Wolf Princess Sold to the Dragon King

”Kael. You’re glowing.”

Crickets. Well, not crickets. Screaming and death. But emotionally, crickets.

”Is this a you thing or an us thing?”

Silence again.

”Noted. That means it’s a YOU thing,” she observed. ”Let the record show that I was not a nightlight before tonight. Kael Ashenvale has given me dragon cooties.”

Kael continued ignoring her. Typical. She was delivering critical visual intelligence, and he was too busy decapitating things to acknowledge her contribution.

She was mid-inhale for another observation when the world went quiet and not because he asked nicely.

Every Dark Fae on the wall stopped. Every one in the air stopped. Every wing locked mid-beat like hummingbird’s. Every blade froze mid-arc. Hundreds of them, suspended in a stillness so absolute that the absence of sound had physical weight.

”Oh good. Sexually aggressive hell insects have a synchronized pause feature. Not terrifying at all.” It came out louder than she intended. Being upside down will do that.

Maybe it was the phrase. Maybe it was the delivery. Maybe it was three hours of watching demons argue about fucking. Whatever it was, it broke something in the wolves. Laughter hit the wall like a second siege.

It wasn’t funny. None of this was funny. That was what made it so goddamn funny.

Kael pinched the bridge of his nose with his carrying arm, rotating her sideways in the process. From the new angle, she saw the Dark Fae tilt their heads in unison.

”VESSEL,” they said as one unit.

”And there it is,” Kael snapped. ”Did that feel like the right moment for commentary? Did something in your brain say ’yes, now, address the swarm’?”

”My timing is experimental. We’re collecting data, Kael. Keep up,” she replied without missing a beat. ”Play your cards right and I might do it again.”

”Guinevere. For the love of every god, please shut the fuck up.”

”The dragon glows,” the Dark Fae announced together.

Kael groaned. ”Oh, fantastic. Because one dinner bell wasn’t enough.”

”Worse than that, I can see how ugly they are now,” she said lightly.

A sound left him that was half laugh, half surrender.

”Okay, yes. Fine. That was funny, Wolf Girl. Now stop roasting the goddamn demons that are actively deciding whether to eat us or fuck us. Read the room.”

Hundreds of demons stood frozen, as if time had stopped, watching Kael carry her.

”Why are they still frozen?” she asked.

That was apparently the wrong question. Every single one of them moved at once, like she’d just hit the group activation button. Whoops.

”Were,” Kael corrected. ”Were frozen.”

The world blurred around her as he ran. It was definitely faster than Alpha speed. Then he stopped abruptly behind a stone rafter and pulled her off his shoulder.

Vertical again. Briefly.

The ground swam. She grabbed the rafter. Missed. He caught her by both arms. ”Dizzy?”

”A bit.”

”That’s what happens when you’re upside down for ten minutes.”

”That’s what happens when someone HOLDS you upside down for ten minutes.”

He moved her against a wall, then let go. His arms were still hovering like he half-expected her to topple over.

”I’m fine,” she said immediately.

He held her gaze for one second that communicated exactly how much he believed that statement. Zero. The answer was zero.

”Stay here. Behind this. Don’t come out. Don’t jump off anything. Don’t ride anything. Don’t save anyone. STAY.”

She grinned.

She couldn’t help it. He had just told her to stay like she was a misbehaving puppy. A dragon giving a wolf princess a sit command in her own Keep.

He had no idea. The cultural gap was so wide you could park a warship in it and he was standing on the other side with zero clue that the dock existed.

He saw the grin and it stopped him cold.

”Stop that.”

”Stop what?”

His eyes dropped to her mouth, then snapped back up like he’d been caught stealing. Then he grinned back. It happened before he could kill it. Fast, involuntary, the kind of grin that shows up uninvited and makes itself at home before the brain catches up.

For a moment, they were just two idiots smiling at each other. Mutual, involuntary, completely inappropriate for the cum-chanting hellscape shitstorm around them.

That’s when he realized he was smiling and physically reset his face. She watched the whole process. Grin, recognition, suppression, commander mask back on. It took about two seconds and was the funniest thing she’d seen all night.

”Take your time,” she offered, smiling even wider.

”I don’t need time.”

”You could have been gone thirty seconds ago. But here you are still looking at me.”

He exhaled hard through his nose. ”You should be afraid of me. Everyone is afraid of me. Why aren’t you afraid of me?”

”First time for everything.”

”First and last.”

”We’ll see.”

”We won’t.”

”We will.”

His face was at war with itself and losing on every front. The jaw wanted authority. The eyes wanted something else. The mouth was switching sides every half second like a traitor with no allegiance and she was watching.

”I’ve killed over one hundred of those things tonight.”

”Impressive.”

”I have been dead this week.”

”Also impressive.”

”I am currently bleeding from four places.”

”Getting less impressive but continue.”

”And you’re smiling at me like we’re not surrounded by demons and it’s making it very hard to leave.”

Silence.

”You have a nice smile too,” she said. The words slipped from her mouth.

Apparently she had a concussion because she had zero filter. No sane woman would tell a battle-covered dragon he had a nice smile while demons chanted around them. That was ’check her pupils’ behavior. She was aware.

Whoops. She rolled with it.

He looked at her like she’d just stabbed him. ”We are in the middle of a— Forget it. You’re trouble.”

”Wars and good smiles are not mutually exclusive. You’re allowed to have range, Kael.”

”The blood has clearly gone to your head, Wolf Girl. One of us needs to be serious right now.”

His jaw reset. Something behind his eyes recalibrated, and the man who’d been grinning was replaced by the commander who couldn’t afford to.

”Don’t move.”

His voice dropped into a register she felt in her chest. Her body obeyed instantly. Spine straight. Muscles locked. She didn’t decide to obey. The decision was made for her by something deeper than instinct, something that bypassed every filter she had and went straight to her bones.

It felt like an Alpha command.

Kael was already gone, blade up, moving into the swarm like a man who had done this a hundred times before.

She watched him go and thought very clearly, that dragon is out of his goddamn mind.