Page 13 of Protecting His Treasure

“That is pretty weak,” Rhen muttered. “Sorry, I gotta side with the dragon on that one.”

“How long would you last, vampire?” Morales asked Rhen.

Rhen grinned. “I bet I can take him out in two.”

His dragon’s roar reverberated through his chest. “I bet I take you out in one,” Kaede growled.

Rhen moved away from the wall. Kaede flexed his hands.

“Stop,” Morgan called out. “This is why I didn’t want to be paired with you two.” Morg moved to stand next to Kaede. “That’s all for today,” he said to the newbies. “You didn’t learn anything major. But you did learn that you can’t last longer than six minutes against a dragon shifter. And Kaede wasn’t even using his full strength.”

“He wasn’t?” Morales asked.

Kaede couldn’t answer. He didn’t even remember the mock battles.

“Didn’t I say he wasn’t,” Morgan replied. The shifter hated having to repeat himself. “Go. Return tomorrow, ready to fight. And bring your A game, or don’t come at all.” The newbies filed out of the room, leaving Morgan, Rhen, and Kaede behind. “Why?” Morgan whirled around to face him. “Why did you do that to them?”

“Yeah, why?” Rhen questioned.

“I…” He didn’t know how to explain.

“I’ll tell you why?” Rhen said. “It’s because of the coming full moon.”

He knew.

Morgan frowned. “You said you had that under control.”

Kaede opened his mouth to reply. Before he could, Rhen did.

“He lied. He’s a liar. Tell your dragon to stop growling,” Rhen said. “He sounds like a wolf shifter.”

“Is Rhen telling the truth?” Morg asked. “Do you not have the pull of the full moon under control?”

“I’m… working on it.”

“You’ve been seeing the Elders. They were supposed to help you get this under control.”

“They’ve been helping. But, I’m an alpha. There’s only so much they can do for me.”

“Alphas have it harder,” Rhen agreed. “You’re a lucky bastard because you’ve found your mate. You’re an unlucky bastard, because on the night of your first full moon, you may end up killing her.”

Kaede sighed. The curse of the first full moon. It was something not many knew about. Most shifters experienced the pull of the full moon on their first full moon night with their mate. But only immortal alphas were bound to it by the curse of the first full moon. And since Sinclair was his mate, she was now bound to the same curse.

And she didn’t even know it. He was too much of a coward to tell her. He’d told her some things, but not the full truth. He was worried that what he told her would scare her. If she afraid, that would only make things worse for her on that night. The Elders had instructed him to keep it from her.

The guilt of not being honest with her was gnawing at him. But telling her the truth would only add fear to her heart. On the night of the full moon, that could be detrimental. If his beast smelt fear, it would attack. Not because it wanted to, but because instincts would make it do so. Fear would awaken its need to hunt, to kill.

If he could, he would avoid his mate on the night of their first full moon. But the curse prevented that. If Sinclair and him didn’t complete the bonding ritual on the night of their first full moon together, they’d both die. Even if he tried to stay away from her, once the moon was high in the sky, his dragon would take over and it would instinctively hunt her down.

And because his dragon would be the one in control on the night of their first full moon, there was a chance his beast could lose control and hurt his mate. There’s even been times when an alpha has killed his mate of the night of their first full moon. His father had told him of such tales.

We won’t hurt our mate. We won’t.

Kaede wanted to believe his beast. But he didn’t. If he kept blacking out like this, who knew what would happen on the night of the full moon? Who knew what would happen before the full moon?

“Talk to us,” Morgan said. “Maybe we can help.”

“I… don’t know what to say.”