Wolf Princess Sold to the Dragon King

”What the HELL?” Blair snapped.

”That was an intervention,” Kael said flatly. ”I’m a healer now. I’m also a coach. I notice things, Blair. I wish I didn’t. But here we are. YOUR pupils specifically were the size of dinner plates because a wolf put his hand on your throat. Adrenaline manufactures attraction. None of this is real. You’re welcome.”

”Kael, I swear to—”

”You swear to what, Blair? The goddess? She’s busy. She’s possessing your bestie queen next door. Swear to me instead that you will not let that Beta touch you. That’s how I wake up as an uncle. Do you want a bastard son running around? You saw how I turned out. Skin contact leads to pregnancy.”

”You don’t get to—”

”I GET TO. I’m your older brother. That’s how this goes. If he wants to pursue you, then he goes through the proper channels. Maddox’s approval. Then mine. I’m the only one in this room making good decisions today. Which does NOT include watching you two fornicate.”

Blair’s mouth was open so wide Ryker could have thrown a coin in it. Kael closed it with one finger instead.

He turned and went back to Sterling, unbothered, because apparently he was the only competent person in this room of selfish people.

Hands on chest. White light resumed. Fresh knot on Sterling’s head that hadn’t been there a second ago. Not Kael’s problem.

”Ryker, if those two make eye contact in the next ten minutes, throw something at them.”

”What do I throw?”

”I don’t care. A rock. A boot. Sterling. Dealer’s choice.”

Damon had not moved a single muscle since the word ”fornicate,” which meant he was either paralyzed or he was already dead and too proud to fall.

Kael glanced up at Blair. ”Has he been tested?”

”Shut it, Kael. You vanished for five years and came back with opinions. Hard pass,” Blair said, voice clipped.

”Cute,” Kael fired back. ”Be rebellious all you want. It doesn’t change reality. Do you want marks all over your body like Maddox and I? It’s for life, Blair. You can’t cover them. There’s no cream to soothe them. They flare up at the worst possible times. They spread. And everyone who sees them KNOWS.”

Ryker drank from his flask the way a man drinks when he’s witnessing history he never asked to witness and knows he’ll never be able to un-witness it.

Blair did not dignify that with a response. Damon was still a statue.

”Have you two had the talk?” Kael pressed.

The room went silent. Blair’s face went red. Not combat red. Not fury red. The specific red of a woman who was watching her brother open a door she needed to stay closed.

She intercepted the flask on its way to Ryker’s mouth again. Drank. Looked at Kael. Drank again. Looked at Damon. Drank a third time. Handed it back to Ryker with nothing left in it.

”When a mommy and a daddy love each other very much,” Kael continued. ”They—”

”Do NOT finish that sentence,” she cut him off.

”—or when a princess and a Beta are in a confined space with physical contact and heightened emotions that they mistake for love—”

”KAEL.”

”—things happen to the body. Wolves have a thing about necks. Trust me. The only thing between you and a permanent matebond was my ability to stand up, and if I had been slower, he’d be fathering your firstborn mid-mark right now. Do you understand?”

”I am not having this conversation.”

”You’re having this conversation because nobody had it with Maddox and look what happened. He got bitten by a woman who gave him the runes. He lost all his memories after his Keep was under siege. They bite each other. All the time. It’s disgusting really. The only thing we’re missing here is the child out of wedlock.”

”They are married. And YOU are the one who BIT her with him. Both of you. At the same time.”

Damon didn’t even blink at that. He hadn’t blinked in two minutes, actually. His ears were red. The wall was getting his complete and undivided attention.

”My point exactly.” Kael sat up straighter. ”When there are no boundaries or chaperones, that’s what happens. He is a Beta in wolf’s clothing who tried to have sex with a princess in a closet.”

”He absolutely was not. He was putting on my NECKLACE,” Blair said.

”It’s a slippery slope, Blair. Clasp today. Runes tomorrow. Baby dragon-wolves by spring. I’ve seen it. Make smart choices.”

”Kael, I swear—”

The silence that followed had a body count and lasted a good minute.

Blair looked at Kael. Looked at Damon. Made a decision.

”Fornicate this.”

She walked across the room, grabbed Damon’s shoulder, and pressed her mouth to his.

Damon stood perfectly still. His hands were at his sides. His ears were on fire. His brain was sending urgent messages to his body and his body was returning them unopened.

Ryker started counting. ”One. Two. Three. Fo—”

That’s when Kael Ashenvale lost his shit.

✦✦✦

DRAKENCREST THRONE ROOM - OUTSIDE THE CLOSET

The column of white coming out of Guinevere’s palms was holding as blood ran down from her nose.

”Guinevere.” Nicholas raised his voice over the noise. ”Tell me what you need.”

”I need a mage,” she gritted. The voice was hers again. Green flickering behind the gold. The possession and the woman fighting for the same mouth and agreeing on exactly one thing: they were outgunned.

Mindlink was not working. Maddox had been trying to reach Jaxon. But whatever Emma was pumping into the air was scrambling the frequency like static eating a signal. Nicholas had been trying too. Same result.

Emma heard the request. Her grin returned. Of course it did. The woman smiled at vulnerability the way sharks smiled at blood. ”A mage. She needs a mage. How precious.”

The throne room doors exploded open.

Jaxon crossed the threshold at a dead sprint. His coat was gone. His sleeves were shoved past his elbows. His hair was a disaster for reasons that were no longer related to Lux and entirely related to the fact that he had been working on a nested Noxari letter in a war room when every mindlink in the Keep went dark, followed by Griffin running to the war room to inform him that his girlfriend had collapsed.

His eyes found the ring. Found the white light. Found the two columns of magic colliding in the center.

This lunatic pissed off the wrong Master Mage.