The Last Dragon Princess

Chapter 4: Daniel (Liv's Father)

Watching my daughter shift for the first time is something that I will never forget. Her first shift is definitely different from her siblings, which her mother and I suspected that it would be, but what we weren't expecting was for her to turn into a dragon. Though thinking back to being told by my parents and grandparents about them, we should have known. I guess after all this time, we forgot that she hatched from an egg. For the last 20 years, she has just been our daughter. We don't care what she shifted into. She could have been a bird shifter for all we cared. But knowing that she is the last of her kind, I have to protect her. I've seen the way that Alpha Brock has looked at Liv.

He wants her, but I don't know if he even knows that she is a dragon.

~Flashback~

Rose and I knew as soon as the kids found Liv before she hatched. We knew about the king and queen of the dragons from my grandparents. The king and queen had asked my family to protect the cave behind the waterfall 100 years ago but were never told what was inside. My family has kept our word all these years. Kate and Nate (our twins) were 7 years old when they found the entrance to the cave.

Once inside, they found Liv's egg. Kate called for us, and we thought that Nate had been hurt since no one in my family had ever gone inside before. We didn't know what to except. Kate and Nate were standing by what we thought was a rock from a distance, but once we got closer we knew what we were looking at. I looked at Rose and mind linked her through our bond.

"We have to take the egg with us. This egg is most likely the exact thing that the dragon king and queen wanted my family to protect. This is possibly the last dragon," I told her.

"Then we take the egg with us. There's no telling who could have followed us and watched us enter the cave. We can't even tell the alpha what we found," she replies.

"Alright, kids, let's get what we can and bring what we can back to the house," I tell my family.

A week after we brought the egg home, keeping it warm as best we could. We heard a cracking sound coming from it. The kids were at school, so we rushed over to the egg. We didn't know what to do, so we just watched as pieces of the egg fell away to reveal a baby. To be honest, I was expecting to see a baby in the form of a dragon.

The baby just stared at us, and we looked at the baby for two minutes. Then the baby started crying. Immediately, Rose picked up the baby and that was when I noticed the baby was a girl. Thankfully, we kept some of the kids' baby clothes, in the hopes of having more cubs. I went to get some of Kate's baby clothes from storage. Rose was struggling to find something to give the baby girl something to eat since we didn't have anything for a baby.

Knowing that the baby's parents had been gone for 100 years, we came up with a story about how we found her in the woods by the lake just beyond the border of the pack, and how we couldn't find her parents. We adopted her into our pride. A pride is what a lion calls his family. My lion, Leo, and Rose's lion, Amber, have imprinted on the baby girl, so it just made sense to adopt her. We named her Lavinia after Rose's grandmother.

~End Flashback~

I turned around once I knew I couldn't see Diamond anymore. Apparently, even though we aren't her biological parents, she imprinted on us when she hatched and can mind link us as well through a family bond. Liv is upset by who her mate is. I'm beyond pissed about who it is. Leo wants to have some words with him about how he has treated our cub.

Once I'm facing Devlin, my family follows suit. Crossing my arms, I watched as Kate punched him in the face. Then Nate punched him. I asked through the family link, so Rose could hear my question, "Why did you both punch him? I know why Leo and I want to but explain to me why you both did."

Kate is the one to answer me. "Liv/Diamond, told us who her mate was. That she could smell him here. She flew off so she didn't have to deal with him. Knowing that he is going to reject her based on how he treats her."

Well, ok then, apparently we need to work on the mind-link with her. I'm not sure if she intended to tell the whole Pride or just Rose and me. Looking back at Devlin, I'm surprised that he isn't getting angry and yelling at my cubs about punching him and threatening them with some sort of punishment. This is a good start. Maybe he realizes what he has essentially thrown away. Liv is an amazing girl and deserves better than how he treated her.

"Why are you here Devlin?" I asked him. I am trying not to lose my temper with him.

"I'm here for a few reasons. One is that Brock sent me. He wants Lavinia for himself as his mate. He plans to force a mate bond with her. I'm not sure if he knows that she is a dragon. If he didn't before, he will now since she flew away before I could stop her. The second reason is that I love her. I've been waiting to see if we are mates since she turned 18. I know how I have treated her in the past, but that is all due to Brock. After seeing him leering at her on her 16th birthday, when she should have shifted for the first time, I knew I had to do something to try to get her to leave the pack for her safety, no matter how much I love her.

I see the way that she cares for the pack and wants everyone to do well and be happy. All of her characteristics are what made me fall in love with her. Even the part about her handing me my ass. I don't care that she is stronger than me and I don't care about any powers her dragon will pass to her mate. I want, no, I NEED to protect her," he responds.

"I have noticed how he looks at her, but I didn't know the extent of his obsession with Liv. Why haven't you said anything before? We could have gotten her out of this pack and been a Pride of our own. Protected from your father." I asked him.

"I didn't say anything because I've been trying to make him think of her as nothing that will help him gain the power that I know he is seeking. Ever since my mother died, which, by the way, I don't believe was just because the rogues got to her before he could help her, something has changed with him, but I can't challenge him for the alpha title without a good reason," he replies.

"Looks like you're going to have your work cut out for you, young alpha. But if you think that we, let alone Liv, are just going to easily forgive you for the way you treated her, even if it was to try to protect her in a round-bout way, you have another thing coming. We will deal with that the lion shifter way," I told him.