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When I first arrived in the kingdom of Thalassar to formally announce my engagement to Princess Odele before the courts, I had vowed I would never show my true self to these mer. My reputation as the brutal Dragon Prince followed me all the way from Draconi. I heard them whisper about me and the lives I’d taken, about my other form, though they hadn’t seen it.
“They never will,” I’d said as I left the home I knew for these warmer waters, for these strange mer with their strange traditions.
Today, I had broken the leash I had on the dark violence inside of me.
And the Dragon Prince had been unleashed.
The sight of that criminal holding Odele to his chest, his filthy hands roaming all over her, sparked a rage in me that I hadn’t even known I could feel on her behalf. I’d already killed for her. I’d beaten servants and guards in interrogations in the days following her poisoning. But I’d never been unhinged. Unleashed.
I wanted to protect her, and I would drop my facade if it meant getting her back. No matter what my advisors said. No matter what they reported back to the emperor.
For Odele, I would face my father’s wrath tenfold.
For her, I would lose myself entirely to the savage part of me, if only it meant that I could hold her within the safety of my arms and rip apart the criminal who dared touch what was mine.