Wolf Princess Sold to the Dragon King

’For your protection’ was doing more heavy lifting than every goddamn wolf in Greyhall combined. Nicholas had just invented an entire legal jurisdiction with his dick and his diplomacy.

Reed glanced over and watched her shoulders visibly drop two inches with the gratitude of a fugitive who had just been offered a life raft.

”That’s very kind of you, Nicholas.”

Without breaking stride, Nicholas kissed her hand. ”Of course.”

Reed looked at Nicholas. The discipline required to keep a straight face was costing him years off his life. Nicholas looked back at Reed almost daring his Gamma to say one goddamn word.

”Council has agreed to meet again at dawn,” Reed said, as they continued moving. ”Most of the other Alphas are resting. Damon is meeting with Drakencrest’s crew as we speak. They are in our pack’s meeting room.”

Nicholas’s jaw worked once at this information. Guinevere didn’t know why outside of the fact that she had committed an act of treason on them and now she was going to have to face them, apologize for it, and hope they didn’t burn her or Lunaris to the ground.

They rounded the corner and found three wolves standing in front of a purple rift in the wall with their weapons drawn and the expressions of men who had been doing this for hours and had stopped being impressed by it.

Guinevere’s hand still flew to her mouth. Reed had warned them that portals were open but it was still a surprise.

The portal was loud. The guards were louder.

”I had seventeen. You had fifteen. I’m winning.”

”Yours was a double. Two came through at once. That counts as one engagement, not two.”

”That is absolutely not how kills work.”

”That is exactly how kills work. Ask Reed.”

Reed had been dragged into a kill-count arbitration between two men who had been stabbing demons for hours and were now treating it like a goddamn fantasy league with swords. He did not have time for this shit.

And yet.

Before Reed could settle this once and for all, more chanting erupted from the portal.

All three guards raised their weapons in unison.

”Vessel! The prophecy—”

THWACK.

”Fifteen.”

”Too bad.”

They straightened, just now noticing their dead king was next to the Gamma. Their faces cycled through dead, alive, standing, and apparently fine about all of it in under two seconds.

”Alpha!”

Then their eyes landed on Guinevere before another stumbled through the portal mid-chant.

It got exactly three words into ”VESSEL ON HER—” before three blades ended the sentence, the chant, and the chanter simultaneously.

She almost clapped. The instinct was there, full and genuine. They were so in sync and didn’t even look when they did it together. But Nicholas was holding her hand hostage.

All three guards stared straight ahead like men who had absolutely not been practicing that move for the last four hours hoping someone important would eventually walk by.

The next few corridors were quiet. The kind of quiet that should have been comforting but felt like the universe reloading.

Renwick Lunaris rounded the corner like a man who owned the hallway and everyone breathing in it.

His eyes hit Reed first.

”Where is Tavian?”

”I’ll locate him for you, Alpha Lunaris,” Reed replied.

”You’ll locate him now.”

”Yes, sir.”

Renwick took three more steps before the dead king registered.

He stopped cold.

”Shadowfell. Quite the recovery.”

”Quite the evening, Lunaris.”

He looked at Nicholas the way one predator acknowledges another across a kill. His eyes dropped to her hand in Nicholas’s. Traveled up her arm. Landed on her face. The face of a daughter who had defied his direct Alpha command, marked a dead king in front of witnesses, vanished in white light, and was now walking through a foreign keep holding that king’s hand like she had chosen a side and it was not his.

”The dragons have come to collect you.”

His voice was ice cold.

Guinevere gave a solemn nod and swallowed.

”Your brother is dead because of the stunt you pulled.”

Her stomach lurched, and her mind immediately went back to her encounter with Maria.

”Cassian—”

Renwick cut her off.

”You created a political dumpster fire I have been cleaning up for twelve hours. The men you brought ran eight hundred miles and have not slept in days. Greyhall went on lockdown after your first vanishing act. The encore activated Dark Fae portals. Every Alpha in Nyros has been inconvenienced and thinks you ran away. All of them stayed to help look for you.”

The words hit. Guinevere didn’t want to be emotional. She was usually very good about keeping that in check. But that was a lot and right now, she was overwhelmed. She swallowed and took a breath.

”Light flashes and I don’t know how I keep—”

”Save it,” Renwick cut her off. ”The dragons have flown across an ocean for you. None of them have slept either. The loud one was stabbed defending you. And you have the audacity to hold another man’s hand. Your mother would be disgusted.”

Her hand flew to her mouth. Her mother being brought into this was the straw that broke the camel’s back. Tears fell before she could stop them and Nicholas could feel every single one through their matebond like a knife being twisted in slow motion.

The corridor went cold. The torches on both walls dimmed to nothing and every wolf within thirty feet felt their knees buckle under dominance so heavy the stone beneath them groaned.

Nicholas stepped between Guinevere and her father so fast the air moved.

”Her mother.” His voice was gravel soaked in something flammable. ”You brought her dead mother into this.” He looked at Renwick the way a man looks at something he has decided to end. ”I have met Dark Fae with more honor than that.”

Renwick didn’t flinch.

”Yes, Shadowfell. You have a matebond with her. We know. You have announced it to every Alpha in Nyros and at her auction. She is a married woman. You can hate me for saying it. But when the dust settles, you are a king first, mate second, and you and I both know the political math doesn’t work.”

Nicholas pulled Guinevere against his chest, arm locked around her. The kind of hold that says ’you are mine and that man can go fuck himself into the sun.’

”You’re done, Lunaris.”