Wolf Princess Sold to the Dragon King

Jaxon was a genius mage surrounded by dragons, and he had accepted that any concept more advanced than ’fire bad’ required a full puppet show and pictures.

”I’ll make this simple because I can see Ryker’s eyes glazing over. Portals need anchors. Velkaris has anchors. Nyros does not. We can’t portal to a continent that never bothered to install the plumbing.”

Maddox dragged a hand down his face. ”So the portals are useless. Fantastic. Love that for us. Get me as close as you can and I’ll do what dragons do. Fly angry.”

Brennan raised his hand like a student who’d been waiting for the teacher to finish being wrong.

Every mage in the room looked at Brennan’s hand and then immediately looked at Jaxon to watch the reaction.

Jaxon closed his eyes for one second before answering. ”Yes, Brennan?”

Every head turned towards Brennan.

”There’s no need. I created an anchor point in Shadowfell already.”

Jaxon’s eye twitched. ”You what.”

”Oh yes,” he said with an earnest nod. ”I portaled from Shadowfell to Drakencrest, which created an anchor. So I now have one to portal back.”

Jaxon looked at Brennan the way a high priest looks at a toddler who summoned a god by eating a crayon.

”How did you—” Jaxon, Lux, and the Luminari Master Mage started the same sentence at the same time, stopped, glared at each other for stealing their question, then turned back to Brennan with triple the hostility.

”Can I just say, the three layers are incredible,” Brennan added. ”The first two were classic, very elegant, very you. Both of you. Light magic, dark magic. Beautiful.” He looked at the Luminari Master mage next. ”But what really blew me away was the Luminari layer. I have never seen that before. Really creative stuff.”

Jaxon absorbed the compliment the way a brick wall absorbs a hug.

”Where did you make a portal?” he sputtered, the words barely surviving the journey past his outrage.

Nicholas stepped forward, eyes blazing molten wolf gold. ”He made it wherever he wanted because he’s brilliant and had a sandwich beforehand. Can we move on? We have a portal.”

The Luminari Master Mage stood slowly. The kind of slowly that preceded either a lecture or a murder.

”Let me be very clear. I wove those enchantments with seventeen failsafes. Seventeen. Each one designed to collapse the portal matrix on unauthorized entry. You’re telling me this man walked through all seventeen while eating a fucking sandwich?”

”I can show you—” Brennan started to say.

Nicholas held up his hand. Brennan shut his mouth.

”My Master Mage portaled through your infrastructure and complimented it on the way through. The appropriate response is ’thank you,’ not a goddamn interrogation.”

Brennan’s hand went to his chest for a moment and his throat bobbed once. His eyes turned glassy, and he blinked three times in rapid succession.

Damon: Nicholas.

Nicholas: What.

Damon: What did you do.

Nicholas: I stood up for OUR mage.

Damon: He just clutched his heart.

Nicholas: He’s fine.

Damon: He’s going to cry.

Nicholas: No he’s not.

It was at this point that Brennan sniffled, wiped his eyes with the back of his hand, and pulled his hood up as if that could block the entire room from seeing what was three feet in front of them.

Damon: They’re still arguing about portals. Do we risk no snack?

Nicholas: Absolutely the fuck not.

✦✦✦

ONE SNACK LATER

A portal cracked open in Shadowfell Keep, exactly where Brennan’s last portal had been made.

Nicholas stepped through first, Damon and Brennan behind him.

Jaxon looked like a man forced to compliment his ex-wife’s new husband as he passed through.

”I need a drink.”

Lux pulled out a flask and handed it to him without a word.

She gave a pointed look to Brennan. ”Congratulations. You punched a hole through the most secure ward system on the continent. I’m going to need the exact location so I can fix what you broke before someone less adorable exploits it.”

”You mean ’we’ patch it,” the Luminari Master Mage corrected.

Brennan opened his mouth to offer help. Nicholas gave him a look that closed it.

✦✦✦

SHADOWFELL KEEP - WAR ROOM

A map of Nyros was carved into the table.

Maddox, Sterling, and Ryker stared at it together like a single unit that had just spotted prey. The silent conversation that followed was unanimous, We need one of these.

Nicholas stood at the head. His eyes moved across the Luminari, the mages, the dragons. He saw exactly what Maddox expected him to see: a room full of people who understood war but did not understand wolves.

”These tokens represent the major packs. Each one is an independent territory ruled by an Alpha or a King,” Nicholas began. ”There is no central government. There is no High King. There is no unified military. Every Alpha answers to himself and his pack. Alliances between packs exist, but they shift, they break, and they are based on trade, marriage, and threat, in that order.”

The Luminari specialists exchanged glances. Jaxon’s brow furrowed.

”No central government,” Lux repeated. ”Alliances that are held together with spit and marriage. Wonderful. Every Alpha is his own king, nobody answers to anybody, and the women get whipped. I’m shocked this system isn’t working out better.””

”Rogues,” Nicholas continued. ”Packless wolves. Usually criminals and mercenaries. They travel in groups and there are a handful of rogue territories scattered across the continent.” He pointed to three unmarked zones on the map. ”Here, here, and here. They are stationary and operate like a pack but there are no official laws.”

”If rogues have her, the best case scenario is you can buy her back. Worst case, you kill them and take her.” His voice didn’t waver. ”The one who whipped her dies either way. That is a non-negotiable.”

Maddox gave a single nod. On that point, every man at this table was in violent agreement.

”So rogues are just wolves who said ’fuck the system’ and started their own shitty system,” Ryker commented. ”Got it. I’ve dated women like that.”

Nicholas began placing tokens on the map.

”All rogues still practice whipping as punishment. So every rogue group on this continent is a possibility. Within the established packs, the practice varies. It’s outlawed in most packs.”

”Ten suspects,” Sterling said, eyeing the tokens.

”At minimum. There may be others who do it quietly,” Nicholas answered.

Ryker studied the spread. The tokens were scattered across the continent with no geographic pattern. North, south, central, western ridge.

”Searching ten women-whipping packs will take days even with flying. What’s the fastest way to narrow this down?” he asked.

”I have a continental war summit that I have to attend because I called it. Brennan has never been. No anchor yet, which means I leave at dawn to get there,” Nicholas replied. ”Asking the Alphas is on the table. If they were the ones whipping her, they aren’t likely to give her back easily.”

The room absorbed that.

”Lunaris is not included in the ten?” Sterling asked, looking at Lunaris on the map.

”They are a question mark,” Nicholas answered. ”Whipping is outlawed. My instinct says Renwick Lunaris still practices it under the table. But when I met his son Cassian, I questioned that instinct.”

”There is no way that kid ever saw a whip,” Maddox agreed. ”And Guinevere has never said a word about whippings to me.”

Something shifted behind Sterling’s eyes. ”Did you ask her that point blank? She isn’t the type to air her dirty laundry, Commander.”

”No, I didn’t,” Maddox admitted. ”But I know my wife. She never mentioned anything related to it, to me. Has she mentioned anything to you?”

Sterling thought about it. In truth, she had told him that her brother Cassian ’was the same way’ when he was a dick to her, and that comment had stuck with him. But that was Cassian, not whippings.

”No,” he answered after a moment. ”My gut says we add it. Renwick is in Velkaris as far as we know. That means his son is in charge. Unless Renwick has a mage he’s been hiding and portaled.” He glanced at Nicholas, then at Damon. ”Is Renwick showing his face at this summit?”

”Yes. We received word that he would be in attendance,” Damon answered for Nicholas.

Maddox’s eyes hadn’t left Sterling. ”If Renwick shows up at that summit, he portaled, which means he has a mage, which means he’s been lying, which means I’m going to enjoy that conversation.”

He looked at the map. ”And if he doesn’t show, that means Cassian Lunaris has been running Lunaris. I saw him hit her. There’s no doubt in my mind what kind of man he is. Add Lunaris to the list.”

”Stonehowl,” Landon said.

Every head turned to him. He’d been silent since entering the war room, standing at the far end of the table with his arms crossed and his white tunic still bearing faded bloodstains from the island.

He tipped his chin at Stonehowl on the map. ”When she woke up, she said Stonehowl. Was this what she was referencing?”

”Yes,” Nicholas replied.

Landon exhaled through his nose like a man burning through his last scrap of patience.

”Tell me what Stonehowl did to her. All of it. Right now.”