Wolf Princess Sold to the Dragon King

The floor was moving.

She was being dragged somewhere. That was the first thing that registered.

She blinked a few times as the corridor swam into focus.

Torchlight. Grey stone she recognized. Lunaris Keep. To her relief, she’d somehow made it home.

”She’s awake,” one of the guards muttered.

The dragging didn’t stop. It sped up, boots echoing like soldiers who hated this shit and wanted it done yesterday.

”Harrold.” Her voice came out hoarse. She sounded worse than she felt which was saying something.

Harrold didn’t look at her. His grip shifted a fraction. His thumb moved against her arm in a gesture so small it could have been accidental. It wasn’t. She knew his hands. That was a warning. Keep quiet.

Her stomach dropped, the situation fully sinking in. She was being goddamn dragged by Harrold and Mattius. Two guards that she knew well.

She tried to move her legs.

The dragging stopped for a split second to let her stand.

But her legs gave out before she could take a step. She coughed, full-body, the cuffs around her wrists rattling.

That’s when she noticed the silver searing into her skin. Her body was so cold and numb she hadn’t felt it initially.

The guards continued dragging her.

They pulled her through the open throne room doors and dropped her in the center. She fell forward, landing hard on the cold stone. Her hands were cuffed in front of her so the silver immediately burned against her wrists and stomach where her weight pressed.

A voice came from somewhere above her. It sounded muffled, like she was underwater.

”Pathetic.”

The guards that had just dropped her pulled her back up by the arms, onto her knees. She coughed, her body shaking so violently that her shoulders jerked between breaths.

In front of her was the Lunaris throne, but her father was not in it.

Cassian was.

On her left, two guards held the man from the river on his knees, his head lolling forward. Dark bruises covered his chest and face. His breathing was shallow and erratic, the failing rhythm of a body on its last reserves. Silver chains bound his wrists.

She knew his name was Kael. The man who had saved her life in the river even though he had every reason not to. And now he was unconscious, being treated worse than a criminal. He didn’t deserve this. Whatever was coming, this man had earned the opposite of it.

Cassian got off his throne, hands behind his back.

”Seven hundred and fifty million, Guinevere. A fleet, an alliance, and the entire fucking survival of Lunaris was sitting on the back of one marriage.”

His voice dropped.

”We are on the brink of war. Father had to leave for Velkaris due to an emergency. He should have been back this morning. He wasn’t. And tonight, instead of our father walking through the gates, my patrol drags YOU out of the lake.”

He took a step closer, eyes blazing.

”So here is what I think happened. You deserted your post and fled your marriage. As a direct result, our father is either captured or forced to clean up the disaster you left behind. That makes you a deserter and a traitor.”

”I don’t—”

”Seven hundred and fifty million,” he cut her off. ”A fleet and alliance are now gone because you are a fucking disloyal COWARD.”

”Cassian, I don’t remember a marriage.”

He stared at her for three full seconds.

His jaw worked.

”And not only that, you SEDUCED Nicholas Shadowfell just like your whore of a mother taught you to. You have dishonored and embarrassed our family name.”

”What are you—”

He backhanded her before she could flinch, the impact sending her head sideways.

It was hard, even for his standards. The involuntary sound she made was somewhere between a gasp and a sob.

”Do NOT interrupt me! Your lie is over. Shadowfell told us that you are a disgusting, vile woman who couldn’t keep her legs shut. He said we should have let Stonehowl keep you.”

”Stonehowl... is he... are you—”

”SILENCE.”

She jolted, the cuffs rattling.

Cassian was breathing hard, hand raised to strike again. He stopped mid-swing. Something flickered behind his eyes, fast, and whether it was guilt or satisfaction or horror, she wasn’t sure. It was there and gone before she could name it.

”Do not lie to me.”

”Cassian, I swear on my mother’s grave, I don’t know about any marriage. I—”

SMACK.

”Liar!”

Her bottom lip had split and she tasted blood in her mouth.

Tears fell down her face before she could stop them. It wasn’t just from the pain of the slap or Cassian screaming at her. It was all of it. She was overwhelmed, drained, afraid, confused, and completely alone.

”Your fake tears won’t work on me.”

He stopped in front of her. All she could see was the bottom of his boots in the blur of tears.

”TELL ME THE TRUTH!” he yelled using an Alpha command. The yelling was unnecessary. An Alpha command worked at any volume. Cassian hadn’t mastered that distinction.

”I d-d-don’t know.” The words weren’t forming right. She inhaled sharply. ”I p-pr-promise, I am just as c-con—”

SMACK.

Her vision went white.

”Your innocent pity act might work on everyone else, but I have always seen through it.”

Boots sounded behind her. Another guard. She knew what he was carrying because she could smell it. The whip.

”You lied about your wolf,” Cassian spat. ”Now you magically can resist Alpha commands. What else are you lying about?”

”I’m not lying to you, Cassian. P-p-please. Don’t do this.”

Her voice cracked. Blood from her split lip ran down her chin and dripped onto the stone between her knees.

He raised his hand.

She winced. The flinch was involuntary, total, the full-body cringe of a woman whose face had been struck already.

More tears fell onto the floor, mixing with the blood on her chin.

He lowered his hand. He hadn’t meant to strike her again. The goal had been the flinch. He achieved it. The satisfaction on his face was clear.

”Did your husband whip you like this when he found out you were sleeping with Shadowfell? Is that why you ran?” His voice was quieter now. Conversational.

Silence.

”ANSWER ME.”

The Alpha command hit her like a wall.

”Cassian, I d-don’t know what you’re t-talking about. The last I remember is b-being t-taken by Stonehowl. Please, believe me.”

Cassian froze.

For one fleeting moment, something shifted behind his eyes. The anger receded by a fraction and something else surfaced, something that looked, from a certain angle, like doubt. She saw it. She held onto it with everything she had because it was the only lifeline in this room.

Then it disappeared.

Cassian straightened. Whatever had surfaced was buried again, shoveled under by the pride and fury and the specific inability to be wrong.

”Lying has no place in this court. Ten lashes.”

To her left, Kael stirred for the first time since entering the throne room. The sound was small enough that every guard in the room missed it.