Loving the leech (Guardians of Red Moon city #4)

Kaylin’s POV

The evening is falling, and I’m still in shock at what the day brought. The guilt I feel about Jennifer’s death can’t be described. Damn it. She was evil and destructive; on the other hand, Carl taught me that no one’s evil when born. Life’s challenges and conditions shape us into who we are. Once, Jennifer’s parents and friends hopefully loved her. But somewhere along the way, things went awry, and she made cruel choices that changed her soul. Hopefully, she can find peace now that she’s no longer here on Earth. Perhaps the goddess of darkness can help her to a righteous afterlife in hell.

William’s gaze, however... I don’t know how to feel. For a long time now, it’s been evident that he loved her, even though she didn’t deserve it. Then he met me, and it turned out very quickly that he didn’t deserve me. Maybe it was karma or something? What do I know? His eyes dropped tears of sadness, and the pain he showed is something I recognize all too well. Maybe one day, he can get over it and understand that I honestly had no other choice. It was only a matter of time until she would find out that Aurora existed, if she didn’t already know it, and then my girl would be in danger.

If I need to hurt William for my daughter to be safe, then that’s a low price to pay. However, this doesn’t change anything, at least not emotionally. He’ll get over it someday, I hope. The day has had something good with it, too, however. Nathan and I are finally one. Never again do I have to feel alone in the world because I have him with me. He’ll protect me as his mate and Aurora as his own daughter. I’ve said it before, and I’ll repeat it, I can treasure myself lucky to have Nathan in my life. There’s no one else who can make my heart pound as hard as he does.

We’re impatiently waiting for my father and brother, or well, at least I’m impatient to get my dragon. It’ll certainly help me with the future threat of Joseph and possibly Felicity as well. I can’t stand still but move back and forth on the lawn outside Aleida’s packhouse. A pair of arms encircle my waist, and I look up in my mate’s eyes shining with love towards me.

“You need to calm down, my love,” Nathan says, smiling big. “I understand that you’re impatient, but you need to relax. Dragons shift just like werewolves, and the first time it’ll hurt. Therefore, you should prepare your body for it, and in order to do this, you need to be soft in the muscles.”

I nod and sigh. It’s the fear that makes me tense. With all the challenges I’ve experienced since I met William, my body has become accustomed to pain, but the fear that I’ll hurt someone by accident or that something will go wrong remains. One requirement I had was that some guards protect Aurora in the meantime, which both Nathan and Aleida were more than willing to contribute. I don’t want to have to worry about her while I’m going through something that scares the hell out of me. As I mentioned many times before, she’s the most important for me, not only me but also the vampires, since she’ll lead them when she comes up at the right age.

In the end, my family members ride in a car that stops right in front of me, and they smile big when they see me. Alreo is in front of me in a heartbeat and hugs me in a way that only a big brother can, those of you who know, you know. My father walks up to me unceremoniously, and I don’t hesitate to put my arms around him. We’ve come closer during our conversations, and I’ve realized that much of my personality traits come from him. For example, my temperament comes from Alaric, and it has nothing to do with our race. In contrast, my morality for what’s right and wrong comes from my mother.

“My Qina,” he says, kissing my forehead. “I’m honored to share this evening with you and that we may be your guides through the ceremony to your dragon.”

“Thank you for coming here to help me,” I reply, and he smiles big.

“There’s nowhere in the world I’d rather be,” he says before turning to the rest of our company. “Nathan, nice to see you again, my boy.”

“Alaric,” Nathan replies, hugging his father-in-law, which makes my heart beat a little extra.

“Hello everyone, my name is Alaric Gotfire, and I’m grateful for everything you’ve done for my Qina,” Alaric tells the others. “Both I and Alreo owe you for protecting my daughter.”

Aleida walks up to my family and stretches out her hand.

“It’s we who should thank you for giving life to one of my closest friends,” she says, smiling at me. “I personally am delighted to be able to call Kaylin my family.”

I smile back and feel tears burning in my eyes. My father stretches out his arm, and I hook my arm into his. Before we walk away, I look back at the house anxiously.

“It’s okay, Kaylin,” Nathan says. “The children’s nanny takes care of her. In addition to that, I have wolves guarding Aurora and Ozzandra ordered some vampires from their clan to guard as well. Nothing can happen to her.”

I nod and exhale heavily. The thought of leaving my daughter, even for an hour, is anxiety-filled. But I also know that I won’t always be able to protect her from everything, and it’s I who have the most loneliness anxiety between us. I need to get used to trusting others to take care of her in order for me to live my life and do things that I find enjoyable. After all, life doesn’t stop just because you have children, and the expression “to live for their children” doesn’t work if the mother loses her mind in the meantime. A happy and relaxed mom is the best version of a mom. I’m just worried it’s not going to be the way we thought it would be.

On the other hand, how often does life become as we imagined? It rarely happens, and once it does, unpleasant consequences tend to follow suit.

“It will be fine, Qina,” my father says in a low tone. “We conduct the ceremony as soon as possible so that you can go back to Aurora.”

I nod and follow him, ready but afraid of what’ll happen.

Nathan’s POV

I’m proud of Kaylin, of the woman she’s become. She has stood up time and time again, even though life has been challenging, and tried to force her into submission. Despite the strength, it hurts every time I think about all the terrible things she had to go through in her life. Right from the start, her life has been against her, and even someone who was looking to end her life, not many can say that they have that. It may not have been easy to process everything, including what happened before she ended up in the supernatural world. What I do know, however, is that no matter what, I’ll be there to pick her up when she falls.

I’m happy to have such a fantastic mate by my side for the rest of my life. Hopefully, I also get to experience puppies of my own with her, and it would be fantastic. The need for children is getting more powerful every time I see her with my beautiful stepdaughter, Aurora. Kaylin is hardly ready for a puppy. In all honesty, I’m not even sure she wants any more children. It may as well be that she feels that one is enough, and in such cases, I’ll respect her desire while I’ll have even more love to pamper little Aurora with. I understand if it’s strange to you that I see Kaylin’s daughter as my own after such a short time.

But to our wolves, it’s different. When we meet our mate, it becomes our child if they have one from before. In our heads, we want to protect and love the little one no matter what. I guess a lot of it is our wolves’ instincts. On the other hand, it isn’t always that way. A good friend of mine met his mate many years ago, and she couldn’t accept that he had kids from before, which is very unusual for a she-wolf. It’s mainly the felines who feel maternal feelings, even though it’s not their puppy. We aren’t very different from humans if we ignore our instincts, of course. Everyone is different, in body and mind.

“Here will be fine,” Alaric says, and only now do I react to the fact that we’ve reached the place he has chosen.

My mate is nervous and breathing heavily, causing Zac to whine in my head. I walk up to Kaylin and put my forehead against hers before our lips meet.

“You can do it, honey,” I whisper and smile at her.

She nods slowly, closes her eyes, and breathes out deeply before opening them again. Now her gaze includes determination on coping with it, which I know she can do. It’s no wonder at all that she’s worried. Our parents tell us werewolves that one day we’ll transform ourselves into wolves. Preparation begins already when the puppy understands what others say and can process the words. In schools, we learn from beginning to end about the history of werewolves, about our origin species, lycans, which are now extinct, our anatomy, and, of course, about mates. Kaylin hasn’t gotten the opportunity to prepare as long as I have, and transforming into a dragon scares even me.

Now, in any case, it doesn’t matter because my mate is standing ready in a circle created from salt as her brother spreads around her while Alaric starts reading out loud from a thick book that looks older than time itself.

“Goddess of darkness, mother of dragons, I pray to you to protect my Qina on her way to her dragon,” he says quietly before his voice echoes strongly over the area. “Trees burn until only ashes are left behind. The dark will protect the warriors of the air while the same creates stars of fire that shimmer on a black sky as a sign of loyalty to the goddess. Let no one fall victim to the wrath of the dragon but stand united against the darkness that threatens with a “forever.” To scare away evil to where it belongs is the purpose of the dragons; hence I ask you, Qina. Will you make sure that it also becomes your purpose?”

“I promise that my purpose is and remains to protect the humans from the evil in the depths we don’t mention,” she replies after Alreo whispers the words to her.

Alaric takes up a ceremony dagger and cuts his hand before letting the drops fall into the shimmering, black goblet. Alreo follows his father’s instructions and does the same. The two men close their eyes and whisper into the cup as if it’s a secret no one else may know. When they open their eyes, they shimmer like the darkest starry sky, signifying that their dragons are just below the surface. Alreo is the first to shift to his sangria-red dragon, and he’s massive. Alaric holds the cup under his son’s eye, and the dragon closes his eyes to let a tear fall over the scaly cheek. This ceremony takes forever!

But at the same time, I understand that traditions for other beings aren’t as quick as ours are, especially given that we don’t need to call on our wolves. They come naturally when they’re ready. Kaylin’s brother and father change places, Alaric’s dragon emerges in a Prussian-blue color, more significant than his son’s. The same thing happens again, only with their father, this time instead of her brother. When the tear fall and mixes with the other liquids, the goblet begins to burn in a bluish color. The rest of us look anxiously at Kaylin, who’s the only one who shows no fear at all, but instead, she takes the cup from her brother’s hand and swallows the burning brew without hesitation.

“Goddess, my sister, has drunk of our elixir of life and shared our grief,” Alreo says while Alaric crushes a stone with his hand. “Let the obsidian rock help her dragon come forward!”

Kaylin stretches out her hand as Alaric walks towards her, and she looks confusedly at the pebbles in her hand before gazing at her dad.

“Am I supposed to swallow gravel?” she asks, confused.

“It’s the rock that belongs to our species,” Alaric explains, and Kaylin nods before swallowing the rocks with a grimace.

We all look at my mate, ready to witness the birth of a dragon, but nothing happens. A whole minute ticks by before my sister can’t wait for the result anymore.

“Why does nothing happen?”

Both Alaric and Alreo are looking at Kaylin with the same confusion as the rest of us do.

“Do you feel any difference, Qina?” Alaric asks, and Kaylin slowly shakes her head.

Her back that stood straight with pride in the past sinks together by disappointment, and Zac whine in my head again by seeing our mate sad.

“I may not have a dragon,” Kaylin mumbles.

“Of course you have a dragon!” her father exclaims in response. “No child of mine is born without a dragon!”

Kaylin winces at his words, and I immediately understand why; she feels like a failure, again. I walk up to her and hug her gently as if she’s as sensitive as glass.

“Why doesn’t it work?” she whispers with sadness in her voice.

“I don’t know, my love,” I answer. “But we’ll find out. Maybe it’s like it was with Aleida. Your dragon may not be ready to arrive yet, because it’s not mature enough yet.”

“It’s a likely guess,” Alreo says. “The same thing happened to our cousin many years ago.”

“Did he have to wait long?” Kaylin asks, and her brother looks sad.

“Ten years.”

We all stand silent until Aleida suddenly looks at Kaylin with horror over her face.

“Kaylin, we have to get back. Now!” she says, and my mate is quick to follow her.

I shift to Zac and try to catch up with Kaylin, who’s probably already at the packhouse. Wolves and vampires come out of the various nearby houses. Everything is quiet until a scream echoes over the area.

(If you want to set the mood, I highly recommend putting on “The demise of barbara” by Solisti e Orchestre del cinema Italiano at 2:55!)

The roof explodes, and out comes a pitch-black dragon who roars. It doesn’t take long to realize that it’s Kaylin who transformed herself, and I can’t do much more than try to figure out what’s going on. I can’t find Aleida or any of the others, and both of Kaylin’s family members shift to follow her as she flies away. Another roar moves with the wind from a place far away, and only now do I find out what’s wrong.

“Alpha, what’s that sound?” Blake asks Aleida, and she looks at me with tears on her cheeks.

“It’s a dragon’s grief of losing her whelp,” she replies, and I’m slowly shaking my head.

“Don’t say that -?” I begin, unable to finish the sentence.

“I’m sorry, Nate,” Aleida says. “But someone has taken Aurora, and her bed is full of fresh blood.”

“Whose?” I ask in a stern voice.

“Her own, and I’m sorry to have to say it, but I honestly don’t think she can survive with that blood loss.”

Kaylin’s dragon flutters above us, and her fire spreads across the sky like a flashlight in the dark. Alreo and Alaric eventually manage to force her down on the ground while she continues to cry out after her little one. She shifts back without thinking about it, and my heart hurts when I see her sob into her own hands. I take her in my arms and let her cry out on my chest while my own tears fall over the loss. It’s just as well that we never had time to get any puppies, given that I obviously can’t even protect the one I already had.

A/N:

Hey, everybody!

Oh, no! Someone has taken Kaylin’s little girl. The question is just who it might be?

✿ Who do you think has taken her?

❀ Is Aurora alive, or has she tragically passed away?

✿ How will Kaylin be able to get on in life now?

❀ What do you think is going on?

Please, give me some comments about what you think! I love your comments and need them to continue to develop in my work. Moreover, it is not as fun to write if no one reacts to it... Kiss and hug!