WL's Mainstream Gay Book Reviews - 73. An Enemy Dragon Book 3 of Guardian Dragons by Aiden Bates and Jill Haven (Shifters/Adventure/Mpreg)

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/52384070-omega-s-traitor

In this book, the two authors’ merging of Omegaverse and gay fantasy writing styles finally synthesized into something unique. We have real stakes in this book, an introduction to magical lore, fascinating characters like Lincoln and Sasha, plus a very fun rescue-adventure subplot involving the Dragons and their foes, the Illuminati-like Templars. I had mentioned previously that it took them until this point to finally settle into a joint venture, where you can see how each author’s contribution has positive attributes on plot and character dynamics. I wish the Omegaverse writers can take some notes on how their collaboration worked out. You could see in the first two books the issues with tone and plot concepts. In book 3, the “A-plot” of finding an omega merges into the “B-plot”, where the omega/dragon has side issues/quests begins a concise narrative structure and will continue into books 4-6. Arc storytelling is complex and involved, especially with multiple writers, it is rarely seen in gay fiction, let-alone Omegaverse stories with a good outcome. As a reviewer and reader, a series like this makes me especially happy to have invested my time in reading background, despite the slow start.

Length: 246 pages and 8 hours on audible, it is a decent reading adventure that will take several days to finish at a leisurely pace. It’s nothing too daunting and you will find the story very rewarding around the halfway point when the action and adventure sequence begins.

Plot: The story picks up with Sasha and Mercy, the midwife of the dragon colony in Comfort, Texas, traveling to St. Louis, where the new sacred omega discovered by their wolf-shifter allies was. Mercy was heading in that direction, hopeful to see her mother, while Sasha’s brood sibling, Morgan, is the reigning dragon of that territory. At the same time, Lincoln, the omega in question, had just visited his cancer-stricken mother, before a date with Morgan. Lincoln was a Templar agent, taught from a young age by his father and the organization that dragons were the enemy. His unique Omega heritage was used to lure Morgan into a trap, so the Templar could capture a live dragon for experimentation. When Sasha meets Morgan, he is shocked to learn that Lincoln is a proud Templar, who does not believe in his words about the sinister nature of the Templar’s “Human-First” ideology. Further revelations are introduced, Mercy’s mother Chastity is a witch, who used to be a magical species that used to serve dragons as intermediaries. However, centuries of distance from the dragons and distrust had soured the relationships. With so many issues and histories coming into play, how can Sasha and Lincoln forge ahead with deep mistrust and doubt both between themselves and from outside?

Review: Now this is what a good captor-turn-lover story should be, rather than the morally dubious ambiguous consent trope that existed in book 2, which I fear mirrored some of the wider social tastes that were also prevalent with BL Manga culture, too. There’s nothing wrong with the scenario, it’s just that you need to add in a bit more depth than what Lucas and Tarin had in book 2, which Sasha and Lincoln had in spades. When handled well, the characters pop out, the conflicts feel far more earned, and the dynamic romance is far less instinctual attraction found in most Omegaverse stories and more a genuine romance between two men, who grow with the story.

One important detail in this novel, the Templars are made into a far more menacing and disturbing organization. They are not only present behind human institutions and operate as corporate influencers without any checks, but they are also operating as researchers and applying scientific methods against magic. This is one of the few urban fantasy stories that tackle the idea of science being perverted to serve the antagonist’s cause. It’s quite an interesting dichotomy since these same individuals praise conservative Christian values and their absolute belief in God, but on the flip side, accept scientific explanations to achieve their genocidal ends. Combined with their institutional homophobia while openly accepting LGBT members to act as bait/grunts, what you get is a fantasy interpretation of the far-right. Paradoxical and impossible to reconcile within itself, but driven by a singular ideology that propels it forward despite its contradictions. It’s all based on a series of self-reinforcing lies, but without it, there is no reality for its members.

Lincoln was an amazing character in this book, he was a young man stuck in-between two worlds. He questioned what he believed and was told as true by the Templars about dragons being rapists and monsters, but he still did horrible things, despite his misgivings. We as the reader see his gentle side, when he’s around his sick mother and how he tries his best to be a good son by using the money he earns working for the Templars to pay for her hospital bills. It’s one of the first times in an Omegaverse story that I feel like an omega is more than a female stand-in, but a character beyond gender stereotypes. Lincoln is also a great social commentary on someone repressing their sexuality and gender identity to conform to a strict belief system through indoctrination. I remember watching a few documentaries showing the viewpoints of conversion therapy stories involving so-called “converted homosexual men”, the feeling I felt for them as they describe their blind faith and need to trust in the word of god is the same I felt for Lincoln. It’s a tragedy to be taught to fight your nature by those who only want to exploit you for their ideology. In many ways, the authors did an outstanding job fleshing out this omega character. Sasha as a character in contrast is strict and stoic, but he provides the steady and authoritative foundations that Lincoln sorely needs in his life.

I am not going to spoil this book too much, because I think readers should read it and enjoy the ride. One thing I will note was a weakness, the authors never explored an aspect of dragons that was mentioned by Lincoln briefly at the beginning of this book, the concept of “benign eastern dragons”. This small blurb was one of the only times in the series that the authors do admit to the existence of Asian dragons, who are similar and different from their western counterparts. I wish we did get to see this difference between the species, since my knowledge of Eastern dragons from Chinese, Korean, and Japanese legend tells me that they’re magical and shapeshifters by nature like these dragons, but in contrast, Asian dragons are serpentine in form and many exiled eastern dragons have mixed their bloodlines with humans. It’s a tragedy that they’re missing from this series.

Rating: 4.25 out of 5, this is one of the best books within this series. It introduces a lot of world-building elements, new characters, and new threats. It had amazing character development from an angle we seldom see in the Omegaverse genre and produced some enjoyable action scenes, especially within the Templar compound.