Lyra’s POV

  Last night, I was taken to a different room for treatment. Maryam insisted that I stay in solitude for the meantime until they figure out what could have possibly triggered the lord, who, to my hearing now, had collided with the mountain close to the human village.

  Staring at the window, I waited for someone to walk in to give me some form of information. I waited for my wolf to spark to life like it did the last time I felt her, but everything seemed so off.

  The room I was kept in looked like a dungeon, with only a small window at the top for light, barely providing a proper view. It had metal bars tightly knitted together, shielding most of the light, and then a small bed and a plate of cold food, which was given to me very early this morning. I barely touched it. I didn’t like fruits, but somehow it was all they fed humans.

  I kicked it, gently leaning on the door, hoping I would hear something at least. But the corridor was deserted. My eyes met the opening at the top, it wasn’t so high but too little to squeeze through it, and even if it was big enough, Veyrax was surrounded by mighty water.

  I would not be able to move out without a powerful ship, not even a boat. Wolves weren't the best swimmers, and worst of all, I might be burned to a crisp if I tried to escape and then got caught. Everybody here was a fire breather.

  Ten wolves were grains of sand beneath the foot of a dragon.

  I took a sip from the cup, then stood up to stare through the window. Before me stood a very green pasture, more like a valley of flowers. A gorge sat comfortably to the left, and I could only wonder what rested after that fold of land, and before it was a town of small houses, then a mountain, which, from the mindless whisper, was where the lord Draziel crashed into after he spiraled into the skies last night. It was clouded with thick smoke. And even from where I was, I could tell he spewed fire on it.

  Even hours after his dramatic crash, lava still dripped from the side of the rock; it was like a volcano had burped on it. The fog it produced was thick, and the heat was maddening. If the territory wasn’t cold this season, we would all boil.

  His reaction to our first meeting left me in a haze. It was either he discovered a wolf in his territory and it made him lose his mind with joy, or he felt the mate bond I did. And goodness, did I pray that he felt joy deep in his heart and that he would slit my throat? Than he felt the mate bond I felt.

  Dragons could not mate with wolves, nor could they mate with humans, so yes, he was excited. But on the other hand, I know what I felt. I still feel it. The changes, the pull—I felt it all.

  Considering the situation, I wasn’t supposed to feel this, but then again, I had never heard of a wolf shapeshifter losing the only thing that makes them shapeshifters. Neither have I heard of a wolf being completely human. But ever since I woke up at the depot, normality has run far from me.

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  A sigh escaped my lips.

  The sudden sound of shifting steps approaching had me on my feet and hurriedly reaching for my displaced plates.

  If there was one thing I knew about being held prisoner, it was knowing when to act and when not to. It was feigning appreciation and maybe change.

  And like a prisoner, I held the plate of food on my thighs, crossed my legs, and rested on the bed, waiting for what might be. I waited for whoever was coming to open the door, but then the steps stopped halfway.

  Whoever this was stopped halfway, and worst of all, I felt that thud in my heart again. Like a jolt in my soul, and I quickly recognized who it was that came. Fear gripped me, and my fingers dug into the thick sheets as I dreaded his presence.

  Was he coming to kill me? Does he know I was a wolf?

  I drifted into bed, counting each breath. Just then I heard hurried shuffles till they were just distant noise, he left. Why?

  Lord Draziel was here!!

  Panic arose in my mind, he would kill me. He was going to fucking kill me, I could feel it. I scurried to the window, scratching the brick wall with my fingers, hoping I could make it wide enough to push myself through it.

  My fingers bled and broke, yet nothing. I fell back to the floor, defeated and tired, just as I sensed Maryam walking toward me. She opened the door, walked in, and then stood there.

  “Little one,” she called out.

  I raised my head to see her crouched before me. I was full of rage, my vision blurred. What if I attacked her and used her as a hostage to gain my freedom? She seemed fairly important to the dragons. A human working for people who used them to their benefit, she was no better than them. Evil, manipulative. And dangerous.

  “Don’t call me that,” I blurted out, standing up from the floor. I walked over to the bed, covering myself with the thick sheet given; at least they knew their town was oddly cold.

  “I came with fresh clothes and a sock. It was hard finding new socks last night since the other girl had taken them.” She sat on the bed, and I moved further away from her.

  I do not concern myself with two-faced people. And the likes of her who helped the enemies kill their kind. She was worse than them.

  “Lord Draziel isn’t aggressive, something happened yesterday. We don’t know it yet, but he hasn’t shifted in a long time, so I hear—”

  “The clan members think he sensed something in you, or maybe he was just extremely pissed to find someone in his room. He isn’t talking with anyone, but I promise you on good days he’s not always like this.”

  I lost my mind. “He is the leader in an active slave trade, using human women for breeding, knowing that they die after, and you defend him?. He’s a demon!” quoting the term used by Alisha I needed to pass the message in a way she understood, but calm eyes toughened.

  Instant evidence that I crossed my boundaries. I shouldn’t have made my query obvious, now she would know I was unfit, she would know I was different, and she would tell the rest about me, and I would be beheaded.

  I lowered my eyes, then almost pleaded for forgiveness when she chuckled.

  “The humans are happier here than back home, and women are only bred once, they are paid very well and are given their town. Which, if you look there, you will see that a whole town is dedicated to women who bred with the dragons,” she said, then stood up.

  “Bred?”

  I knew it, the Dragons were building armies of mutants. How could I have missed it? Yes, they killed their women due to their selfish traits, and now they broke the truce of keeping humans out of the realm, they abduct them, and they force them to breed? For how long?

  “How long? Please, how long, Maryam? The women? How long?” The rest of the world had to know what they were doing. I needed to get it out there, we needed to stop it before they finished what they started.

  “All this information would be given when you are fine. Now.” She stood, prepared to leave, and then handed me soft cotton wear.

  “I can’t have you catching a cold.”

  “No, No tell me.” I tossed the clothes aside then pulled hers. I had never wanted to know something more than now.

  “How long.” The lines on her forehead deepened. She pulled her garment from my grip, then smiled with grace, her silk hands held my chin, and my legs gave into her warmth.

  “We are fine here, the humans are safe here. Soon you will see. For now wear clothes.” She turned to leave, but I pulled her back. But she pulled away quickly, and before I could hold on to her again, she was outside and the bars were shut.

  “Wear your clothes, little one.”

  “Please! Please! Come back. Please! How long?”

  Her pace slowly faded in the long corridor, and I was left to myself again. Stuck with nothing but the cruelty of knowledge.

  If the dragons were breeding with humans, it meant they had found a way to bypass the natural process. Wolves were birthed by wolves, and dragons by dragons; every species could only reproduce with their kind.

  The humans were the purest creatures they could not breed with them.

  Impossible.