I froze at the Elder's words. I couldn't have heard him right.

"Could you repeat that?"

"You father has arrived. If you need to take care of family business, we'd be more than happy to accommodate Dragon Ryeth."

"I'm going with him," Ryeth said in a tone that brooked no argument. 

Elder Talon bowed his head in acceptance. "Then I will at least see you to the door."

Ryeth was trying to calm me, but my mind was whirling too fast to notice his ministrations. My father had abandoned our family before I was old enough to remember him. How could he be here? He didn't even know us. 

Ryeth listened quietly to my thoughts, but didn't speak until we were halfway to the portal. "Could your brother be simply using an excuse to call you back to the pack?"

I considered it, then shook my head. "No. Asher would never do that. He was old enough to remember Dad. I wasn't. It tore him apart. He'd never..."

But what if someone was posing as our father? And for what reason? Or what if it was our dad? He couldn't have tracked us down for any good reason, could he? A good guy doesn't abandon his family. Unless he regretted it? 

There's no sense tossing about possibilities when you have only a fraction of the information needed to evaluate them.

Ryeth was right. I reached for his hand, seeking physical comfort. 

Why don't we shift? We will move more quickly that way.

"Are you okay to shift?" 

In answer, Ryeth dropped my hand, stepped back, stripped, and shifted with a flurry of wings and scales and... 

Fucking glitter. 

I shook the sparkly shit from my hair. "Do you always do that?" 

It's dragon dust. Get used to it. Now climb on up. It will be faster than if you shift as well.

I eyed his back warily as he extended a wing out and laid it on the ground. Now that I wasn't blinded by glitter, I could see how truly majestic he was. But pretty or not, climbing on a dragon seemed daunting. "Are you asking me to mount you?" I teased to cover up my apprehension, bending down to grab his clothes.

I believe you already did earlier.

Oh damn, Ryeth was picking up innuendo. Before I could answer, he tired of waiting on me, and then terrifying dragon teeth were descending on me.

Okay, he didn't pick me up in his mouth like I thought he would. He nosed my stomach, and when I fell over his snout, he lifted me in the air and I clung to his mouth for dear life. He plopped me on his back above his wing joints and I let go, only to wrap my arms as firmly as I could around his thick neck, feeling very insecure.

I will not let you fall, Ryeth said, then with a powerful push of his legs, we were airborne.

My eyes were squeezed tight, my face buried against Ryeth's neck. This was just like a rollercoaster, right? Except there were no safety bars... and the ground was a lot further down.

I need you to open your eyes, Simon. Ryeth's amusement tickled against my mind.

Fuck you. 

Ryeth's body shook with a chuckle, and I squeezed my legs more tightly around his body. If this was going to become a thing, Ryeth needed to get some freaking hand holds. Or a saddle.

I need you to guide me.

I took a deep breath. I could do this. I opened my eyes, looked, and shut them quickly. Just follow the giant green path, asshole. You didn't need me to look.

Ryeth laughed again.

And stop laughing!

Descending was more terrifying than launching, and I slid to the ground as quickly as possible. 

Ryeth shifted to his human form and wrapped his arms around me, laying a kiss against my cheek when I turned away from him. "You do realize you'll have to ride me again on the other side."

"I'll ride you as often as you want," I growled. "But in human form."

Ryeth pulled me through the portal and shifted. I climbed up this time, using the joints of his wing as a step. He was right, riding him was faster than either my human or wolf forms.

Now that we were through the portal, I could contact my brother.

What the hell is going on, Asher? Is our dad really here?

I'm afraid so. Asher's voice was terse. 

And it's really him?

It's really him, and it's not good.

Ryeth sped up.

I'm on my way, I told my brother.

Ryeht was disappointed that no one seemed to be in the yard when he landed in dragon form. He didn’t like the idea of anything threatening me or my family and had hoped to use his dragon form to intimidate. I dismounted, and Ryeth prowled up to the house before shifting. I handed him his clothes and waited for him to dress before entering the house.

"Hello, son." My father, older than the pictures I remembered from my childhood, smiled. It wasn’t the lighthearted smile of my memory, it was cruel, mocking. He opened his arms to me as if waiting for a hug.