Wolf Princess Sold to the Dragon King

Thirty minutes. That’s how long it took to assemble a strike team of kings, dragons, mages, and one man who had never been on a dragon before and was about to have the worst flight of his life.

Ryker was supposed to be staying in Velkaris to oversee the summit. That plan had gone up in smoke. So the kingdom was now in the hands of Blair Drakencrest. May the gods have mercy on their souls.

Ryker: She’ll be fine. Relax, Commander.

Maddox dragged a hand down his face.

Maddox: If any of those bastards go near her, I will kill them.

Ryker: They already go near her when your back is turned. This just makes it more efficient.

Brennan opened a portal. Sure enough it was hovering above an ocean. Every mage and Luminari present dropped their jaws in perfect unison.

Maddox didn’t blink. He sprinted into the portal and shifted in a flash of white he still couldn’t turn off since being marked by his wife. It didn’t take a genius to figure out what that was.

Sterling was next, shifting mid-freefall as Nicholas and Damon jumped onto his back.

Brennan watched the strike team follow, chest puffed out with pure pride. Nothing exploded. No one was cut in half. Gold star.

Lux Nash’s hand closed on his collar.

”Nope. If I am getting on a goddamn dragon for the first time in my life, so are you.”

Jaxon appeared on his other side, one hand on Brennan’s shoulder, steering him towards the portal with the gentle insistence of a man guiding a drunk friend.

They went through together.

”AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!”

Brennan screamed like his balls were on fire the whole way down and for three full seconds after they landed on Ryker.

By the time he stopped, the strike team had spread into a search grid over the water.

Lux peeled his fingers off her arm one at a time. ”If you ever touch me again, I will drop you into the ocean myself.”

For ten minutes, the only sound was wings and water and Brennan breathing into his hood like a man recovering from a religious experience.

An island materialized on the horizon. Brennan lifted his head, spotted it, and immediately started pointing at it like he’d just discovered a new continent. He looked at Nicholas on Sterling’s back and pointed harder, just in case Nicholas somehow couldn’t see the giant fucking island right in front of them.

Damon: He’s sworn into our pack. How has he still not figured out he can mindlink?

Nicholas: We’re one sandwich away from him figuring it out.

Nicholas sighed and gave a single nod, then he stood up.

He raised his right fist. Held it.

Every dragon in formation locked eyes on him.

Nicholas gave five signals in under ten seconds.

Ryker: Commander?

Maddox watched the wolf king direct his dragons from the back of his High Marshal’s dragon. The signals were clean, the formations were sound, and the tactical read of the island, surveillance positioning, was exactly what Maddox would have ordered if he’d ordered it first.

Maddox: Follow his lead.

Nicholas held his fist up one final time. Then dropped it.

The grid assembled itself around his signals with the precision of a military that understood exactly what each gesture meant, because the gestures were universal, pre-dating species, pre-dating continents, the shared language of men who led other men into places they might die.

✦✦✦

THRONE ROOM - LUNARIS

Cassian Lunaris had the survival instincts of a prince who had cuffed a dragon in silver.

He moved at Alpha speed, but Kael was faster.

His palm connected with the left side of Cassian’s face and held. Gold flame seared through skin, muscle, and bone, leaving a perfect handprint branded into half of his face.

Cassian screamed. The sound was animal, high, and utterly devoid of the authority he’d been performing all night.

Kael released him. Cassian hit the floor, hands clawing at the ruin of his own face.

For two full seconds, the room was silent, processing whatever the hell just happened.

Then white runes blazed across Guinevere’s skin, lighting up like a signal fire. And Guinevere Lunaris was no longer in the throne room. Instead she saw the ocean behind her eyes.

”GUINEVERE!” a man called.

His voice sounded familiar. Before she could place it, a loud, brain-jarring noise exploded in her head. It was the same one that she had heard in the river. On pure instinct, she tried to raise her cuffed hands to her ears, but the chains only let her get so far.

Around her, the throne room had erupted. Guards charged. Elders scattered. Maria screamed. Tyler slid to his knees next to Guinevere.

”Gwen. What the hell is happening?”

Then Kael took a step towards him, eyes blazing like twin suns.

Instead of running, Tyler covered Guinevere’s glowing body with his own. He looked up at Kael, who stopped mid-step.

”Three guards are dead and you haven’t blinked. I know I can’t stop you. I’m asking you not to.”

Something behind Kael’s ribs growled, low and deep, and the sound had nothing to do with his voice. His jaw locked, his eyes flashing between grey and gold as a war played out across his face. Tyler understood it perfectly because wolves have the same thing.

Then the gold steadied. Kael looked at Tyler the way a commanding officer looks at the only soldier left standing.

”Get that silver off of her. Now,” he ordered, his voice split between man and dragon.

”Yes, Sir.”

Tyler grabbed the keyring from Harrold’s body and fumbled until he found the right key. He uncuffed her, the silver burning his hands the entire time.

Kael looked down at the prince writhing on the stone.

”You have three seconds to tell me why I shouldn’t kill you.”

Cassian’s mouth opened. A sob came out.

”Three.”

”STAND DOWN,” Cassian yelled using an Alpha command.

Kael blinked at him. The command bounced off a dragon the way a pebble bounces off a mountain.

”MY FATHER WILL—”

”Your father isn’t here. Two.”

”I am the prince regent of Lunaris—” Cassian stopped talking.

”One.”