I stopped next to Eric who was watching the Blue Dragons with interest. "I have never seen anything like this!" He said excitedly. "Rat can you ask them if they have something to keep Bear awake?"

I smiled. "I can but why do you want him to stay awake?"

Eric sighed and looked at Wolf. "If he had been awake they wouldn't have dared do this. He got trapped under a collapsed building she saved him. She is the reason he only had minor injuries."

Looking at Wolf, I saw the Blue Dragon waving something under her nose, making her wake up. Her eyes opened and the Dragon smiled. "You are lucky Wolf. These wounds of yours were never properly treated. I can help you with them." The Blue dragon said in a soft voice.

She looked up at him, and where I expected to see fear, I saw defiance. "He said he can help you with your old wounds."

She looked at me and smiled. "Rat, you look good in that armour. What wounds is he talking about?"

"She would like to know what wounds you are talking about Blue Dragon." I said to the blue Dragon with ice-blue eyes.

The Dragon smiled and started pointing at the scars on her body. "Would you stay close, Reina, of the Dragon fire? It would seem our voices have been unheard for too long."

"Of course, I will stay close, Blue Dragon. Your voices are being hard now. Now I believe this man would like to learn your skills."

The Dragon watched Wolf as she shook her head. "He knows a lot already. I shall teach him what I know and he will do the same for us. I see she does not wish further help from me." He said the last while picking up his things.

Duha sat up and Pup sat in her lap. Wolf took the Blue Dragon's hand, she kissed it gently and pressed it to her head. The Dragon looked stunned. "This one knows... but how?"

I shook my head confused at them both. "I don't remember the words my pack would cry any more Dragon. My pack ran with the Dragons a long time ago."

I relayed the words to him and he laughed. "The night Wolves live! Bother we must spread the word that they live." The Blue Dragon said.

One of the other Blue Dragons nodded and walked away. "He called you a night wolf but..."

Before I could finish Duha threw her head back and howled long and sorrowful. The Blue Dragon seemed to understand what that meant as he looked shocked. All the Dragons close to her went to their knees and pressed their foreheads to the ground. "Reina, what is happening?" Eric asked his voice shaking.

"I don't know." I said as Wolf howled again.

Pup tried to howl with her, and the Dragons that had come with us started to come over to us, bowing in the same way as the Blue Dragons had. I saw Kyanite and walked over to him as he went to his knees. "What is going on?" I asked.

Kyanite looked at me with his amber eye, and I knew they couldn't talk until Wolf was done. "My pack all died I am the last remaining night wolf."

Kyanite repeated her words in Dragon, and then the Dragons stood, each one of them pulling a scale from their bodies. They left them at her feet. Soon she had a neat pile of them. I stopped Kyanite and took the scale from his hand; he smiled, taking a second. We laid them at her feet then Kyanite knelt in front of her. "The words your pack said when running with us were, we that howl at the moon, it cries to those of the sky, we call and you answer. We bow to you as your howls went unheard."

She nodded and then hugged Pup. "I will make a new pack to run with you Dragon. A pack of my choosing."

Kyanite smiled and looked at his brothers. "She makes a new pack to run with us."

The Dragons seemed to like this and growled while clapping. "Dragon." Kyanite turned back to wolf at her call. "Put a weapon in my hand and I shall fight for you."

"Before we are done here Wolf, you will have your weapon and some armour. For now, recover while we fix the mess we made." He left with the others except the Blue Dragons. Eric took them to the tent in the middle of the area.

I looked back at Wolf, who was watching Pup pick up the scales and put them in a purse. "Are you coming with us to the tent Wolf?"

She shook her head. "No...take Pup, please. I need a walk."

I nodded offering my hand to Pup. She took it after Duha nodded to her and we walked to the tent.

I watched them walk away and stood. Sorry Pup I need to be alone now. I thought, watching them disappear into the tent. Turning from them, I started walking to the nearest cluster of trees. I felt better as the people got further away from me. Nothing can bring my pack back. Nothing can remove the stain of what I have done. I will always be an outcast.

Stopping at the sound of water, I put my nose into the wind to follow the smell of it. There was a lake at the end of a river in these trees. I stripped off and climbed into the sparkling water sighing at the coolness. It's just like home. I miss my lake.. sleeping next to it. Swimming in it. I wonder If I'll see it again.

I started swimming all around the edge. The fish went into hiding as I swam over the top of them. It was so clear and pure that I could see to the bottom. Down I dived trying to reach its lowest depths before having to swim back up, gasping as I reached the surface. Then I just floated on the top watching the clouds. "I never knew you liked swimming so much." Turning my head to see who it was I saw Michi.

"You never asked."

He sighed taking his shoes off and dangling his feet in. "You didn't give me a chance. To be honest I've been meaning to ask you some questions."

I frowned turning to watch the clouds again. "Always questions."

"Don't I deserve answers?"

Giving in I swam to his side and looked up at him from the water. "Ask then." I said my voice soft.

"I found you very wounded; I know I put you back together and never asked how it happened, but..."

"There was a group of yaspilrmeth under attack I rushed in to save them, but I didn't call for help. The other beasts escaped and I got wounded. I barely managed to escape. I was trying to make it to my den when I collapsed. I had only been laying there an hour when you picked me up and carried me to your home. You patched my wounds."

He reached out and stroked my cheek. "And what about what came after you were mostly healed?"

I looked away from him. "You want me to explain what happened between us? It seems like no explanation is needed. I was trying to leave you were trying to make me stay."

"You are not being very direct Duha."

I smiled despite not wanting to talk about it. "We had sex, Michi; what more do you want? You were very... forceful with wanting me to stay, it excited me."

He frowned and then chuckled. "That's what it was?"

"Yes. I needed to take back dominance. I was born to be the alpha. I knew that one day my sister would leave to be with her mate when I was old enough to take on the role. She was born to be a luna. So when you were so forceful I had to show I was stronger."

I moved closer to him. "You don't pull any punches do you?"

"Why would I? I'm an alpha and I must be the strongest."

He smiled as I laid my head on his leg. "To save people's feelings?"

"You and Pup are the only people that want to talk to me. Neither of you seem to mind. Besides, it's well known that alphas are difficult to deal with."

He smiled down at me. "Are you going to come up here?"

I climbed out of the water and he pulled me into his lap. "What if I told you I don't mind because it is just part of you?" I smiled, pushing him to the floor, growling softly.

Terrible smell! Sitting up I growled. A Blue Dragon was standing over me. He held the smelly thing. He offered it to Eric who looked fascinated by it. The Blue Dragon gestured to the stuff in his hand. "What the hell is going on?" I growled to the people around me.

"He is explaining to me about this thing that woke you up." Eric said loking at the bottle. I growled making the Blue Dragon look at me with his red and gold eyes. "Don't do that he will think you are growling at him." Eric said.

"Reg en quthruklic ku ogeth tesfgoth jpsy ren reogpkuesth."

Great so now the Dragons are awake and I can't understand a word they say. "He said that you are unhappy at being woken from your hibernation." Looking at Reina I did a double take.

She was in beast form wearing some impressive-looking armour that looked similar to the dragon scales, but it simmered in the dim tent like a rainbow. How long was I asleep? Reina is wearing that and is now fluent in a language she hardly knew before! "Why do I feel like I have overslept by a year?"

Reina smiled showing her yellow teeth. "There's a lot to cover Bear. I was blessed and got a gem that allows me to understand and speak to the Dragons."

She pulled out a large gem. One half was a diamond so pure you could see through it, the other a dark, almost black gem; it was shaped like a heart. I reached for it stroking its multifaceted surface. "You should not let others touch the blessing Reina of the Dragon fire. They may covert it for themselves and you are too small to guard something so precious alone." The Blue Dragon nest to me said.

I jumped looking at them. "I understood that!"

Reina smiled. "I don't need to worry about my friends Dragon. I know Bear would defend me if someone tried to take it. Still, I didn't know the blessing could be shared."

The Dragon grumbled sounding unimpressed. "Kyanite will need to know you have done this Reina of the Dragon Fire. There could be consequences to your hoard."

She smiled at him and patted his arm. "I will go and tell him now as you have someone who can translate for you. As long as you're alright with that." The last she said turning to me.

I nodded and the Blue Dragon gave me an unreadable look. "You have a light in you. A strength unsurpassed, this is the strength of the mountain and a view taken only from the clouds. You have a responsibility to help Reina protect the blessing now." With that, he turned and walked away.

"If it makes people understand the Dragons may I touch it? There are so many questions I want to ask." Eric asked her quietly.

Reina shook her head putting the gem away. "Not yet. I need to talk to Kyanite, to make sure I didn't break with customs. Dragons are very formal so you must be careful with such things."

He nodded, smiling at me "Well, I still have someone to ask all those questions for me. The first will be this stuff to keep Bear awake."

I looked over at the Dragon, who now had his back to me, looking through a box of supplies. "You had better give me a crash course in Dragons Reina." I grumbled.

She chuckled. "You are not expected to be formal with them, Bear. You are not married to a Dragon; they expect you to make mistakes. I'm not that lucky. They are holding me to a higher standard. Especially because of which Dragon I'm married to. It seems that Kyanite has many titles."

I'm sure I will make mistakes but still, I wish she would tell me how to avoid upsetting one of them. Reina was already walking away as I got off the bed. "I suppose I have to ask a Dragon."

Eric nodded as we walked to the Blue Dragon that had brought me around. "Excuse me... I don't know how to refer to a Dragon other than calling them Dragon." I said to the Blue Dragon.

He turned looking surprised. "If you do not know us by name, you refer to our colour. If there is more than one of us with the same colour, you show us which you are talking to with a touch on the arm. It must be between elbow and wrist." Great not complicated at all! Just a whole other way of doing things. "How do I refer to you?"

"We call each other by our beast names. So you call me Bear and this is Giraffe."

Blue Dragon nodded giving us both a small bow which we returned. "It is the same then. We have many things to learn about each other Bear."

You can say that again mate! This is ridiculous. "Can I ask questions now?" Eric said excitedly pulling at my arm. And then there is Eric as uncomplicated as a man can get.

The streets cleared quickly with the fallen buildings with our help. We were working on the fixing the ones still standing when Reina walked up to me. I put the bag of stones I was carrying down as she got closer. "Gem of my soul! What are you doing here?" I asked hugging her as she got close.

"I need to talk to you about something I may have done wrong."

I frowned letting her go. "What have you done?"

She took my hand leading me away. "Bear touched the blessing and now he can understand your kind, like I do. I don't know if I shouldn't have shown him."

I smiled rubbing my thumb over her hand. "You didn't do it wrong. You can share your blessing, you know Dragons are more interested in keeping it to themselves. If someone told you off for it that is why."

"Blue Dragon said about protecting it...." She said rubbing her paws together like she wanted to groom them.

I laughed making her stop and look up at me. "Bear will kill anyone that tries to hurt you. We will protect you."

She smiled up at me. "That is what I thought, I'm glad you said that as it will make our lives easier. If I share the blessing with more people then we can communicate with the Dragons. I got the impression that I'm meant to ask permission before doing it, but if you ok with it then I must have got that wrong." She hugged my side, and I bent and hugged her back.

Not quite but I'll get to that later. I thought knowing she would hear it. "I don't mind sharing my blessing if it means staying with you." She said.

I growled happily making a nearby yaspilrmeth jump. "I must go back to work my gem." I said eyeing the retreating person.

"Me too... I will see you later?"

I gave her a little squeeze. "Yes, my gem. A Dragon always returns to their hoard."

She chuckled as I let her go. "At dinner then." She turned walking off waving over her shoulder as she spoke.

"Red Dragon! Can you help me here?" A Purple Dragon called from nearby.

I smiled at Reina as she walked away. When she dissipated I turned back to my brothers to help them.