On Wings
Her Secret Menagerie Book 2
This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance of characters to actual persons, living, dead, undead, masked, or unmasked, events, places, or names is coincidental. No part of this book may be reproduced or transferred in any form or by any means without the written permission of the author. Upload and/or distribution of this book without permission of the author is illegal and punishable by law. Though, if you happen to find some hot shifters hanging around trying to sue me, let me know. I need to meet them.
Text © 2020 Katelyn Beckett
Cover by Enchanted Ink Studio
This one’s for Milo and Liz, two of the most positive and empowering people I’ve ever known. The world would be significantly less bright without you two in it. Readers: Find the people who push you back up when you fall down. Because they’re the ones you need, and the ones you’ll never feel like you deserve. But, trust me on this, you do. Everyone deserves a Milo and a Liz in their corner.
Time for a grump dragon.
Chapter 1
Eskal
Dragons care not for the land, for we are kings of the air.
The sale of a former nesting site had been exceptionally profitable, something that meant more than the sentimental emotion of selling the place where I had been hatched.
For all that you have heard of dragons and treasure is true, and so much more that you have never heard, will never hear.
I drifted past the dig, amusing myself at the Fontaine pack’s current irritation. Fossils had been found on the parcel, meaning that they had to hire a group of humans to come in and shovel dirt around until they were satisfied there was nothing worth keeping.
Had I been feeling generous, I would have managed the situation. It would have taken me minutes to convince the humans to never return, simply paying them off and letting them go on their way.
I was rarely generous.
A pack of werewolves, all of them in their human bodies, emptied from a vehicle the size of a small house. The Hummer had become their mode of pack transportation, but I thought it was a lifelong poor person's manner of showing off. Real men drove cars that snarled to life, roared down the street, and shone like the sun even in the darkest part of the night.
Mine was as black as I was and I liked it that way.
My wings folded to my sides and I hurtled toward the ground, catching myself a few hundred feet up and slowing my descent. One does not do well to land on your allies, however small and annoying they may be. It simply isn't good manners and I certainly attempt to impose myself with such mannerisms.
In truth, I don't know why I bother. People have long forgotten eloquence at this point.
"Eskal!" called the omega female, a smile full of teeth on her face.
It was a close thing. A werewolf should know better than to bare her teeth at another shapeshifter, though I had to remind myself that she was still new. Those of us under the Supernatural Secrecy Pact usually gave the young and the newly changed a half-decade to learn the intricacies of our way of life before we held them to it. I glared at one of her alphas. Hudson and the others were in charge of teaching her and, had I not been so forgiving, I would have been well within my rights to demand satisfaction.
Sadie Fontaine, once Adelaine, ran to me and threw her arms around my neck. I wrinkled my lip and continued to stare, pointedly, at all four of her alphas. Gabe ignored me. Hudson moved to pull her off of me. Xavion was busy with their pile of puppies. And Leo?
Leo grinned like a hyena. I blew a puff of smoke at him, wishing it could be flame. I only spoke once the werewolf was off of me. "How goes the digging? Has the museum moved back from this yet?"
"Soon, we hope," Hudson said. "We're six months behind schedule and keep falling. We can't afford a whole year. I don't suppose you know anyone we could grease to help the situation along?"
"No one I know," I said. "If I did, I would surely tell you. I, too, desire to see this land formed and worked with. With business down in the unicorn's trade, we have been forced to move along with the sale of flight land to another buyer. Yet they are aware of this situation and hesitant to do business with us due to this."
The last word came out with a hiss on the end of it and another short cloud of smoke. It was only the truth; the griffins weren't interested in our land offering for their new hunting area because of this. Though they only intended to build a small mews, there were still requirements, there were still permits to file and inspectors to bribe. What if that land, too, had some sort of fossil profile that had to be investigated?
I couldn't allow my flight to become less than respected within the supernatural community. Though we dealt with human funds, features, and finances, I much preferred to gather and resell what we found within our own world. It was easier to deal with others who were intent on keeping money within our people.
It also meant that we could have slightly steeper prices, though I took pity on the griffins. Their third year running and they had lost their nests. There would be no chicks again during the holidays and, though they shrieked so loudly that I thought my ears may burst, I did enjoy the savage little beasts.
There would be no dragon whelps, either, but I tried not to think about that.
"That's too bad," Gabe said, picking up
