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STAVROK
Golden sunlight streamed in through the window. I stretched, eyes still half-closed, and reached out a hand. A smile grew on my face when my fingers brushed up against the form, warm and solid, curled up beside me.
Lucy.
I had worried the previous day had been an illusion. A fever dream, of sorts, conjured up by my fractured brain to mask the pain of my mate rejecting me.
It appeared not.
The real thing lay beside me, golden hair splayed out over the pillow. One hand curled upwards beside her slumbering face, and I couldn’t resist brushing those soft fingers, watching her hand twitch and her eyelashes flutter.
She looked like a princess, straight out of the stories my mother used to read to me as a child.
Her gorgeous green eyes opened, and her lovely features softened when she saw me. Sleepily, she raised a hand up to push a lock of hair off my brow. At the gentleness of her touch, I bowed my head, pressing a kiss into her outstretched palm.
“What a gentleman.” She giggled. “Good morning.”
“It is indeed,” I murmured, pressing myself up against her side and combing my fingers through her hair, enjoying the soft texture.
She snuggled closer. I was gratified by the contact and pleased at the assurance of the motion. She had no problem dragging my free arm tight around her waist, and I growled in satisfaction as I traced a hand over the curve of her waist.
“What are your plans today?” Lucy whispered, pressing a kiss into my neck.
I stroked her arm absently, thinking. “Matters of state, a few meetings this afternoon. Nothing urgent.”
She hummed approval and nuzzled into my neck. I wondered if the scratchiness of my stubble bothered her, but I didn’t voice the thought. I was enjoying her kisses too much.
“Besides,” I murmured, running a hand up her spine, “my advisors will understand. I’ve found my fated mate, after all these years. It’s a cause for celebration.”
There was a long silence.
I frowned. Lucy’s back had grown tense at my words, and her body withdrew from mine under the bedcovers.
“Fated mates.” She didn’t turn her head, and her voice was quiet, but I was hanging on to every word. “You really believe in that stuff, don’t you?”
My frown deepened. I pulled my arms back, and she flipped onto her back, staring up at me with a blank expression.
“Of course,” I said, puzzled. “You feel it, don’t you? The pull toward me, our connection? Don’t talk of it as if...”
“As if what?”
“As if it’s some”—I cast out a hand, struggling for the words—“fairy tale. I assure you, what’s passed between us is real. It is a bond that cannot be broken. Neither time nor distance will weaken its power.”
She pressed her lips together. The thin line of them grew white, and my anger bubbled to the surface.
“You know this.” I growled. “I know you can feel it too, Lucy.”
“Don’t tell me what I feel,” she snapped, and my stomach dropped. She pushed the bedsheets back, climbed out of bed, and grabbed a robe from my coat rack. “I feel like this is a load of shit, if you must know.”
“What do you mean?”
I clambered to my feet, mirroring her movements. She had already circled the bed and walked out of reach. I resisted the urge to pace after her, sensing that it would only escalate things.
Escalate what? We were having a pleasant conversation five minutes ago.
The mood had changed so fast I had whiplash.
She rounded on me. Even though I stood a head taller than her, I backed up a couple of steps at the force of her glare.
“I mean, you promised me time,” she said. “You promised me I could go home if I wanted to!”
“And I’ll honor that promise!”
My heart hammered in my chest, and the blood rushed through my eardrums. She wants to leave me.
I couldn’t believe it. I’d never heard of such a thing happening before. When a dragon shifter found their fated mate, that was it. They were bonded for life.
I swallowed.
Maybe it was because she was human. I should have known that crucial difference between us would come back to haunt me.
She stared at me, her face pale and her eyes flashing. Belatedly, I realized I had been yelling.
At length, she drew herself up to her full height and looked me square in the face, shoulders back. She was regal. She may not have been born into it, but she was certainly a queen in my eyes.
“I’m going for a shower,” she said, her voice trembling with repressed emotion. “Alone.”
Before I had a chance to respond, she turned and strode into the bathroom, slamming the door shut behind her. A few moments later, the water turned on.
I resisted the urge to release my dragon then and there. Love and rage warred within my chest. I wanted to scorch a forest to the ground, level fields and raze valleys in my fury.
Instead, I turned on my heel and walked out of the bedchamber.
It was time for a sparring session.
Whoever I was training with today, I didn’t envy them one bit.
***
LUCY
By the time I climbed out of the shower, my skin was flushed and pruney, and my ire had cooled considerably. As I towelled off my hair, I cast a nervous glance at the door that led to the bedchamber.
The shower had washed away my prickling frustration, but I wasn’t ready to face Stavrok yet.
When I pushed open the door, I revealed an empty room. The bed was neatly made, but there was no sign of the king anywhere.
My heart sank, caught somewhere between relief and sadness.
Ugh. I need to walk and clear my head. This place is driving me crazy.
I slipped on a simple velvet dress and, after a moment of hesitation, a fur mantle that I found hanging in the vast wardrobe.
It was fancier than anything I owned back home, but it was soft and warm.
I smoothed the fur around my shoulders, turning to assess myself in the mirror.
A knock at my door.
“Lucy? Are you awake yet?”
I smiled to myself. “Yep! Come in, Cass.”
The door creaked open, and Cass slipped inside. She bounded over to me and bobbed up behind my shoulder. She grinned at me in the mirror, and I managed to smile back.
“The royal furs,” she said. “It suits you!”
I let out a groan of dismay, and her brow furrowed. The gesture reminded me of Stavrok, and my mood sank even further.
“Oh, no!” She bit her lip, eyes wide. “What’s wrong?”
I took her arm, shaking my head, lost for words. Where to even begin.
“I’m going for a walk.” I led her to the doorway, out into the corridor. “And you’re coming with me.”
“Okay...” Cass’s voice trailed after me as I strode down the corridor, not bothering to slow my pace for her. She trotted after me, panting. “Do I get to ask what this is about, or...?”
I shook my head, hurtling down the wide staircase and rounding the corner.
I was kind of impressed with myself. I knew the layout of this place like I’d lived here for years.
Like it’s already home to me.
I forced the traitorous thought out of my mind and forced open the double doors, making for the outdoor walkway Cass had shown me a couple of days ago.
Air. That was what I needed. Fresh air, to clear away the storms swirling in my head.
“Lucy!” Cass burst through the doorway in a flurry of chestnut curls, laying a hand on my arm. “Tell me what’s going on already!”
At her touch, I deflated, pulling back until we were walking side by side. I took a deep breath of the cool air, and exhaled, long and slow.
I started feeling better just for being outside.
“This is all happening so...” I flailed. “It’s a lot, okay, and I’m... A week ago, I was living a totally normal life in my totally normal town, and suddenly, overnight, I’m the soulmate of a king—”
“Slow down...” Cass interjected, but I couldn’t stop.
I always got like this when I was angry or upset. Once the words started, they kept on coming, faster and faster.
“He wants me to live in his castle and be his queen, and rule by his side, and have his babies, and—oh, my God.” I ran my fingers through my hair, rounding on her. “My kids are going to be dragons, Cass. Dragons.”
“Well,” Cass said weakly. “They won’t be dragons all the time. It’s more like... like a part of our souls.”
I shot her an incredulous look and kept walking. The wide stone archways we passed through looked out over a snowy vista. A light flurry was falling, coating the castle roofs and turrets with white.
“We’re shifters, Lucy.” Cass’s voice was gentle, reassuring. “And they won’t just be his children. They’ll be yours, too.”
“That’s exactly the problem!” I sighed. “You, Stavrok, everyone is talking as if I’ve already agreed to spend my life here, just because the fates have decided it.”
Cass tilted her head to the side as though she was puzzled, so I sighed and tried to explain.
“In my world, there’s no such thing as fate, or destiny.” I looked out over the beautiful world I’d found myself in. I heard Stavrok’s voice echo through my mind. A world of Fire and Ice. “I make my own choices, Cass. Nobody else. Not fate. Not even a dragon king.”
We were silent for a few more paces. The wind howled around us, and I shivered, drawing my collar up around my neck.
“I hear you,” Cass said eventually. “I just...”
She looked up at me, eyes piercing through mine. I felt exposed.
“I can’t understand why you would ever want to leave this place,” she said. “Or leave Stavrok.”
I bit my lip. “I guess it must be kind of hard to wrap your head around, huh?”
Cass laughed. “Yes. If I found my fated mate...” She exhaled, fixing her eyes on the horizon, lost in thought. “I wouldn’t ever want to be apart from them, let alone in another world entirely.”
I didn’t reply. I tried to imagine crossing the border and returning to the human world, starting my life again like none of this had ever happened.
Deep in my stomach, the thought didn’t sit right with me.
I didn’t want Cass to know that.
I sighed heavily. “Cass, I... I can’t be a prisoner here. Whatever I feel for Stavrok, I’m my own person.”
Cass opened her mouth to say something, but before she could, there was a tap on my shoulder.
Her eyes slid past mine, widening, and I whirled around to face two tall figures dressed in the livery of the castle guards.
I didn’t recognise them.
That fact wouldn’t have been unusual in itself—I hadn’t been here that long, after all—but from Cass’s expression I could tell she didn’t know them either.
I straightened my shoulders, trying for an aura of confidence that I didn’t feel.
“Yes?”
The one on the left spoke. His voice was low and gravelly. “Ma’am, you have to come with us.”
Cass nudged me aside, stepping between me and the newcomers. “Why? Anything you can say to her, you can say to me.”
A glow of warmth shot through me, but it vanished when the men’s expressions darkened. Their eyes were glowing in a faintly familiar way.
“We were told to make this quiet,” the one on the right said. He was shorter than his friend, and his voice had a mean undercurrent. “But we’re authorized to use force if necessary.”
I shivered, but Cass was getting angrier by the moment. Her brows were furrowed, her fists were clenched, and her face had gone an unhealthy shade of red.
“Authorized by who?”
Quick as a flash, the taller of the pair lashed out, swift and merciless. The uppercut sent Cass flying into the stone edge of the walkway. She hit it with a sharp crack, and fell to the floor, where she lay, unmoving.
“Cass!” I screamed.
I shot forward, stumbling toward her. She looked so still. I needed to check if she was breathing. She couldn’t possibly be—
Firm hands grabbed me, and I struggled as I was pulled back, away from her. No matter how much I thrashed, the grip on my arms was as solid and immovable as iron.
“No! Let me go!” I twisted around, desperately casting around for anyone who might be nearby. “Stavrok!”
The last thing I saw were a pair of glittering, malevolent eyes, before a cloth was pressed against my nose and mouth.
And then everything went black.