Nine Weeks Later
Amaya’s POV
“Jax, are you sure your parents are okay with this?” I asked him again.
“Yes Little Duck. They know what you are and don’t care. I’ve told them you have plenty of control as long as you don’t plan on killing anyone in the pack, we’ll be fine.”
“Yeah, that’s not currently at the top of my to-do list,” I responded with a smile.
“Good thing because we’re almost there. We just entered the innermost ring of the territory. This is where most of the houses start and some shops will start in a few miles.”
“Shops? You guys have shops in the middle of your territory? How does that work?”
“They’re supplied by other packs and supers. We have trade networks with a lot of different clans and packs because we’re the ruling family. Our pack is the oldest and largest too so the part we’re about to drive through is more like a town than a housing development. We have schools too and warrior training. Other packs send their top warriors to us to further their training, and most future alphas and betas come to us for school.”
“Daniel hand picks members of our team or teams from different clans and packs, and then trains them. He doesn’t usually train outside our facility,” I stared out the window watching the houses change shape and color.
“So he’s not a SEAL trainer then?” He asked with a smile in his voice.
I smiled, “No, that training was just from me.”
“How did he swing that?”
“We work inside the government occasionally, so he has ties there. They’ve actually been asking him for a while to train a batch or two. He’ll go back one or two more times so it’s not so suspicious and maybe take another member of our team along so that he can ‘recruit’ them too. That’s what we’re going with by the way as the ‘where I went’ in case I run into anyone from training.”
I saw him nod out of the corner of my eye, but was still staring out the window when the houses and buildings came to an end, “Here we are.”
He turned the car into a long, wide driveway covered in trees. Finally it let out into the view of a massive house. “Holy shit, Jax. I mean I knew your family was the royal family, but holy shit.”
He laughed, “Well we host pack meetings and my parents weren’t content with just me, why I don’t know because I’m awesome,” I hit him on the arm but laughed at his comment, “So yeah we need a big house. Don’t worry though the rooms are all sound proof, so you won’t hear anything from the mated pairs’ rooms.”
I felt a sense of sadness wash over me when he mentioned the mated pairs, but tried to recover fast, “Am I expected to bow and shit when I get in here?”
“Absolutely. My parents are sticklers for that kind of stuff,” Jax said without hesitation as we got out of the car.
“I call bullshit,” Niamh said in my head.
I just smiled, trusting in Niamh as we stepped inside the massive house. His parents met us at the door. His mother was a beautiful black woman who was much shorter in stature compared to her mate who was barely shorter than Jax with suntanned skin. “Your Majesties,” I said, only slightly inclining my head.
Jax let out a whine behind me, “Come on! Niamh gave me away didn’t she? Damn dragon.”
Niamh chuckled in my head along with everyone around me, “He tried the ‘we’re sticklers for the rules’ bit with you didn’t he?”
“He did, but my dragon wasn’t buying it,” I replied with a smirk.
“You have to watch him, he’ll keep you on your toes.” Jax’s mom said with a warm smile, “We don’t stand for the ‘your majesty or highness’ stuff around here, so please call me Jo and my mate Charlie.”
Charlie spoke up as we moved into the living room, “Jax tells us you’re a princess. Do you go by your title? We don’t want to misstep.”
“Goddess no. I’m a warrior way ahead of being a princess. My father, Daniel, doesn’t even go by his title, really. Sure he leads the teams, but he doesn’t do the king thing. He’s more of a business man than anything. Please just call me Amaya,” I shifted nervously at my small outburst.
“Thank the gods for that. Some of the other royals can be so stuffy,” Jo said with a smile. “It’s good to have a Wardwell back in this house. We’re having a feast in your honor in a few days.”
“You know my family?” I asked; confused as to why Daniel wouldn’t have told me before coming here.
“We were very good friends of your grandparents and parents. When your clan was attacked we searched for you and your family, but when we couldn’t find you, we thought you all had perished too. We tried to help those who had survived, but everyone was gone; they had just disappeared.” Charlie gestured to me, “Now that you’re here, it makes sense. I imagine your dad got everyone he could to safety.”
I nodded my head, “He did, but there weren’t very many of us.”
Jo patted my hand, “Well we’re glad to have you here. If you need anything just let us know. Jax’s siblings should be back soon so let’s get you settled in so you have time to brace yourself.”
I looked over at Jax with a raised eyebrow, “Oh yeah, Little Duck, extra bracing may be in order.”
“What the hell is extra bracing?”
He just shrugged and motioned for me to follow. He snagged my bag from the foyer as we walked through and headed up the grand staircase. “Mom got the room across from mine ready for you.”
“Do you guys have staff at all? With this gigantic house I thought you guys would have at least one or two maids,” I looked around at the decor on the walls as we walked down the hallway.
“Only when we have big groups come in, otherwise we all just pitch in and clean it ourselves. Everyone in the pack has other more important duties, cleaning our house shouldn’t be one of them.”
“I knew you knew how to clean too well for a prince, should’ve known you were the maid,” I said, shoving him a little.
He laughed and opened a door, “Yeah, yeah. You’re hilarious. This is your room,” we walked in, he set down my bag. It was a huge room with a king sized bed off to one side, dresser between two doors, and large windows that have a view of the forest that is behind the house.
“This room is ridiculous,” I said, moving to open one of the doors.
“That’s to your bathroom. If we have another guest in the room on the other side, you’ll share.” The bathroom was huge too, with a walk in shower and a tub. It was much bigger than what I was used to back home. We walked back into the room, “The other door is to your closet,” his eyes glazed over slightly, an obvious sign he was mind linking. “My siblings are back. Let’s go back downstairs to meet them, then we’ll go train.”
“Yeeess. It’s been far too long since I kicked your ass,” I said with a smirk as we headed downstairs.
He barked out a laugh, “Right, you were doing the ass kicking.”
That caused me to grin widely, “Of course, dragon beats wolf every time.”
“Whatever,” he said, shoving me a bit as we walked into the living room.
I still had a small smile fixed on my face as I was greeted by four new wolves. I was hit instantly by a hug. I stood there not sure what to do with the unknown wolf. Jax sighed dramatically, “Ava at least introduce yourself before you throw yourself at her, for goddess’ sake.”
“Oh right. Sorry,” she released me and gave me a sheepish smile. “I’m Ava,” she grabbed one of her siblings and pulled him forward. “This is my twin, Noah. It’s so nice to meet you. Are you Jax’s mate? Is that why you’re here? How long will you be here? Which room are you staying in? Can she stay in my room? Why do you smell like that? What’s your dragon? How many dragons do you know? How many types of dragons are there? Have you met all of them? Are you-”
“Ava! Breathe,” Jax said. She did and almost started on her line of questioning again, “Ava. Calm down. She’ll be here for a week or two. She’s not my mate, just my friend. Cut out the inquisition. Christ you could make a high priestess swear.”
Ava pouted but before she could say anything the unknown brother and his mate stepped forward, “Luca and this is my mate, Feray.”
I shook their hands, “It’s nice to meet you all.”
“Well this was fun, but I promised Amaya an ass kicking. So we’re going to train,” Jax said.
“You do mean you promised I would be kicking your ass right? Because that’s exactly what’s going to go down.”
“HA! As if!” Jax said, pulling me outside to the training field.
“We’ll see pup, we’ll see,” I said, taking off my shirt so that I was down to my sports bra and sweatpants.
“Bring it Little Duck,” he said as he took off his shirt.
His family followed us outside and we had gathered a small crowd from the pack; looking at them, they looked like warriors. I heard Luca and Charlie exchanging bets. Luca stuck with his brother, but Charlie, being older and wiser, placed his bet on me. This made me smirk and Jax looked more offended than I had ever seen him. I could lose just because he wanted his dad to lose so badly. Jax and I met at the center of the training circle. “SEAL rules, no phasing and no using abilities. Keep your wolf in check and I’ll keep my dragon in check,” I said mostly for the people around us. We bumped fists and started circling one another looking for a weak spot.
Ava gasped a little when she saw my scar for the first time as I made my way around with my back to her. I didn’t let her distract me though as Jax made his move with a fake right hook. That fake right gave way to an attempted left upper cut, but I saw it coming and countered with several hits of my own.
“Shit Little Duck, you’ve been training since I last saw you,” he commented before taking a couple more swings, still trying to land something.
“Yeah, I told you the SEAL training was just the beginning of my training,” I smirked as a few of my hits landed, but I didn’t get smug because Niamh warned me he was holding back big time and to be prepared for it to come soon.
I forced his hand; pushing him harder but still pulling my punches. “Here he comes,” Niamh said.
Immediately he fought back harder, a punch or kick landing here or there, but nothing landing where he intended as I deflected. Soon I capitalized on a swing he took and took him down for a submission win. “Fucking hell, Little Duck,” Jax said a little winded, “You should be teaching us how to fight.”
“Told ya dragon beats wolf every time,” I said with a smirk, pulling him to his feet.
“Yeah, yeah,” we walked over to his family, “So how much did you lose, Luca?”
“Fifty bucks. You couldn’t have tried harder, little bro?” He rubbed Jax on top of his head, “I thought you signed up for the SEALs to learn a thing or two, not to learn how to get your ass kicked.”
Everyone around us chuckled, “Great job, Amaya. Thanks for winning me fifty bucks,” Charlie said with a grin on his face.
“No problem,” I said with a smile. “Can I fly while I’m here?” I asked, looking at Charlie expectantly.
He and Jax shared a look before he answered, “You can, but we have a human business partner visiting in a few days. After that you won’t be able to shift. We also share this territory with fire dragons so just be mindful of that when you’re flying. We’ve told the local clans you’ll be here, but just in case their sentries forget, be mindful.”
I nodded, but didn’t question his instructions. “Come on, there’s a nice clearing you should be able to shift in without the spectators,” Jax said, motioning for me to follow him. Once we reached the clearing he turned his back so I could strip in privacy. “Do you mind if I turn to see your dragon?”
Instead of answering I shifted into my giant white dragon and nudged him. I tried to be as gentle as I could but with my head almost as big as his entire body it was impossible to be that gentle. He stumbled forward with a chuckle, “I guess that’s a yes,” he turned to me, “Niamh you’re stunning.”
She vibrated our chest, like a purr spreading out from a cat, at the compliment. I nudged him again telling him to move back so I could fly. He got the hint and moved out of my way. I bent the clouds so they covered my massive form. I flew high above the clouds for what felt like forever, when I heard the screeching approach of another dragon.
I didn’t have time to do anything other than brace myself for impact as I was hit by a medium sized grey dragon. The unknown dragon sliced one of our wings before Niamh could maneuver us so that we were on top holding onto the smaller fire dragon’s wings, like we had practiced with our much larger cousin, Jace. We began to fall to the ground and out of the cloudbank I had created to shield myself from onlookers.
I bent the wind so we didn’t land as hard as we would if we were just free falling. We still landed with a thud and I moved so I could quickly jump off and shift. “Shift,” I ordered, pushing my dominance into my voice. Daniel was the only dragon so far I had found that could hold up against the dominance of Niamh, and even he was starting to fold under it.
I could tell this unknown dragon didn’t want to follow my orders, but he didn’t have a choice, “Are you the mate of a clan leader?”
I snorted, “No.”
Confusion clouded his face, “How do you have any control over me or my dragon?”
I just smirked, “Mind link your clan leader, tell him to come here, and tell him to bring a phone.”
He had no option but to do as he was told, “What’s your name? My clan leader wants to know.”
“Amaya,” I told him, excluding my last name because of how well known my family is in the dragon world.
“Last name?” He asked in an annoyed tone.
“He’ll know it as soon as he gets here.”
He growled but didn’t say anything.
We weren’t waiting long before his leader joined us. Daniel briefed me on the clan leaders that were in the same territory as the Jackson’s territory. I recognized the man who stood before me as James Scott. He ran his clan differently from most clans. Men were above women and fated mates were nonexistent. James Scott only allowed his people to mate with other fire dragons to keep them pure.
“So am I supposed to know who you are or did you mean you were going to tell me your last name when I got here?” Scott said.
My head cocked to the side, “You don’t know.”
His eyes narrowed, “So who are you and why are you in my territory?”
“You were told the Pacific Moon Pack was going to have a dragon visitor this week. I was told you were all alerted and I wouldn’t be hindered while flying,” I held my hand out and pushed dominance into my voice, “Phone.” He tried to fight the order, but my dragon was far more dominant than his.
I nodded my thanks for the phone and dialed Jax’s phone number. He answered almost immediately, “Yeah.”
“Jax. It’s Amaya, I’ve sort of been detained by the Wyoming Fire Clan. I was attacked by one of their sentries, their leader is here now. Can you and maybe your dad come help sort this out with me?”
“What the fuck? We told those backward motherfuckers you would be here.” Scott’s eyes got even more hostile, overhearing what Jax said about his clan. “We’ll be there in a bit.”
“Oh, hey, can you guys bring me some clothes.” It wasn’t that I was uncomfortable being naked, it was that I would prefer to have clothes on when laying down the law to a man who thinks less of women just because of what they had on and in their body.
Jax just laughed, “Yeah sure, your Majesty. I didn’t know you were such a prude.”
I rolled my eyes, but it didn’t escape my notice that Scott stood up a little straighter at the use of my title by Jax, “I’m not you ass, but I’ve got shit to do and I would rather not be naked doing it. Shouldn’t you be on your way here?”
“Whatever. I’m working on it but first I thought I would dig through all of your stuff.”
I gave him my best long suffering sigh, “I really hate you sometimes you know that? Just hurry up.”
“Right away ma’am,” I didn’t have to see him to know he was saluting me.
I hung up, but not before I gave him another long sigh which of course he found hilarious.
“‘Your Majesty?’ What clan are you with?” Scott asked.
“If you don’t recognize me, you’re not privy to that information,” I said. All clan leaders typically recognized me right off based solely on the fact I looked almost exactly like my mom from what Daniel had told me and showed me in photos of all of us together.
“This jackass doesn’t recognize us, why are we still entertaining him?” Niamh said in my head.
“Technically we’re detained by him,” she snorted at that, “But also because we have to think of diplomatic relations for Jax’s family. It’s not just about us, it’s about them too.”
She growled her irritation at not being able to push around these dragons she considered less as the scents of some new dragons came into the clearing. I recognized one as being Connor Scott, James Scott’s son; the other two appeared to be warriors like the one that attacked me. Conner had a slimy smile on his face as his eyes took in my still naked body. Niamh growled, this time it didn’t stay between us, it came out for everyone to hear. It was powerful and inhuman and enough to get the Slimeball to turn his gaze to the ground.
“You will not growl at the future leader of the Wyoming Fire Clan like that, you insolent little girl.” Scott said with not nearly enough dominance in his voice to even begin to threaten Niamh and me.
She and I acted as one when she pushed her voice through, but she didn’t take control like she would have several months ago, “What does he or you know of leadership? You don’t even know when you are standing in the presence of royalty. When you should bow. When you should hold your tongue you insolent little man. You are as insignificant as you believe yourself to be and I will see to it that your end comes.”
“You can not speak to me like that!” Even though Scott looked like he was about to wet himself, he still had the balls to shout at me.
“I have to give it to him.” I said to Niamh in my head.
She growls, “I don’t. I would like to tear him limb from limb. We’re close to the ice kingdom, perhaps we could enlist some dragons from uncle’s kingdom and have him drawn and quartered.”
I laughed aloud at her mostly, but it helped to anger Scott further. “I can talk to you however I want. You haven’t the slightest idea who I am, it’s you who should watch what they say.” I smelled Jax, Charlie, and Luca just as they came into the clearing I made earlier by crashing into it. I smelled Scott’s irritation too. He was close to losing control of his dragon and power. Jax’s large rusty grey wolf trotted up to me with my clothes in his mouth. “Thanks Jax. I really appreciate the wolf drool on my clothes,” I said with a smile as I took my stuff from him.
His golden eyes narrowed and he barked a reply. Charlie and Luca shifted into their human forms while I got dressed. “What’s the problem here, Leader Scott?” Charlie asked.
“She’s the problem. First she trespassed into our territory, then she disrespected me and my son.” His face began to redden another sign he was losing control, “I want her removed from your territory immediately.”
“You cannot request that. Your territory overlaps in a very small portion of mine and she is a guest in my territory.”
“Y-” I cut off whatever he was about to say by holding up a finger.
I typed in a number I hadn’t typed into a phone in a while. “What?” A gruff voice answered the line on the other side.
“Now is that any way to answer the phone, Grandpa?” I chided.
“Amaya! It’s good to hear from you my girl! What’s got you calling instead of flying in?”
“Well I’m close to your territory, in the neighboring one in fact, detained for flying in their airspace,” he growled in my ear, “I was visiting the Pacific Moon Pack and went out for a flight when I was attacked and detained, even though the pack told them I was in the area.”
“Say no more I’ll be there soon.” I could hear him shouting at people, more than likely my uncles, in the background before he disconnected.
If a dragon was in a hurry, he or she could fly faster than an airplane. They would be in a hurry so it would probably only take them about half an hour to make it here from Montana. “Who was that?” Scott demanded.
I sighed and weighed my options of a snappy response to anger him further against the truthful response. I went for the one that’s less volatile and Niamh rolled her eyes at my unwillingness to poke the dragon, “My grandfather. He lives in the ice dragon kingdom.”
“Her dragon is white as snow, Sir. She may be one of theirs,” the one who attacked me said.
I smirked and sat down on the ground, “That would explain why she acts the way she does. Those ice dragons think they’re better than everyone. The daughter of that king was the worst of them all.”
This brought out a growl from me so loud and feral the only dragons left on their feet were the Scott’s but I could see it in their eyes, their dragons wanted to go down to their knees. I smelled their fear though and that was enough for Niamh to not demand their blood. Jax whined and laid his head in my lap, trying to calm me.
“Oh that’s rich,” it was Connor that spoke up this time, with a sneer on his face, “The dog and the dragon. That’s why she’s here isn’t it? He’s her mate. No wonder she feels so entitled. She’ll be using him to take over our territory fully in no time. It’s not bad enough we have to share our territory with these dogs, but now it’s going to be fully taken over by this bitch and her dog.”
Jax was on his feet before I could get him off me so I could stand. Niamh took over again, “This wolf isn’t my mate and trust me if I take over your territory it will only be to free your people from your tyranny,” our grandpa and by the smell two out of the three of our uncles and their kids had arrived, “You want to know who I am. I do not belong with the ice dragons although I am a part of them. My name is Niamh and I am the Princess of the Storm Dragons, but like my mother before me I am Queen of all Dragons.” Niamh pushed dominance into our combined voice, “kneel before your queen.”
The warriors did it without hesitation, my family, who were still in their dragon forms, bowed their heads, but the Scott’s fought the command and only kneeled because of the dominance in our voice. “There is no King or Queen of Dragons,” Scott said.
My grandfather shifted and much to Scott’s shock was the retired king of the ice dragons, recently stepping down so my uncle, Fredrik, could take the throne. “My daughter was in fact the Queen of Dragons. It means she governs over the kings and queens of the dragon nations. It also means no one can control her.”
“I’ve never heard of this. Besides, the storm dragon princess died when she was a baby, and my sentry said she has an ice dragon.”
In response I looked up at the bright blue sky and caused it to cloud over and begin raining. “Well that’s nothing new for this area,” Connor sneered.
I looked him dead in the eye as I caused a lightning strike to hit right next to him. I bent the water up so that it was raining upside down, and for the grand finale I stopped the rain midair and turned it all to snow, “There’s something new for this area.”
Jax started rolling around in what little snow was on the ground causing his dad and brother to laugh. My grandfather gestured for the phone I called him on and I handed it to him. He dialed a number and waited a beat for a response, “What do you want James?” I heard on the other side.
“Not James. Aaron, it’s Reino, we have a situation. Can you meet us in James’ territory? You’ll smell all of us.”
“All of you?”
“Wolves, James’s people, my people, and my granddaughter. I suggest you get here before she kills him and his pathetic excuse for a son.”
That earned my grandfather a growl from both of them and a sigh from Aaron, “I’ll get there as soon as I can.”
I cleared a spot of snow on the ground and sat back down to wait on King Aaron. I noticed Scott and his son were mind linking and Scott looked less than pleased. Soon enough King Aaron arrived with a couple of guards; he shifted and got right down to business, “What’s this about Reino?”
“Amaya, why don’t you explain?”
I stood and the King turned to look at me for the first time, “Your Majesty,” he said, putting a fist to his heart and bowing deeply. His guards went to their knees with their heads bowed, “I didn’t see you. Please forgive me.”
“No forgiveness needed Aaron. Amaya is just fine, you know I don’t like the grandness of titles, until they’re needed,” I said, gesturing for him and his guards to return to their former state.
“Of course, your- Amaya, so what brings us all out here?”
I gestured to the Scott’s, “This does. As you know, I’m visiting the Pacific Moon Pack because I’ve become close friends with Jax, and I was out flying when one of their sentries attacked me. I maneuvered us to the ground and attempted to get them to let me go without further incident, but Scott refuses to be anything but a horse’s ass.”
“I’m so sorry for the difficulty you’ve faced today. You’re right, your presence was told to all of us by the pack and you shouldn’t have run into this problem,” Aaron started.
“You’re taking her side! You can’t do that! Not against your own kind!” Scott yelled.
“Your racism is incredibly unbecoming, James,” Aaron said, “You should be apologizing. Down on your hands and knees begging for her forgiveness. I really don’t see how she hasn’t attacked or killed you yet.”
That finally did it, Scott shifted through his clothes, completely uncontrolled. An out of control dragon couldn’t be forced into something through dominance. It had to be taken down or killed. Niamh shifted us through our clothes as well. He tried to hit us with fire but King Aaron bent it away from everyone. My grandpa got the Jacksons to the edge of the action and Niamh began goading Scott’s dragon to follow her into the sky.
It wasn’t very hard at this point because he was so uncontrolled. He followed us as we climbed higher and higher into the sky. Eventually he got sick of Niamh evading his attacks and coated the sky in fire. Dragons to a point were fire proof but for the most part we were only tolerant to our own elements, except lightning, for some odd reason no one was tolerant or immune to lightning. Something to do with the magic we held and less to do with our scales because fire dragons would never be burned by fire in their human form either nor would an ice dragon get frostbite.
It may be because I’m the Queen of all Dragons but Josie had hit me with her fire before and it didn’t burn. The goddess was smart when she made Niamh, because I was fairly certain we were fireproof. Scott’s fire was no different. It grazed us and we barely felt anything except the heat it put onto our scales. “What are we thinking, Niamh? Lightning?” I asked her.
“Just a little stunning bolt will do nicely I think.”
Just as we were about to hit him with the bolt he rammed into us. His claws sliced into us, but he didn’t get to go in for the bite he tried to make because we pushed lightning through our entire body, effectively stunning Scott’s dragon.
He began to fall to the ground, but I managed to catch up to him. I wrapped my legs around his unconscious body, giving him an easy ride to the ground. Once he was on the ground I shifted back forgetting about my cuts. I regretted my shift immediately. Dragons healed faster than humans, but not that fast. I cried out in pain as black dots floated in my vision. King Aaron, who was closest to me, just barely caught me as I fell to the ground.
Author: Kailan Counahan 