Adamant Spirits

Part I

Part One

I made a deal with the devil.

Or a wolf that so easily could be one.

“As I’m now with you for a while”—I pause when he turns to look at me. I can’t say the trickster alpha of this city is unattractive, but his golden eyes send nothing but shivers of fear down my spine—“what is your name?”

“King Draycian,” he replies, watching me. “And you are bound by the rules of my city. You may not speak my name, nor tell a soul what is in our lands and who lives upon it. Understood?”

I cross my arms. “What will happen if I break your rules?”

He smirks. “You’ll have to deal with me, and you won’t like my reaction to traitors.”

Draycian turns around and walks farther into the cavern, away from the glowing gold light. “My males will look upon you, and hopefully, you are a mate to one of them.”

“Wait, what?” I shout, jogging to his side, but he doesn’t look down at me. The cavern opens up into a larger part of the earth, and I feel like we are going deeper into the earth with every step. “I don’t want a mate. I’m not mating anyone.”

Ever again, is what I don’t say.

I had a mate once, chosen for me by the moon goddess, and he treated me like I was less than dirt. I won’t be a kicking bag or used for pleasure for any other male. I’d rather die.

I stop because I’m not following him anywhere until he explains what is happening. I made a deal to stay with him for a year but not in his bed, and he promised Mai that I would not be hurt.

“If you force me to be with a male, I will kill myself, and you can explain that one to my alpha female!”

Draycian stops dead in his tracks and slowly turns. It’s dark in here, but my wolf sight makes it easy to see him even in the dark. His eyes glow bright enough to shine gold down on me.

“I do not like being threatened, and I have killed wolves for far less than the threat you just made.”

His words are laced with venom, and I don’t doubt he has done worse.

I hold my head up high and arch my eyebrow. “Kill me then and break your promise.”

He stares at me for a moment, like he is considering it, before he looks up at the cavern roof, muttering something in a language I don’t understand. “Fine, female. My pack has a thousand one hundred and forty-one males. We have three females, all out of breeding age. My shifters are immortal, in a way regular wolves are not, and we can sense our mates from one look. One sniff of her scent.”

I bite the inside of my cheek. “So, you made a deal with Mai for me, to see if I’m a mate to one of your wolves?”

“Yes, but we are not wolves. We are dragons, Breelyn,” he answers. “I plan to make many deals to find the mates for my wolves. We have lived a long, cold existence since before the time of the gods and now many of us sense our mates in the world, born for the first time.”

“How old are you?”

“It’s considered rude to ask,” he responds dryly. “Either way, mate or not, you will be a useful change.”

Mate or not? I don’t want a mate, and I know without a doubt that none of his dragon shifters are going to be anything to me. There is only one male that sets my soul on fire, and half the time I can’t decide if I like him or hate him. Callahan, an angel I should not be thinking about so often.

But I do.

I wonder what he will think when he finds out about this deal, about the year I am going to be forced to stay in this city and far away from my friends. From him. The path opens up, and I pause, looking at the golden city in front of me. It’s beautiful, unique, and ancient. Crystal towers, rocks shaped into dragons, and a tower castle. It’s all inside the mountain, with thousands of different shaped holes at the top, letting light pour in. The light is reflected by the mirrors lining the towers and houses.

I’m far away from Ravensword now, and I don’t think there is any way back. Not yet. Not for a long time.