Dragons Trust Book 1 - The Start

Rough Morning

My father was yelling. I wasn't bothered to pay attention to him. All I knew was that it was something to do about my mother. The woman was dead so I didn't care. Most of my brothers didn't remember much about her, if anything at all.

"Pay attention!" He roared. His punch landed seconds later. His hits didn't hurt anymore. When I was younger it had hurt. Getting punched by him would break bones and cause other serious injuries. Now it barely made me stagger. "The youngest one was accepted as a rider. Make sure he follows the rules."

What kind of parent can't even remember their child's name?

I wasn't about to make him follow any rules when it came to this man. He had summoned me just to complain about having to "babysit" the youngest out of all us. Don't get me wrong, I loved my brothers, but I wanted to be with Via.

"And that female 'rider'," he said mockingly, "get rid of her."

Now it was my turn to hit him. He hit the wall and sagged for a moment before regaining his composure. "Say anything about her and I will be the reason we no longer have any parents. You know what I can do. The only thing that stopped me the first time was Tommy. Who, by the way, is your youngest son. If it were up to me you would already be dead and rotting in the ground."

"Why in the Nine Circles of Hell are you defending her?" He demanded. "A woman can not be a Dragon Rider! It's always been men."

"Maybe, if you weren't a sexist asshole you could understand why she's a rider-"

"She doesn't belong with us!" He shouted.

"Then where the hell does she belong? Because I'm not leaving her to die! The commons people won't accept her anymore. The mages and wizards and witches fucking hate us, so she can't go there. None of the other factions will take her! Even her own faction won't accept her." This conversation was useless. I knew this. Octavia would never be welcomed by most of the riders.

"That's her own problem! She is of no concern to any of us. A woman does not belong with the men who give their lives so they can have a life of leisure and no hard work!" He was getting angrier by the second. Every word he spat was filled more and more with malice.

"Women aren't fucking slaves! There is no reason they should be treated any different than men. You used my mother as a fucking concubine. She's dead because you never let her body recover before forcing her to have another kid!" A full blown Dagen argument. This is totally what I wanted to be doing today.

"Your mother is dead because of one of you worthless kids. All she had to do was keep my bloodline going and raise you little shits correctly." Oh for Gods sake! "I worked hard to make sure you were fed. All she had to do was care for you and keep everything the way it was supposed to be. She had it easy!"

"Raising nine fucking kids is easy?! Did you ever try to help her? You don't know how many sleepless nights she had trying to raise us! All you ever fucking do is sit on your ass and watch as others did all the dirty work for you! How the hell is that 'working hard'?" I wanted to hit him again. If I were to hit him again he wouldn't come out walking.

"Obviously you don't understand how hard I work either. This is why you're useless to me!" Me? Useless? As far as I was concerned he didn't command eleven legions. All he did was file reports and argue over something that wasn't even relevant.

"I do more now than you ever have in your life! The only real accomplishments you have are the nine of us kids! Even at that not all of are good people. I suffered because of you. I still suffer because of you. Don't you realize when you're old, none of are going to care for you?! You were, and still are a shit fucking parent. You're not even really a parent! Just some fucking excuse of a donor that gave us life!" I needed to walk away before I killed him.

"Do not speak to me that way! You will do as I say, do you understand me? Get rid of that female rider or you will be punished." His threats meant nothing to me anymore. I turned and walked out of the room before I couldn't control what I did next.

The few people in the hallways moved out of my way. Much like rabbits fleeing a predator. I had been up here for hours dealing with the mess my father had created. He had been demanding that Octavia be banished. Somehow, he had gotten the idea that a female Dragon Rider was a bad omen. That the Gods were sending us a warning.

So of course, more people grew adamant about Via leaving. An omen from the Gods couldn't be a good sign. Apparently. I ran a hand through thick, slightly curly, hair.

Ares stood outside in a field with the others. Clinton had shown Octavia how to ride her dragon well enough to get her up to the islands. That just added to my current irritation. I had missed being able to see her fly for the first time.

Now I sounded like an old dad.

I had wanted to see her first flight because I figured she would scream. Having that to poke at her with every now and then would have been great.

"God damn Noah, I can feel your rage from here!" Micah shouted. He had felt my anger since it started. Having a twin connection could be a blessing and a curse all at once.

"No shit," Marcus agreed. He didn't even try to throw the playful insults always going back and forth between us.

Solona crouched low the ground. She was a very submissive dragon. Until it came to Marcus. Marcus was the only thing she would actually fight for. That wasn't a bad thing really. She tended to be one of the more even tempered dragons. Rarely ever angry or in any fights.

Brantley flattened his ears to his head and didn't make eye contact. He was a bit more rambunctious. Always getting into stuff he wasn't supposed to. But like Solona, he didn't fight much. If at all. Granted, he could be seen rough housing with other dragons every now and then.

Ares could feel my emotions like they were his own. Sometimes it was hard to tell which were your own and which belonged to your dragon. He didn't understand human families very well. Just enough to know that Dominic wasn't a good person.

Octavia looked over and gave a small wave before turning her attention back to Clinton. He was saying something about flying.

I sat down. All of the things I could do to Dominic playing in my head. He could be jailed for all kinds of abuse. My skin still held the scars he had inflicted from over the years. Not only could he be imprisoned, but I could do things to him.

Pain, just like he gave me, could be inflicted with ease. I could make him feel every second of pain he had caused me. Every second of pain he had caused my mother.

She had died when I was young. Just after giving birth to Tommy. I didn't remember her at all besides the screams from our father hurting her. Sometimes I didn't know if the screams in my memories were mine or hers.

Octavia sat next to me. She was careful with touching my arm. Her hands were soft. Very different to the calloused ones I had. Her hands were also cold.

That's what happened when you were bonded to an ice dragon. Her body temperature was slowly changing to match her dragons and be able to house her magic.

"What happened?" She asked softly. I shook my head. There was no way I could talk about what had just happened without snapping at her without meaning to. Instead, I moved to rest my head on her lap. Her fingers hesitantly moved through my hair.

She used to play with my hair all of the time. It was something only she was allowed to do. My hair was thick and dark and messy.

"Damn, if you're that pissed off at eight in the morning I don't want to see what the rest of the day holds," Micah teased. I flipped him off.