Dragon Mate

Start of Something New

What the hell had just happened?

Ailia lay swaddled against her mother's chest fighting sleep, wondering what in the world was going on. She hadn't really believed Egan when he'd told her she was his mate. She hadn't really believed that she could go back and start her life again. She had leaned forward expecting him to steal a kiss and then she could holler at him and storm away thinking nothing more of it. Yet here she was a newborn infant lying in her mother's arms.

Confused, disoriented, and helpless to do anything about it, Ailia began to cry. Her mother woke, looked at her with loving eyes that Ailia hadn't seen in almost a decade previous to this, and Ailia cried harder until a breast was thrust into her mouth, milk started to flow, and Ailia was unable to fight the sleep that ate at her any longer. Drifting off, all Ailia could think was how she would throttle Egan when she saw him again.

*4-year-old*

Boxes had been packed. Ailia and her brother had been told they would be moving to Alaska so her parents could teach in one of the villages out there. Ailia knew it was a bad idea, but how could she explain that to her family, who had yet to experience this part of their life? In her previous life, when the move to the village had occurred, she had been met with racism, sexism, and assault of a s****l nature. But how could she, at 4, tell this to the family that had yet to step foot in the village that would set her down a negative path?

Ailia sighed heavily as they went to the airport, fighting the urge to scream and make a scene. Maybe it wouldn't be all that bad. After all, she was prepared this time.

*The village*

The small plane landed on the runway. Ailia expected to be greeted by the same person who had greeted them before. An elder from the village who was still young enough to work for the school took people and their luggage from the strip to the house assigned to them when Ailia had been there in the last life. But that was not who greeted them now. Now they were met by a young woman and a teenage boy. These two were native Alaskans for sure. They couldn't have been living in this village if they weren't native Alaskans. But they had not been here before. As Ailia approached, something about them made her skin crawl.

It didn't crawl in a bad way. Rather, it felt prickly as if a current of electricity was running over her skin. Ailia froze and looked up at the woman, unable to keep the interest off her face. As her parents turned their backs on the two helping them load the luggage, the woman nodded her head to Ailia with a knowing look and respect on her face. Ailia immediately knew Egan had something to do with this. She didn't know how she knew, but who else could it be that put this person here who'd never been here before. What was he up to? Ailia was determined to get answers.

The two people introduced themselves as Miranda and Ian. Miranda had grown up in a different village close by, had been living in Anchorage for years, but had missed the villages and moved to this one with her family a few months previous. As she said this, she couldn't help but think there was more to the story. Ian was Miranda's son. The two dropped Ailia and her family off at what would be their new home for the next several years at least. They took their things inside and, just like she knew they would, her and her brother were shoed out to play while their mother tried to hide the fact she was going to sit in the middle of the living room and cry as soon as they were out of site.

Ailia took this opportunity to go searching for the answers she was looking for and didn't have to go far. There in the playground next to their home was another new face. A girl that appeared close in age to Ailia swung on the tall swings absentmindedly.

"Hello." Ailia approached the girl.

"Hello! You must be Ailia! Im Tonya. Miranda is my mother." Tonya jumped off the swing and ran up to Ailia, hugging her suddenly. "We are going to be best friends!"

Ailia was taken aback by the girls' sudden hug. Her breath ran out of her body as her whole body was enveloped in the skin-tingling current that ran off the girl. Tonay sensed Ailia tensing up in her arms and let her go quickly, stepping back, embarrassment clear on her face.

"I'm sorry. I forgot. My mother told me you'd be different from other people and that I should be careful touching you, but I got excited."

"What do you mean?" Ailia asked.

"She said you'd feel my power."

"Your power?"

"Well yea! My shifting power! I'm wolf silly!"

It would be months before Ailia fully figured out what Tonya meant. Months more before she'd gotten confirmation that Egan had, in fact, been tracking Ailia and her family and placed that shifter family in that village the moment he'd heard they were moving there. But Ailia was glad of the intervention in the end. Tonya did end up being Ailia's best friend in that village and most of what had happened in the previous life never had a chance to occur thanks to the ever watchful presence of the shifters over whom she would one day rule.