I stood at the flap to my tent, staring out at the cold dark night. This is what I’d reduced my people to. A frozen desert. A death sentence if we had to stay here for too long, but if we built dwellings we’d survive. Endre wanted his peace back, though he’d never say it. Why has our home been destroyed? Why has the earth cast us out? Hasn’t she done enough to us over the centuries?

Angrily I stalked away from the tent, more than the fate of my people on my mind. Aska, the whelp of the biggest threat to our world there was, took up a large portion of my thoughts. I hated her on sight, she was my enemy, but my soul said differently. Mate, it screamed at me, she is your mate.

She was in chains in a building where she and a few of her compatriots were being held. There was a fire so they would not freeze to death, but they did have guards, so they could not escape. I went to the building, taking the guard a hot drink to keep him awake.

“Have they caused trouble?” I asked as he took the cup, and thanked me.

“Not a peep. They know what’s good for them.” The man was a bear shifter, totally able to handle the three wolf shifters in the building by himself, if necessary.

“Good.” I caught the source of my restlessness staring at me, hate in her gray eyes. She’d had that same feral gleam in her eye when she attacked us with her father not long ago. A battle in which she bit one of my brothers. She looked so much like Wruin’s sweet Abigail, but her eyes were cold and empty, where Abigail’s, her sisters were full of life and laughter. “She’s dangerous. Keep an eye on her.”

“Afraid water-dragon?” She growled, spitting at my feet with hatred burning in her eyes.

Well, she was capable of some emotion then. Hate was a place to start.

I knew the hate was a lie, though, a lie to herself. I was her mate. I knew she could feel it. I wanted to hate her when she attacked my brother, I wanted to destroy her, and that was made worse when I realized she was my mate. I could never have her, I could never trust her.

She was the child of my enemy; she’d tried to kill my brother hours before. Endre’s wounds had healed almost instantly, but there was still a line of pink skin where she’d bitten him.

I could never make her my mate. I could never fully hate her either, though, because she is my soulmate.

I was well and truly out of luck and life was not going to get any easier. Because, somehow, I had to get her away from my brothers, to safety without destroying my relationship with my brothers and my people. Or her, for that matter. If she died, I’d die with her. It was the fate of mated shifters. Somehow, I was going to have to find it within me to betray my brothers and my people, I’d have to betray them all, to save her. For that, I might just be able to hate her.

Her eyes gleamed up at me from the floor and I knew she could sense my thoughts and she loved the turmoil of them. She fed on them, because she could use those feelings against me. I really was damned.

I kicked at a piece of firewood and bit down on my lip to smother a roar of anger and frustration. This was beyond anything one soul should have to endure. She was my enemy. How could she be my mate?

I turned to stare at her once more. She was so beautiful. So deadly.

“Not even a little bit, whelp.” I gave her my own sneer, but she didn’t even flinch. She was colder than the world outside.

I left the small cell, and my newest source of heartache, and sucked in my breath at the cold. My kingdom had been a place of warmth, beside a volcanic vent on the floor of the Atlantic Ocean. Our home, protected by a magical bubble of glass and creative engineering when the world’s waters started to rise long ago, was always the perfect temperature. This place, this frozen hell, was something I’d have to get used to.

I coughed as the deadly air whooshed into my lungs, creating pain unlike anything I’d felt before, even in our old home. Long ago only Wruin had been king of our kind. When the global temperatures rose the water levels drowned out our land. Wruin was locked out of our world, into the human world, so we split our people up and went our separate ways. Wruin to his cave, Endre to his world of ice, while I went beneath the waves. Cousins went to other places, places of fire, places beneath the ground, but I’d chosen the ocean, because it was where I felt most at home.

I remembered Aska’s sneering question, and the emphasis she’d placed on water dragon. It was a bit odd, I suppose, for a dragon to live under the sea, but not for me. I felt alive beneath the water, I felt embraced, and my people had felt the same. Now, we were all free but stuck in this cold land, and I had two of the world’s most annoying teenagers standing at my tent, waiting for me.

“Hata, what is it now?” I looked at Ingrid’s face, and saw how much she loved the boy, but the boy was too stupid to get it yet. He’d figure it out eventually.

“Ingrid, keeps following me, Taka! Wherever I go, she’s there. It’s rather annoying.” The teenaged boy, a slim, blond-haired and wiry version of the man he was going to be glared at the already blossoming and beautiful girl in question.

Ingrid, a fierce girl with her own handful of pride raised her chin, a move that dropped her blond braids behind her shoulders. I approved, I’d expected her to run away in tears, but she was one of my people, I should have known better.

“I think he’s got that wrong, my king.” She looked down her slim nose, reminding Hata that she was still taller than him and continued to speak. “He’s the one following me. He’s like a shadow that you can’t get rid of. Always there, always listening. I can’t get a moment’s peace for him following me around like a rescued puppy!”

I had to smother a grin and did so by pretending to scratch the intricate beard along my jawline and cheeks. The girl’s eyes were drawn to the action and I knew she saw the blueish green tint there. It was the marking of my dragon; certain places on my skin were marked with the color and always had been. She looked away, respect there, not disgust. She was going to be a good member of my inner circle. Once I had one again. If I didn’t mess it all up when I set Aska free.

I cringed at my own thoughts, of course that’s what I was going to do, but I’d have to pay the price for it. “Look, Hata, go to your tent and don’t leave. Ingrid, go to yours. That way, you’ll know you have some peace from each other. It’s not that hard, is it?”

They were mated, though they didn’t realize it yet. They were both bear shifters, but their hormones were in chaos and neither had realized why they felt as they did when the other was around. They would realize it eventually, and both would calm. For now, I just wanted some peace of my own.

They both left without another word and I went into my tent. It was the same tent that the rest of my people had. Enhanced with magic, the interior was far roomier than it should be and blocked out the cold. I flung myself down on my bed of furs and stared at the roof above me. Lit only by a lantern, the tent was made of leather, and though it was big enough for me to stand in, it wasn’t my room in the king’s hall.

My people were spread out across the globe now, and I was stuck here in a tent. Our brave engineers were working around the clock to restore our homes and shields, but it was a huge task for them, especially when we didn’t know if another earthquake was coming. Now I had an even bigger problem.

Aska. Her name meant ashes in our tongue, and I suspect her father named her aptly. She was going to leave my world in that state with those flashing eyes and tempting lips. How was I going to free her?

Normally, I’m a level-headed man, I don’t make rash decisions that could endanger my entire clan. I’m just not that kind of guy, not after hundreds of years of leadership. Aska had changed it all for me. From the moment I saw her I knew she was my mate and what that meant to us both. Her hate for my kind, for my brothers, was a challenge. I have to admit, I’m not too happy about fate’s choice for my mate either, but she was bred in hate, and taught to destroy. I’d seen her fighting skills; she was not a weak female, in any way. I could only hope that I might change her hate into something less destructive.

A sound intruded on my thoughts and I sat up. “Enter.”

“Taka, I know you said to go to my tent but…” I sighed as Ingrid stepped into my tent.

“What’s wrong now?” I wanted to sleep, it’s been days since I slept properly and that was before I knew Aska was my mate.

“I just want to talk, my king. We’ve always come to you with our problems.” Her eyes were a sea green, a color common around our home, and trained on me.

“I know, Ingrid. It’s been a rough few days though, and we all need to rest.” She sat away from me, near the entrance, without me telling her too.

Ingrid and Hata were the children of my inner circle, and like all of my people, knew they could come to me with any problem they faced. I knew there would be more scrapings at my tent before the night was over, but one could hope for uninterrupted sleep, right?

“It’s just that, Hata…that boy is so infuriating! We’ve gone through so much in the last few days, and when he should be my friend, he acts like we’re enemies. As if I’m somehow beneath him because I’m a girl.” Her head fell to her chest, her long braids now in her lap. In the time before the waters rose she would have been one of our warriors. Now, in our world that used to be peaceful, she was training to be one of our healers. That might change though, with Airitech on the loose.

“Hata is…” I paused, trying to think of how to say it tactfully. “He’s a teenaged boy with some odd notions of what it means to be a man in our clan, Ingrid. Those maxims were never true, but he thinks they are. He wants to be the man in your…friendship. Right now, you’re taller than him, but in the way of our kind, he will soon grow out of it. He wants to be brave and fierce, but when he can’t even stand up and meet you in the eyes, his pride gets hurt. Soon enough he will realize the error of his ways and he’ll calm down.”

Now if only I could solve my own problems so easily.

I could see Ingrid was digesting my words, her expression one of thoughtful concentration. “So, basically, he’s being a puffer fish and trying to make himself look bigger and important by being cruel to me?”

“Yes, that’s it exactly.” I agreed with a sigh of relief. “When he’s lived a little more, he’ll learn that size isn’t what is important; it’s how you treat people.”

“But you’re huge, Taka, and kind to us all!” Surprise was clear in her voice as she looked at me.

“That’s exactly my point, Ingrid. Height, strength isn’t what makes you a good leader. Being able to listen to the people around you does.” I felt like I’d been doused in cold water as I spoke to the girl.

I was about to throw away everything I’d built with my people. I had to, though; I’d die if Aska was taken away. I wasn’t listening to the opinions of others, though. Wruin and Endre would have to be told. Perhaps I could talk them into releasing Aska into my control. I felt my face squish in confusion at that thought.

How was I going to keep that she-wolf under control? She obviously responded to her father’s authority, but approaching her with that same dominating air would not work with her, I could sense it.

“Taka?” Ingrid asked, her voice quiet, concerned. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing, Ingrid. I need to fly for a bit, that’s all.” It was the only time I really felt in total control of everything and knew it was the right decision. “Maybe a jaunt of your own would be a good idea?”

She stood up with me, and I relaxed when I saw she’d understood. We all felt better in our animal states.

“Great idea, Taka. My bear form is made for this kind of weather. Sometimes I’d get too warm if I tried to do too much at home. Thank you, my king.” She left me then with a wave and I was glad to have helped her at least.

I shifted and flew out of my tent before my size could do it any damage. A clear as water dragon, almost invisible to the naked eye, flew from my tent. There was nothing to define me except for an outline of greenish blue as I shot into the tunnels to the outside world.

My thoughts turned to the air as I streaked through the frozen tunnels that would take me from Endre’s sanctuary. My size grew as the tunnels became wider and I burst from the entrance. I flew into a sky far more clear than any I’d seen in recent times. I felt as though I could see every star in the universe and my inner dragon purred in contentment. I felt the cold wind on my long wings as little more than a warm touch and sighed in relief. Here, in this form, I was free of all of my burdens, a being made for flight. My size was enormous in the open air, and my tail streamed out far behind me.

For the first time in a long time, I was free to be what I really was. A dragon in the sky. I flew over Endre’s frozen land, looking for signs of trouble, but all I saw in the now permanent darkness was the lapping of water against the shoreline, the movement of ice as it fell into the sea, and little else. A wasteland. A frozen desert.

Perhaps my final resting place if I wasn’t allowed to be with Aska, or if she refused me. She could do that, and leave us both to die, though I hoped she wouldn’t. Killing us both to please her father, out of loyalty to him, would be a waste. I doubted he’d ever show her the same kind of loyalty.