Wolf Princess Sold to the Dragon King

There was a reason people called him the goddamn Dragon King. Jaxon looked up from his anchor just in time to be reminded of why.

The seamless handoff of an unconscious woman on the back of a flying death lizard to the arms of a man in do-not-fuck-with-me mode was not normal, even by dragon standards.

Jaxon’s sleep-deprived and sober brain also finally caught up to the fact that Guinevere was in Maddox’s arms. She was the shooting star he may or may not have just made a wish on like a child who still believed in shit.

Maddox stood in the clearing with his wife locked against him and took one second to look down. After days of pure, unfiltered hell, he finally fucking had her.

A sound came from his chest that if anyone asked, he would blame on the wind. It lived somewhere between a sigh and a sob, and it escaped before he could kill it.

His lips pressed against her hair and stayed there. He breathed her in with the deep, greedy desperation of an imperfect man trying to be enough, trying to be worthy of her, but instead had failed her and spent days drowning in it before this moment let him break the surface.

”I’ve got you, baby. I’ll get this fixed.”

He was glowing gold with her. The forest around them had taken on the warm amber hue of two people radiating enough light to qualify as a campfire.

But he still couldn’t feel her fully.

His fangs ached. The urge to mark her was building with the slow, relentless pressure of a tide that had been held back too long and was done negotiating with the dam.

His dragon was pacing behind his ribs with the single-minded patience of a predator that had found what it wanted and was calculating the exact right moment to take it.

He was going to lose that fight. He knew it. The clock was ticking. Every second her skin was against his and the matebond was feeding him just enough to make the absence of the rest unbearable.

Not yet. She was injured and unconscious. The king and husband could hold the line a little longer.

His back found a tree and he settled against it with her across his lap, adjusting her weight so the pressure was on his chest and off whatever was bleeding beneath her shirt. He wasn’t going to let her go for anything.

Jaxon knelt beside them, palms hovering over her body with his blue magic humming. He was a mage who trusted data over intuition, though at the moment both of those things were screaming the same thing.

”I have no idea what the light is doing inside her,” Jaxon admitted after a good minute, the words costing him visibly. ”But I can tell you this for certain, there is dark magic threaded through her that is actively causing damage. It is feeding on her energy and growing.”

”Recommendation.”

”We get her to a Luminari healer in Lunaris,” Jaxon replied.

”Done. Let’s move out.”

”Yes, right away, Commander.”

Jaxon stood, preparing to create a portal using one of the anchors he had set up in Lunaris.

It was at this precise moment that Guinevere’s eyes snapped open.

She gasped, every muscle in her body locking rigid against Maddox, then immediately tried to push off of him in pure reflex.

Maddox didn’t let go. In fact, his grip tightened, which was not alarming at all for her.

His arms stayed exactly where they were and his grip stayed exactly as tight. He let her push against him until she burned herself out, because the only other option was letting go and his entire nervous system had already vetoed that shit.

”Do you know who I am?” His voice came out wrecked.

Her eyes found his face and she froze. The recognition took two seconds and both of them lasted a lifetime.

”M-Maddox?”

His throat bobbed once. Hard.

”Yes.”

That was all he could manage because the woman he loved said his name and he couldn’t tell if she remembered him or dreamed him or knew the word without knowing why.

She knew his name. It was enough. It was still devastating. It was both of those things at the same time and he was going to hold her and feel them simultaneously until the universe decided to give him more.

Her eyes fluttered closed and her muscles relaxed, like her body remembered he was safe.

The portal opened directly into her chambers where Kael Ashenvale was throwing a dragon-sized tantrum.

Maddox carried her through, then froze, taking in the scene.

The Luminari Master Mage and healer were both pressed against a wall. The room looked like someone had given a tornado feelings and then hurt them. The bed was in four pieces, including a chunk of the actual mattress. The chairs were moved. There were feathers and pillows everywhere.

Kael Ashenvale was shirtless and breathing like a bull in the center of it.

Maddox looked at Kael. Looked at the bed. Looked at the headboard embedded in the wall. Looked back at Kael.

”Feel better?”

Kael didn’t dignify that with a response, which was probably because he did, in fact, feel better. Instead, his focus was locked onto Guinevere like a heat-seeking missile with abandonment issues.

”Where was she?”

”In the sky. Falling.”

”Falling from what?”

”From the fucking sky,” Maddox snapped like he didn’t have time for stupid questions or repeating himself. He turned to the Luminari Master Mage. ”Can you take a look at her?”

The Luminari Master Mage and healer stared at Guinevere like two people who had watched a house burn down and were now watching the owner walk out of the ashes casually asking what’s for dinner.

Kael the bull was already moving towards her, his dragon was rumbling under his ribs. ”Let me see her.”

”Not a chance in hell.”

”Give her to me, Maddox. I’m not asking.”

”That’s exactly what you’re doing. And the answer is no. Why the fuck do you need to see my wife?”

Kael’s chest was heaving. The room was so silent that the torches seemed loud.

”My light stabilizes her,” he replied, and his voice carried the absolute conviction of a man stating a peer-reviewed medical fact and not, say, a man who had invented a reason to touch his mate who happened to be his brother’s wife.

Kael was already touching her before the sentence was over and before Maddox could stop him. Immediately, his body lit gold matching Maddox and the runes on her body began carving along Kael.

The healer and master mage made eye contact one more time. The conversation was brief, nonverbal, and unanimous: not our problem.