"Quid agis?" Aislee hisses and I quickly but quietly shut my door. "You should not be telling Lupi what we are!"

"Nice to see you too, sis." I mutter. I'm thrilled she's here, but at the same time I'm extremely upset by her presence.

She glares at me, her ice blue eyes on fire. "What is wrong with you?" She hisses. "Do you not remember Mother's warning?"

I shrug, even though I fully remember what Mother said to me the day we left. But living here, I've come to see that it's not all bad.

She takes a few steps closer and I hold still as a statue. "What about everything Mother taught us? Are you just going to throw that all out over a boy?"

I feel my palms heat up, and I want nothing more than to chuck a flame ball at her head. She should know better than to be messing with a Fire like this.

"Well maybe," I spit back at her, "Mother was wrong!"

She takes a step back, her eyes wide. I extinguish the fire in my hands and blink. I don't think either of us were expecting that out of me.

After a moment, she recovers. "I saw you, in the clearing in woods. I saw you eat strange foods and talk to a strange Wolf before getting shot at by hostiles!"

My eyes form slits. "Well if you were just watching us, why didn't you come help us?" My voice raises slightly. "In fact, if you've been alive all this time, why didn't you come get us?! We've only been in this pack for a couple of months! Where were you for the last four years?"

She opens her mouth to answer but a knock on my bedroom door cuts her off. "Azari?" Jasmin calls and my eyes stretch wide open. Both of us freeze. "Honey, are you alright? Who are you talking to?"

"She heard us?!" Aislee hisses and I glare at her stupidity.

"Wolf hearing?" I remind her under my breath.

"All good!" I call out, hoping it's enough to send Jasmin on her way.

"Can I come in?"

I panic, my eyes darting around the room for some excuse to keep her out. "Um. . . I'd rather you don't. I'm, um, getting changed!" I shuffle around, trying to create the sound clothes would make.

"Alright, Honey, if you're sure you're fine. Just let me know if you need anything." I hear her footsteps fade and let out a breath I didn't realize I've been holding. When any noise from Jasmin is gone, I whirl back around to face my sister.

She beats me to it, "Azari, I know you're upset, but just listen to me!" I huff, but don't interrupt. "When I got trapped under that rockfall during the attack, I was knocked out for an entire week. When someone finally dig me out, everything had changed.

"Half the Caves were collapsed or destroyed. They used more than just their wolves, they used bombs and catapults! It was horrifying. When I became strong enough, I went to the woods to search for you, praying you made it. But I couldn't find you anywhere! I did try, I swear."

I keep my gaze hard as I cut in. "Four years, Aislee, four years! We never left that forest. So, I'm sorry, but I don't believe you."

She looks down, and I know that means she didn't tell me everything. "Just come home, Azari. Let yourself be a dragon once again!"

I roll my eyes, "I never stopped being a dragon, Aislee."

"You could be a free dragon." Her eyes hold a glint that makes me not so sure what she's saying is true. "Come back to where you belong. Where you were born and where you should be!"

I sigh aloud, "let me sleep on it."

She echos my sigh. "Alright, I'll leave you alone. But I'll be back in the morning."

When I blink, she's gone. I rush to the window, trying to see where she went, but it's pitch black outside, and she left no trace behind whatsoever. Confused, I rest my forehead against the glass and close my eyes.

Do I go? Or do I stay? If I left, what would happen here? What about Jasmin? And Cole and Mason? They were my new family. What about Kiara? What about Bryce?

My eyes flash open and when I lift my head, it's like the first night here all over again: green eyes pierce the night from afar, and it feels like they're looking right at me, pressuring to make a decision too. What about you? I ask them silently. If only he could hear me.

🔥 🔥 🔥

I'm groggy when I wake, and slightly disoriented. Blinking my sticky eyelids open, I nearly scream out loud when I see Aislee standing next to the bed and smiling at me.

"I missed you." She says and I groan.

"What time is it?"

"Four." Her answer is so casual it takes me a second to process her words.

"In the morning?! Aislee are you insane? I need more sleep than this!"

"No you don't, you're a dragon! That's exactly why you need to come home. You need to re-learn what it feels like to be a dragon!"

"This is not some movie about becoming one with a wild reptile, Aislee!"

"What's a movie?" She shakes her head, "never mind. Just come on! I can't wait any longer, and now is the perfect time to get out of here!"

I barely have time to think because she's pulling me out of bed and helping me into shoes. "Stay here," she says, "I'll go get Jupiter."

"Wait!" I grab her arm. "No, he won't recognize you; you'll just scare him! I'll go."

She sighs, "fine, but you need to hurry."

"Do you want us to come or not?" I snap, but before she responds, I've opened my door and am already creeping down the hall. Something clatters in the kitchen and I halt in my tracks. Who is in the kitchen at four in the morning?!

I make a fast decision and shift. As I change, I force myself smaller. Come on! I will myself to shrink farther than I've ever gone. Little more! All the way until I'm insect size. When I finish, I want to laugh. The carpet feels like a willow tree branch!

I bounce for a second on my "branch" before taking off through the air. I buzz down the hall and turn left to avoid the kitchen, going through the living room and up the stairs. I follow the path to my little brother's room, slipping through the cracked open door and silently shifting when I'm in.

"Jupiter!" I whisper as I shake his shoulders gently to wake him up. "Jupiter, bud, wake up!"

"Ughh," he groans softly and I shush him to keep him from waking Mason up, who is sleeping above him in the top bunk. "Azari?" He mumbles.

"It's me, Jupiter, come on!"

"Where are we going?" He matches my hushed tone as he crawls out from his covers.

"Home." I tell him and he looks at me with wide, confused eyes.

"But, Ry, we are home!" He giggles, "or did you forget?"

My eyes well with tears, and I have to try everything I can to keep them from spilling over. Because a little voice inside is asking me if he could be right. What am I going to lose if I go back to The Caves? But what could I gain?

I shake my head to clear the thoughts and grab my brother's hand. "We're going back to the dragon's homeland, Jupiter."

He lights up, and I smile back. "But no one knows we're leaving so we have to be sneaky, okay?"

"I can't say goodbye to Mason? And what about Jasmin and Cole?"

That hits me hard. Bryce will come over later to find me gone. Jasmin will wake up to find Jupiter and I not in our rooms. I shove the images from my mind. That isn't important right now. We are going home, where a dragon belongs!

"Just follow me, Jupiter."

Treading softly, we creep down the hallway and down the steps. At the bottom of the stairs, I unlock the front door and slowly open it, rushing a sleepy Jupiter out to the porch. Hopefully Aislee was outside waiting for us.

Sure enough, she's standing near the house in the shadows, and when we walk across the driveway, she comes out. "Ready?"

I nod, swallowing hard and forcing myself not to turn back and look at everything I'm leaving behind. I make sure especially not to look at the Alpha's house.

"Let's go home."