Tears brim in my mate’s eyes.
And I tighten my fists. If she thinks I will allow her to open that door and hand me over to her fathers—”
“We’ve got to get you out of these chains.” She turns to me, her face set with a renewed resolve. “Quickly before they figure out how to get in!”
I let out a steamed breath, relief flaring my flame. Her resolute answer delivered straight to my head makes my next decision that much easier.
I grab on to the iron shackle around my right wrist and rip it away. Each cuff protests mightily, screaming as I tear them from my wrists and ankles. But with my strength fully returned it feels like a mere matter of bending a slightly resistant substance to my will.
Like removing bracelets I’ve decided I no longer like. Simple verging on easy.
Then I stand up to face my mate. Both of us unfettered for the first time since her coronation night.
She holds our progeny tight, her eyes glued to mine. “How?” she demands.
Outside the door, her fathers pound even louder call out her name that more desperately. “What was all that clamor?” They demand. “Ola! Ola! Are you all right? What is happening?”
But Ola does not seem to hear them. She continues to stare up at me, waiting for my answer.
With a crook of my head, I inform her. “If you wish to imprison a drakkon, you must not only chain us but also keep us wounded and on the brink of starvation. By letting me heal, by feeding me so heartily, you allowed my strength to return.”
She looks down, and a storm of emotions flicker across our mate bond before she raises her eyes once again to ask, “How long? How long have you been able to do this?”
Again, I tell her the blunt truth. “Two days.”
“Two days,” she repeats, her voice breathless. “But why are you just now breaking your chains? Why didn’t you escape as soon as you found out—”
She cuts off her face collapsing with horror. Then instead of waiting for me to answer, she says. “Oh God…what were you planning to do? To me? To all of us?”
I stare back at her, both my face and my side of the mate bond a deliberate blank. Even I am not callous enough to answer that question.
We stare at each other. For several moments there is nothing to be heard save the sound of her fathers beating their fists against the door.
But then another voice yells. “Hold on, hold on, stop yelling and knocking. Do you hear that? How quiet it’s gone in there?”
“Fuck, he’s escaping. Nago…this is Rafes. Have you been able to extract the override codes for the kingdom house from Ola’s biofiles? We need them stat!”
The two new voices belong to Clyde, the former North Dakota beta I god spoke, and Rafes, the President of the North American Wolves.
Three months ago, I was planning to have Clyde drive to the cabin and shoot himself point-blank in front of Ola. The idea had been to teach my she-wolf a lesson she would never forget. A lesson about what would happen should she cross me or make another attempt to escape.
And make no mistake she has crossed me.
She not only escaped but she had also attempted to keep me, the King of Drakkon, as her prisoner.
She refused to bring me my hatchling.
And worst of all, she made me say please.
Yes, she is most definitely deserving a punishment. Even better her fathers and uncle are right outside the door. I would bet the polar bear tooth I keep in my study that her mother is also somewhere in this house.
While the pretender who set upon me before I could properly execute my original plan to tame Ola is nowhere to be found.
This is my moment. Honor for my father…an ultimate lesson for my she-wolf….everything I’ve worked for…
I could have it all, right now with just a few thoughts.
I cut my eyes toward the door they won’t stop pounding on, then back to Ola. “How tiring it must be for those doomed dogs to care so much for someone who now belongs to me.”
Fear, beautiful and bright flares across Ola’s side of our mate bond. And satisfaction licks through my flame with the knowledge that she has finally gotten it. She should be frightened. Very frightened.
For I am the King of Drakkon, and she is—
“I’m your queen!”
The sudden rush of Ola’s voice into my head jolts me from my triumphant thoughts.
And when my gaze resets on her, she no longer looks scared. Only furious.
“Other You told me I was now the Queen of Drakkon. He said he wanted to present me to his dragons, even if they didn’t like me. He said that he wanted us to be a family. You, me, and the baby. He said he wanted to marry me in front of his dragons and my wolves. He promised me he’d make all our wishes come true, and I promised him I was going to make us work, no matter what the obstacle.”
Ola looks at the door, then looks back at me. “I always keep my promises. But I won’t be able to do that if you kill everyone on the other side of that door. If you go through with this ultimate revenge plan of yours, you’ll not only be murdering everyone I love but any chance we have at that awesome future Other You envisioned. So what’s it going to be, Triple D? Your revenge or your queen? Are we doing this happily ever after thing or what?”
Chapter Ten
FJ
The instinct to fight thrummed through FJ’s body, and he opened and closed his hand for want of a sword. But a door stood between him and his enemy. And as for his sword, it had been stolen. By his own daughter. With the same deft skills FJ had thought upon with such pride as he’d rushed over here from their second kingdom house in the land of Michigan.
“Ola has always been our fighter,” he’d told his brother and their mate over their triple bond. “If anyone could figure out how to escape the serpent’s clutches, it would have been her.”
To think he’d been so proud of her as they strode into the North Dakota kingdom house.
Only to find her with that serpent spawn’s baby in her arms.
And now they stood outside an impenetrable door. Unable to get to the daughter they loved on the other side.
FJ’s wolf twisted uselessly about. Wanting to shift. Wanting to tear out that serpent’s throat for what he’d done to their beloved daughter. But the door was impenetrable, even in his stronger form. And he needed to keep his human reasoning about him until it was time to shift to fight the serpent. So FJ’s human was forced to settle for pounding even louder and roaring at Ola to let them in.
As usual, his brother tried to calm him. Olafr had long been considered the rougher of the two, due to his decision to stay ever the wolf for the first half of his life. And his tendency to shift when crossed had garnered him a lethal reputation among their Michigan subjects. But within their five-person family unit, Olafr was long been considered the peacemaker.
And back when Ola had become a most insubordinate teenager, it had been Olafr who most often convinced his older brother to walk away from fights with his needlessly insolent daughter until FJ could regain a cooler head.
“She knows not what she does,” Olafr reminded FJ over their brothers’ bond as he pounded upon the door. “It is as Rafesson said, the serpent has possessed her mind.”
Olafr was so certain of this excuse for their younger twin’s actions, but FJ was not so sure.
Ola’s eyes had been clear as she’d made her case for why they should grant her request to forgive the serpent who killed so many of their North Wolf warriors. And her arguments, while insulting, had not been completely incorrect.
Also, mentally challenged or no, the fact that she would defend their worst enemy… compare the serpents to the proud North Wolves…those were actions FJ could not abide. There were many things he still failed to understand about the advanced world he now found himself living in, but his daughter’s betrayal… he would never understand that.
FJ pounded and pounded some more. But the next thing they heard from inside the room was the screech of metal. Then…nothi
ng after that.
Now both he and Olafr pounded at the door with all their might. Then kicked at it, roaring their daughter’s name. Never had FJ felt such fear. Even when this serpent had first set down in his village.
Eventually, Clyde, their brother-in-law shouted for quiet.
And the hologram of Rafes, their other much younger brother-in-law, had blinked upstairs to tell them his brother found the codes.
They all waited as Nago worked on some device far, far away. It seemed to take an eternity before the door slid open.
And FJ and his brother let out a blood-curdling battle cry as they ran through the open door.
Just in time to see the male who’d claimed his daughter throw the room’s bed through the floor-to-ceiling window that made up its outer wall.
All of this kingdom house’s windows, FJ knew, were made of a clear impenetrable composite material, the same as both of their kingdom houses in Michigan. Translucent iron, it was commonly called. Yet the glass shattered easily, as if no promises of indestructibility were ever made.
The serpent disguised as a man looked down at the sword Ola had stolen, which now lay upon the ground. He then met FJ’s eyes directly.
Too late, FJ realized his mistake in not shifting as soon as he entered the room. For there came a sudden building pressure inside his head as if someone had gripped his mind in a fist. Was this the thrall spell of which Rafes had spoken? Would the serpent take control of his mind?
But then the pressure abruptly ceased. And instead of taking FJ’s mind, the male gathered Ola and the still sleeping babe in his arms. Then to FJ’s horror, he leaped out the window with both of them.
FJ and his brother yelled out at the sickening sight as they ran across the shattered glass to the now empty window. Ola…the girl he’d sworn to love and protect…FJ’s heart plummeted down along with his daughter.
So this had been the serpent’s plan all along. To kill her in front of them. How would FJ explain her demise to their mate? How would he live with himself for letting it happen?
All of those questions raced through his mind, only to cut off when the male, now a large blue serpent suddenly rose in front of the window. With Ola and her babe still wrapped inside his arms.
“I’m sorry!” Ola yelled out to them underneath his flapping wings. “I’m so sorry.”
The serpent merely regarded FJ for a long silent moment, his now golden eyes glowing sinister and bright.
Then with a swoop of its great body, he turned and flew away.
With the daughter FJ had only just found.
Where, they were going? FJ knew not. Or if he’d ever see his youngest twin again.
Part II
Damianos Drákon lived in a castle. Of course, he did.
Chapter Eleven
AO QUONG
“We have decided the king must be overthrown and replaced. Preferably by you.”
Ao Quong regarded his guests across the carved mahogany tea table. Most often he preferred to conduct meetings with other drakkon in his palace gardens. It was far away from the main house, so they could speak in their native language without risk of being overheard by any of his anthro servants.
However, in this case…
“A teahouse is not the proper place for this conversation,” he told the other two drakkon. “Please… follow me.”
He led them to the same bridge he’d been dreaming of since the night before the fertility portal time jump project was shut down. He’d had the dream twice more since returning to his palace. And each time he’d woken up from it with a small itch inside his belly. One that didn’t fade until after many hours spent in the waking world.
Whatever could it mean? he wondered, even as he turned to talk to his guests underneath the covered garden bridge.
Neither of these drakkon resided in Zone 5, or else they would have known it was uncustomary—some might say out-and-out rude—to raise such a weighty subject in a tea house. Hwedo kept a modest home in Zone 1, the original birthplace of the human species, and Amaru had chosen to reside in Zone 9 even before any of the anthros established a presence there.
Yet Ao Quong understood why these two drakkon, in particular, chose to approach him. Hwedo, originally their mission’s Lead Researcher, was a consummate intellectual, who still could not reconcile that a brute like the former Huntmaster had been allowed to appoint himself king. And Amaru, the mission’s Lead Agriculturalist could be quite unorthodox. Despite his title, it was rumored he refused to eat their former livestock even before Damianos decreed the practice must stop. Why else would he have chosen the formerly anthro-free Zone now called South America to live after they were all exiled here?
Also, both drakkon lived rather far away from the Zone 5 region called Russia, which had been the home of Chudu, the last drakkon who tried to usurp their current king. So perhaps they did not know that formerly prideful drakkon had not been seen since undergoing a torture by Damianos that had supposedly destroyed his mind.
“You are unhappy about the king shutting down the fating portal project,” Ao Quong guessed now, turning to look down at the colorful fish in the palace pond underneath the bridge.
“Are you not unhappy?” Hwedo asked. “For centuries we have all supported this project, knowing it was our only chance to find suitable mates before we died. And he shut it down without even a word of explanation?”
Ah, here was the reason, Hwedo and Amaru had come to him in particular. Drakkon lived to be about twenty thousand of this planet’s rotations around the sun. Most of the drakkon who had been sent on the mission a little over fifteen thousand rotations ago were very young, between five hundred and two-thousand years old. However, the mission leads, which he, Hwedo, and Amaru all were, had been quite a bit older. Between four and six thousand, which meant they only had anywhere from a couple of hundred years to a millennia or two to secure progeny.
However…
“While it was our only chance, it was also a highly theoretical one,” Ao Quong pointed out. “We have no way of knowing if it would have worked.”
“We have no way of knowing it would not have either!” Amaru replied. “I have heard tale of the wolf mutations using the gates to find their matches for millennia. Why not us as well? After all, I was the one who came up with the idea.”
Technically, the Betrayer King was the one who came up with the idea. Amaru was the one who insisted to Damianos that the project could still be completed after their former leader’s stunning betrayal.
“I know you are disappointed,” Ao Quong started to say.
“And you are not?” Hwedo asked, snorting steam.
“I am…” Ao Quong hesitated.
It would be unwise to tell them the real reason he was taking the shutdown of the project with such equanimity after having worked on it for hundreds of years. It was doubtful they would understand his dream. For he barely did.
He did not know much about the female in the dream. In truth, he could not fully make out her face. But he had come to understand one important piece of datum after the last one.
“It doesn’t upset you that he is only three-quarters drakkon?” she’d asked after their son showed them his trick. Three spins in the air.
“No, it does not upset me, Reverence,” he’d answered. “You have made me happy beyond all measure. How could he be any more perfect? How could you?”
Three-quarters. Their son had been only three-quarters a drakkon. Which meant the female in his dreams was something unheard of… only half-drakki. But how?
His curiosity burned so bright upon this question that he found himself asking his guests, “Before the Royal Huntsmaster took the crown, why do you suppose there were so many tales of drakkon kidnapping maidens? Do you believe it’s possible that a few of these drakkon were mating outside of our race?”
Hwedo furrows his brow. “That is not possible. If it was, we would have heard tale of it.”
“Would we have?” I asked. “If you had managed
to mate with an anthro, would you have dared to tell our king? Either of our kings?”
“I would never attempt such action,” Hwedo answered. “Anyone who has studied the anthro physiology as closely as I have would know that even if they did somehow take our seed, it would be impossible for them to carry it to term. Their pelvises simply are not designed to bear such weight.”
Hwedo issued his answer immediately, but Ao Quong noticed that Amaru had not. “Lead Agriculturalist, do you have anything to say upon this subject?” he asked, reverting to the old former of addressing his fellow drakkon by their mission title.
Amuru frowned at Hwedo, then turned back to Ao Quong. “Not everyone knew as much as the Lead Researcher about the anthros. And having no access to this information, if a drakkon’s male works were to descend for a maiden, he naturally would have chosen to mate her. And if that were the case, I imagine the end result might have been…” Amaru lowered his eyes to the still water below the bridge before finishing with, “Tragic.”
“Well, I would not call such an ending tragic,” Hwedo insisted, his tone testy. “Any drakkon whose male works descended for an anthro should have consulted with me before attempting such action.”
Yes, Hwedo was a consummate intellectual, Ao Quong thought to himself. But unfortunately, not when it came to emotions.
“I understand why you chose to approach me with this proposition,” Ao Quong said, casting a sympathetic look in Amaru’s direction. “But I am guessing you have not checked your messages since your arrival in this zone.”
Amaru looked up from the water and Hwedo once again scrunched his brow, asking, “No, I haven’t checked my messages since yesterday. How did you know?”
“Because I received a quite interesting one from Damianos this morning. It was a directive to all drakkon to join him at his Zone 4 estate next week…for a celebration.”
Her Dragon King (Her Dragon King Duet Book 2): 50 Loving States, North Dakota Pt. 2 Page 8
