Chapter 1

Vegetarians live up to ten years longer than the rest of the world. Ten long, horrible, bacon-less years.

-Nikolai’s secret thoughts

Nikolai

“I need you to stay back. Watch the sanctuary…and Brooklyn,” my brother, Keifer, said to me.

I blinked.

“So, let me get this straight…,” I said, turning around in my computer chair to face him. “You’re taking, not just you, but your pregnant mate, our mother, sister, and entire fucking sanctuary, sans two people. Me…and Brooklyn. The girl who had a fucking transmitter pulled out of her stomach that probably told the entire fucking world where we were located…do I have that correct?” I replied carefully.

My brother gave me a blank stare.

“Yeah, that’s what I fuckin’ said,” he answered tightly.

I pinched the bridge of my nose with my fingers as I said, “And what if something happens to Brooklyn? What am I supposed to do with her? I’m not a fucking doctor.”

“She’ll be fine. I’ve told you over and over again that there’s not a thing wrong with her. I think she’s just…sleeping to sleep. Like her body is keeping her in a dream state because her mind’s so traumatized,” my sister, Skylar, offered her two cents.

I rolled my eyes.

She’d told me that before, but I didn’t believe her.

Nobody stayed in a coma for over two months just because they needed to recover.

I was fairly sure there was something else going on, but the two of them wouldn’t listen to me.

Apparently, medical science outranked my gut feeling.

“Fine,” I snapped. “It’s not like I can really stop you, now can I?”

Was I pulling off the nonchalant attitude like I was intending to?

I sure as fuck hoped so.

Keifer grinned. “It’ll be fun if you’d at least try.”

Keifer was officially the King of Dragons, as of less than twenty-four hours ago.

Used to be he was a prince, just like me.

However, that all changed when he met his mate, Blythe.

Blythe started a chain reaction that all boiled down to Brooklyn’s uncle, and the man that killed our father, actively trying to assassinate not just my brother, but the entire dragon rider race that served directly under Keifer.

Although he was unsuccessful, we’d lost six dragon riders and three dragons.

Immortal dragons.

We were still trying to figure out just what the man had that made the dragon’s link to the Meridian rendered invalid.

The Meridian was what gave dragons their life force and also gave them their ability to be almost immortal.

As long as they stayed within two hundred square miles of one of the six hearts of the Meridian, then they’d thrive. But if they moved too far away for too long of a period, then they’d slowly lose their immortality and age just like any other living being.

But when we were attacked, it was like the Meridian ceased to exist…and the laws of magic I’d grown up with didn’t exist, either.

“Are you even listening to me?” Keifer growled in frustration.

I stood up, careful to keep my shirt down, and turned to face Keifer.

“Yeah, I fuckin’ heard you. You’re leaving. I’m to stay here and take care of the sanctuary. You’re taking everyone. I’m all alone and the sole provider for our unconscious houseguest that shouldn’t even be here, and I need to keep an eye out for any bad people. Right?”

I was sure the sarcastic edge to my words came out nice and clear if Keifer’s face was anything to go by.

“I’m not leaving you alone, and not for long,” he grunted.

I raised a brow at him.

“If you weren’t leaving me for a long time, why take everyone?” I countered.

He sighed. “I can’t risk everyone. We’re going up to Anchorage for two months only. That should be enough time to figure out if whatever threat we had was actually a threat or not.” He sighed. “And I need to read up on dragon history; now’s as good of a time as any, I suppose.”

I nodded.

“But you can risk me,” I drawled dryly.

He turned his head up to study the ceiling.

It was true. Especially with the newest Prince of Dragons pending arrival.

Although we did have another few months before that happened.

Your girl’s calling out for you again, Perdita’s silky smooth, husky voice said in my mind.

I know, I replied back to her. I’ll be there as soon as I can.

Two months ago we’d brought Brooklyn into the sanctuary.

And that’d been the day my life changed forever.

“I’ll be back in a little bit,” Keifer growled. “Blythe’s puking again.”

I didn’t say anything as he left the room, actually somewhat thankful that he was leaving without me having to make up an excuse.

I walked to my closet and picked another shirt up off the shelf where I had a large pile of them.

Shucking the one I was wearing off over my head by the back of the collar, I placed it on the shelf and shrugged into a new shirt of the same exact color.

Then I hurried out of my room with the old t-shirt held firmly in my hand.

I made it to the infirmary in record time.

I’d started timing myself since I came down here so much.

“You really should tell Keifer what’s going on,” Skylar, my big sister, suggested.

I turned my head to study her for a quick second before moving my gaze to the small, broken woman lying in the hospital bed along the far wall.

Although all the other beds were occupied as well, my eyes were only for her…for Brooklyn.

I still couldn’t explain it.

It happened the moment I touched her as I was helping her out of the small, cramped cell I’d found her in.

It’d been terrible.

Something I never wanted to see again in my life.

I laid the t-shirt down over Brooklyn’s restless body, and instantly she stilled.

It was my scent that calmed her, though.

The scent of a mate, Perdita said with annoyance.

I ignored her.

I was trying valiantly to ignore the fact that Brooklyn was my destined mate.

I knew the moment I had her in my hands as I was carrying her out of that hellhole, but there wasn’t a single fucking thing I could do about it, seeing as Brooklyn refused to wake up.

There was no longer anything physically wrong with her body.

She’d healed in a matter of moments, thanks to our mate bond.

A bond that wasn’t supposed to be possible without us first being together, in the biblical sense.

But, what I’d learned from a book my father wrote to his sons about mate bonding, a book I’d had given to me by my brother, it was possible for the mate bond to pop into place under extreme physical duress.

Although, that was only assumed by my father because his mate bond had not formed like that. He’d only heard about it.

Everything about the bond I shared with Brooklyn was completely foreign and new to me.

I was learning as I went along.

And I couldn’t share it with her, because she wouldn’t wake the hell up.

My side started to itch, and I raised it up to study the tattoo that’d started to appear once I’d gotten Brooklyn to safety.

It was a big one.

It started at my right pectoral muscle, and traveled all the way down my side to my right hip bone.

It was a mass of swirls, runes, and dark lines.

And Brooklyn shared the same one on her body.

That’d been how my sister had found out about our mate bond.

She’d been stunned by the revelation, but luckily had held my confidence as I waited for answers.

Answers that wouldn’t come if she didn’t wake up!

I sent that telepathically to her, but as usual, she didn’t even twitch.

Sighing, I took a seat beside the bed and propped my feet up on the side of it.

I laid my head back and got what little sleep I could.

Which inevitably wasn’t much because Brooklyn’s terror and pain flooded my mind each and every time I got any REMs.