Rex ran at Alpha speed, following the warped treeline and the thick trail of Fin's scent. The farther he went, the more the forest looked wrong — branches twisted backward like they were recoiling, stones drifting lazily in midair, entire roots ripped out of the ground and suspended like ribs of an ancient beast. Even the air shimmered green, humming with Elle's runaway power.
He found Fin's wolf crouched behind a bush the size of a dinner table — which did absolutely nothing to hide an Alpha built like a mountain. Fin wasn't moving, eyes fixed on the clearing ahead.
Rex slowed, shifted, and followed his gaze.
His heart lurched.
Above the clearing, a dragon circled — massive, ancient-scaled, and unmistakably wild. Its wings cut slow, measured strokes through the air, each flap sending gusts spiraling across the treetops. Its eyes burned the same feral green as Elle's, reflecting her magic back at her like a mirror.
Elle stood below it, eyes unfocused and glowing. She was human again, but she looked… hollowed. As if only her body remained while her mind drifted somewhere deep inside the magic.
The dragon inhaled. A thin ribbon of green fire curled from its jaws — not yet an attack, but a warning.
Rex didn't hesitate. He sprinted into the clearing, shifting midstride He knew enough about wild dragons to know they didn't tolerate sudden movements. He also knew enough to recognize that this one was not wild in the usual way.
"You find yourself a dragon, Elle?" Rex called out, tone bright and casual, like this was a minor observation.
She turned toward his voice — slowly — her expression dazed, lips parted, pupils absent beneath the blazing green.
She didn't answer.
The dragon roared, a vibrating, ancient sound that rattled loose bark off the surrounding trees. Then it descended, landing with the weight of a small mountain. Talons dug trenches into the earth, wings folding inward with a metallic scrape.
Elle stepped toward it.
"Elle, wait," Rex said quickly, lifting a hand in warning. His Alpha aura hit her full force. She turned towards him dazed.
"Wild dragons can be dangerous. You're supposed to bow first — like this." He said and bowed low, palms open, never breaking eye contact with the dragon. The creature's head tilted, nostrils flaring as it scented him. Trees swayed from the heat rolling off its scales. After a long, tense second, the dragon did not attack.
Acceptance.
Barely.
Elle echoed him, not fully aware. "Bow."
She bowed, not as deep as Rex. But it was a bow.
She walked forward, slow and unblinking, moving straight toward the dragon's simmering breath — like she belonged to it.
Fin's wolf let out a low, warning growl behind them.
Rex's pulse kicked hard.
Rex knew exactly where this was heading. Either this Dragon was Cael's and it was tolerating Elle or she was about to bond with it. He'd witnessed a few dragon bondings in his life, and none of them were gentle.
Gods help them.
Elle didn't break eye contact with the dragon. She walked toward it as though drawn by a thread she couldn't sever.
It was wildly dangerous. Rex knew that better than anyone. But he also knew he didn't have a choice. His dragon wasn't there to save her if it went south.
So Rex moved first.
He didn't wait for Elle to reach it. He broke into a run, vaulted up, and swung himself onto the dragon's back with practiced ease — legs bracing against the ridge of its spine, hands gripping the warm scales as they shifted beneath him. He dug in, steadying himself.
Elle lifted her hand.
Rex exhaled, locking his jaw, readying himself.
She touched the dragon's snout.
Magic detonated.
A shockwave blasted outward in a perfect ring of green — slicing through leaves, bending trees, sending floating stones rocketing away like they'd been flung by the gods themselves. The ground vibrated. Air cracked. The forest shimmered as though reality itself had been struck like a drum.
It didn't burn anything. Didn't break anything.
But it rearranged everything.
The dragon threw its head back and roared — a sound so deafening Rex felt it in the marrow of his bones. And beneath him, the dragon's scales burned bright, blinding emerald.
Elle did not flinch. She stepped closer—utterly fearless, utterly unthinking—and swung herself onto the dragon's back as if Rex weren't already perched there. She moved with the effortless certainty of someone who had ridden dragons for centuries and had merely taken a brief intermission in this lifetime.
Rex's jaw dropped a fraction.
Of course she did.
Hyran's voice clipped through the mindlink, dry as kindling.
Hyran: Did she sneeze?
Rex didn't have it in him to laugh. He kept his focus locked forward, watching Elle settle into place like she'd been born in a saddle made of scales.
Rex:It looks like those green beams called her bonded. Cael may have… competition.
A pause. Then Hyran's resigned hum.
Hyran:Ah. That explains it.
Before Rex could answer, the dragon launched itself skyward with a violent whoosh, wings slamming the air so hard the forest bent beneath the force of it. The ground dropped away in a heartbeat.
Rex locked his legs, centered his weight, and prayed to every ancestor he'd ever had. He had trained plenty of dragons—feral ones, half-grown ones, stubborn ones—but this was an unclaimed adult responding to a soul-bonding surge. Which meant it could buck him into the next kingdom at any moment.
Elle glanced back at him over her shoulder. Her eyes glowed—bright, cold, and entirely not her. When she spoke, her voice cut like frost.
"He is here."
A split-second later, a crack split the air beneath them—followed by a second rush of wings.
Rex looked down.
Somehow Onyx soared below them. He perfectly mirrored every movement of Elle's dragon. Every turn. Every tilt. Every shift of wings. As if offering support, or challenge, or both.
"Good boy," Rex muttered under his breath. "Extra treats for you if I survive this."
Onyx heard the thought long before the words finished forming.
He rumbled back in agreement.
The green dragon bucked.
Rex had just enough time to mutter, "Typical," before he was thrown backward off Elle's dragon with the weary resignation of a man who had absolutely been bucked off a dragon or two in his day. He didn't even bother to scream.
He knew the drill.
And Onyx was already there.
The moment Rex fell, Onyx—flying directly beneath Elle's dragon in perfect mirrored formation—swooped up half a foot, caught Rex cleanly across his shoulders, and settled him as smoothly as if this were rehearsed choreography.
Rex exhaled, propping an elbow against Onyx's ridge. "Good boy. You know me too well."
Onyx rumbled with smug satisfaction. He descended towards the ground.
"You know everything don't you." Rex said with a laugh.
A moment later, Onyx landed in the field where Elle's dragon just stood.
Fin shifted to human form, and ran at alpha speed to Rex. His expression caught somewhere between anger and the early stages of cardiac collapse.
Onyx made a sharp, impatient snort—one that very clearly meant, Get on, fool.
Rex translated with impeccable calm. "Onyx invites you to mount."
Fin blinked. "Absolutely not."
Onyx did not negotiate.
He reached out, pinched Fin delicately by the back of his shirt, and deposited him onto his back directly behind Rex with the gentle firmness of a dragon placing a cub somewhere safer than the ground.
Fin landed with a grunt.
Rex patted his knee. "Welcome aboard."
Onyx launched upward before Fin could protest, wings beating once—hard—sending the forest rippling beneath them. Fin gripped the scales so tightly his knuckles paled.
"Holy—How in all the gods' names did Nova ever stand on his head?"
Onyx made a low, rolling chuff that unmistakably sounded like draconic laughter.
Rex smirked. "He says he is thoroughly enjoying your existential spiral."
Fin glared. "Tell him to stop."
Onyx laughed louder.
Then Elle's dragon roared—an earth-shaking, sky-tearing bellow—and a pulse of green magic detonated outward in a spiraling shockwave.
Fin's face changed instantly. Fear. Guilt. Something deeper.
Rex nudged him sharply. "Alpha—now would be the time."
Fin swallowed hard, then mindlinked her.
Fin:Elle… I'm sorry.
Nothing.
He tried again, voice cracking with urgency.
Fin:I shouldn't have held you back. I shouldn't have stopped you from reaching him. I was wrong. Please—Elle—please hear me.
Elle's dragon faltered midflight, wings stuttering for a fraction of a heartbeat.
Onyx matched the movement perfectly, angling upward toward her.
Wind roared past them. Fin grabbed onto Onyx tightly.
Magic crackled.
Rex shouted over the storm, "Hold tight, Alpha! Onyx says if you fall, you're on your own."
Fin bellowed back, "I HEARD HIM!"