Dragon Alpha's Special Mate

25. Preparing for Power

Maxson

The first week of classes has been going great for me, but Sophia is already overwhelmed. Hamish has been giving her extra reading material so she can learn more about her cold fire, but so far, none of it has been useful.

The only reading material he can really find about it is mystic magic, which doesn’t help her all that much. Still, she pours over those books, trying to absorb as much information as possible about it. I think at some point we’re going to have to come clean to him about our magic if we really want him to help her. There’s no way I trust him or anyone enough to tell them that. But I can’t deny that the idea hasn’t been on my mind, and I’m sure it’s on hers, too.

Thankfully, her face is starting to heal, and Stefani’s been keeping her distance from me. That's good. She should have started much slower with Sophia or at least waited until I got off the phone to start so I could supervise. I never expected them to start actual hand-to-hand combat that quickly. I would have started her with poses and worked on her reaction time, which we’ve slowly been doing this week.

The only plus side to her healing is that she has more time to read Hamish's books. That and she can’t fight anyone in Tage’s class. He was so shocked to see her the next day, and I definitely talked to him about her lack of training. He’s starting to understand that she has literally zero fighting training. I’ve always kept her safe, and she’s never had a reason to fight someone. No one would dare to test my mate, not when they’d have to deal with me about it.

Despite feeling very out of place in my Speed Control class, I decided to stick it out. Some of the guys in there have been fun to get to know, especially Lucien. He’s actually really funny. We’ve been texting here and there. He’s been sending me some hilarious memes he makes, and I have no idea how he does it. He’s going to come over before the party starts tonight to hang out and pregame with us.

Of course, Rina, Sophia, and I decided to have another party tonight, and even Damari seems to be getting into the spirit. He’s been chatting up some of the teachers on campus and is going out on a date tonight, so it’s a great opportunity to get him out of the house. Not that I think he’d rain on our parade; just who wants someone that old around all the time? Not us. We’re definitely ready for this independence despite what my mother thinks.

Sophia’s been spending her event planning class time preparing for the party this week and even managed to secure a pretty big local band to play live. She also admitted that she’s been feeling an eerie presence like someone’s watching her walk home from school, so I told her she’s done walking alone. My Advanced Combat class ended a little early, so I’m already waiting outside her door for her to finish up.

I could smell her before I saw her waving bye to her teacher with a huge smile on her face as she walks over to me. I’m glad to see her embracing her event planning class. I’ll admit I had my doubts about it, but my mom was right about putting her in it. She’ll have to plan plenty of parties when she's my Czarina, so she might as well start learning how to do it now.

“Ready?” I ask her, and she nods. She reaches out and holds my hand. I quickly take it, loving the feeling of being reunited with her. I’ve missed her so much during the day. I wish we could have every class together, but I know that’s not good for either of us.

“How was your day?” She asks me, sounding much more chipper than usual.

“Pretty great, how was yours?”

“Amazing! Hamish gave me this new book about demon magic. It’s the only other type of cold fire magic he could find, at least for now. I think he’s really on to something with these books. I’m sure he’ll uncover something cool soon.”

“Demon magic? That’s a little… ominous, wouldn’t you say?”

She shrugs as she looks up at me with her perfect smile, her dimples becoming more pronounced as her face continues to heal.

“I’ll take anything at this point to learn more about it.”

I guess that’s true. I know Sophia really wants to learn more about her specific magic, but I fear she’s setting herself up for failure. She and I were both given very different dragons, and there’s no ‘fixing’ our magic like I fear she wants to. At some point, she’s going to have to learn to embrace her uniqueness.

Besides, who cares if her fire feels cold? It still destroys like mine. Sometimes, I feel it’s even stronger than mine, and she wields it just like I do mine. She can do all the advanced spells and manipulate it better than I can. She has so much control over it that it’s a little sad she’s in the beginner class. Hopefully, she realizes her true potential and just how amazing she is with that magic before too much longer.

Plus, is it so odd that I was born with all four elements, and she was given a dragon with cold fire? My mom, Mihail, and Damari all have dragons with special abilities; why shouldn’t we? And why should we hide it?

Maybe when I become the true Alpha, I’ll reveal to the world what my magic can actually do. And we can reveal how special her magic is.

“What time does the party start tonight?” I hear Lucien ask as he drapes his arm around my shoulder while walking back to our house. I look down at Sophia, waiting for her to answer.

“7, but you can come by whenever.”

“Perfect. See you soon. I just have to clean up, and then I’ll be there!”

He’s gone as quickly as he showed up, using that speed to get him everywhere he wants. Vamps are so lucky with that; they can pop in and out so fast that you don’t even notice them. I’m learning more about how they harness their powers in that class, and I’ve taken some tips on how to tap into Avian's speed while unshifted so I can try to reach a tenth of the speed they have. Hopefully, by the end of the semester, I’ll be somewhat faster.

Sophia and I walk in peaceful silence back to the house, and I try to glance at her to see if she still feels like she’s being watched when I hear her squeal a little before covering her mouth. I look at where she’s looking to see Sapphire and an older guy sitting on a bench chatting together. They’re sitting very close to each other, and I’m sure Sophia’s going to go over there. Instead, she pulls on my hand to get me to walk faster, and I ask her who that was when we’re out of earshot.

“I think that’s the teacher Sapphire’s been flirting with! Didn’t it look like they were flirting?”

I agree with my mate because I genuinely don’t know. But, she seems excited about it so I go along with it. We finally get back to the house, where Rina’s already eating a snack with Damari at the kitchen table.

“Definitely the blue tie; it makes your eyes pop more.” She tells him before shoving a mouthful of food in her mouth. Damari turns around and holds up the ties to us.

“What do you two think?”

“I agree with Rina, definitely the blue.” I nod along with Sophia before grabbing the two plates left out for us to eat.

“I’m so nervous; I haven’t been on a date in years.” He admits, his voice shaking slightly.

“Wow, the great Damari nervous? I didn’t think I’d ever hear you admit that.” I joke with him because he always seems to have so much confidence.

“I know. Marina told me I have nothing to worry about, but she has to say that, doesn’t she?”

“You know her better than we do. Do you think she’d lie to you?”

“Yes.” He says quickly, a little too quickly, but I drop it.

“You’ll be fine!” Rina tells him as she finishes eating, directing her attention toward Sophia, “Doors open at 7?” She asks and Sophia nods. “Great, see you then.” She leaves us in the kitchen, and we hear a knock on the door. After a moment Lucien appears in our kitchen, and I’m shocked at how quickly he got ready.

“I brought booze!” He says, holding up two handles of liquor before his eyes land on Damari. “Uh…” He trails off, trying to hide the alcohol behind his back.

“And that’s my cue to leave. Behave tonight.” He finally tells us before leaving us in the kitchen. Sophia is giggling at Lucien’s bright red face as he watches Damari leave.

“I am so sorry. I didn’t know you had a chaperone here.”

“Don’t worry about it, Damari’s cool.”

If he had an issue with us drinking, he wouldn’t let us have parties here. It’s all for the college experience.

“Well, I still need to shower and get ready. Can you guys let the vendors and band in when they get here?” Sophia asks as she places her plate in the sink.

“You got it.” She leans over to give me a kiss when she walks by and Lucien smiles at her.

“Where’s mine?” He teases as she giggles and walks away to go get ready for the party.

“Well, let’s start drinking.” I tell Lucien as I grab out some glasses for us to start pouring some drinks.