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“A dragon?” Goran shouted, pulling me out of the way while Lusca did the same for Kellin. “How did Frol become a fucking dragon?”

Serak rubbed the back of his neck. “I think it was the tears, to be honest. I’m not sure, though.”

“Can you shift, too?” I asked, unable to look away from Frol’s vast wings. He wasn’t as big as Skadi in this form, but he was more solid. Less cloud and ice, and more like the dragons I’d seen before at Wren’s castle, Drakonspear.

Serak ducked his head when I approached. “I haven’t tried. I think so. I was hoping Skadi would talk me through it, after I get to know him a bit better.” Serak hadn’t joined the rest of us in the rock house he’d made for sleeping and other things. We’d made love since that first time on the beach, but always on our own. Goran and Kellin seemed to accept him into the group, but Lusca, Skadi, and Lachlan were more reserved. Lusca had finally admitted it worried him that Serak was half-god. Time was all we needed, I thought. And we would have plenty of time.

Though Lex might not. And it sounded like Dustin was in trouble.

“Looks like we’re flying, mates. Frol?” He held out a foreleg, and I climbed up. Serak sat in front of me, with Lachlan, Goran, and Lusca behind, but we all almost fell off as Frol launched himself into the sky with no warning. Dozens of tentacles whipped out to tether us together, and to Frol as well.

I laughed into the wind as Frol flew over the Northern Sea, doing all sorts of wild acrobatics. At some point in the next hour, Skadi roared above us in greeting or shock. Then the race was on.

Our journey to Starvale would have taken weeks by boat, or days by kraken. On racing dragons? We were there by dawn, to discover that the dolphins had been correct.

Dustin was fighting for his life against another warrior on the beach just west of the main pier. We arrived just as a sword pierced his arm, and he fell, bleeding, to the sand.

I jumped from Frol’s back to land in the water and begged the ocean to carry me straight to the dry land.

RADA

The sea carried me to the beach not only quickly, but in relative silence, the pounding of the surf covering my approach. The sun was rising just behind me to the east as I walked out of the sea, so neither one of the fighters saw me.

“Acknowledge me as the true leader, Alpha, and I’ll let you live,” the warrior snarled at Dustin.

He looked up, tears caught in his lashes. “If it were mine to grant, this title I now bear, I’d give it gladly, my love, with my beads to decorate your hair. Ask anything, my glorious blade, and though it cost my soul, I’d offer it to you if it would help make you whole. I’d give my sword, my songs, my wealth; I’d carve out both my eyes, if it would help you see me, love, as more than… more than…” His voice cut off as Adiah slid the sword out of his arm and placed it at the base of his throat.

I stifled a giggle and called out, “More than a… surprise?”

“My lady!” Dustin squeaked.

“Rada!” Adiah shouted, whirling, dropping her sword in the process. I was almost certain it slashed Dustin’s thigh as it fell, though he stayed on his knees, staring at me.

Adiah went every bit as still as Frol landed on the beach beside us, and Lusca, Goran, and Kellin slid down his leg. Frol leaned his spiked head down to inspect her.

Suddenly, Dustin was in between Frol and Adiah, his own sword lifted. “That’s not Skadi.”

“No, it’s Frol.”

Adiah had her own sword in her hand then, and it took a while to convince her that Frol was harmless, given the size of him. He was stuck in this form, apparently, and got nervous when Serak couldn’t help him shift. He roared in frustration, and before we knew it, three dozen Starlakian warriors had poured onto the sand, ready to battle an invading force from Pict.

Then Skadi landed with a pissed-off—though no longer aroused—Lachlan still in one claw. He dumped him onto the sand and set Lex’s sarcophagus down gently beside him. “I’m starved,” he announced, speaking Starlakian through dragon lips.

“Hungry,” Frol agreed in Mirrenese, which sounded even more threatening.

I’d never heard as many Alphas scream like little boys, though to their credit, they didn’t run and only one sword was dropped from a trembling hand.

The dragons were not a threat, but there were too many swords being waved about. Adiah and Dustin could get hurt. Well, more hurt, in Dustin’s case. The beach below him was stained with his blood.

“This is a disaster waiting to happen,” I muttered.

“Warriors! Drop your weapons!” Goran shouted, obviously in agreement.

No. Not Goran.

Dustin. His voice was lower and louder, and to my shock, every single one of the fighters obeyed instantly. “None of you have my permission to draw a blade in front of one of our treasured Omegas, outside of training. Kneel.”

They all did, swords landing on the sand, heads bowing. Dustin glared at them for another moment, then dropped to his knees in front of me and Goran.