The Brave Mate of The Unknown

Chapter Ten: Join me for an Adventure

It was a long week, for a couple nights I could swear I saw Ayden through my bedroom window waiting outside of the gates for me. I just didn’t understand why he never came to my window like he did before. Especially since he knew how to without guards seeing him. “Yah Tam, he was amazing, I don’t know too much about him but he’s a traveler. He’s not an elf and he’s not a mage, I was thinking maybe he was a dragon shifter but he didn’t seem like one. He works and does so many cool things and he’s our age.” I smiled as I spoke.

“You sound like you like him.” She giggled.

“I do not!” I laughed “He’s a cool friend, plus remember how our dads sat us down together a few weeks ago to tell us we needed to wait for our mates?” I laughed more.

“Oh my god, they really had to have the mate talk with us together.” She laughed harder. “They couldn’t do it alone.”

I mimicked my father's voice. “The moon goddess wouldn’t want you guys fooling around before meeting your mate.” When I finished I busted out laughing more.

“Goddess.” She swore. “Just don’t give your dad too hard a time, that’s just how dragon shifter Dads are. They’re not like elves, they're super protective and possessive, that’s how the moon goddess wanted it. All dragon shifter men in general while women are super nurturing when it comes to the people they love. For men they’re super protective of Daughters, nieces, mates, it’s their nature and only means they care.” Tamara was around a lot more dragons than me so she always made sure to let me know what was normal. “Do you think you have a mate?” 

I chuckled. “Of course I do, my aunt and uncle are hybrids too and they have mates that they’re mated with. I’ll have one too.” I always let her know about hybrid stuff this way we both understood each other an our slightly different cultures completely. “Are you going to wait for your mate? For dating and s*x?” I asked, it’s something I thought about a lot. “Elves don’t have mates so they don’t wait.” A lot of people in our highschool were already having s*x because the majority were elves. “What if our mate turns out to be an elf? They will already have experience then we’re going to look stupid. But if our mate is a dragon shifter or werewolf who usually waits for their mates then we’ll look like sluts.” 

“I don’t know Dawn, remember what happened with Lilly?” Lilly was one of the dragons we hung out with who lived in the dragon kingdom. 

I sighed. “Yeah she had s*x and rubbed it in our faces, I guess not every dragon shifter waits for their mate. Well do you think the moon goddess actually cares?” 

“Nope, she wants it to be our choice, that’s her whole thing, that’s why we can reject our mates and choose a new one or she’ll even send us a new one herself.” 

That made me feel a lot better about the whole thing. “I gotta go, I’m not grounded anymore and I have to go look for Ayden. I just need to figure out how without anyone knowing.” 

“You really want to disobey your parents like that? Dawn you have something not a lot of people have, amazing parents who care about your wellbeing and trust you.” Sometimes Tamara was a little prechy but she was just getting really empathetic lately. 

I frowned. “Maybe I should tell my mom about Ayden? I don’t know, this is just really important to me. Bye Tam.” I hung up. 

I got up when I heard a knock on my door. “Come in.” 

My mom walked in. “Hey, sorry you had to be grounded for a week Bean.” She sat on my bed. “I was thinking about what you said, I do understand and I want you to have your freedom. I thought maybe it’s time for you to have a lady in waiting.” 

I frowned. “That sounds cool, princess Hailey loves hers but didn’t yours try to kill Dad and your siblings?” 

Mom chuckled nervously. “Yah but that’s why we’d choose very very carefully for you. I’m sure you don’t want to be with a guard everywhere you go without us. And they’d live here so you could leave with them at anytime as long as you notify a guard. It’s important to always go somewhere with someone no matter how powerful you are.”

I looked out my window to see if I could spot Ayden as I listened to her.“That actually doesn’t seem like a bad idea… may we could start interviewing some people.” 

Mom nodded. “Whenever you’re ready. Also your Dad isn’t going to say anything about it but you weren’t grounded just for leaving at night by yourself. He knows you lied about being alone, he smelled another scent on you.”

I sighed. “Yeah, I met this boy.” Maybe this wouldn’t be the worst thing, telling her.

“Oh?” She looked really surprised. “Aren’t you waiting for your mate?”

I waved my hands in front of myself. “No no no, it’s not like that. I am waiting for my mate.” Still wasn’t sure about that. “He’s a friend, a really cool friend, I went to a fairy village with him.” 

“When can we meet him?” Mom asked.

I frowned and looked away. “I don’t really want Dad to meet him. This is the one friend I don’t want scared away.” 

“Okay Dawn, I won’t say anything for now but you should think about it more.” She got up. “If he’s a friend you really trust then your dad won’t scare him away, maybe get to know him a little more than see if he's worth introducing to us.” She walked to the door and left.

I looked down at the bracelet Ayden gave me, it started to glow. “What?” But then it stopped glowing, it did that a few times since I got it. I haven’t taken it off since he gave it to me.

I grabbed my bag, left my room and went outside. The sun was still up, it hadn’t gone down yet. I told some guards I was leaving and they opened the gates, since I told them I was only going on a short walk in the enchanted forest they didn’t feel the need to have one of them escort me. I walked out and towards the forest hoping I’d see him again. “Where could he be?” I looked around and kept walking till I got into the enchanted forest but I still couldn’t smell his scent. “I guess I’ve only ever seen him at night before, what did he do during the day?” I whispered to myself.

I was scared to but I thought I should go to the dragon forest to find him. So I started walking. I never really noticed how beautiful our forest is until going into the dragon forest. 

I took a couple steps back when I saw goblins. “H-hey…” I waved but one jumped at me, I fell back and put my arm up and my bracelet glowed a lot more. I opened my eyes and my bracelet was gone but there was a sword in my hand instead. “What…” I whispered but the Goblin was still on me, I was pushing him away with the swears between us. I didn’t know how to use this sword so I didn’t know what else to do. 

I closed my eyes tightly getting ready for the Goblin to overpower me when unexpectedly I feel the weight fall off me and I hear slashes. A hand grabbed mine and I opened my eyes to see Ayden who had saved me. 

“You’re not usually one to get yourself into trouble.” He smirked. “Good thing I was around.” 

I looked around and he had killed the tree goblins. “Goddesses Ayden.” I swore and stood up. The sword retracted into a bracelet again. “You didn’t have to kill them!” 

“Dawn they’re pests, they’re not capable of intellectual thought and they were trying to kill you.” He let go of my hand and slid his sword back into its scabbard with the blade covered in goblin blood. 

I frowned. “Well I’m not going to thank you.” I dusted my pants off. 

Ayden laughed. “You don’t have to, as long as you're safe you can nag all you want.” He wasn’t the nicest guy but he protected me. After he was done laughing his expression turned serious. “Um Dawn, why’re you out here anyways?”

“I…” It grew hard to speak. “I was looking for you.” 

He turned his back to me and started walking. “I was just leaving actually.” 

I quickly started walking after him. “Why?” I was worried. “Where are you going again so soon?” I grabbed his hand from behind him. “Ayden…?”

He hung his head. “Before, I came back for your help, I need to save my parents. I’ve never known of my parents Dawn. I’ve always been alone but I’ve heard stories in another region about two adults like me. They’re the same as me, never have I ever seen or heard about someone else with my special abilities.” He lifted his head but stayed turned away from me. “I came to ask if you would come with me but your absence the past week made me think I shouldn't bother you with this...”

“Ayden I can help you.” My bottom lip quivered, I couldn't help but agree, like I wasn’t in control, my heart was. “I’ll go with you to help you find your parents.”