For all his protests to the contrary, Elouan, as alpha, claimed Curtis as one he’d sworn to protect.
Curtis grinned and dashed out the door, though the expression didn't reach his eyes. A half-blood would likely never shift and fly. He’d been born in human form. To a human mother. Most dragons would see him as solely human.
No, they’d see him as alowlyhuman.
A lowly human. How many times in the past had Elouan heard those words and not responded? Granted, he’d met humans onprevious forays into the human realm, but he’d never taken the time to get to know them. But humans were humans and dragons were dragons. They weren’t better or worse for what they were. Goddess knew he’d met some horrible dragons in his day. Exhibit A? Uncle Urien.
Legends told of how dragons used to lay their own eggs, but remaining in dragon form to hatch them proved difficult, as dragons required so much more food than in human form. Also, dragon clutches used to contain ten eggs or more, causing food shortages and encroachment on human lands with such a large population. Babies born in human form never learned to shift, so the Goddess stepped in, presenting eggs to the worthy, one at a time. Elouan had never known a single family to have over three, and the offspring always resembled the parents, as though born of their bodies. But there were never any human-form births or eggs laid after the Goddess intervened.
Or so legend said.
However, if children were born of a human/dragon pairing? How did such a pairing even work? Dragons also spent most of their time in their human form. Had there been any human/dragon couples in Adrakus he hadn’t known about because they simply weren’t mentioned?
Could humans have once possessed a dragon form too? He didn’t know, having never sought out the humans of Adrakus. Which he’d never thought about before, and that now seemed an extreme oversight.
Elouan couldn’t imagine a life without flight.
He also couldn’t imagine being in love, so he couldn’t understand why one of his kind would surrender the glory of the skies for a human existence. Could love so deep even exist? Well, apparently it could for Curtis’s omega father, who’d taken one look at a human police chief and renounced his own world.
What would it be like for Elouan to love so completely that he’d willingly sacrifice all to be with one individual? Because of his exile, if he didn’t intend to live out his life alone, he too would have to find a mate among humans or one of the few available dragons.
While he’d come to think of humans as fun for a night or even a quickie in a bathroom at a club or party, wanting a human lover full-time would be another matter entirely. How did one even bring such a thing up in conversation?Hi, I’m Elouan, and I’m a Draco, what people in this world call a Leo. I love motorcycles, getting high—literally—and, by the way, I grow scales and claws.
If that didn’t send a prospective date screaming, nothing would. Except for one really weird guy from a party who claimed to be from the future and kept insisting he could see Elouan’s past—getting every detail wrong. Even someone so…unusual…might balk at retrieving an egg from a volcano one day. The prospect sent even dragons running on occasion.
Enter a volcano? Ask a favor of the Goddess? Three times in Elouan’s parents’ case. Of course, for them, the Goddess complied, but rumors said she’d devour the unworthy in her flames. Uncle Urien had best avoid the sacred mountain at all costs. However, if the Goddess wanted to mete out punishment, Elouan would gladly help her. Or do the punishing himself, letting the Goddess sit one out.
Then again, she’d given Urien two eggs, so maybe he’d been in her good graces once.
Elouan finished breakfast, cleaned the dishes to keep Curtis from doing so later, and then settled on the couch with Curtis’s laptop as he did every morning before work. He logged into his social media accounts and once more searched for his brothers. Where were they? If they were in the human world, had theychanged their family names, like Elouan had? Or had Sakaris sent them elsewhere? Terra turned out to be quite large.
He cross-referenced their names, ages, interests, like Anrai’s flute. Nothing. He didn’t even have a photo to post underHave You Seen Me?
Elouan took a moment to picture his brothers in his mind: Anrai, who’d be twenty-two in human years, and Daire, who should’ve just turned twenty-six, though they might appear younger, as dragons aged slower than humans. When Elouan and his brothers stood side by side, they appeared to be stair steps, with Elouan standing six-feet-four, Daire at six-feet-two, and Anrai at about five-nine.
His heart ached at the memory of conversations and youthful antics. Goddess, he missed them, he missed Teron, and he missed his parents.
Anrai resembled Elouan in appearance, though his dragon was a light green, while Elouan’s was a deep bronze, with mottled dark scales shimmering with iridescence in the sunlight. Being an omega, Anrai’s dragon was slightly smaller and leaner than Elouan’s alpha form. He could also maneuver much better without the extra bulk, and dive like an arrow.
Daire’s dragon appeared dark brown, easy to miss during night flying. The court considered him a beautiful dragon in either form, a fierce fighter, and a fierce lover based on rumors Elouan truly didn’t want to hear but that others insisted on telling him anyway. The Goddess knew how many proposals Father received for Daire. Even more than for Elouan, who’d one day be king. Not that Father ever told the beta son of the group, who might run.
Daire didn’t consider himself handsome, while Anrai flaunted his good looks. Had either brother found love wherever they were hiding? Wherever they were, may they be happy, and know Elouan missed them.
No new emails filled Elouan’s inbox in response to his many queries, though he received a few ads for erectile dysfunction drugs he didn’t need. No, getting erections wasn’t the problem. The problem was finding someone to help him relieve an erection—in a fun way. Someone he’d want to keep around.
He’d heard DNA tests united lost relatives but didn’t dare let anyone see the uniqueness of his makeup, an unspoken agreement among his kind who lived in Terra.
No telling how humans would react to dragons in their midst, but if the general public ever found out, the quiet life dragons sought by moving here would be history. Elouan had survived in this realm for three years with no hint of Daire or Anrai. Though Sakaris swore he’d sealed the gate between the two realms, nothing should’ve stopped the mage himself from coming with news. Or was there any?
Did Sakaris still live?
Not a good omen. What of the court back home, those loyal to Father who’d tolerated Urien to avoid death? Elouan pushed aside the thoughts. Nothing he could do to help any dragons, not from a distance. He sighed, turned off the computer, donned his leather jacket, and grabbed the lunch he’d made last night out of the refrigerator.
Time to leave the cozy little apartment for work. He took the truck, the morning cooler than he liked for his motorcycle, with the threat of rain later.
The ride into town didn't take long, Elouan jamming along with—irony of ironies—Imagine Dragons, though the lead singer hit high notes Elouan couldn’t manage. The lyrics were thought-provoking, helped to pass the time, and wouldn’t inspire laughter from the rest of the men on the construction site.
He parked his old truck in the parking lot of the bare bones of a high-rise. If he couldn’t soar among the heavens on wings, he could at least feel the wind on his face from on high. Hestrapped on his tool belt and lifted his hardhat from its place in the passenger seat to begin his day welding. Yes, heights and fire. Two of his favorite things.