Dragon's Last Hope

Chapter 8

*I am Maya Chen,* she projected back, her consciousness riding the ley lines with instinctive ease. *Last of the Celestial High Dragon line. And I'm here to save us all.*

The response was instantaneous—forty-three minds reaching toward her like drowning swimmers grasping for a lifeline. Through the connections, Maya felt their stories: centuries of hiding, of watching their kind dwindle, of believing they were alone in an increasingly hostile world.

*Impossible,* came another voice, this one from somewhere in the Siberian wilderness—ice dragon, female, pregnant and terrified. *The High Dragons are myths.*

*So were light dragons, until an hour ago,* Maya replied, letting her royal resonance pulse through the global network. The effect was immediate—every dragon on the planet suddenly felt the unmistakable harmonic signature of the bloodline that had once ruled them all.

Through her bonds with her seven mates, Maya felt their amazement at what she was accomplishing. High Dragon abilities were legendary even among their kind—the power to unite disparate bloodlines, to coordinate across vast distances, to transform individual dragons into something greater than the sum of their parts.

*The Order is moving against you,* she projected to the global network. *All of you. Coordinated strikes designed to end our species tonight.*

Fear rippled through the connections, but underneath it, Maya sensed something else—a spark of hope that had been dormant for centuries. Dragons were not prey animals by nature. They were apex predators who had forgotten how to hunt together.

*What do you propose?* The voice came from somewhere in the sss rainforest—a storm dragon whose resonance crackled with barely contained lightning.

Maya shared her plan through the network, not in words but in pure conceptual transfer. Forty-three dragons, coordinated through High Dragon command authority, striking simultaneously at every Order facility on the planet. Not just defense—total offense, designed to cripple their enemies' ability to threaten dragonkind ever again.

The response was swift and unanimous. For the first time in eight centuries, dragons had a leader worth following.

*When?* came the collective question.

Maya consulted with her seven mates through their bonds, their tactical minds calculating timing, logistics, the narrow window they had before the Order's current operations reached their targets.

*Three hours,* she projected. *Coordinate your strikes for midnight, local time. Hit them when their guard rotations change.*

*And if we fail?* asked a voice from somewhere in the Scottish Highlands—shadow dragon, old enough to remember the last great purge.

*Then we die as dragons,* Maya replied, her royal authority resonating through every word. *Not as hunted animals.*

The global network pulsed with acknowledgment, then began to fade as forty-three dragons prepared for the most coordinated action their species had attempted in nearly a millennium.

"It's done," Maya announced to her mates.

As everyone shifted back to their human forms.

“That might be so but there is one thing we must complete before we leave,” Kia stated.

“That would be?” Maya asked unsure were this was heading.

Leon rubbed the back of his neck, “There isn’t an easy way to say this we need to seal the bonds we’ve only completed the first step.”

Maya felt heat rise in her cheeks as the implication hit her. "Seal the bonds? You mean..."

"s*x," Kai said bluntly, his amber eyes gleaming with barely restrained hunger. "Dragon mating bonds require physical consummation to fully stabilise. What we have now is essentially a magical engagement ring."

"Seven engagement rings," Cassius corrected with dark amusement, electricity crackling between his fingers. "Which means seven consummations."

Maya's analytical mind immediately began calculating the logistics while her newly awakened dragon nature purred with anticipation. "Here? Now? We have forty-three dragons counting on us to coordinate a global strike in three hours."

"The bonds will make us stronger," Darius rumbled, his earth-touched awareness sensing the instability in their current connections. "More efficient. Right now, we're operating at maybe sixty percent of our potential."

Through the incomplete bonds, Maya could feel the truth of his words. The connections were there but muted, like trying to hear a symphony through thick glass. Full bonding would open the channels completely, allowing them to coordinate with the precision they'd need for what was coming.

"The unsealed bonds are also a vulnerability," Xander added, his void-touched perception seeing possibilities that made Maya's skin crawl. "If the Order has bond-breakers in their arsenal, they could sever our connections entirely."

Vivienne cleared her throat delicately. "I should mention that the chamber's privacy wards are still active. And time moves... differently... in spaces consecrated to High Dragon magic."

"How differently?" Leon asked, his tactical mind immediately grasping the implications.

"An hour here equals perhaps ten minutes in the outside world," Vivienne replied. "The ancient magic recognises the necessity of proper bonding rituals."

Maya looked around at her seven mates, each magnificent in his own way, each radiating a desire that called to something primal in her core. The human part of her—the analyst who had given presentations just hours ago—wanted to protest the impossibility of it all. But her dragon nature was already reaching toward them through the bonds, eager to claim and be claimed.

"All right," she said, her voice carrying new harmonics that made all seven men go very still. "But we do this properly. Together."

The word "together" hung in the air between them, charged with meaning and possibility. Seven pairs of eyes fixed on Maya with predatory intensity, each man processing her declaration in his own way.

"Together," Leon repeated, his voice a low rumble that sent shivers down Maya's spine. "All seven of us at once."

"Is that even physically possible?" Maya asked, her analytical mind still trying to assert itself despite the dragon instincts now flooding her system.

Kai's laugh was warm and rich, flames dancing in his amber eyes. "For a High Dragon? More than possible. Necessary."

Vivienne moved toward one of the chamber exits with graceful efficiency. "I'll strengthen the wards and ensure you're not disturbed." She paused at the threshold, her expression softening slightly. "Your mother would be proud, Maya. She chose exile to protect you, but she always hoped you'd find your true nature someday."

Before Maya could respond, Vivienne was gone, the ancient door sealing behind her with a sound like a final breath.

"Your mother was wise to hide you," Kieran said, stepping closer. Frost glittered in his pale hair, but his eyes burned with heat that contradicted his ice nature. "The Order would have hunted a High Dragon child to the ends of the earth."

"They still will," Darius added, his massive form moving with surprising grace as he approached from another angle. "Once they realise what you are."

Maya felt her seven mates forming a loose circle around her, their movements synchronised without conscious thought. Through their incomplete bonds, she sensed their intentions—not to trap her, but to create a sacred space, a ritual as old as dragonkind itself.

"The claiming circle," Lucian explained, seeing her momentary confusion. His light-touched presence was a counterpoint to her own, complementary rather than identical. "It's instinctive."