“That wasn’t very subtle,” Aleida said after shifting from her dragon into her human form.

“Ya think?” Draven said, huffing out a breath. “They’re going to be putting those fires out for days.”

Gunner’s lion paced on the side of the mountain, smelling the area before phasing back into his human form.

“That got a little out of hand,” he said, swallowing hard as he looked from Draven to his mate. “Who the hell was that guy?”

Draven’s body stiffened as he looked up at the night sky. It was so calm with the gorgeous stars shining away as if nothing had happened. Like they didn’t just ignite half of Northern England up in flames.

“That was our cousin, Makail,” Aleida said. “Welcome to the family.”

Gunner ran his hand through his long blonde hair and exhaled long and hard. “They don’t seem to be very welcoming so far.”

Draven walked over to the tent and grabbed his pants that were draped over the top. “Well, he won’t be bothering you again,” he said as he remembered the horrifying screeching Makail’s orange dragon had made when Aleida melted his brain with a sonic scream.

“No, he won’t,” Gunner whispered as he glanced at his mate.

Aleida looked frustrated with a pinched expression on her face as she disappeared inside their tent. Draven knew she had high hopes that they would find Caliburnus in Chipchase Castle, but all they had found was a pissed off dragon shifter when they broke in during the middle of the night.

Their cousin Makail had always been a scrappy shifter, and he put up a hell of a fight, but Aleida was a mated dragon now, and as scrappy as he was, he didn’t stand much of a chance.

“Is she okay?” Draven whispered to Gunner.

The lion shifter just shrugged. “She’s beginning to doubt this whole thing,” he said with a sigh. “Prophecies. Magical swords. Maybe we did come over here for nothing.”

Draven let out a long breath as he turned and looked out over the stunning countryside that was lit up by the bright moon. They were hiding out on the top of a mountain in the Northumberland National Park, sleeping in tents and using the nearby stream for water. Terrowin, Valerius, and Berinon had a network of eyes all over the country, and as uncomfortable as sleeping in the wilderness was, it was the safest choice they had.

Not that they had the element of surprise on their hands anymore after tonight. Makail and his flame-happy dragon had taken care of that for them. He had gone crazy spewing flames and now half of the forest was on fire. The wildfires were probably already all over the news, and that was bound to get his brothers’ attention.

“What do you think?” Gunner asked, looking at him with an unsure look on his face. “Do you still believe it’s out there?”

“I never really did,” Draven whispered back as he stared at the dark trees that were sleeping in the quiet night. “But what other choice did we have?”

“Maybe it’s time to go home,” Gunner said, shaking his head. “How many places have we searched? Nine? Ten?”

“Twelve.” They had broken into and searched every castle that his father had frequented back when he was alive. Except one.

“There’s one more,” Draven whispered as his stomach hardened.

“Right,” Gunner whispered as his eyes dropped to the dirt. “Is it worth the risk? Does the sword really exist?”

Draven sat down on a rock, feeling the weariness of his age for the first time in a long time. It had been a grueling few weeks and he was exhausted. He wanted nothing more than to return to his peaceful town of Colwood, Montana where everything made sense and where he had made a new life.

He wanted to be done with dragons and prophecies and deadly fights in the middle of the night. But this was bigger than him. Civilization as they knew it was on the line.

Once upon a time, Draven’s family had ruled over Medieval Europe as one of the great dragon houses. His father was King Artorius, otherwise known in literature as King Arthur, and Draven himself had been the legitimate heir to the Dragon Throne.

His father had been a lover of women and had a total of five sons and one daughter with six different women. Draven had never got the full story, but he suspected that his half-brothers were the ones who killed his father, and they tried to kill him too, but he managed to escape to the new land they called America and disappeared.

He had changed his name to Daniel Boone and made his way to the West Coast, helping build the great land from scratch. It was the best time of his long life, but he could only run for so long.

His half-sister, Aleida, had recently found him where he resided as the fire chief in Colwood and told him their brothers’ plans. The four of them, Terrowin, Valerius, Jarin, and Berinon, were slowly being corrupted by their inner dragon’s dark need to control and dominate the world around them. They wanted to bring the world back to the time before technology, a time with blood and battles, with swords and spears.

They killed Jarin when he tried to recruit Draven, but there were still three dragons out there intent on world domination, and they were all mated.

Mated dragons were extremely powerful and each had a unique ability that came forward when their cores ignited. Draven had seen it first hand with Jarin who had the speed of light before he died, and with Aleida who received a crushing sonic scream when she bonded to his friend Gunner.

But there were three mated dragons left: Terrowin who was given the gift of invincibility, Valerius who was an ice dragon capable of spewing blue fire that froze anything it touched, and Berinon who was a size shifter, able to grow himself as tall as the Tower of London.

Draven and the Firehouse Crew didn’t stand much of a chance, and that’s why they had returned. Centuries ago when Draven’s mother was dying, she had whispered out a prophecy: Place Caliburnus in the hands of the one true Dragon King and he will be unstoppable.

Throughout the years in literature, the name Caliburnus had morphed into Excalibur, the magical sword that only the true king could wield. Aleida had convinced Draven to come look for it so that he could finally face his brothers. At first, he had laughed it off, dismissing the sword as a fairy tale and the feverish ramblings of a dying woman, but after he saw the power of Jarin and heard from the dragon’s mouth what they had planned, he had no choice but to come searching for it.

Now, weeks later, he was beginning to question the whole thing.

“Draven,” Gunner said as he sat down beside him. “There are three mated dragons in that castle. I don’t want to risk bringing my mate to her death if you don’t think there’s a shot that this Caliburnus sword exists.”

The anguish and worry in the lion shifter’s eyes made Draven’s breath catch in his chest. How could he tell him that he didn’t know? What was he supposed to say when he had the same questions and none of the answers? Sometimes it was difficult being the alpha. It wasn’t a good feeling when everyone looked to you for guidance and all you had was uncertainty and crippling self-doubt.

“I don’t know,” Draven said after a long moment. “I wish I did, Gunner, but I don’t.”

The lion shifter shook his head as he looked at the tent that his mate was lying inside. “I can’t risk her life over a maybe.”

Draven looked at the tightness in Gunner’s jaw and his heart went out to him. They had gotten really close over the past few weeks, and he really didn’t want to let the guy down. He knew that Gunner wouldn’t think twice about following Draven to their deaths, but it was Aleida he was concerned for. He was terrified that something would happen to his mate.

“I know it’s hard, Gunner,” Draven said as he watched the dark forest in the distance. “But we either take the fight to them or wait until they come to us. And there will be millions dead by the time they get to Colwood. Maybe even billions.”

The two friends sat there in silence for a long time, staring at the dark woods as they contemplated what to do.

Gunner got up first. “We can figure it out in the morning,” he said before he let out a deep yawn. “I’m too tired to think.”

Draven nodded at him, wishing he could give him some encouraging words, but there wasn’t anything encouraging about the tricky position they were in.

He watched the lion shifter’s wide back as he walked over to the tent where Aleida was sleeping. The soft murmur of whispers trickled out into the night and Draven let his shoulders slump forward. He envied them. At least they had each other.

He was alone as he had been for the past few hundred years. In the past few weeks, he had seen Zane, Gunner, and Aleida all find their mates, and each one added a little bitterness to his heart.

It wasn’t that he wasn’t happy for them… He was thrilled that they had found their mates. It was just… The loneliness was hard and it weighed on him heavily.

He had given up waiting for her centuries ago, believing that there was no one out there for him, but once in a while, when he was exhausted, beaten down, or consumed with despair—his loneliness came back to him with a vengeance.

Just go to bed. It will be better in the morning. It always is.

With a heavy sigh, the dragon shifter pushed himself up to his weary feet and shuffled into his tent. The longing was so intense that his body ached as he laid there, staring at the roof of the tent.

It would be another night of insomnia and another night of loneliness.

* * *

“There’s no way we’re going home,” Aleida said, glaring at her mate. “Not after all this.”

Gunner sighed as he looked down at the coffee in his mug. “Aleida, what if it doesn’t—”

“It exists,” she snapped, staring at him with fiery eyes. Her hair was a mess of wild red curls that suited her fierce personality perfectly.

Her face softened as she reached out and touched Gunner’s thick forearm. “We have to believe it exists,” she said in a gentle voice. “It’s our only hope.”

Gunner looked to Draven for help, but he just shrugged, giving him nothing.

“You dragons are so goddamned stubborn,” he muttered as he walked past her and sat by the campfire. He cracked open two cans of beans and dumped them into a pot as Draven poured himself another cup of coffee.

“We should start thinking of a plan B,” Draven said as he watched Aleida out of the corner of his eye. “In case we don’t find it.”

She threw her hands up in frustration and glared at him. “Am I the only one who’s still in this?” she asked, looking frustrated. “We didn’t cross the freaking ocean for nothing. Did we?”

Draven and Gunner glanced at each other.

“We have one more castle to search,” she said in a tight voice. “If it’s not there then we can go home.”

Gunner looked up at her with a worried gaze. “If it’s not there then we won’t be able to go home. The three mated dragons living in the castle will make sure of that.”

Her tight body relaxed as she exhaled. “We don’t even know if they’re there,” she said, sitting down beside her man. “Jarin was in Montana. The rest of them could be in Brazil or China or Australia for all we know.”

“Maybe,” Draven said as he sat down beside them. “And if they’re not?”

Aleida let out a heavy sigh. “If they’re not, then we’d better hope that your mother knew what she was talking about. We’d better hope that Caliburnus or Excalibur or whatever that magic sword is called is there, and that we can find it.”

Draven stirred the black beans that were bubbling in the pot over the fire. “At least there will be some good news if our brothers are there and we can’t find the sword.”

Gunner turned his head and looked at him with a wrinkled brow. “And what would that be?”

Draven scrunched up his face in disgust as he lifted the spoon, letting a syrupy chunk of beans fall back into the pot. “At least we won’t have to eat these fucking beans anymore.”

Aleida chuckled. “Amen to that.”