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“My magic has been used so much lately that I lose myself too soon. I’m physically dressing myself because even the small doses are dragging me in for another hit. It was almost getting hard to dematerialize so much. Then I shifted. It was so liberating. I’d forgotten how much stronger I feel. After Slade pointed it out, I realized something. And the urine is leading me to believe something more.”
“I’m still trying to figure out how squatting in front of all of us while you were literally an animal has anything to do with the dragonites. Anyone else struggling with that?” Dice asks, looking around.
“I’m with Red on the confusion,” Chaz states flatly.
Dice groans and pulls at a red pigtail.
“I miss my hair,” he whimpers.
“I get it,” Thad says quietly.
“It doesn’t have to be a thing,” I tell him discreetly. “But if I do this, it might help with the lassoing effect. Because I feel like it’s what has to be done. Do you understand that?”
“Completely,” he and Roslyn answer, at the same time Chaz and Dice say, “Not at all.”
“Hashtag, jinx,” Dice says, winking.
Chaz shudders.
“I can’t fucking believe I’m on Dice’s side of the fence.”
“Just let it happen, brother,” Dice says, clapping Chaz on his shoulder. “Hashtag, BBF. Hashtag, you’re still jinxed so stop talking.”
“It’s BFF,” Roslyn says, causing Thad to snort when I give her a look that says, I can’t believe you’re giving him attention right now. We have a system.
“Best bros for life,” Dice says, wiggling his eyebrows like he’s hilarious.
“Just because I’m with your girlfriend’s sister, that doesn’t mean we’re brothers. And I still want to kill you for that shit you pulled that caused me to touch Frankie’s naked ass.”
“Not really my fault. I merely put the dominos in place, and—”
“This is why we don’t pay him attention when we’re talking about something very serious,” I interrupt, looking pointedly at Roslyn and Chaz.
“So you feel it strong enough to do something that is definitely going to irrevocably change things,” Thad says to me, getting back on topic.
“Strong what enough to do what?” Chaz growls. “For fuck’s sake, break it down for me.”
“Ella, as we all know, is stronger than Kane and Alyssa, but has no control. She’s saying she’s more like us and less like them as far as instinct goes. The stronger the animal, the more dominant. And the dragonites threatening to endanger our entire way of life and drag us back into the darker days when things like these rings went on unattended will be the next war we’re fighting,” Thad explains.
“Really? You got all that from lycan urine?” Dice asks him incredulously.
Roslyn starts to acknowledge Dice, but I hold my hand up. “Don’t,” I remind her. “Anyway,” I say, looking back at Chaz, who still looks utterly confused, “think of your instincts when you give way to the dragon. What do you sense?”
“I sense Kya mostly, everything about her. Blood. I can smell things differently and see them differently.”
“He doesn’t shift, so the instinct is different,” Thad tells me.
“When I’m in wolf, my instinct is to look to Ella, not Kane or Alyssa,” Roslyn finally says, then it grows really quiet, because the words we’ve been directly avoiding are out there. “I have to battle my instinct when one direction is different from the other. It’s only happened on occasion, and it snaps when she loses control. I revert easily to Kane after that.”
Chaz’s eyes widen. “Whoa, whoa, whoa. You can’t be saying you’re ready to take over as queen.”
I burst out laughing, and so does Roslyn and Thad.
“Oh, hell no. That’s why I said it doesn’t have to be a thing.” My face and tone go serious in the next breath. “But I do have to disobey them and go make a new arrangement with the dragonites to soothe discord inside me, because…I’m apparently territorial.”
“As most queens are,” Thad states like he’s trying to pity me.
“You do this and it could start a war,” Dice says seriously. “We’re already in one war.”
