The Gentle Dragon

Chapter 3: Kaylani

I watch Everett and Fenian walk inside before turning back.

“He’ll figure it out eventually, Kaylani,” Kenna says kindly.

“I doubt it,” I say, turning to her. “What brings you to the school? Registering Kenna for classes?” I ask, smiling.

She growls at me, but I just look at her. She needs to be here as much as anyone else. Yhendorn will as well once she’s old enough.

“Given the waitlist you already have, I think that’s a good idea, Kenna,” Yhendorn says to her.

“You can’t be serious,” she snaps at him. Fire dragon and Lycan. She’s a powerful hybrid and in her current youthfulness, a lot of that burns as fiery emotions.

Her mate, however, not only loves her fire, but seems to know how to stoke her flames without allowing them to burn him to ash.

“I want to be a good mate to you, Kenna. Always. There are many things that I don’t know about you and that you don’t know about me. We have time, but sometimes the expectation of what is to come becomes overwhelming the closer you get. I don’t want you becoming skittish, and I know you’ll give me one hell of a fight when the time comes, so I want to be as prepared as possible to claim you in a way that limits the damage and pain that I cause you and to ensure that I know exactly what I need to do so you never feel like you’ve been forced to comply with my will. You aren’t the only one that will need to take classes here, my love. When the time comes, I will too.”

And just like that, Yhendorn has turned Kenna’s burning fire into molten lava goo puddling at his feet.

She huffs. “Fine.”

“Thank you, my beautiful fire dragon,” he says, kissing the top of her head.

I can only imagine how strange it is for her to be an adult in one body and a child in the other. I’m surprised that she doesn’t spend more time in her dragon body, but maybe that limits her ability to be near her mate too much. Coming to school here will be a test of her ability to be away from Yhendorn.

“What’s up with Ancalagon?” she asks me.

“UGH!” I say, rolling my eyes and turning to Naida, who is still in her dragon form.

“He’s getting closer to shifting and with each day he’s becoming more and more difficult. Everett thinks that there is something else going on with him, but you know that he's not going to willingly let Everett run tests on him, at least not in his current state."

Kenna turns to where Ancalagon flew off with the other dragons.

“Did you feel it? His Alpha call?” she asks me, and I can tell she didn’t like feeling a pull to someone other than Yhendorn.

“Yes, but he’s not yet strong enough to rule over pure dragons. It’s only a matter of time though. He’s the Alpha of Alphas. He was meant to rule us all. I just hope that when the time comes, that he’s past this temperamental stage of his growth. Did his call pull you?”

She nods, turning to look back at me.

Now it’s my turn to look out to where Ancalagon flew off. “With your Alpha genes, I’m surprised you felt it more than I did. Eventually, he’ll overrule you, but because of who you are, you were able to resist, unlike Naida here,” I say, still stroking her snout.

“Sorry Naida. Grumpy Ancalagon forced your shift, didn’t he?” Kenna coos at her, coming over to stroke her snout. “I haven’t seen you shifted yet. Can I have a look?”

I step back and let Naida strut a bit, showing off her dragon’s body.

“Your color is a bit lighter than Kaylani’s but still every bit the water dragon’s coloring. You’re beautiful.”

Naida begins crooning at Kenna’s words.

“See, I told you that it was okay that our colors weren’t exactly the same. Everyone will still know that you are a water dragon,” I tell her.

“I’m not the same ruby color as my mother, but I’m still a dark red, so everyone knows I’m a fire dragon. Trust me, no one will doubt that you are Kaylani’s daughter.”

I smile at my adopted daughter. She’s so special to me for so many reasons. Not only does she have my DNA, truly making her my daughter, but she also has been through so much that I’m thankful that she has remained a kind soul through it all.

“We need to talk to Everett. We want an update on his patient and to see what’s happening with the hybrids.”

“I’ll call Zephyr and have Ishir come over. He, Avani, and Cedric have been taking turns going out to search. I do know they found another shed skin,” I tell them.

“Has Everett gotten anything out of the new one?” Yhendorn asks.

“The same as before. It has the same DNA structure as Ancalagon.”

“Thanks, Kaylani. Good to see you, Naida,” Kenna says as the two of them walk inside following after Everett.

I turn back to Naida. “Since you’re shifted, do you want to work on strengthening your wings so you can fly?” I ask her.

“YES!” she bugles.

I chuckle. “Okay, but I don’t have long. I have a class to run this morning.”

I step away from her and strip down, shifting into my dragon that is much larger than hers. I lean down and croon at her, encouraging and bonding with her in our dragon form.

Tesha walks up, watching us.

“Would you like to join us, Tesha?” I ask her.

Tesha was one of the poorly constructed hybrids that shifted before we found her. Her original DNA was Lycan and polar bear, neither of which bond with human DNA. So, her shift turned her into a deformed creature, and it nearly killed her. She still has the scars from that first shift, and she always wears long sleeves and pants to cover them.

Once we found her, my mate was able to add Tana’s DNA, since we know that the Lycan DNA came from her son. Dragon DNA attaches well to human and other shifter DNA, so Everett was not only able to save her life, but she’s able to shift. Unfortunately, she doesn’t shift cleanly. Unlike most of the hybrids, Tesha can shift into one of two species, Lycan or dragon. The problem is, the other DNA is blended too deeply into the first, so she either shifts into a scaly Lycan or a furry dragon. Because she’s a fire dragon, the fire and fur do not go well together.

I know she’s extremely self-conscious of the way she looks in her shifted form. Zephyr and I have been working closely with her to help her come to terms with her new body or, in her case, bodies. With the DNA she has, she’s not only an apex predator, but she’s also an Alpha, a leader. She has the temperament to lead and Zephyr and I are trying to help her become the confident leader she is meant to be.

“No, thank you,” she says. “But can I watch?”

I look at Naida. “Sure, just don’t laugh.”

“I won’t laugh,” Tesha says, sitting down nearby to watch as I work to help Naida lift off the ground.

After a few minutes, Aithlin, one of the elves, comes over. Naida is very well liked by the males in the school and I’ve already noticed that there is some fighting for her attention among the different factions.

“Naida, I can put a little wind under your wings to help you lift off,” Aithlin says.

“Aith, sit down. Naida doesn’t need any help. She just needs practice,” Tesha says.

“How would you know?” he snaps.

Tesha just gives him a look, but Naida turns and growls at him. She and Tesha have started creating a friendship even though they are about three years apart in age.

“Sorry, Naida,” he says, making her huff. He doesn’t seem to realize that he apologized to the wrong person.