Brother’s Best Friends Are My Mates novel Chapter 138

Lia

The five of us rushed out of the temple, the ground trembling beneath our feet. The ancient structure groaned, then collapsed in on itself, sending up a cloud of dust and debris. We skidded to a stop a few yards away, coughing and shielding our eyes.

But nothing appeared.

No monstrous dragon bursting from the ruins. No shadow sweeping across the sky. No roar splitting the air. Yet the unease curled in my gut, heavy and unshakable.

“It’s here. I know it.”

My words lingered, thick with certainty. This dragon had awoken for a reason.

And I knew what that reason was. It was my fault.

I had been the one to push us to come here. The one who listened to the visions, followed their pull without question. The one who poured the water, read the text, and touched the damn stone.

Why did I keep touching the dragon stones? Every time, it ended in disaster. At least I was finally starting to realize it. But realization didn’t undo what had already been done.

I clenched my fists, my pulse hammering in my ears. These dragon stones-they weren’t just artifacts. They were something else entirely. More than relics of the past. They pulsed with energy, with knowledge, with something ancient and alive.

Too powerful.

I could feel it thrumming inside me now, like a second heartbeat. A force curling through my veins, coiling tight in my chest. Power like this-it demanded control. Responsibility.

And I had been reckless.

Making stupid decisions wasn’t going to help any of us. If anything, it was only making our lives a hell of a lot harder. A deep, distant tremor rolled through the earth beneath us.

My breath hitched.

The others exchanged wary glances, shifting uneasily.

Colby broke the silence first. “Leah, what exactly did you wake up?”

Before I could answer, the sky darkened. Not with clouds, but with something massive moving above us. A shadow.

A silhouette.

Wings, unfurling.

The temple hadn’t been its prison.

It had been its cradle.

And now, it was awake.

“One of the dragons… it’s awake.” Jesse’s voice was quieter than I’d ever heard it, but the fear beneath his calm tone was impossible to miss. “I can see its eyes. It’s watching us.”

My breath hitched. A chill crept down my spine, making the hair on the back of my neck stand up. “Should we run?” Rain’s voice cracked slightly, which only made my heart pound harder.

“Shut up. Stay still.” Colby’s words were sharp, cutting through the tension like a blade. His body shifted in front of me as if instinctively trying to shield me from whatever Matt saw.

I swallowed hard. “Where is it?” My voice barely came out, and I hated how small I sounded. Matt lifted his chin slightly. “No idea.”

I followed his gaze, scanning the dense area At first, I couldn’t see anything-just endless shadows shifting under the moonlight. But then… there. A glint. Faint and eerie, like light bouncing off a predator’s eyes.

“What’s it waiting for?” I asked, trying to ignore the way my pulse roared in my ears.

“Us,” Jesse said softly from behind me. It was the first time he’d spoken, and his usual cold detachment was replaced with something else-something tense, primal. “It’s testing us.”

I exhaled shakily. Of course, it was. Nothing about my life was ever easy.

“What do you want to do, Lia?” Colby asked, his voice quieter now. But there was something else beneath his words­ something more serious. As much as they loved teasing me, they weren’t joking now. They were waiting. For me.

I tried to push through the rising panic. “If we run, it’ll chase us,” I said, thinking out loud. “If we stay… it might lose interest.

“And if it doesn’t?” Rain asked his usual bravado nowhere to be found. I inhaled deeply, forcing myself to focus. “Then we fight.”

Matt let out a low, humorless chuckle. “Spoken like a true omega.” I shot hima glare. “I’m not helpless, Matt.”

“No one said you were,” he murmured, his gaze softening for a fraction of a second before hardening again. “But if it moves-“

“-we move first,” Jesse finished, his voice cold and steady. “No hesitation.” “Agreed,” Colby said, his jade-green eyes never leaving the shadows.

The silence stretched, heavy and electric. My heart thumped painfully in my chest, but I pushed the fear down. Whatever happened next, I wasn’t going to freeze. Not with them here.

“Is it still watching?” I asked quietly.

“Yeah,” Matt confirmed. “And it’s not blinking.” Rain exhaled sharply. “Creepy. Real comforting.”

“Focus,” Colby snapped, his usual calm slipping for a fraction of a second. “If this goes bad, I need you to be ready.”

I felt Rain tense beside me. “I’m ready,” he muttered, though the edge in his voice said otherwise. A branch cracked in the distance-soft, but deliberate. My entire body went rigid.

The battle raged, each of us throwing everything we had at it. But gods, it wasn’t easy.

I lost count of how many times we were knocked back, clipped by its tail, burned by its scorching breath. But we kept pushing. Kept fighting. Every blow it dealt, we gave one right back

The dragon was relentless, and determined. But so were we.

Then, in a fleeting second, our eyes met. And everything stopped.

A strange, twisting sensation coiled in my gut. Recognition. Like staring at something both familiar and impossibly foreign. Why did I feel like I knew this creature?

A chill ran down my spine as a terrible realization settled in my chest.

I was destined to stop the dragons. I knew that. Every vision, every damn dragon stone, had been leading me to this moment. But how I stopped them… that was the real question.

Would I be forced to destroy them-to wipe them out before they destroyed the world? Or was there another way?

A path where I didn’t have to become the very thing I feared?

Because the other option-the thought of assisting them, of siding with the creatures that could bring ruin to everything and everyone I loved-was impossible.

No.

Never.

I clenched my fists, the dragon magic inside me pulsing like a second heart. I would find another way.

I had to.

But did it terrify the fuck out of me? Of course, it did.

It terrified me to no end. I didn’t know how to stop this fear from constantly popping up, slowly driving me mad.

Suddenly I felt this strange warmth blossoming in my chest. There was tingling on my fingertips-and I was ready to release something.

Something powerful.

“Get back,” I rasped out, casting a panicked glance back at my mates.

They all listened, taking several steps back while also looking at me like they were terrified.