Dragon 2 Chapter 5

“More trolls?” Scarlett asked, as we headed out of class.

“Just one. It was at the convention center, so I did double duty and looked around the place, marking up all the enchantments with Morgana.” I kept my voice normal and neutral; it drew less attention than whispering. “Met my first magi.”

Scarlett pulled us away from the crowd. It was the last day of class for both of us. She’d picked the direction, which looked like it was about to go back to her sorority.

“How’d that go?” The slight apprehension in her voice confirmed that paranormal were not the biggest fans of the magi.

“He was a dick. Hit on Morgana, who then charged him double for us to work security for the event.”

She raised an eyebrow. “Working for both the council and the magi as security.”

I grinned sheepishly. “It’s honest work.”

Scarlett snorted. “If you didn’t just like to sleep on your gold, you’d be rich.”

“I like it better as gold, and I think it still makes me rich. Just dragon rich, not dollar bills in hand rich.” I teased. She just smiled and shook her head in response.

“That’s okay. I can buy my own things for my freeloading boyfriend who would rather sleep on his gold.”

“Hey now, I gave a single brick away for Morgana to convert for me.” It had been like pulling a tooth, but I did it. I didn’t want to live off other people, either. One kilogram of gold had been enough for me to stay at college for over a year. That was enough converting gold into cash for now.

But I wanted to move off the topic of having to decrease my hoard. “So, you told Jadelyn.”

Scarlett looked surprised. “You already talked to her? That was fast.” She actually looked a little hurt, but she turned away from me to hide it.

“She caught me at the cafeteria during lunch today.” I clarified.

“Oh. That means she went and found you after I told her.” Scarlett had a smirk on her face when she turned back. “Do I need to give you two the room when we get back?”

I rolled my eyes. “No. But I do need your help. I asked her on a date. Going to Bumps seemed like it encroached on our time, and to be honest, I don’t think she’d like me trying to take her to a fancy restaurant. So I told her to bring hiking shoes and jeans.”

“Oh?” Scarlett looked intrigued. “Can’t say I’ve ever seen Jade go hiking before.”

“I’m thinking about some sort of picnic off of a hiking trail nearby. But you see, I have this challenge. My date has this really strict bodyguard outfit that watches over her. They’re a major pain in the ass.” I enjoyed the mock glare I got in return before I continued. “But I was thinking I should probably include them in the planning.”

Scarlett’s face had changed into work mode. I could already see the wheels turning in her head as I laid out my plans, thinking about how they would ensure Jadelyn’s safety.

I’d let her and the team pick out which of the trails would be best for their needs as long as it fit my plan.

“Yeah. We can do that. No problem at all. Actually, I should be saying thank you. It’ll make my life ten times easier if you keep doing things like this. It might even get my father to like you a little.”

“He better start liking me. I’m not going anywhere.” Giving my girlfriend a quick squeeze, I pecked her on the cheek and enjoyed watching her give me a blushing smile.

She sighed. “Jade doesn’t stand a chance.”

I hoped so. Because even walking next to Scarlett, breathing in her amazing scent, was making my head slide back into the gutter. I needed some relief. Although that would likely take some time with Jadelyn. She didn’t seem like a sex on a first date type of girl.

“Hey, there’s Kelly.” Scarlett pointed through the window of the dining hall.

I followed her finger. Sitting inside the dining hall in the corner by the windows was the pack, or at least the females of the pack. All of which happened to make up the majority of our college’s cheerleading squad.

It was as if Kelly sensed Scarlett pointing; she turned and locked eyes with me.

“Shit. I should probably go talk to her.” I ran a hand over my face. This one was going to be harder than Jadelyn. When I looked back, Kelly was still watching me, a bit of sadness in her eyes.

“Chasing so many skirts.” Scarlett teased. “It’s okay. Catch up later?”

“Yeah. Not chasing her skirt, though. I need help with shifting.”

Scarlett hummed like she didn’t believe me, but she didn’t challenge me on it.

Pinching her rear in return, I got a little surprised yelp out of her before I kissed her and let my hungry hands rove up her hips, pulling her closer. I groaned into her mouth as my other hand came around her back. I started to pick her up.

She broke the kiss with a smile and patted me on the cheek. “Down boy. Go talk to your favorite werewolf. I’ll be here for you later when you come back with tongue lashes.”

Giving her the eye roll she wanted, I put her back down and headed into the dining hall, trying to ignore the fact that Kelly had been watching us the whole time.

The dining hall was vast; it had to be for the number of students that it served. But instead of joining the packed line for food, I made a left and headed straight into the seating area. It was always loud during the food rushes. Over a thousand students were packed into the area, grabbing food after classes.

Weaving my way through the press of students coming and going, I made my way over to where the pack was sitting. The females in the pack were all stunningly gorgeous. And there was something about them all being next to each other that multiplied that even more.

Kelly sat in the back of the group, perched up against the window. Her straight brown hair was pulled back in a tight ponytail, and she had quite a bit of her sun kissed skin on display, with her t-shirt wadded up to show off her toned abs.

Kelly watched me and as I approached, and the others broke off their conversations as they noticed me as well. It was like a pack of wolves sensing another predator nearby.

I tried to ignore the awkward silence as I approached. It seemed eerie to have an entire section of the hall silent as the rest boomed with noise.

Kelly crossed her arms as I pulled up at the edge of their group. Nobody moved or made any attempt to clear a way for me, despite clearly knowing where I was headed.

I knew I’d blown her off. I had expected her pack would be protective of her as a result. “Kelly, have a minute to talk?”

She snorted. “Now you want to talk?” As if an extension of Kelly, all of the girl crossed their arms and gave me the same stern look. It was a bit intimidating to have that many women mad all at once.

I’d hoped to have a more private conversation, but I also knew that nothing in a pack was really private anyway. So I gave up.

Knowing that as werewolves, they responded best to alpha attitude; I packed it on. “Yeah. Now I want to talk. Have a problem with that?” I didn’t love being a bit of an asshole, but I got all of their attention.

Kelly bristled and narrowed her eyes. “Are you about to pick a fight here? Cause let me tell you big bad, the bitches of the pack aren’t pushovers.”

I kept eye contact with her, not backing down from the challenge. “You’re mad Kelly. I get it.” I got a scoffed grunt in response to that. “But my answer hasn’t changed. I need your help with something else.”

After their pack’s alpha, Chad, had nearly gotten them all killed, and I’d had to take him out. The pack was in disarray. Some of them had wanted me to be their new alpha, but others saw me as an outsider.

I knew I wasn’t meant to lead the pack. One of the roles as the alpha was to create the future generations. All the other men in the pack were sterile.

And the idea of sleeping with the pack females and then those females going back and having pairs, relationships with the beta males rankled me in a way that just thinking about it threatened to have my fire roll out of my mouth and torch the whole football team. Dragons didn’t share.

I’d explained all of this to Kelly, leaving out the dragon part, but she still didn’t seem convinced.

Kelly’s posture shifted slightly, although she still clearly had her guard up. Curiosity finally winning out, she asked, “What is it you need my help with?”

Taking a deep breath, I admitted what was hard to say in front of a pack of shifters. “I can’t shift.” There was an audible gasp across the females, many of which quickly had faces filled with pity. For a shifter, not being able to shift sounded like a death sentence.

Kelly quickly repeated back what I’d said, not seeming to believe it. “Can’t shift?”

“I should be able to, but… whenever I have tried, the shift doesn’t come. Obviously I didn’t know I was paranormal for a long time, so it’s not something I’ve been doing since birth like most of you.”

The girls parted, sympathetic looks on their faces. Two grabbed my arms and drew me into their group. More than a few of them gave me comforting touches, and they pressed in around me.

“What’s happening?” The sudden shift had me off balance.

“It happens sometimes. After a traumatic event, sometimes a wolf gets stuck as a human. People say it's worse than a kidney stone.” Kelly explained, getting down off her perch and sitting in front of me. “Tell us what you are?”

The werewolves enjoyed touch, and that became clear as they worked to console me. Hands snuck up my shirt and caressed my chest while someone ran their nails along my scalp. My body was instantly relaxing, enjoying the press of soft womanly curves around me.

It was hard to focus on talking to Kelly while it was happening, but I managed to reply to her question. “Sorry, Kelly. I can’t tell you what I am. It is too dangerous, especially when I can’t even shift. Once you know, you’ll understand why I need to be able to protect myself.”

“Join the pack. We’ll protect you if that’s what you need.” She came forward until she was almost sitting on my lap. “You could have this every day if you were our alpha.”

I groaned. It was tempting, especially at that moment. “Can’t. I’d kill all of your beta males. Really. What I am won’t play well with others. I’m far too territorial.”

“We deal with bone-headed alphas all the time. Sometimes it just takes a softer touch to get them in line.”

That snapped me out of it. “Is that what this is? A soft touch to get me in line?” Anger roiled in my gut. “You think this is a joke?”

“No.” Kelly said unconvincingly.

I let my eyes shift as I leaned forward. “Any woman I touch is mine alone. I’ll rip the guts out of any man who touches what is mine.” The beast was pissed off at just the idea as it thrashed in my chest.

Kelly must have seen something in my eyes, because she backed up, looking confused. “You really would.”

“Yes. I’m not joking around here, Kelly. And I’d like your help learning to shift.”

She tisked and waved the girls off me. They complied instantly, and I wondered for a second why the hell she wasn’t alpha. It seemed like she practically ran the pack from what I’d seen. “Fine. Let’s go see what we can do.” She turned to the girls. “Tiff, go make sure the boys aren’t killing each other on the field today. I’m going to go take a walk with our far too possessive shifter here.”

Kelly snagged a thin leather jacket from the corner and threw it on as she got up with the balance of a world class gymnast. “Come on.”

“Thank you, girls.” I told the rest of them. “You almost had me.” A part of me had almost given in. But I knew what I’d said was true. I couldn’t be their alpha, not without killing all the other men.

Kelly was tossing her hair out of her jacket as we walked. “So, you’re not going to tell me what you are?”

“If you can help me shift, you can see for yourself.” I winked.

She grumbled something low enough that I couldn’t hear her before looking me in the eye. “Know that I can’t be with you if you are going to be that possessive. And if you want to be with me, you have to be alpha. I’ve decided that’s the only one that’s going to touch me after the whole Chad debacle.”

“That makes sense. You want to be there to help keep the new alpha on the straight and narrow. How’s it been going?” I already knew it had gone to shit, but I tried to leave it open so she could share what she was comfortable sharing.

Tossing her brown hair again, trying to get some of the stray strands out of her jacket, she looked away. “After you so kindly declined any involvement, the boys decided among themselves that they were going to fight for it.”

She let out a deep sigh. “Every practice is a bloodbath. The boys are tearing each other apart. None of them have claimed alpha for more than a two-week stretch. They just don’t have enough power behind any of them to reign the rest in.”

I nodded. If they were all too closely matched, nobody would be able to retain the alpha position. “Why don’t you become alpha? You even seemed able to reign Chad in.”

Kelly scoffed. “That’s not how it works. And I couldn’t exactly impregnate all the girls. That’s sort of a vital part of the pack.”

I got her point, but I still didn’t quite buy it. She was tough enough and had the leadership skills. Who cares that she doesn’t have a dick? Technology or heck, even magic, could find a way to fix that problem. There had to be a way to solve the beta male infertility issue.

“You are certainly the better leader and keep everyone in line. It seems like you're the alpha, even if you won’t claim the title.” I looked up, realizing we were headed in a random direction. “Where are we going?”

“To my car, then out to my dad’s old bunker.” Kelly pointed to a several year old SUV.

I swung around the side and hopped in, feeling a little awkward that I didn’t know the fate of what happened to the bunker since her father lost his mind in it. “Is your father’s old pack still using it?”

“No, they abandoned it. Won’t go near it now that dad is dead.” She visibly wilted as she pulled out and started towards it.

“Want to talk about it?”

“It would have been fucking nice if you were there to talk about it when it happened.” She snapped. “Not even just the alpha stuff; you completely ditched me.”

I sighed and leaned back in the seat. “You wouldn’t drop the alpha crap. I couldn’t even have a conversation with you.”

The tension rose for a moment as both of us relived the reason we hadn’t been speaking recently, but eventually Kelly deflated and focused back on the road. “Fine. But I’m not sorry. We needed an alpha. I needed an alpha.”

“Trust me. When you see what I am, you’ll think twice about it.” Dragons weren’t exactly known for being team players. There was a reason they were always keeping damsels in towers.

Kelly gave me some serious side eye as she drove through traffic. “Going to keep hanging that out there?”

“I need something to entice you to help me figure this out. Morgana has me chasing swamp trolls all around town and dropping them off on the south side. Made me fight one today alone in hopes it would encourage me to shift. I’m a little afraid of what tactics she’ll shift to next.”

Kelly laughed. “I want to see that; have me come join you next time. In past years, the packs would help with swamp trolls. A few wolves could take one down.” She seemed to realize something. “In fact, you are probably dealing with so many because the packs aren’t helping. Shit, I wonder if we need to get the college pack to help with herding them out of the city.”

I hadn’t realized the packs had helped in the past, but it made sense. The migration happened every year, and there would have been some process already in place to keep them in check. But Chad has seriously damaged the local packs; they were all still working to get organized again. It was lucky Morgana and I could fill in.

“It’s fine. Morgana and I are running around every night taking care of them. When she isn’t pushing me, we use tranquilizers that an old elf makes.”

“Now that makes a lot more sense than trying to take them down physically, but seriously. If we can’t crack this today, I’d like to come with. Mostly to see you get your ass kicked.” Kelly laughed and though I didn’t love the idea, seeing her rise out of the melancholy mood was nice.

“Okay. Come see my ass get kicked tonight. If nothing else, some coaching on controlling it would be nice. Morgana can try to help, but she’s not exactly an expert on this.”

Shifting wasn’t something you could read up or pass on secondhand information. Having a werewolf around to help me might be just what I need.

Kelly let out a mad cackle as she drove. “Oh boy. I’m going to film this, savor it for years to come. Swamp troll kicks cocky alpha around.”

I sighed. “Not going to be your alpha.”

“You can’t deny you are worth being an alpha. Just because you won’t be the pack's alpha doesn’t mean you aren’t one.”

“Whatever.” I shrugged, already knowing she was going to keep pushing. We’d work through it one way or another.

AN: The Kelly romance is fun this book. Trying to make it clear he's not going to be alpha. But I have a fun twist for it planned later.

Also, I'm getting into dictation with my hands more often tied up with the wee one. I think I'm getting the swing of it. Dictation gets words out FAST, but then clean up is a pain.