Attack (The Aurora Marelup Saga Book 4)

The last two weeks have been heaven and hell. Heaven because the gods saw fit to grant me a second mate. I was sure I would die alone, with my only joy being my daughter and her children. Speaking of my daughter’s children, they are indeed a breath of fresh air. The last hatchling I was able to see run around was actually her mate, Alaric.

I swear this war that she’s waging has aged me faster than anything else I could ever have imagined. Then there’s all this technology that Helle is helping me learn and master. It’s kind of sad that my grandbabies have a better grasp of things than I do.

Klaus has this thing called a Switch, and the little ones sit there for hours like tiny zombies making a mushroom-looking man bounce all over the screen. I have no idea how any of this stuff works. But if it keeps them happy while their momma is away, I’m all for it.

Helle has been an angel, accepting Aurora’s babies and me so quickly. Then again, it helps that she’s Jayce and Dominik’s mom. To my surprise, Aurora actually likes her—that’s huge. If my daughter doesn’t like someone, she’s not afraid to let them know.

I feel the height of the battle waging in what used to be my mate’s home. I can almost track where Aurora is on the battlefield. She’s left her bond with me wide open. All I have to do is close my eyes and focus on her. I have been guiding Aurora through the entire castle. I have been giving her the history of the castle as well as where hidden passageways are.

Sadly, in a way, I am glad that Anca has passed on. If she could see the state of her father’s castle, she would be heartbroken. Aurora is still on the fence whether she wants to destroy the castle and build a new one or just resurrect this one. I watch her kill Josef and then her leap to Alaric. I have never been so proud of my child in all of my days.

She lands on the tower then proceeds to climb. I have a perfect view of how her talons allow her to grip the stones as she moves. It’s impressive, to say the least, that she moves with such ease up the rocks. I regret that she wasn’t born a dragon; she would have been a very deadly dragoness. She pauses as she catches Vladimir’s scent; he’s got a blood sickness that’s slowly poisoning him to death. Idiot used dragon blood to prolong his life span. I guess he didn’t realize it doesn’t work that way.

I advise my daughter how to approach the situation, and then suddenly, I can’t see through her eyes anymore. It is frightening in the first few moments, and then it dawns on me that she really needed to concentrate so as not to be distracted, so she closed the link.

What seems like forever passes, and finally, Aurora reaches out to me. We won, Daddy! On our way home, see you in a few hours. With that, I feel her lie down and go to sleep. I reach out to Alaric, and he fills me in on the entire battle from his perspective. My daughter is courageous and made me very proud of her.

Anca can rest in peace now, knowing her castle is no longer under Vladimir’s and the Strigoi’s control. It took so long to liberate her ancestral home, but in the end, it was more than worth it.

I run and tell Helle and the babies that Aurora and her mates are on their way home. She squeals from excitement; not only is her daughter-in-law on her way back, but so are both of her sons. Helle runs to the kitchen and gets the staff to start cooking various meals for the family.

“Love.” I rest a hand on Helle’s forearm. “Aurora may not eat what you are having prepared. Please don’t take offense over it.” I look down at my feet, then back up at my mate. Tears threaten to break and run down her cheeks. “It’s not you, my beloved. She’s been hunted all of her life. She needs time to trust you the way she trusts her mates. The last woman that claimed to love me tried to kill her.” I furrow my brows and look at her, hoping she understands.

Helle nods her head slowly and wipes her eyes before looking back up at me. “I understand, my love. I just hope she can trust me like she does my sons one day.”

I smile at her and press a kiss to her forehead. “Without a doubt, it will happen. You’re a good woman and my true mate. How could she not love you?” Helle’s laughter is like music to my ears; I love seeing her smile. I freeze suddenly as I sense Alaric reaching out, letting me know that he can see the village from where he is. “Hurry! We need to go outside! They are almost ready to land.” I grab Helle’s hand and drag her through the house. All of the commotion I’m making awakens Aurora’s children, and the toddlers chase after us.

Our eyes raise up, looking skyward; dawn’s early light casts a multitude of colors across the clouds. It’s then, I see them. Alaric is in the lead, flanked by Dante and Edgar, with Marco, the Black Dragon, bringing up the rear. Dante appears to have something in his hand, but he’s staying higher in the sky than the others. Alaric lands gracefully, and my daughter leaps off of his back. She shows me Josef’s head and tells me about the battle. Dimitri shows Aurora the Elder Dame’s head, which is probably one of the most romantic moves I’ve witnessed my old friend do.

Aurora is up to something as I see Alaric move to stand behind me. His hands cover my eyes, and I hear movement around me and a thud. Helle gasps, and I feel her hand on my left side. “Release him, Alaric,” Aurora says, her voice so commanding and powerful, and I am already beaming with pride until I see what she has brought for me.

“Vladimir…” Frost begins to coat the ground around me as I stare at the one man who destroyed my life. My dragon wants to break free and plunge this bastard into a block of ice. Meanwhile, my daughter has the most sadistic smile on her lips that I have ever seen on her. It concerns me to see her like this. Alaric looks concerned, as well as her other mates.

Aurora cuts the gag free from Vladimir and drives him to his knees. Her taloned gauntlet keeps applying pressure to his left arm. I see what she’s contemplating already, an eye for an eye. I look at her other mates, and I’m pretty sure they have no clue what’s going on in that pretty little head of hers.

“Father?” is all Aurora says, and I give her a nod. Without a second thought, she slices through Vladimir’s shoulder like a hot knife through butter. Her talons are covered in permafrost, and she cauterizes the wound as she amputates his arm. His severed arm falls to the ground, making a sickening thud.

In an uncharacteristic move for Aurora, she bows her head to me in submission and backs away from a cursing Vladimir. Dimitri stands between Vladimir and me, holding a pillow with my sword and a second sword. I remove my sword and test its balance several times before standing en garde. Vladimir makes the connection and grabs the other sword. Aurora had evened out the playing field by removing one of his arms. Now she stands on the sidelines, watching over my mate and her children. I know I will not fall in battle today; Daddy’s little Hellion would never allow it.

Vladimir is angry, and we all know you should never fight angry. You become sloppy and make mistakes that if you were level-headed, would never have happened. He isn’t used to fighting and only using one arm to balance himself. Welcome to my hell for the first twenty years of my imprisonment. I’ll be honest; I’m toying with him, enjoying watching him suffer. “You are the last of your bloodline, Vladimir. How does it feel?” I ask him as I cut his calf.

“You bastard, Nicodeamus! Coward! You have your abomination of a daughter wound me!” he screams, practically foaming at the mouth. His rage is palpable in the air, and no matter how hard he tries to shift, he can’t, and it’s just making him angrier.

“Actually, I did that for the fuck of it, you bastard. I should really have castrated you like you did my father. But alas, you won’t live long enough for it to matter much,” Aurora says, staring Vladimir down, her eyes taking on that ethereal glow. The ancient power of the Force Dragon starts crackling through her long, white hair.

Vladimir is frozen in place, staring at Aurora as she starts letting the power she contains possess her fully. Frost and the crackling of that purple energy begin to radiate from her. The influx of power is to the point her mates pull my mate and her children away from her. Through the bond, I can feel the rage and pain in her heart. She stares down at the man that took so much from her. She suddenly throws her arms out at her side, and a wave of frost hits Vladimir full-force and sends him flying into a tree.

“I hold you responsible for my mother’s death. I hold you responsible for the deaths of Dimitri’s people. I hold you responsible for my father’s imprisonment. I hold you responsible for making me the monster I am today.” Aurora starts to laugh, and I think she’s become unhinged the way she’s looking at him.

“I have a fate planned for you far worse than death, Vladimir.” Aurora tilts her head several times, side to side, as she watches him cower.

“For now, it does my heart good to watch my father kick your worthless ass.” Aurora flops down onto the ground and pulls her babies to her.

Everyone is in a state of shock over how quickly the switch flipped with her. Aurora begins to run her fingers through Tiamat’s light-blonde curls as Ladon does the same to his mother’s long, white hair. I’m not sure who is soothing whom, but Aurora seems calm at the moment. Arnulf hands her a flask of something.

Out of the corner of my eye, I see Vladimir begin to charge me. I parry every attack he makes. The blades caress several times, and I have to admit, I didn’t think he still had it in him to fight like this with as sick as he seems.

Laurel appears out of nowhere and passes popcorn out to my family as she goes to take a seat next to Aurora. Vladimir is an accomplished sword fighter, and I’m genuinely enjoying myself fighting him. He’s all anger, and I am as cool as a cucumber, taking my time making sure that I block his every attack. Helle is being held by both of her sons as she watches me fight. I feel like a knight back at court trying to impress all the young maidens. Who knows, I might get a little extra lovin’ tonight after my decisive victory in the ring.

Apparently, I got a little too cocky too soon; Vladimir manages to disarm me. Just as his blade starts to head for me, Aurora stops the sword with the scales of her gauntlet.

“Remember, I said you were going to die an excruciating death?” Aurora asks with a very soft and seductive tone. A light, playful smile plays upon her full blood-red lips.

Vladimir is frozen in fear as I feel the Force Dragon gift of intimidation being pressed upon him. His wolf’s eyes skip between this blade and her gauntlet. I watch as the fur starts to ripple over his body. I see the look of concern on Arnulf’s face as he watches Vladimir begin to shift to his Lycan.

Aurora unleashes the full magnitude of her Alpha power on Vladimir. “You will not shift!” Her voice booms as she stares at him with her beast’s eyes. He attempts to resist her command but ends up falling to his knees—still human. He’s panting hard, holding his chest, her power physically hurting him.

“You’ve stolen so much from me, Vladimir.” She reaches down, grabs him by his jaw, lifts him off the ground, and starts encasing his body in an ice prison.

“You’ve stolen my mother from me; my father could have healed her if he was by her side instead of fighting the Strigoi.” Aurora’s talons press into the soft flesh of his cheek a little more. His skin flexes, straining to hold up against the sharpness of her talons.

“You stole my father from me; I could have turned out so much different if you didn’t betray your own people.” Her eyes narrow as she tightens the ice prison a bit. The tinkling noise of the ice as it moves and constricts can be heard.

“Your sister damaged my bond with my mate, Dimitri, at your behest. I thought I was insane because of you.” Aurora is scarily calm as she speaks to him. Her talons lightly cutting into his face now. Rivulets of blood slowly flow from around her talons and drip onto the ice below.

“Payback is a bitch, Vladimir… It just so happens I am that bitch.” Aurora’s eyes begin to take on the ethereal glow; scales ripple up and down Aurora’s nose and cheeks. The bone plates in her face begin to shift and move. It is as if her beast is about to break free at any moment.

Suddenly, she grabs Vladimir and lifts him off the ground, breaking him free from his ice prison. Her talons sink swiftly into his flesh. He appears frozen in a state of horror. What is my daughter about to do?