The Arena novel Chapter 54

I watch as Tana leaps off the patio banister and shifts, flying away.

"Dammit!"

"Would you really take me from her?" I hear a soft voice behind me. I whip around, and in two steps, I'm in front of my daughter, kneeling down so I'm at her eye level.

"Baby girl, I would never take you from your mother. But you both belong with me. You are my daughter, she is my mate, and we should be together."

"She's made a life here, Cedric," Ishir says to me.

I grit my teeth and pick Kenna up, turning to him. "She’s. My. Mate.”

He shrugs. “What if it was you? Would you up and leave everything for her?”

He looks at me. He knows I can’t. “I have a pack to run.”

“And she has a company to run. Why is your life more important than hers?”

“It’s not, it’s just …” I run a hand through my hair.

“You left her once, Cedric. Now, you want her to give up everything and trust you, not only with her heart but with your daughter? She’s terrified you will take Kenna from her. And I’m giving you fair warning - if you try to walk out that door with her, I’ll kill you myself.”

Kenna scoffs. I look at her, raising an eyebrow. “You don’t think he can take me?” I ask, smiling. I like that my daughter thinks I’m strong and powerful.

“I don’t think there’s any way you can get out that door with me because I won’t let you.”

I smile at my girl. It’s sweet that she thinks she could keep me from taking her.

It only takes me a moment to realize my mistake. Even though she’s in a five-year-old human body, she’s a nearly full-grown dragon. A fire dragon, who doesn’t like my condescending attitude.

Her body heats to an uncomfortable level. I try to put her down, but she wraps her arms and legs around me, pressing her heat to me.

“Kenna, enough,” I say. I don’t do it intentionally, but the pain from her heat causes my Alpha aura to push out.

“No!” she says, and I feel her Alpha aura as strong or stronger than my own. What the fuck?

“Kenna,” Ishir says quietly. “He understands now. Let him go.”

It’s another moment before she drops off my body, standing in front of me. “Don’t underestimate me, Cedric. And don’t underestimate, Momma. Dragons are different than other shifters.”

“How so?” I ask. I’ve realized that she calls Tana, Momma, but me Cedric. I want to be called Dad, or Daddy, or Papa, or something that says that she’s my daughter. I follow her to the living room.

“We feel differently, deeper, more … thoroughly. It’s not something you can really explain.” She looks at me thoughtfully. “I could show you, but you might want to heal first.”

“While I heal, why don’t we talk about you calling me something other than Cedric,” I say as Ishir comes over to sit with us.

“Like what?”

“What would you normally call your father?”

She looks at me. “Papa.”

“Would you call me Papa?”

She nods, and she’s back to looking like a sweet, innocent five-year-old.

“Good, now,” I look at my body, “I’m healed. What did you want to show me?”

“This may hurt, are you sure, Papa?”

Okay, maybe I’m pulling out the big guns, but it’s time my mate and daughter were with me. It’s been five years. If I claim her, then I can have my family.

“You have to make her submit,” Kenna says, looking down as if she’s betrayed her mother.

“Make her submit?”

Kenna nods. “You have to defeat her in a battle and make her submit to you. If you do that, she will be yours forever.”

Make a dragon submit? “How?” I ask incredulously.

“That’s for you to figure out.” Ishir jumps in before Kenna can. “If you can’t figure out how to make your mate submit to you, then you don’t deserve her.”

I think about it for a few minutes before turning to Kenna. “Your mom said it was your bedtime. Do you still want me to read you a couple of stories?”

Her eyes go wide with excitement. “YES!” she says, jumping up.

I stand, scooping her up in the process, and walk her to her room. I sit on her bed after getting her settled under her blankets and I read her a few stories. Then I lay with my daughter while she falls asleep, curled up against my side.

I think about what she said. Make her submit. How can I possibly make Tana submit? How can I get a dragon to submit to me? My mate is strong, powerful, and fierce. She is one of the only people to survive in the arena. But I was, too. And then, it comes to me. I know what I have to do.

I tuck Kenna into her bed and turn off the light, walking out. As I pass their door, I hear Bastian in what I can only imagine is him mating and marking his little bird mate. I hear her trilling, and the thought ‘sing like a canary’ comes to mind as I walk out into the living room.

Ishir is waiting for me. “Let Bastian know that I had to go. And tell Tana that I’ll be in touch soon.”

“What are you going to do?”

I turn and look at him. “I’m going back to the arena. And this time, I’m claiming my dragon.”

I turn and walk out. I know exactly how to get her to come to me.