☽ ASTORIA ☾

I didn’t expect the hostility I felt when I stepped into the pack house for the first time in ten years.

I should have, but I guess I thought since I was being called on to help, there would be a slightly warmer welcome. But the welcome I got was ice-cold stares from pack members who knew what I was and felt that I didn’t belong. Maybe I didn’t belong here; I could hunt each one of these assholes down and have them for lunch with an ease and grace they couldn’t even imagine.

All I had to do was shift.

But that would only prove them right. It would prove the theory that dragons were unstable and didn’t belong in the world. If I shifted and destroyed an entire pack for looking at me wrong, they would hunt me down until I met my fate at the end of a silver sword.

Devon led me through the house, weaving in between people, and I was grateful for his presence. Everyone moved for him, and I was sure they would have forced me to go around or just plow right through them if he hadn’t been there. He kept glancing back at me, making sure I was still closely following until finally, we were in the hallway that led to the alpha’s office.

I had spent many of my days playing there as a child, first when my father was alive and working alongside Matt as he led the pack, and then after my father’s murder when Matt welcomed me into his home as one of his children. I was sure everything looked different now that Caius had been alpha for so long. He would have made the space his.

An overpowering scent of mountain air and the forest after rain hit me, and Astra stirred, waking up and taking notice.

Nice of you to wake up after I get through the gauntlet of angry wolves.

She didn’t answer me, but I could feel her peeking out through my eyes, waiting to see where the scent would lead us. I followed Devon into Caius’ office, and everything around me faded away as my eyes landed on the werewolf that was ten years my senior and held command of the room without even speaking.

Caius Obsidian stood behind a dark oak desk, leaning over it as he studied a map. He wore dark jeans and a black button-up, rolled up at the sleeves to reveal strong arms that showed how tense he was. His black hair was a crumpled mess and hung down over green eyes that traveled from the map and made contact with mine.

Mate.

Astra had never been more sure of anything in her life; it was clear in how she said the word and the way she preened under his gaze. I suddenly felt like I was drowning in a sea of lies as realization hit me about why Devon, and not some other wolf, had been sent to fetch me. I stared at Caius, rendered speechless by the truth that was right in front of me.

Caius had always known. From the day he had sent me away on his twentieth birthday, he had known what I was to him. I was more than just the dragon who had upstaged him at his own party. I was fated to be his, and I understood now why he had sent me away more so than I ever had before.

The words he had uttered that day as he stuffed me in a car to be driven to the airport came crashing down around me. I wasn’t worthy of this place; I wasn’t worthy of him. It all made sense now.

“You knew,” I whispered the words, though I already knew the answer.

“Everybody out,” he ordered the room to clear, but I remained in place, continuing the stare at him as wolves brushed past me until finally, we were alone.

Red tendrils of magic sparked across my hands as I waited for his answer. Anger flared in me as he continued to watch me as if he didn’t know what to say. What could he say? All he could do was confirm the knowledge I already had, but he couldn’t explain it away, not in a way that would make it okay.

A ball of red light formed in one of my hands, and I launched it at him in a moment of absolute fury as I shouted, not caring at all who heard me. “You knew!”

Caius' eyes widened, and he ducked, hitting the ground moments before the ball of energy would have hit him in the chest. Another ball started forming in my hands as I waited for him to get up. I didn’t care if I took out the alpha and had to fight my way out of this house. He was going to pay for his lies.

“Astoria,” he growled my name, and my heart skipped a beat. It caused me to hesitate because Astra didn’t want his anger. She wanted more. She wanted everything from him, and she was fighting my rage at what he had done to us. Caius took advantage of that hesitation and launched himself at me across the table.

He slammed into me, and we hit the ground, grappling with each for control. Finally, he pinned my wrists above my head, straddling me, and my heart nearly stopped beating. He was so close, and his scent was so strong, wrapping around me like a hug. Biologically his scent should calm me, but I was fighting it with everything I had, and he could see it in the way my eyes shifted from their normal blue to an icy gray.

“Stop, Astoria.” I stilled as his voice melted over me. It wasn’t full of anger like I expected it to be since I had just tried to kill him. There was longing there that I didn’t expect. His jaw tensed and relaxed, and I watched his eyes darken as his wolf came to the surface to look at the mate he’d been separated from for a decade.

He leaned forward and buried his face in my neck, mumbling more to himself than to me. “You smell like strawberries and honey.”

Then as if it never happened, he snapped out of it and sat up, still holding my wrists above my head. “And dragon,” he snarled as if he was angry about that fact.

“I can’t help that I smell like a dragon, since, y’know, I AM one,” I snapped back, anger flaring once more. I struggled against his hold on me, but he pinned me harder.

“You’re not to tell anybody what you are to me, do you understand?” He hissed, his eyes hardening as his wolf retreated.

I wanted to argue with him, to demand to know why I was a secret, but something about the wild way he was looking at me made me simply nod in agreement.

“If you disobey me, I’ll have you collared and thrown in a cell.”

All desire for argument was gone. Being collared would be the worst possible thing to happen to me. It would cut off my access to Astra, tamper my ability to wield magic, and make me nothing more than human-like.

“Yes, sir,” I muttered, resigned to the fact his hatred for me seemed to be stronger than it had been the day I left.

“Good g-,” he stopped short of what he was going to say and simply nodded, standing and pulling me up with him. I rubbed my bruised but quickly healing wrists as he walked back around to the other side of his desk, straightening the papers and the room filled with wolves again. Devon was among them, and he gave me a sympathetic look.

“Where is Matt?” I asked, I was looking at Caius, but my question was directed to the room. I didn’t really want to talk to my mate at the moment. Astra had retreated further inside my consciousness, hiding from his glare and sharp words.

“He’s somewhere in Billings. That’s why you’re here. You can fly above the city and pinpoint where he is by searching out his aura,” Caius answered, never looking up from his maps.

“She hasn’t seen Matt in ten years, how is she going to know what his aura looks like?” One of the pack warriors demanded, and I turned my glare to him.

“He’ll be the only alpha surrounded by rogues. They look different, I assure you.”

The warrior didn’t look like he believed me, but a look from Devon silenced him. My rage toward the gamma faltered a little. He was doing his job again, even though I would never be luna because Caius would never accept me, Devon was treating me like that’s what I was.

Another piece of the puzzle slipped into place. Caius said not to tell anyone, but Devon knew, that’s why he was sent to fetch me over anyone else. His entire being was devoted to serving the pack’s luna, defending her against the alpha, and standing up for her against the rest of the pack if needed.

Devon and I had a lot to talk about.

I turned my attention back to Caius for the moment, because there were more pressing matters at hand. I stepped closer to the desk, and he stiffened as my scent further invaded his senses. Good, he could be just as tortured as I currently was.

Looking down at the map, I studied the places circled, all warehouses. “So you think he’s being held in a warehouse…" I trailed off; it wasn’t a question that needed an answer.

“You’ll fly above the city and tell us where he is.”

“And how am I supposed to do that? I don’t have a mindlink like everyone else.”

Even as a child, the mindlink had never worked for me because I wasn’t a wolf like everyone else. One warrior snorted behind me. I had just made clear one of the reasons I didn’t belong here.

“You’ll fly back and tell us,” Caius answered.

“It would be easier just to let me get him once I find him.”

“No,” he growled at me. “You’re not to do anything but find him. Do you understand?”

I remembered his warning about the collar and nodded.

“Reconnaissance only got it,” I replied bitterly. Flying back to tell him where Matt was would waste the precious time we probably didn’t have, but he was in control. With the threat of being collared looming over my head, I wasn’t rushing to disagree with him further.

“We leave now,” Caius announced, and one by one, the warriors filed out of the room, leaving me alone with Devon and Caius. I wanted to confront Devon about his obvious knowledge of my status, but Caius’ warning about not telling anyone probably extended to talking to Devon about it too. I would just have to wait until I was alone with the gamma.

I followed the path the warriors took, and as we moved through the house, Devon caught up with me, showing him a map on his phone where a pin had been dropped over an open field right outside of the city.

“We’ll be here,” he said.

I studied the spot on the map for a moment and inclined my head in acknowledgment as we stepped outside. It was dark, something I was grateful for. I could fly lower without being spotted, wrapped in the cloak of night. As I moved away from the group of warriors getting into cars, Astra pushed into the forefront, eager to fly.

Deep red scales sprouted along my exposed skin and over my clothes, shielding me in armor as I moved. Magic shimmered around me, and I let myself fall into the shift. Seconds later, Astra stood where I had been. She swung her head around and snapped at the closest wolf, anger at Caius’ rejection of us flowing through her.

A deep growl rumbled through her chest as she lifted her lip and snarled at Caius standing next to Devon, showing massive white teeth.

Devon looked a little alarmed, and I couldn’t quite place Caius’ expression. The last time I had shifted in front of them, I had been the size of a large dog in this form. Now I took up the space of a small plane.

“Don’t eat us, Astoria,” Devon said, as Astra yawned in annoyance. She huffed at him and turned, shaking out massive wings before lifting off into the air, flying straight up toward the moon. She circled over the house and then straightened out toward Billings, flying just high enough we were invisible to the naked eye.