Brother’s Best Friends Are My Mates novel Chapter 107

Colby

On the drive home, I am a nervous wreck I am trying to figure out a way to explain everything to them. They wanted to go with me, but I felt the need to do this alone. Rain would panic, Jesse would scare the local population, and Matt would lash out if angered enough. Meanwhile, Lia would be trying to wrangle all of them on her own.

It would be best if I went there by myself. This was why they had named me the pack leader for a reason.

Sighing, I park the car in the garage and head inside. The second I step into the pack house, the air shifts. They know something’s wrong. I don’t even make it to the kitchen before every single pair of eyes in the room are on me, waiting.

I don’t drag it out. “We have a problem.”

Why make them wait when it was clear they wanted me to get straight to the point? I just hoped they were all ready to hear what I had to say because there was just no way for me to sugarcoat what I was about to say.

Silence falls, heavy and immediate. Then Lia, standing near the fireplace, arms crossed, eyes narrowing. “How bad?” “Dragon shifters.”

A ripple of unease moves through the room. Someone mutters a curse under their breath. It sounds like Jesse, which surprises me. It’s usually difficult to get him to showcase a surge of emotion like this, but I guess the knowledge of a bunch of dragon shifters sleeping deep underground is almost more than eh can stand.

“Dragons?” one of them asks, voice low, hesitant. “As in… plural?” I nod, watching them. “The one in the cell says he’s a ‘lesser one.'” Lia’s frown deepens, and she steps forward. “Lesser?”

“Yeah. The stronger ones are still asleep.”

I still remember the fear in his eyes as he was saying this. The dragon shifter was fearing some of his own kind. How could they be so frightening that one of their own didn’t want them to wake up?

Little was known about the dragon shifters and their life. We knew they were a brutal species. The ones that wielded the most power were the ones who were to be feared. It was lucky that the dragon shifter that did happen to wake up wasn’t one to be feared.

A pause. The air grows even heavier, thick with the weight of what I just said. Then someone exhales sharply. “Still asleep? Meaning they’ll wake up?”

“Eventually.”

Tension thickens. Nobody moves. Nobody breathes. This is different from anything we’ve faced before. I almost long for the days that we were fighting the Rosewater Coven. Times were simple then.

We just had to figure out their magic and combat that with Lia’s magic skills. But dragon magic? Who the hell could fight against a kind of magic that wasn’t even known to the world anymore? It scared me more than I could even admit.

But I needed to stay strong for my pack They were counting on their leader to lead them down the right path and I was going to make sure I did that.

“How many?” Lia asks her voice tight with impatience. “He didn’t say.”

A few people exchange uneasy glances. The quiet hums with fear. “And what happens when they do wake up?” someone asks, voice barely above a whisper.

I sigh. “He wasn’t exactly optimistic about it. Said they’d burn the world to ash.”

A curse escapes from Rain. Lia presses her fingers to her temple, trying to ease the pressure behind her eyes. “So what do we do?”

I glance around the room, feeling the weight of all their eyes on me. “First, we don’t panic.”

Easier said than done. I see it in their faces-this isn’t just some territorial dispute or rogue problem. This is dragons. “Second,” I continue, “we figure out how they were sleeping in the first place.”

Lia’s eyes narrow, and she straightens. “You think the witches know?”

“They’re too busy blaming us to be useful,” I say with a shake of my head. “But if these dragons start coming back, they are going to have to help us.”

“And if they don’t?” Her tone sharpens all business now.

I hold her gaze steady. “Then we handle it ourselves.”

Silence fills the room. No one likes that answer, but there’s no better one to offer. Lia is the first to break the silence. “And if we can’t stop them?”

I exhale, a heavy, frustrated sigh. “Then we get ready for war.”

She watches me for a long moment, calculating, before exhaling slowly. “Alright. Where do we start?”

I glance around the room, eyes locking with everyone’s, and they’re all still quiet, waiting for a direction. “We start with the witches. They might be able to help us.”

Lia nods slowly, her expression unreadable. “And if they’re just as clueless as we are?” “Then we find someone who isn’t. Like the Rosewater coven.”

She watches me carefully, and for a moment, I think she’s going to push harder. But she doesn’t. Finally, she nods. “Okay. I’m in.”

The tension doesn’t lift. It’s still there, thick and suffocating, but there’s resolve now. We don’t have all the answers, but we have a direction.

And for now, that’s enough.

Honestly the idea of having to work with the Rosewater Coven, or what was left with them was driving me crazy. I didn’t want to work with them under any circumstances, but right now I was seeing little choice in the matter. It was either we find them and try to work with them or let the dragons take over.

Perhaps that was why they were so ready to fight against us in the first place. They knew what was slumbering underneath them and didn’t want the dragons to awaken.

But why not just say that in the first place? If we had known perhaps something could’ve been worked out. I have no idea how, but it would’ve saved us all this trouble.

“The next step is to try to see if the witches know how to fix this situation and if not then we need to track down the remainder of the Rosewater Clan. They might be somewhere around here.”

Rain frowned. “But we told them to leave.”

“Yes, but they could’ve still stuck around,” I said hopefully.

It felt more like I was trying to convince myself than others.