A Female Dragon is Here?

Chapter Two

Enzo POV

My second-in-charge was talking to me about the palace goings-on, about my mother's interference, and if I would cave in and take the one she wanted me to have as my mate. I am a Royal Prince with a very powerful dragon'. I am one of the strongest seen in many generations, and my mother wants me to mate with her weak friend's daughter, to raise her status.

I am not the least bit interested in that girl, she is from a power-hungry family, and they have pandered to this girl's every need. I have no intention of taking that woman, even my dragon refuses to look at her.

We were headed to the next village, hopefully gaining more boys. We take young boys with the potential to become warriors for the people. As dragon shifters, we can do a lot of damage, but we have been training boys to be warriors to do a lot of groundwork and fight the war against the rogue shifters.

It had been a peaceful night, and we were camped by the last pond of water around here before the next town. The lads had bathed and were settling down for the evening, singing songs by the fire.

Suddenly, the night was filled with the roars of the oncoming attack from the rogue dragon shifters. We sent the lads to hide under the wagons, and we prepared the best we could to defend them. We did not shift, we stayed on the ground, our horses took off, running from the dragons, but they were not what the dragons were here for.

We were used to ground defending. It is part of what we will train the boys to do. They would wear specially made armor, they would fight like we are now; the boys would be watching us fight, and, hopefully, we could keep every one of them from being taken. The fight was dirty, these dragons had not changed much, they still fought the same way they had for years, and defending was not that hard to do.

We managed to kill three. Before unexpected help arrived. A dragon, not just any dragon. A golden beauty. A female dragon, seeing her arrive and kill one in the sky, distracted me. In our fight on the ground, I nearly got hit by a plume of fire. One of my men pushed me out of the way and I took the opportunity to thrust my sword up under the chin of the dragon and into the soft part of his neck and through his skull, covering me with his warm blood as it sprayed over me from the large gaping cut from my sword in his neck, the dragon dropped dead, and I rolled quickly away from his corpse before he fell on me, that would have been embarrassing if I got trapped under the dead dragon, not the sort of training I want to give the lads, I chuckled to myself.

Then, I had to roll again and only just managed to get out of the way as the next dragon, who had been killed by the female dragon in the sky, and his corpse had fallen close to my body. The fight was more or less done when she killed this dragon. He was the leader of this flight, and when he was killed, the rest fled. Leaving me staring up at the golden dragon as she flew in circles up high in the sky, I guess she was watching the rogues fleeing.

The lads came out from under the wagons and looked around, all the while my flight started cleaning the area and checking what needed to be repaired. The lads helped where they could. I called my second and third in command to come with me to greet the golden beauty, and thank her for her help.

We approached the dragon, she had landed not too far away and was trotting casually towards us, still in her dragon form. We bowed before her, she deserved our respect and bowing was the only way I could think of at that moment to give her homage for her help. I asked her to shift so we could talk. But then she shocked me again, as her soft voice entered my mind.

Wow, such a lovely woman. I wondered if she would consider being my mate. I could not feel anything about her, it was as if she was blocking all of her essence from me. I could meet her in the street and not know she was a dragon, a very clever woman. So pretty, I loved the silver flecks in her scales.

I watched in awe after we talked, as she leaped into the sky and disappeared right before my eyes. How did she do that? I was in awe of this woman, and could not wait to go hunting for her, but where to start? I have no clue, but I have a new goal now, and it was to find her and make her mine.

‘Where did she go?’ Malcolm asked as she vanished.

‘She mind-linked me, asking if we needed anything, having said no, she left.’ I said, still looking up at the sky where I had last seen her, as if by looking she would reappear.

‘She mind-linked you? Are you, her mate?’ he asked, staring at me in shock.

‘No idea, she was blocking her identity from me. Come, let’s get cleaned up and get some rest. We reach the next town tomorrow.’

I worked for a couple of hours burning the dead and fixing one wagon that was broken. I managed a few hours' sleep before morning came, tired and grumpy. I ate in silence and mounted my horse. I was ready for a good bath and a soft bed to sleep in.

In the next town, we found a couple of lads that had potential. They were twins and were impressive.

‘What are your names?’ I asked, just to make them comfortable. I had already heard one of the boys talking to them but had not officially been introduced.

‘I am Robbie and this ugly one is Louie.’ He said and got a dig in the ribs from the other one. I liked them already, they would be great for the morale of the men, and the banter between two siblings is often fun to watch.

‘Do you know who I am?’ I asked, not knowing how much this small village would know of the royal pack of dragons.

‘Yes.’ They said together and looked at each other and smirked, they were copies of each other, even down to saying the same words.

‘Do you know why I have brought you out here to talk?’ I probed. Some of the village elders like to keep the people in the dark about the goings-on around the kingdom and our recruitment drives.

‘You looking for more warriors?’ Louie asked, rather than answer the question, and the other one looked at his brother and frowned at that. Maybe they did think a little differently, or maybe the other one would have worded it differently.

‘Are you interested?’ They seemed bright enough, and they had strong bodies already, they would bulk out rather quickly with our training and food.

The boy's faces lit up like the night on a full moon, and I had all the answers I needed with that smile.

‘Yes.’ One said ‘You bet.’ The other said at the same time, and they nudged each other in the ribs again. I am surprised they are not black and blue or have cracked ribs with the number of elbows in the ribs they keep giving each other and I could not hold back the chuckle inside.

‘In that case, we will need to speak to your parents about taking you with us. Are you sure you are interested? It will be a lot of hard work?’ I had to be sure, I don’t want to be accused of k********g minors and their parents had to say yes. I had never taken a boy by force before, and I wasn’t going to now.