Page 17 of Destined Paranormals: Volume One

“It feels like something is being ripped from deep inside your body,” I told him as I crawled over to where Lukas was lying on the ground. I ran my fingers through his hair; he offered a pained smile. “It only lasts a moment,” I told him. Lukas closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

I heard Wilhelm cry out, and then Elias was crawling over to him, offering help if at all possible. That left only Elias, who didn’t look as if he was interested in getting his removed.

“Come on, Elias,” Lukas said as he sat beside me. “We need to leave, and I don’t think the alpha is going to do so until yours are gone.”

Elias sighed and held out his arms, turning his head toward us, his eyes closed tightly.

I groaned. “Elias, you have to put them in his mouth,” I said as I crawled to them. When I got there, I carefully lifted Elias’s arms, placing them where they needed to be. I watched the large dragon eyes as he effortlessly closed his mouth, effectively cutting the last set of shackles from us. Elias cried out loudly, collapsing back against me.

I held Elias for a moment as the alpha once again shifted back into his human half.

“Ack. I have never seen someone shift that fast,” Wilhelm said.

I glanced at my friend and shook my head. Me either. The alpha walked off, leaving us just at the edge of the trees.

“I guess that’s it? We’re on our own now?” Lukas asked.

I stood up, pulling Elias with me.

“We owe him our lives, but he owes us nothing. We should be grateful he came to us for whatever reason,” I said. I wrapped my arm around Elias’s waist and started walking. I had no real clue which direction was home or even if we had a home to go to.

“Home is that way,” Wilhelm said, pointing in the other direction.

“I will take your word for it. I do not even know what day it is.” I changed direction and started walking. My dragon did not like that I was leaving our mate behind though.

“We are just going to leave him behind?” Elias asked, his arm still around my waist.

“He left us and disappeared into the woods. He did not even give us his name,” I said.

“It’s Aleric, mate. Where is it you believe you are going without me?”

I froze, slowly turning to once again look at the alpha that called to my dragon. Aleric. My mate’s name was…very fitting.

“You left without saying a word,” I said sternly.

“I needed to retrieve this.” He held up a satchel before dropping it back to his side. “Where were you taken from?”

“There is no name for our village. We were up near the sea, just a dozen or so families that make up our thunder,” Wilhelm told him.

“We are just north of Brandenburg now. I will shift, and you can ride on my back once again. I will take you to the sea north of here. If there is no name, how am I to know where to return you to?”

“That was the hope of our alpha. He did not want others to be able to find us.” Which had been both a blessing as well as not. So many of us had missed out on being able to meet others like us.

“I will take you in that direction. If you feel strong enough to shift and fly, I will trust you to guide me in that direction.”

“Do you know who took us? Or why?” Elias asked. He had moved over to Lukas and was now hanging on to him.

“I know not the why but know of the man. His name was Feiedrich König. I do not know what magic is happening here, but he was human. How he was able to capture four dragon omegas, or why, I am not sure. He will not be able to answer any questions though.”

That made me feel better. That man did not deserve to live. I tilted my head, watching the alpha that had twice now called me mate. That meant he was claiming me, right?

“We must fly. I will need to be out of the air by sunup, and we do not have much time.” The man before us changed before our eyes, tan skin being replaced by midnight-blue scales, the body growing in size that should not be possible.

When the dragon—no, Aleric—lay down once more, I grabbed the satchel he’d dropped, and we all climbed onto his back. I could feel my dragon, but I knew I had not had nearly enough nourishment in the past weeks or months to shift, let alone fly to the sea. Once we were situated, Aleric stood, jumped, then flapped his wings, taking us high into the sky with his powerful wings in no time. I held on as best as I could, but I somehow knew my mate would not let any more harm come to me.

Chapter 7

Aleric