Page 23 of Fatality on the Field

I thought he only wanted his mates to see his full Fae form, not that he was bound to keep it quiet—interesting.

“Fine, but you must know that having two dragons in their full shift is going to take up a shit ton of room… and might draw attention we hope not to gain.” Jasper huffs a bit, moving away from the group to the farthest corner out from the house. He nods at Kaspar when he stops, and my grumpy lizard rolls his eyes before he walks to the complete opposite end of the fenced-in pen. Calling out, the prince says, “I advise everyone else to do their thing before I do. My dragon is… not the friendliest.”

I’m shocked, I tell you, shocked!

Kat scurries over to me with big, worried eyes. No one has been paying attention to her since the princes commanded the area, and she tugs on my sleeve urgently. “Um… so I’ve only shifted either privately with Slash in training, or a couple times when my emotions were high because my guys were in danger. I… I’m not sure what will happen or what will appear. And um, not all of them even know about all of my shifts yet?”

“Fuck,” I mutter as I watch Archie and Lucas strip before they shift to the enormous bear and lion within seconds. Kat is still looking at me with fear, and I don’t think it’s about people judging her as much as the shark warning her to keep a lid on something. Otherwise, she’d probably spin the wheel, especially with me and the panda here. “Wait until we have more people done and I’ll go first… mind, the gargoyle is big and very sharp in tone.”

My new friend snorts. “As if I don’t have plenty of that here. You’re fine, Morgana. Just help me figure it out so Jasper doesn’t poke fun at me, or if I do something unexpected, the guys don’t lose focus.”

I nod as I see the panda go next and then the absolutely stunning peacock sprouts his tail feathers. That sight is goddamn gorgeous and I can see why he keeps it under wraps as a weapon of awe. Liam winks at me before he unleashes his equally showy and beautiful Fae form for us to gape at-even the shifted animals, though I can’t actually verify that they are doing so with their furry, feathery faces. “Okay, I’m going now. Step back a little.”

As Kat moves, I take a deep breath, assuring my gorgon that she may get a brief chance to come out as well if the stone doesn’t work. I’ll have to make provisions for that, but she’s easily powerful enough to possibly reveal things as long as the non-mates keep their eyes tightly shut. My gargoyle rises to the surface quickly, eager to get out and be free for a bit. The dark stone covers my body, and I get taller, broader, and winged as I look down at my friend with what I hope isn’t a scary, fanged grin.

To her credit, the new demon doesn’t flinch at my size or appearance. I guess she really is used to enormous supes looking down at her. “Now, Kat… whatever the shark has been telling you… focus on that. Use his training to call up your shift and when you do, talk to your sides. Ask them to give you something specific that you can mostly control, not something you’re still struggling with.”

“I’m not in control of anything yet, but I’ll try. Nothing inside of me is really ready to do my bidding reliably yet,” she mutters as she wrinkles her nose. “Stand in front of me to block the view while I strip? These goddamn uniforms are hard to replace and X has to do alterations, so I don’t want to ruin them, but I also don’t want to be stark naked in front of everyone.”

Doing as she asks, I smile sweetly at the animals and the yet-to-shift dragons. “Give my friend a moment to do this without gawking. It’s difficult when you’re first learning, and growing up like a human made it even tougher.”

Hopefully, I’m able to keep them entertained until Kat does her thing and gets her shifts together.

fourteen

KASPAR

Morgana is trying to help the demon female, but encouragement alone will not get a new shifter to manifest their form in front of a large group of people.

Many of them are people she’s anxious about, and the others are new to her. That kind of pressure is a perfect storm for failure, and it will set back whatever progress she’s been making with the big shark demon. I move from my corner of the immense fields, feeling things I cannot see move around me as I carefully stalk closer to where the previously hidden girl is standing. Kat’s looking back at the house, her face scrunched up as she obviously struggles with the being or beings inside her. Shaking my head, I turn my path to approach where she will see me out of the corner of her eye and not be scared. Once she notices, I pause with enough distance to be safe for both of us.

“I may not be the friendliest person in this corral, but I am the most knowledgeable in training shifters. Fae with a secondary shifter form are not uncommon in Faerie, and though I protect the prince now, I was in the barracks and wars alongside them. May I help you?”

Her face turns bright red as she looks at me guiltily. “Most of my shifting before now was accidental. I’ve worked with Slash, but he’s not here. I’m going to embarrass the guys, especially Jasper, and he’ll never let me hear the end of it.”

An honest statement, if I’ve ever heard one, and very brave of the kid to make it so bluntly.

Grinning at her, I tilt my head. “Do you want to give him that kind of torture material, or are we going to get you going so he has to eat whatever bullshit he has lined up on the tip of his forked tongue?”

That gets me a small grin in return as she murmurs, “I’d love to prove him wrong. It’s one of my great pleasures since I arrived here knowing jack and shit about anything in this world.”

“Good,” I reply as I look at her seriously. “I assume the shark told you that you need to speak with whatever you have inside of you, yes?” She nods quickly, and I go on. “That’s true, but if they are dominant predators or powerful beings, you also have to let them know you are in charge of this shit. Those demons are all high-ranking rich boys who have never had to doubt they’re one of the most powerful people in the room, so they wouldn’t get this part. Their animals were likely brought out by training that should have broken their minds and spirits. You don’t have to do that; you simply need to both cajole your supernatural side while clarifying that you are the one who decides.”

This is a very ‘dragon’ way of doing things, but that doesn’t matter if it works for her.

“Okay, so… um, I have a couple of things, and I… I have no idea how to get a specific thing to answer me. How do I make sure something I don’t want isn’t the one who heeds my call?”

“For fuck’s sake, he didn’t…” It occurs to me that Slash does not have more than one animal. His shark and the demon probably respond to the same thing, which is not how it works with multi-being supes. “Okay, Kat. Your tutor didn’t know this, so it’s not your fault. Got it?”

She nods, biting her lip as she waits for me to go on.

“You need to name them. If they didn’t give you their name—dragons often do, which is why I say that—you need to name your animals or whatever so they know who you want and when. Some day, they will sense it because you will be merged enough for the name to be less necessary every time. But when you are learning, give them names that stay the same so they know who you want to come forth when you are talking to them.”

I let her think about that for a moment once I see the lightbulb has gone off, turning my gaze to the lion and the bear prowling around near the north end of the corral. The peacock is walking a precise grid to the east by himself, while the panda has followed my prince. Morgana is in the middle, her wings torn through her clothes as she moves through the circle there, but she keeps staring at the half-shifted, dark, shadowy dragon to the south. She doesn’t trust the Prince of Hell to keep his bullshit away from her new friend, and I don’t blame her.

His dragon wants this girl so badly that an ancient demon royal is struggling like fuck to stay away from her; I can sense it from here.

Once she’s had some time to think, I face the new demon again, trying not to look impatient. That’s my dragon riffing off her prince, and I don’t want him to scare her by mistake. The hunger and need coming from that part of the pen are making it very hard to stay gentle and calm with Kat because inside, the giant monster wants to protect my future mate’s friend. He wants Morgana to be happy and proud of him, which in this moment, is all about a small pretend boy who isn’t being taught how to handle his sides appropriately.