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I’m crying again when I tip my face up to him. My stomach unknots, and my wolf won’t quit yipping.

“You hold a great honor, Aya of Ash Clan,” he declares. “You hold the name of the witch who tried to destroy us, and you took that name and made it so much better. I will see to it that you are written in history as the great Aya, the first daughter of House of Zorah in a thousand years, and luna of Ash Clan.”

I sob and push off the ground. Jacob scoops me the rest of the way up, and my feet dangle in the air.

“Now we are family,” he announces. “But I have one request to ask of you.”

He sets me down, and I sniffle. “What?”

He grins. “Don’t stop calling me dusty wolf.”

I laugh and wipe my face. My uncle is ridiculous.

He drapes an arm over my shoulders and walks me back up the road. “The name grows on me. I enjoy it when you call me that.” He pauses and cringes. “I do not enjoy the kicking, though.”

I crack up all over again. Ahead of us, Ezra is still standing where we left him. His hands are clasped behind his back. My wolf strains toward him.

I never expected it to be this easy.

Now, I’m ready.

39

EZRA

ASH CLAN

The clearing in the middle of the village has gone quiet for my training. I stand barefoot in the grass with my arms loose at my sides while my father waits across from me with his hands clasped behind his back. Over on Luna Lauren’s porch, Aya sits in a rocking chair between Hazel and my mother with her knees pulled up. My dragon strains toward her scent when it drifts over on the breeze, wild berries and warm wolf. He’s supposed to be helping me with this, not sniffing after my mate.

“Whenever you’re ready, son,” my father says.

I fill my lungs and roar for the storm, but nothing answers me. Gray clouds drag over the treetops and hang there going nowhere. A weak flicker of blue lights up the closest one and fizzles out. Static prickles up my arms and dies without a rumble of thunder. A thin drizzle spits on my face and quits before it gets going. That’s all the storm I’ve got.

The women crack up. My mother is the loudest, Hazel snorts into her mug, and Aya’s sweet laugh rides under theirs. Whatever has them cackling, I’d swear on my wings it’s me. Not in front of my mate.

Dominic came out to watch too, but he’s keeping his distance. He’s propped against a pine across the clearing, about as far from me as he can get without going home. Even with lightning of his own, he wants no part of getting electrocuted by mine. When I glance his way, he shakes his head and stays put. Smoke puffs out of my nose and ears while my dragon has himself a good laugh.

My father takes his time crossing the grass and stops in front of me. There isn’t a ripple of worry in his scent. “What were you thinking about just now?”

“Getting it right,” I answer.

“Hmm.” He tips his face up to the sorry little clouds over us. “Our ancestors didn’t call the storms by thinking about them, Ezra.” He taps me over my heart, and my dragon rumbles under his hand. “The sky doesn’t answer a dragon who’s trying to impress it. It answers him.”

Where is he going with this? I rub the spot he tapped. “So what am I doing wrong?” I ask.

“You held him back,” my father tells me. “I felt it from over there. Whenever he reached for the sky, you yanked on the reins.”

He’s not wrong, and I hate it. When I gave my dragon the storm in the battle circle, I nearly fried Valek in front of the clan. I haven’t trusted myself with it since Hazel had to throw a shield over the cabins to keep the lightning off them.

“The last time I let him loose, I almost killed my uncle,” I mutter.

“The last time, you were angry.” His blue eyes glint at me. “Today you’re only afraid of him.” He steps back. “Trust your dragon, son.”

I hear what my father is telling me, but I’m not sure I believe it. I glance past him to our cabin at the edge of the clearing, where Levi, Gabriel, and Kane have their hammers going. Up on the roof, Levi spots me staring. He grins, then goes back to work like he didn’t just watch me fail.

“Try again, son,” my father says.

I put my hand up to stop him and turn toward the porch instead. Aunt Lauren has come out to join the others. Aya is working on an apple and giggling with them, but she stops chewing when I find her eyes. The bond tugs tight between us. She knows without me saying a word that I need her.