Dian started first. "The first memory that we can remember was when I was playing on the floor of the room at our family's home. I had a blue dog in one hand and train made of wooden blocks for some reason in the other hand. I remember my mom peeking in the room with a smile on her face before she opened a letter. Her smile disappeared and she balled up the paper, then threw it at me. It hit our head and I stared at her with confusion on my face."

I was a bit confused as well. "Was that a paternity test or something?"

Ian shook his head. "No, that was the test results to see if we were a full-blooded dragon."

My sudden groan made them flinch. Dian frowned and placed his cool fingers on my warm face. "Are you okay, Annie?"

I nodded, but I was irritated. "You came from a dumb clan of dragons, just like Daddy and Uncle Andros."

They replied with a simple yes, which made me want to go rip a new asshole in every damned dragon clan that existed. My papa's family was the exception since they loved hybrids and didn't care about the purity of dragon bloodlines.

"What's wrong?" inquired Ian, petting my head.

"I am so, so furious with those damned dragon clans! Always obsessed with stupid purity!" I growled, my tail curling in anger. My ears went back, so Dian and Ian paused in petting my head. I nosed their chest and began to relax after they kissed my head.

Dian sighed softly. "Alexandre got caught into that bloodline trap as well from what you've told me, which is what started your suffering."

I nodded. "And Uncle Andros was genetically modified, however his form made him an outcast because he's a lich dragon—an undead skeletal dragon."

Ian hummed, and petted my head. "So we were the same. We tested as only a partial dragon. We were an unwanted hybrid. The clan had done testing for strong-blooded dragons with dragons and humans, since the likelihood of getting a purebred was higher than inbreeding a pureblood. Apparently hybrids were quite hard to create since we would be born as either human or dragon."

I frowned, then bit my thumb. Ian pulled it free and Dian licked the pad of my tiny thumb. He kissed my head and hugged my form tighter.

"What are you thinking about, Wyll?" asked Ian.

"It occurred to me awhile ago that Emerged are hybrids because we're part human and part nonhuman. Dian was supposed to be born separately from you, Ian, but you two merged. Is it a possibility that one of you was supposed to be born as a human and the other a dragon?"

Ian scrunched his eyebrows together and considered my words with Dian.

"It is possible, but how does that work with someone like Zee? He was an only child and wasn't a twin." remarked Dian, stroking my wolf ears.

I pulled my lips down. "That's true. Perhaps it not only has to do with genetics, but also with environmental, mental, and or emotional factors. Perhaps I Emerged as a wolf because I could sense that I would have to be tough to survive my mother—as though it was an instinctual understanding that my mother was not a good person. But I was already around two-thirds wolf because my mother was a werewolf and my papa is a wolf-dragon, so it's also possible that I Emerged as a wolf due to those factors as well. As for Alt, he Emerged as a faerie in a forest where he was happy and feeling at peace—emotions he hadn't felt in a long time."

Dian and Ian were concerned, but the former kissed my head. "Interesting," they murmured. "So perhaps we Emerged as a dragon not only because of our merged state and genetics, but also because we desired to become a dragon to gain love."

My heart clenched at Ian's pained expression. I cupped his left cheek and kissed his right one.

"I will love you, Ian, as soon as we get closer. Okay?"

Ian tearfully smiled. "Sounds like a plan, Wyll."

Dian pushed forward again and nuzzled my face, then smiled when I giggled. I snuggled closer and hugged their neck, breathing softly against it.

"In any case," spoke Dian, "our parents weren't happy—our mother in particular."

"B-but hang on, didn't you just say that one of your parents is human? Does that mean both of your parents wanted a full-blooded dragon?"

Ian nodded. "Our father is obsessed with dragons. He studies them relentlessly and researches all sorts of things about them."

I quirked my lips to the side. "That sounds an awful lot like Daddy's parents. Daddy's father is obsessed with purebred dragons and Daddy's mother does all of the research, experimentation, etc."

"Mm, that makes sense." mumbled Dian, then sighed. "From that day on, we were treated like outcasts and known as the unwanted child. We were bullied—if you could even call it that. We were physically, mentally, and emotionally tortured by our peers and everyone else around us—including adults of our clan. We were told every day that we didn't deserve love but we deserved the beatings, the insults, the cruel treatment such as ignoring us when we asked for food then hitting us when we got some from the pantry, and so much more."

Now I was really angry. Dian and Ian tried to calm me down, but I just wasn't having it. I wanted to rip those stupid people to shreds. They sat back and watched me shift to a much smaller version of my hybrid dragon form, then noticed the magic and damage absorber I placed on their walls (which was a violet-hued, water-like wall).

Dian and Ian grasped my tail. I opened my mouth and blasted the wall with my violet fire, getting even angrier at the damned dragon clans who hurt my beloveds. Amazingly, in an instant, I was somewhere I didn't recognize again. I looked behind me to see Dian and Ian's combined expression of shock, then their faces paled when our surroundings registered.

I peered around and noted the stunned faces of other people in the large throne room. I snarled and screeched at the people there, then I was quieted when Dian and Ian yanked me back against their chest. I was no bigger than a medium-sized dog, so they could easily do that with no issues.

"Dian?" uttered a cold, female voice. "What are you doing here? You have no right to be here."

"Right?" I asked, my voice booming. "When did my Dian and Ian need a right to enter their birthplace, you swine!"

Dian and Ian were stunned. It was clear from the way their jaw dropped onto my shoulders. The woman who'd spoken was just as flabbergasted as her sons. The fifteen other people were silent with shock written all over their faces.

The cold woman's flabbergasted expression turned into a deep scowl. It made my beloveds flinch. I growled and snapped my wings out, protecting them from her.

"I see that what I said made you angry. I want to make you even angrier, then make you suffer for hurting my beloveds." I hissed, violet flames licking my snout while I talked. Smoke billowed from my nose shortly after I stopped.

The woman snorted. "What could you possibly do with that puny form?"

I smirked, lifting my right foreleg as if to hide my snickering. "Oh, I love being underestimated. It makes it so much more fun to do stuff like this—!"

I released my true form and screams broke out as my right foreleg's talons slammed down next to the damned woman. I'd made sure that Dian and Ian were settled at the crook of my neck, so they were clinging to me tightly as I lowered my head to smirk at their frightened mother.

"I love the fear I cause because I only hurt people who've hurt my family."

The woman's dark brown eyes hardened and she partially shifted her hand. She slashed towards my eye and screamed moments after her talons made contact with my barrier. Her talons had been shredded and her fingers were broken.

"Be warned, you stupid dragons. All those who are obsessed with purity will be decimated by for all of the pain and suffering you have caused. In an instant, you watch everything and everyone you've ever loved be taken away from you because of what you've taken from those I love." I growled, then lifted my head and released another screeching howl.

The sound rattled the windowpanes and then the deep rumble afterwards made the others fall to their knees. In my howl, I'd layered gravitational weight to the sound waves, which were making the dragon clan submit through force. Dian and Ian's mother shrieked when her spine broke from the heavy gravitational pull I put on her.

"Anwyll!" exclaimed Dian and Ian, so I froze the scene and sat back.

"What?"

"Oh, you did stop."

I exhaled harshly. "Did I do too much?"

Dian sighed aloud. "Please let us down."

I nodded and laid down, letting Dian and Ian slide off and land in a crouch on my right side. They stepped up to my head as I lowered it, then hugged the tip of my snout. My tail wagged and I licked their face.

"Thank you, Anwyll." they whispered. "You just gave us so much courage to face what we've always been scared to face. Just fix our mother, then let us talk to her for awhile."

I silently agreed and reversed what I did to their mother, then placed another barrier on my beloveds. "You're good to go, Dian, Ian. Just know that if you need me, I am one thought away."

"Thank you," they whispered, then kissed the tip of my nose.

I watched Ian grab his mother's arm and drag her out of the throne room, then shrunk my form to about the size of a horse to be more comfortable. A guard slowly approached me and I turned my head, which made him spring back.

"Are you a dragon?"

"Yes, a hybrid—a special hybrid."

The guard lowered his hand and crossed his arms as I sat back on my haunches. My wonderfully massive, extremely fluffy tail curled over my talons and paws, then I poked my nose into the fluffiness before laying down fully. I crossed my talons and waited patiently for Dian and Ian to return.

However, the guard seemed intent on making me talk. He sat down in front of me and stared at my face.

"How did you get in here?"

"I teleported, I believe."

His frown deepened. "How? There's a barrier!"

"Is that so?"

"Yes, I checked it this morning." he replied, raking his fingers through frizzy reddish brown hair. "This is impossible!"

I rolled my eyes and lowered my head, then grunted when the guard flopped onto his side to look at my face. I moved my head and he followed it, which made me a bit annoyed.

"What do you want?"

"I want to see your human form."

"No," I refused, pressing my nose against my side. When his face moved into mine, I tucked my head under my tail.

I growled when he moved my tail, then snapped at his face to make him back off. This guy was too annoying. I've never met someone so frustrating before.

But the guard didn't back off at all. He moved even closer, so I opened my mouth and lightly chomped down on his skull. Instead of freaking out or screaming, I heard his amazement while he looked around in my mouth.

"Impressive!"

Suddenly, it occurred to me that perhaps this guy was not a guard at all. With this level of curiosity, I had to wonder if this man was actually Dian's and Ian's father. I ripped myself away from him and hopped back a few feet, putting a barrier up as I glared at him. The researcher looked so disappointed.

"I never thought hybrid dragons could be so intriguing!" he exclaimed with a grin. "I should have looked more into hybrids before Thera got rid of Dian."

That snapped the last string of control over my rage. His damned research was all he cared about! He didn't care one iota about the children he and "Thera" had brought into existence.

"Fuck you!" I snarled, leaping at him.

He finally made a noise of fright when I returned to my original size and grabbed him in my talons. I squeezed his body and let my flames lick his skin while I talked again, which made him shrink back from the intense heat. He seemed to be in pain too, from the way his face was starting to turn red and peel away.

"I will forget that you are enemy. For all of the shit you've put my Dian and Ian through, I won't let you forget it!"

I poured my rage into his brain, filling his mind with the pain his children went through because of him and his wife. While he screamed and writhed, I used my mental link with Dian and Ian to find their mother, then linked her to her husband.

Dian and Ian immediately contacted me. "What did you do!"

I chuckled. "What they deserved all along—what you never deserved."