Discovering the Ligon

Epilogue - Eero

I jerk awake and gasp for breath. Not out of fright but from longing.

Jumping from the bed naked, I hastily pull on my shorts and rush to my parent's room. The guards step forward to stop me, but I halt them with one look. Then, quickly opening their door, I'm halted in my tracks by my father and mother having sex.

"Shit!" Quickly, I turn away but not before seeing my father's naked, hairy ass.

"Fuck, Eero! Have you ever tried knocking?" my father yells.

I hear rustling, and he's probably, hopefully, covering himself and my mother. Thank goodness his broad back kept us both from total embarrassment. Seeing his ass was enough for a lifetime. Too bad this wasn't the first time I've found them being intimate. And not always in the privacy of their bedroom.

"For someone that's twenty-one years old, you would think to know better! And why the hell didn't the guards stop you?" he demands.

Refusing to turn around until he says I can, I answer, "Did you specifically tell them to keep me out? Plus, haven't you heard of locking the door at your age? Or using a sock?"

I try not to laugh when my mother's exasperated reply. "Leon! I told you to tell them that and to lock the damn door."

He grumbles back, "You distracted me, woman." A snicker sneaks past my lips. "Boy, we can hear you laughing, so you might as well turn around and tell us what alarmed you enough to burst in here," my father states wryly.

Damn it, I had forgotten. Turning around, both of them are dressed in their robes and standing next to the bed. "Father, Mother, I found or felt her. She must have met one of her mates."

My mother gasps and claps her hands. "That's wonderful, Eero!"

"Wait. Didn't you say she met one years ago, but you haven't felt her since?" my father questions.

"Yes, but this time it was more intense. I can feel her. It's inconsistent, but I think I can find her now. The bond, or bonds, she has with one or more of her mates is strengthening."

My heart is beating rapidly. When I had felt her three years ago, I was thrilled. The elders didn't know why I had felt her for a brief moment, then nothing since most dragons meet their mates when they mature around the age of sixteen. Unlike the other shifters, we mate young as soon as we find our first mate because it can take years to find the others. Once we do, we come into our full powers, so we must mate to help keep our secret society hidden and safe from the hunters who still wish to kill us. Being twenty-one, I am considered a confirmed bachelor, an insult in our society, except no one dares to poke fun of the King's son. Well, Henrick does, but he's my best friend and allowed to when not in public.

"Well, son, where is she?" my mother softly asks.

This is the part I've been dreading since waking up. Neither of them is going to like my answer.

In Norway, where we live, we are mostly safe. This is because most people here still believe in the old myths, dragons and shifters being one of them, even if they don't follow the old ways, and thus keep any sightings of us to themselves. However, if my mate is where I think she is, it's the birthplace of the hunters, and they will have the advantage—all the more reason to get to her and soon.

"She's in the US."