Chapter Six
Aric
Curbing his enthusiasm was proving to be almost impossible on their journey up to the surface.
There hadn’t been a large amount of time where he’d been separated from Kaitlyn, but at one point she’d gone to the washroom and his luck had held strong and true. He’d pinned down a passing soldier with the wings of a pilot, who just so happened to be heading out shortly on something that matched perfectly with what he was hoping for.
His credentials cleared him for access to any and all parts of the base. Aric had been told ahead of time that all soldiers who were assigned to Fort Banner had been cleared to know about dragons. It seemed insane to him at the time that several thousand people were given that knowledge, but now he was on site and it was apparent to him that to function as a team it was a necessity. These men were going to fight side by side with his kin, and they needed to be ready to deal with the faceless enemy, the Outsiders, without being surprised at the existence of dragon shifters.
Thinking about the Outsiders dulled his mood. Creatures of unknown origin that had come pouring out of a portal deep under the very mountains they now resided in, they were fierce, and incredibly strong. Aric had never encountered one face-to-face, but he’d read the reports and seen the video from those dragons who had. It wasn’t pretty. Despite all the awesome powers available to his kind, the life-stealing aliens were only beaten solidly when they encountered a mated dragon.
The Outsiders were quite literally able to steal the lifeforce from a person simply by touching them. It was a scary thought, and only those dragons who were mated could go up against them and hope to win. He frowned thoughtfully, still unsure of his belief in that theory. How could something as simple as being mated end up supercharging a dragon and his powers? He’d never heard of such a thing before. It should be impossible.
But it wasn’t. Multiple dragons had all witnessed the effects firsthand.
The elevator doors dinged open, exposing them to the bright sun that was sorely lacking from the underground habitat that had been established in the mountains. All around them there was movement and life. Although much of the administration was underground, plenty still lived above, as did most of the personnel and equipment.
They’d yet to see any of the advanced battlesuits they were there to purchase, but there was plenty more to distract them. Squads of men moved around the hard rock ground, most under the supervision of others, but many went about independently. Jeeps moved here and there. A line of tanks was parked off to the right, under the cover of a camouflaged tarp.
“Aric?”
Kaitlyn’s inquisitive tone speared him into action. He strode from the elevator, taking a moment to gather his bearings before setting off in the direction they wanted.
“Where are we going?”
“Over there.” He pointed in the direction of a small incline that eventually leveled out into a large flat expanse. There wasn’t room for a runway in the mountains, so to compensate the army had installed one hell of a helipad. Three giant hangars had been erected to form a triangle. In and around them sat several dozen helicopters of varying usage, from the obviously armed attack helicopters to the bulky and ungainly looking double-rotor transports.
He almost hesitated as they walked out between the buildings. The pilot he’d talked to had simply said to meet him by the choppers. Looking around though, he couldn’t see the soldier in question, leaving Aric to look back and forth, frantically trying to determine which one they were supposed to go to before they got close. He was trying to impress Kaitlyn so that his mate would see he wasn’t just a stuffy bank executive. That he was fun.
Aric wanted her to see the real him.
There were four helicopters sitting smack in the middle of it all. Two of them looked completely shut down, but the other pair had activity. Boxes and a few crates were stacked nearby, doors open. A line of some sort, fuel perhaps, ran to one of them.
Aric decided that one had to be the one; it was obviously closer to being ready. He nodded his head in that direction. Kaitlyn followed him without question, though he could tell she was itching to ask him where they were going for the twentieth time.
Coming to a stop next to the helicopter, he pulled open the door and gestured for her to go on inside. Kaitlyn’s face broke out into a smile.
“Seriously?”
“You bet,” he said, offering her a hand up out of habit.
To his surprise she grabbed it and pulled herself up into the cockpit. “I’ve never been in a helicopter before.”
“Well you’re in for a treat,” he said, waiting for her to get seated before he followed her up.
He heard footsteps behind him and smiled to himself. That must be the pilot. He swung around. “Good to see y—”
The words died in his mouth as he found himself staring down the barrel of a service pistol. Behind it was the stony face of a soldier he didn’t recognize.
“Stay right there. Don’t make any sudden movements,” the soldier ordered. “Miss,” he called, tilting his head to the side to address Kaitlyn. “Get out of the helicopter.”
“Put the gun down, soldier.” Aric forced himself to remain as outwardly calm as possible. He was keenly aware of the fact that Kaitlyn was directly behind him, and that if anything went wrong she would be directly in the line of fire. He couldn’t expose her to such danger.
“Absolutely not. I have no idea who you are, but I just caught you trying to steal an Army helicopter. You two are going down.”
“Aric?”
“It’ll be okay,” he said, dropping his voice and turning to face the soldier head on. “Trust me.”
The pistol wasn’t wavering. The man wasn’t afraid. He didn’t know Aric was a dragon shifter, and if he demonstrated his power just then, it could spook the man. The only way to diffuse the situation was diplomacy.
“Get out of the helicopter. Now.”
“Listen, soldier. I don’t know who you are, but—”
“I’m the pilot of this bird. Who the hell are you?”
“Oh.”
He’d picked the wrong helicopter. In his haste to seem impressive and prepared, Aric had gone and inadvertently put her in grave danger.
“Aric, what’s going on here? Why is he pointing a gun? I thought this was okay?”
“Yeah. I’ll explain later.” He returned his attention to the soldier. “You need to put that away, now. We’re not trying to steal anything.” His spine straightened and he took in a deep breath, facing the soldier down impassively.
Behind him he heard Kaitlyn inhale sharply as his banker persona disappeared, replaced with the real Aric. He was a dragon, and no pumped-up little soldier shit was going to put his mate in danger. If the jackass didn’t put the gun away soon, he was going to find out just how big of a mistake it was to point a weapon his direction.
“I said move away from the chopper.” There was some unease in the soldier’s voice now.
More footsteps sounded, and Aric prepared for battle. He would do whatever it took to protect Kaitlyn.
“Ricky! Ricky, relax! They’re with me. It’s okay! I’ve seen his creds. He’s a D1 and she’s with him.”
The instant the classification rang out the pilot’s eyes went wide and he grew pale. The sudden realization that he’d held a gun at a dragon was easy for everyone to see.
“It’s okay, kid,” he rumbled. “You were doing your job. Way to stick to your, um, guns.”
They shared a smile over the unplanned pun. Ricky lowered the weapon and holstered it.
“My bird is over there,” his pilot, Jordan, informed him, jerking his chin at the other helicopter.
“Well, I had a fifty-fifty shot at it, and I guessed wrong. This one’s on me,” Aric admitted, turning and grabbing Kaitlyn by the waist as she emerged, lowering her to the ground.
“What are you doing?” she asked somewhat tartly, brushing his hands away once she regained her balance.
Aric stared. He’d just been acting instinctively. “Ah, sorry. I wasn’t thinking straight.” His lower lip pulled away, revealing his discomfort.
Everything was going sideways for him now. In his eagerness to impress Kaitlyn he was making a fool of himself, bumbling and stumbling through the mating dance. Even now he trailed behind her as they walked over to the other helicopter, like a child throwing a tantrum. What was wrong with him? How could someone as powerful and confident as he was be brought so low?
The answer was obvious: He was a nervous wreck around Kaitlyn. Paralyzed by the fear that if he didn’t do a proper job of romancing her and showing her that they belonged together, that she would reject him, leaving Aric to wander through the long life of a dragon alone. Unmated and judged as a failure by his peers. That fear was causing him to abandon his normal self, to become something he wasn’t.
And it had only been a day. What was he going to be like in forty-eight hours, or a week’s time if they still weren’t together? Aric needed to get a grip of himself, to rein in his frayed nerves and use the electric personality he knew he possessed. Be himself. The real him, not the face she saw at work. It should be easy. If only he could just relax around her.
He could do this. She was his mate, and if he just acted natural around her she would eventually see that as well. Human/dragon pairings were a new thing with his kind, but he’d heard about the Emerald dragons that had been sent from the enclave to this very military base. All of them had ended up mated to human females.
Hopefully he would get the chance to talk to some of them, or some of the awakened dragons that occasionally lingered around the base. To find out what it was like to be mated to a human, and if they had any tips for how he should approach it. The only thing he’d gathered so far was that he would have to practice patience. She wouldn’t feel the instantaneous bond like he would, which meant Aric would have to show her that she could be happy with him.
And she could. It was never in doubt in his mind that he could provide for her, and make her life exciting. They were a great pair; she just didn’t realize it. Yet. That was his job on this trip, to make her question whether she could be with him. Just once, that was all it would take. After that the seed would be planted and Aric could take it from there.
Feeling emboldened by his thoughts and pep talk, he strode forward, letting his confidence flow through him. This was his mate, whether she knew it or not, and he had absolutely nothing to be nervous about. Even his dragon, despite its initial frantic attempts to escape, was starting to accept the fact that it didn’t need to claim her right away. It was going to give him a chance to do it his way, and only if that failed would it try to take control again.
“Aric, are you coming?”
He realized Kaitlyn was already inside the helicopter, looking back at him with a frown. Why was he still standing twenty feet away from the door?
“Uh, yeah,” he managed to squeak out, his nerves fluttering out of control the instant their eyes locked. “I’m coming.” His stomach knotted around itself and his knees were weak. The jitters almost made him miss his first step, but he recovered and strode over to the helicopter as fast as he dared.
So much for being confident around her!