Carter stretched, relishing in the feeling of his dragon form finally. It had been far too long since he had been able to shape shift. It was so confining to live within city limits, where everything they did could be under scrutiny. They had been under strict orders to be as subtle as possible. For whatever reason, nobody was supposed to know that they were dragon shifters unless they were direct descendants of the Loni/Sun Dragon people.
But now, out in the vast wilderness surrounding the cabin, Carter and the others were free to be their true dragon selves. He hadn’t realized just how much he had been missing it and was glad that Gavin had suggested this excursion.
“Strong,” a small, babyish voice wafted up from the porch, where Max’s wife was holding their child. He truly was a remarkable child. It was the first of the sacred born children on Earth, and there was an odd sort of wisdom present in the baby that was generally not seen in anybody so young, whether on Earth or on the planet Fiora.
When Carter looked at the baby, he found himself feeling a strange tugging of warmth and appreciation. He couldn’t help but think about how wonderful it could be to have a child like that himself. Would it ever be possible for Carter to be a father of an extraordinary child? Would he ever find his fated mate? Or had he ruined his chances by having a fling with the human?
He would never be able to forgive himself if it turned out that he had desecrated the opportunity of diversifying the sacred bloodline and creating more opportunities for these special children to exist and thrive. They were essential and beautiful, spreading the magic throughout the universe.
But he might have robbed the universe of one of these incredible beings. And for what? A sickly human girl who had never even been able to take care of herself, let alone a child? He was beginning to hate himself for all of this. He almost wished he had never run into Amy in the alley. He couldn’t love her. Not this way. Not when it meant the greatest sacrifice imaginable…
And yet, he found himself thinking of her nonstop. Day in and day out, all he could do was try to force himself to think about something else. What he really wanted to do was contact her. To tell her what she had meant to him. To try to find a way to make it work so he could both have her and somehow seek out the descendants.
Carter shook the thought away. There was no way to make it work. He couldn’t have both. He had to focus on his mission. No matter how difficult that might be.
He launched himself into the sky, breaking apart from the group so he could have some time alone on his wings. He could tell that the others were concerned about him, but nobody followed. They let him have his time alone, and Carter used it to think about the next steps he had to take. At least they were going to have somebody else doing the dates from now on. If they found a potential descendent, then each of them would have the opportunity to meet her, whether or not in a date like setting. After all, Max didn’t meet his mate on a date. He met her and then took her out. It was like they were trying to force things and do them backward. Carter hated the way things were going. All he wanted to do was to be able to find his mate and get his life back.
“How was it?” Gavin asked when Carter finally came back, and shape shifted back into his human form.
“I think this was exactly what I needed, thanks,” Carter said, giving an approving nod to Gavin.
“I thought so,” Gavin said. “We can tell there has been something on your mind. Do you need to talk about it?”
Carter sighed and shook his head. “I guess I am just anxious to make progress. I don’t want to stay stuck in the past anymore. I want to move forward and create a better future. That’s possible, isn’t it?”
“Of course, it is,” Max said, stepping forward and smiling broadly. “Especially now that we know we don’t have to rely on these totems to complete our shape shifting transformations. That’s going to change everything. We don’t have to be as worried anymore.”
“That’s true,” Carter said, nodding slowly. He couldn’t get Amy out of his head. The more he looked at Max, who was holding his child now, the more he thought about Amy and the way he had treated her. So, what? Maybe she couldn’t give him the child that he desired, and that the universe needed, but he cared deeply for her. Deeply enough that he couldn’t think of anything else. It was almost obsessive, in a way. He hated it. But he loved her. How could he make this right?
“Carter, you are doing it again. Please, tell us what’s going on in your head. Maybe we can help.”
Carter let out a heavy sigh. “It’s just that I met this woman,” he said, trailing off miserably. He knew they were probably going to judge him for this. And he deserved to be judged. Harshly. He had definitely not handled the situation the best way that he could have. Even by human standards, he had been quite an ass.
“You met a woman?” Gavin said, immediately interested. Everybody grew quiet as they focused in on Carter and what he was saying.
“Yes, I met a woman,” Carter said, looking away from the group to touch the talisman that was still hanging around his neck.
“Well, tell us about her. Is she a descendent? A potential? We need to know these things. When did you meet her?”
“I don’t know, a few weeks ago, I guess. But she’s just a human. She’s sickly and I don’t think that I should even be talking about this right now. Why should I fixate? Nothing will ever come of it anyway.”
“Well, if you are fixated on her then that’s a good indication that maybe there is a reason. We have really good intuition, you know. And when we meet people who are significant in our journey, they have a tendency to stick in our minds for one reason or another. How did you meet her?”
“She was in trouble,” Carter said. “And I helped her to get out of it.”
“What kind of trouble?” Gavin asked, frowning and glancing over his shoulder at Max. Max had the same serious expression on his face and moved in closer to listen to what Carter was saying.
“Well, there were these two men, and they had big wolves. Scary, strange wolves. They were after her for one reason or another. So, I helped her. Isn’t that what you’re supposed to do when someone needs help?”
“Of course, Carter. None of us are judging you for that. We just want to know what happened.”
Max’s voice broke into Carter’s thoughts and Carter sighed heavily. “Yeah, well, that’s all that happened. I met her in the alley, she was in trouble. There was a fight. I don’t know, it was all kind of weird.”
Now Gavin was very interested. “How was it weird? Did anything strange happen? Tell me everything you remember about it in detail. Don’t leave anything out. It will be very important.”
“I mean, the girl was sick, but she was able to fight the dogs off.”
“What do you mean sick?” Gavin asked, his eyes intent.
“She’s sickly. She’s always been sick. To get sick off and on and can’t do anything. It’s some pitiful human disease they don’t even have a cure for as far as I know. If they did, she wouldn’t be sick all the time, now would she?”
Gavin glanced at Max and Max set his jaw. “Did anything else happen, Carter?” Max asked. Gavin was giving Carter a strange look, but he wasn’t speaking.
“When I went near, my talisman got kind of hot and glowy. It was pretty strange, to be honest. I had never experienced anything like that before. Do you guys have a talisman that glows?”
“You can’t be serious,” Gavin said, pinching the bridge of his nose tightly. “You’re telling me that you ran into this woman, a woman who has been suffering from some mysterious disease that humans have no cure for, and when you met her, your talisman responded, and you didn’t think that was significant?”
Carter stared at Gavin dumbly for a moment and then took in a deep breath. “Actually, there’s more to it than that.”
The others stared at Carter in disbelief as he continued to recount his tail.
“First of all, those wolves. There was something really strange about them. I couldn’t put my finger on it. They weren’t exactly shifters, but there was something about them that was definitely off. Maybe they weren’t shifters like we are shifters. But they weren’t really wolves either. I don’t know what was going on with them. But they wanted to hurt her. They wanted to take her with them or something. I don’t really know what their ultimate goal was, but I do know they were bad news and I had to stop them.”
“So, there were werewolves present, and they had keepers. Were the keepers gaunt and tall? Hair kind of patchy?” Gavin asked, his fingers twitching as he pulled out a notebook from the back pocket of his jeans and began scribbling a doodle of the exact men that had been there when Amy was attacked.
“Yes, that’s exactly what they look like,” Carter said, frowning. “What does this mean?”
Gavin sighed heavily. “It means, you dummy, that you found a descendent and you let her go. How could you have done that? Was she not your fated match? How did you let this happen?”
Carter took a step back and stared at Gavin in disbelief. “That’s impossible. She couldn’t possibly be a dragon shifter. Or a Loni hybrid. There is weakness in her. She gets ill. She doesn’t have the same strength or presence of mind. There’s no way she could be my fated mate.”
“Actually, there is,” Gavin said slowly. “Were you not aware of the sacred disease? Several of the descendants are bound to suffer with this illness. It comes from a manifestation of power that is unable to be expressed or utilized properly. Without the full awakening of the descendants potentials, they are doomed to suffer immensely because they are not fully capable of channeling those excess powers in a way that is beneficial to them. The more powerful the shifter is, the more difficult the illness will be. You mentioned that she was able to hold her own despite her illness. That is a direct indication of her power. And if she is not your fated mate, then she is bound to be one of ours. We have to meet her immediately. There is no time to waste. She is not only in danger from these men who are pursuing her for her power, but she is in danger of herself. If she isn’t able to awaken her full powers, she could die.”
“Die?” Carter asked, his chest tightening.
“That’s right,” Gavin said, walking briskly to the porch of the cabin and grabbing his backpack. “She could die. And if one of our potential mates is dead before we reach Earth, what good is that going to do our planet? One of us will be alone for the rest of our lives and never have another fated one that we can be intimate with.”
“Do you think that she is mine?” Norris asked, a goofy smile spreading across his face.
“No,” Carter said firmly. “She is mine. We have already been intimate. But I was trying to forget her. I thought that she wasn’t a dragon shifter. I didn’t realize she had any potential whatsoever. I thought the illness disqualified her as a candidate.”
“Carter, you are even stupider than I thought,” Gavin said with a soft laugh. “This is serious, though. If someone was after her then, they are certainly going to be after her now. Especially knowing that there are other shifters around here who are willing to protect her and stand up to them. They will be looking and watching and waiting for her to be vulnerable. And they will seize her. You know there are chaotic forces out there who would love to utilize the potential within these sacred beings to realize their own twisted goals.”
Carter suddenly felt deeply nauseated and shape shifted quickly into his dragon form.
“I’m not going to let anything happen to her. I swear.”
“We are going to protect her,” Max said with a firm nod. “I have to get the baby back home, but we will make sure that your fated mate is safe. Don’t worry, Carter.”
Carter nodded, but he couldn’t hide the concern that was in his face. He had put the girl in danger. He had acted like an asshole, and he was fairly certain that he was never going to get another chance to make things right with her. But even if she didn’t want to accept him or take him back, the real issue was that he had put the woman that he loved in danger, and now it was up to him to make sure she was safe again.
“I can’t wait around here forever. I have to make sure she’s okay. Can you guys make sure that everything here is taken care of without me? I want to go now. I can’t wait on this.”
“Don’t do anything stupid, Carter,” Max cautioned. “We can’t let anybody around here know that we are dragon shifters. If they see us, then there are going to be consequences. You remember what the Elders said.”
Carter let out a groan of frustration, but he nodded. “Yes, I know. I remember. I’m not going to do anything that would jeopardize my role back home if I can help it. But I’m going to do whatever it takes to make sure that my mate is safe.”
He waved at the others as he shape shifted back into his dragon form and sped off through the forest and back toward town. Taking a car seemed far too slow at this point. And he wouldn’t be able to follow his acute dragon senses if he was in his human form waiting around in a vehicle to get back into town. Instead, he was going to do whatever needed to be done in order to locate Amy and see to it that she was safe and sound.