“Momma! I don’t want to eat. I want to fly!”

“Ancalagon, you’re a dragon; you have to eat. If you don’t eat, eventually you won’t be able to fly.”

It’s a constant fight to get my son to eat. You’d think as a growing dragon that he’d eat everything. Maybe he will when he’s a little bit older, but ever since he flew with his father a few months ago, he’s wanted to get stronger.

Avani, the last earth dragon, is Ancalagon’s father but he is not my mate.

He found his mate after Ancalagon was conceived. I wasn’t around at the time. I had flown out to the desert to lay my egg and stayed until Ancalagon hatched. We stayed in the desert for another month until he was strong enough to fly. It took us a long time to get back here to my mountain, high in the sky, but we eventually made it. Once we did, I heard that Avani had found his mate, an elf princess.

I’m happy for him, and according to my sister Kaylani, the water dragon, Avani is officially claimed. Tana, the fire dragon, was claimed nearly a year ago and now has two children with her mate. That leaves just two of us who have yet to be claimed, my sister and me.

I got tired of waiting to find my mate. I’m over 150 years old, and I had no idea how long it would take to find him, so I asked Avani, who was available and willing to impregnate me. He tried to impregnate my sister, but it didn’t work, so I was worried at first. However, Avani made sure I was pregnant before he left me.

Two dragons mating is intense. For two weeks, we did nothing but mate, eat, and sleep. We both have immense stamina, so I knew before he left that my egg was fertilized and I was carrying the last pure dragon.

Tana’s two children are hybrids since her mate, Cedric, is a Lycan. Both children have the genetics of a dragon and a Lycan. Her daughter Kenna got the dragon gene and can shift into a dragon. Still, unlike Ancalagon, who will reach maturity at age five and shift into his adult human form at that time, Kenna was born a human. Her dragon form reached maturity at the age of five, but her human body is still that of a child. It’s a strange dilemma and one that I know Kenna struggles with.

In a sick twist of fate, I met my mate three months ago. Ishir, the Bengal tiger.

I had gone to a meeting at Cedric and Tana’s pack with the other dragons, and I had known instantly what he was to me. His scent of the Indian monsoons, the damp earth mixed with the scent of the Indian spices such as turmeric and cumin filled my nose and made me crave him instantly.

However, during the meeting, I ignored him and the pull to him. He surely knows that I have a young child and that the child is Avani’s. He is, after all, friends with Tana and Avani. I didn’t give him time to speak to me after the meeting, leaving as soon as it was over and letting Avani know that he could come to visit Ancalagon.

It was a few weeks later, while I was sitting on my mountain, that I heard him. He was in his tiger form, roaring for me. He found me, but rather than come to me, he has been using his tiger’s roar to call to me at least once a week for over two months.

I’m not sure if it’s because of Ancalagon or if he wants me to make the decision to come to him. Either way, I’m losing the battle of staying away from my mate. It’s nearly impossible for a dragon to stay away from their mate once they find them, and it has only been because of Ancalagon that I’ve lasted this long.

Tonight, when I hear the roar calling to me again, I know I’ve lost the fight. I ask the mountain goat shifters that live here on the mountain with me to watch over Ancalagon. I wait until he is asleep, not wanting him to follow me. I’m an animal and so is Ishir, mates who have been away from each other for far too long. There will be no talking tonight. Tonight will be about need and desire.

When I’m sure he’s asleep, I lift off into the sky, flying toward my mate, who is still calling me to him. I’m not sure if he sees me or hears me, but he stands up, continuing to call to me. I gracefully shift as I land before tucking my wings into my back.

I watch as Ishir shifts and begins walking toward me in the way that only a predatory cat can. His eyes drink in my naked body before coming back up to meet my eyes.

“Zephyr, it’s about time you answered my call,” he says before wrapping one hand in my hair roughly, tilting my head to the side, and taking my mouth in a dominant kiss that lets me know that he’s done with waiting.

Ishir is a big man, with thick ginger hair that has black streaks in it, much like his tiger’s stripes. When he releases my mouth, his gold eyes glint with desire. He lifts me up, impaling me on his cock as he slams me against a tree. I wrap my legs and arms around him, devouring him as much as he is devouring me.

Our sex is rough and demanding, and my talons come out, scoring lines down his back as he nips at me, leaving his own temporary marks on my body. When the first orgasm rips through me, so much stronger than anything I’ve ever felt before, my roar makes the forest tremble around us.

After he finds his release, he pulls out, pushing me off of him, spinning me around, and pressing me against the tree. He wraps his arm around my hips, pulling them to him before he kicks my feet apart and thrusts inside me again.

Instead of his back, my talons score the tree that I’m holding on to while Ishir pushes me to the edge of ecstasy. However, this time, the bastard edges me until I’m practically weeping with my need to come.

When he finally lets me find my release, his teeth sink into the back of my neck, and he snarls as my inner walls clamp down hard on his thick length, drawing him deeper inside me. I feel him jerk as he finds his release again.

When he pulls his teeth out of my neck, he leans into my ear, both of our bodies still contracting with the force of our orgasms.

“Don’t ignore my call again, Zephyr. Now, get on your hands and knees. I’m not done with you yet,” he says, his growly tone making my already damp pussy, drip with desire.

I growl at him, letting him know that I don’t like his dominance. Still, he just crawls over top of me, biting down on my neck again and pinning me to the ground while he forces me to take every ounce of pleasure he gives me.

It continues like that throughout the night. You’d think the man was part dragon with the stamina he has. When the sun begins to peak over the mountains in the east, he pulls me to him, much more gently than he did when I got here.

“I know you need to go to your son, and we have a lot to work through, but don’t ignore my call again, Zephyr. Otherwise, you may find a tiger in your den, and then what will you tell Ancalagon?”

He holds me close, his kiss goodbye sweeter but no less intense and dominant than it was when I arrived.

“I’m not at your beck and call, Ishir. I can’t just drop everything when you call me,” I say, knowing that I can and will.

“No, you’re not. You’re my mate. You know it. I know it. Someday soon, we’ll have to figure that out,” he says before kissing me once more. Then he steps back. “I’ll see you soon,” he says.

I nod, shifting and flying back home. I turn once and see him standing, watching me as I fly away.

My thoughts are on Ishir and our night of passion as I fly home, so I don’t immediately realize that something is wrong. That is until I smell the blood and death on my mountain.

I scream for Ancalagon and begin to fly faster, but I get no response.

I land quickly, making the ground shake. All around me, there are dead goat shifters. All the shifters that I asked to watch over my son. They gave their lives for him.

I race into our den, sniffing the air and smelling them.

Hunters.

I sniff some more and smell the scent of the paralytic that I’ve smelled in the arena we took down.

I leap into the air, trying to find him, hoping they aren’t far away. I search for an entire day, never once letting up, but when I realize that I can’t find him alone, I finally send out my dragon’s call, letting the others know that I need help.