t for me.
Was it truly wise to ignore and potentially hurt those around you when they were the ones you’d go crawling back to once your female inevitably took off or died? I scoffed at the thought. I didn’t want to become one of the masses who relied on such a partnership. Especially not with a human.
Why were so many shifters so eager to find some woman to complete them when there was a perfectly ample supply of humans flooding in on a monthly basis? I’d been on enough security missions and human expeditions to see how many voluptuous women were willing and eager to give themselves over to a shifter for the night.
If the choosing ceremonies were about continuing the shifter population, then why not take dozens of ‘wives’ and call it a day?
The room had emptied out over the last few hours, with only a handful of nurses staying. I walked to the windowed doors and looked the brunette over. She looked exhausted and drained. My eyes locked onto the curve of her breasts; watched them push together as she struggled with a box of supplies.
I took a breath and stepped into the room, beckoning her toward me with a finger motion.
“What?” she said, her voice devoid of anything resembling tolerance.
“We’re leaving,” I ordered and began walking toward the door. I sighed in frustration as I realized she hadn’t followed me and I spun on my heel. “You are going home now, by order of your mate. Understand?” I condescended.
“Charming,” she said, crossing her arms in a huff.
“That’s me,” I quipped. “Now come on.”
She stood there, breathing heavily and looking at me with confused eyes.
“What?” I sulked.
“I…” She shrugged helplessly, the emotion now wearing on her expression. “I saved him,” she said, gesturing toward the purple shifter I’d instructed her to tend to.
I stared and blinked in surprise. “Oh,” I frowned. “And the girl?”
“Fine,” she said.
“Well,” I cleared my throat. “Good. Looks like you know how to listen to orders, after all.”
“At least one of us does,” she spat as she walked past me toward the exit. She stopped before the door and tossed her gloves into a nearby waste bin. She turned to me and gave me an impatient stare, and I began walking toward her, smiling at the exchange.
Maybe there was something to her after all.