Chapter 9

“Just this once, your harem doesn’t need to be here for the transfer of power. They’ll still get theirs while they take you to your castle.” Léas waved at the night sky. “You’re free to go.”

The three dragon shifters at my back began to usher Asa and me in the direction of the edge of the rooftop, but I stopped so suddenly that Asa ran right into me.

“We aren’t flying to the castle.” I blinked at the three of them. “No way.”

The other shifters tittered and rolled their eyes, obviously finding my fear of flying hilarious.

“Not with Asa,” I hissed, folding him even closer to my side. “It’s too dangerous.” I mean it sounded dangerous, and I wasn’t about to let him even hiccup wrong. Not when I had him back. I gave Vance a meaningful look. “We can take the long way and take care of our...business.”

“Whatever the queen desires,” he said with a sexy-ass grin.

We started toward the elevator at the edge of rooftop, Asa’s arms latched around my waist and the crowd’s hatred piercing my back like so many daggers. But no one tried to stop us, not with the goddess still here.

“Please, Your Holiness,” Rio said behind us. “My father should be here. Do you know where he is?”

“Oliver was tonight’s full-moon ritual sacrifice. Like I said, I don’t really care who dies at these things.” Léas threw Rio a glare I was surprised didn’t immediately result in her death. “How did you not know your own father was sacrificed?”

Shocked silence lowered down onto the rooftop, followed by a heartbreaking sob.

After we stepped onto the elevator, I turned and stared out at the shifters...as their queen. How the hell was I supposed to be that? They were ignoring me, though, offering sympathy to Rio or throwing accusatory glares at Petra, which she threw right back. She seemed just as shocked as everyone else at the news.

But Oliver had been murdered. Was that the same as a sacrifice?

The doors closed, shutting everything else out but us, and we sank into the building. My body seemed to want to lead the way because my knees buckled. I went down in front of Asa, and a desperate yet relieved wail I’d never made before slipped out as I stared at my brother’s sweet face.

“Are you—” I started, but I couldn’t finish. A month’s worth of sobs bubbled up, a violent storm of emotion I couldn’t stop. They shook through me, poured tears down my face, and Asa patted my head and took my breakdown in stride with a sad, tired smile and only a few tears watering his blue eyes that were so much like mine. He was braver than I was, because I knew if I’d been in his shoes and sprung free after captivity, I’d be a hot mess. Kind of like now.

Vance rested his hand on my shoulder and squeezed while I sobbed. Tavis stroked the strands of my long hair, and Calhoun stood silent in the corner of the elevator, a column of strength and steel. Their presence was a soothing balm, and I knew they weren’t judging me right now. They knew what I’d gone through to get to this point where I could brush my baby brother’s brown hair from his eyes, study every inch of him to see if he really was okay.

“You came for me,” he whispered.

“Did you think I wouldn’t?” I choked out.

“They’re dragon shifters.” He glanced around at the three in here with us nervously.

“These three didn’t take you. They wouldn’t ever hurt you.” I knew that truth bone-deep, and maybe even deeper.

“We’ll look after you and your sister,” Tavis said to him, his tone light yet sincere. “You don’t have to worry.”

Asa blinked up at him. “Yara calls dragon shifters barbaric stovetops that horde assholes.”

I sighed. “Thanks, Asa.”

Vance snorted, and even Calhoun cracked a smile.

Tavis threw back his head and laughed. “Is that right?”

Asa leaned into me and opened his mouth like he wasn’t sure how to put something so I’d understand it. “They’re naked, Yara.”

“Oh, sorry about that.” Tavis snapped his fingers, and then the three of them were clothed once again in what they’d been wearing before.

“Well, darn,” I muttered. Now that I had a chance to breathe, the dragon fire did, too, tightening every sensitive nerve with the need to mate. And fast.

Calhoun caught my eye from the corner of the elevator and smirked, a teasing gleam in his dark and dangerous gaze. “Naked is a hazard of being a barbaric stovetop that hordes assholes, I guess.”

I chuckled as the elevator stopped, and I wiped the beading sweat from my fevered face. The five of us stepped out and exited the building with mine and Asa’s hands firmly clasped. Outside, a light rain fell on the still-bustling city streets, headlights hitting the puddles before the cars splashed through them. The car I’d stolen must’ve been towed away and Bad Mama January’s van was gone. What would she say if she knew I’d been chosen as the dragon shifter queen? No way she’d be happy about it, that was for sure. It felt like I was betraying her and the memory of her daughter’s death at the hands of the shifters somehow, but surely if I explained what happened, that I’d really had no choice in the matter, she would understand. Maybe I would, too, at some point. That would be nice.

“What did that strange lady mean you’re the queen now, Yara?” Asa asked.

I squeezed his hand. “Uh, we’ll figure that out together.”

Calhoun knocked on the driver’s door of a stretch limo parked at the curb, and soon, the five of us piled in, much to the delight of Asa. 

“Video games,” he announced as he slid across the seat toward a whole wall filled with vibrant, flashing games on large TV screens. 

I nodded, wincing. We didn’t even have a TV, so all the beeping and whirring and madness while the games seemed to play themselves was sensory overload. Especially with the dragon fire burning a hole right through my patience.

The limo pulled away from the curb, taking us to the castle in Mission Hill, I guessed.

“Do we need to worry about being attacked in a moving vehicle again?” I asked.

“Léas’s transfer of power should take a few hours.” Tavis handed Asa and Calhoun controllers. “What should we play first, big guy?”

While Asa was distracted for a bit, it was time to save my life. I turned to Vance, who sat next to me, hooked a finger in the collar of his white flannel shirt, and pulled him toward a split in the seats which led behind a window divider. But he pulled up short and stopped me. His near translucent eyes burned into mine, their heat curling deep between my legs.

“My dragon fire,” I whispered, the words like a plea.

“I haven’t forgotten.” He took my hand and pulled me toward the seat opposite us, behind which stood another window divider.

We maneuvered between the narrow gap in the seats and found a large hot tub in the center of this section of the limo. Steam rose from the bubbling jets, and rose petals dotted the surface. It looked like heaven.

I smiled up at him. “Are you trying to tell me I stink?”

He chuckled, the sound rich and soothing. ”I didn’t say a word about you. But me? Yes.”

I shook my head and began to peel off my dress. “I don’t believe it.”

He took off his clothes, too, not even trying to hide his roaming, fiery gaze down my naked skin. Before he’d finished undressing, I took his hand and buried it between my thighs because I couldn’t wait. He obliged, his fingers seeking and eager to please while he pulled me closer with his free hand and kissed me roughly. I moaned into his mouth, writhing against his hand while I fumbled to get him out of his pants.

“This feeling…” I gasped. “I don’t want it to end after we fuck.”

“It won’t, not as queen.” He stopped kissing me long enough to suck on my lower lip. “Just take us. Take us whenever you need because it will help clear your mind while you rule.”

I’d rather just have the fucking without the ruling, but right now, I’d take what I could get and I wanted him. Right now. Inside me and forcing every other thought away with the power of his thrusts. With his thumb circling my clit, I dragged him toward the hot tub. His other thumb rubbed across my nipple, hardening it and making it ache for his mouth. Then he palmed my whole breast, the pads of his fingers rough against my sensitive flesh, and streaked another bolt of heat to his other hand which was steadily pushing me toward a violent, earth-shattering orgasm.

I gasped against the force of his bruising kiss, and he groaned as he twirled me around and shoved me against the tall edge of the hot tub. The ends of my hair fell into the gently bubbling water, and I could see my warped reflection on the surface. My mouth opened with my need for more, my eyes pools of desire. I looked like a stranger, someone I’d never thought I’d be—a woman who liked to fuck dragon shifters...and was now their queen. 

“I want to taste you again,” Vance rumbled. His thick, heavy cock pressed against my opening as he massaged my back and ass, forcing me to stay doubled over the edge of the hot tub.

Not that I minded. I spread myself wide for him, more than ready for whatever he had in mind, as long as it happened soon.

Then his long dragon tongue was nudging my pussy, too, and lapping at his cock at the same time. He groaned loudly, but the sound of video games hopefully drowned it out. Inch by slow inch, he pushed his length inside me, gripping my hips hard while he did so. His tongue flicked across my clit, and the other forked part wrapped around his dick to fuck my asshole.

All of the sensations shooting across my nerves left me a writhing, panting mess. My arms splashed into the water, desperate to hold on to something while his hips pistoned against my ass. He released a hiss and then a throaty growl as he came inside me. His tongue pressed harder, and all of the tension inside of me snapped. I started to scream my release, but he slapped a hand over my mouth to smother it. I came, so hard, so good that when I glanced over my shoulder at Vance, I could’ve sworn that his eyes took on a greenish glow. A greenish glow that that tinted my world at the exact same time, there and then gone again. A hallucination caused by mind-blowing sex?

Sure.

With a slap to my ass and a light chuckle, he pulled out and removed his tongue. Then he wrapped his arms around me and pulled me tight against his chest in a loving, completely natural way. “There. No more dying from your touch of dragon fire.”

“Thank you. One less thing to worry about.” I sagged against him and tilted my head to look into his eyes. “What was that green?”

“The bond between the queen and her harem is now complete. I could feel it happening to the other two as well since you’ve had sex with all of us now.”

“It’s official.” I didn’t mean for my tone to drop off a cliff when I said it, but it did, and Vance of course picked up on it.

“Don’t get too excited,” he warned with a smile.

“No, I mean—”

He silenced me with a short kiss. “You can mean whatever you want it to mean, use us however you want to use us. Or don’t. We’re yours to do with as you please. That’s all that means.”

“And you’re okay with that?” I asked. “Belonging to someone you just met today?”

“Technically yesterday, and yes. We’ve known you were coming for years and that you would be our queen.”

“But that was just the idea of me. Not me personally.”

He turned me around so I’d look at him, and I did gratefully, likely beaming my after-sex glow all over him. “You are queen, Yara, chosen by the goddess herself. I know you aren’t just a queen, though. The three of us will get to know you if you’re willing, and you’re welcome to get to know us. If you find us lacking, then it will probably be Tavis because he’s the youngest.”

“I heard that,” Tavis called from the next section over.

I pressed my laugh into Vance’s shoulder. It felt good to do that again, to let myself just exist in the moment like this. I wondered if I’d ever laugh again after my coronation and officially became queen. Probably not. Not if I was to rule over the shifters on the rooftop who looked like they’d never laughed a day in their lives.

“Here’s one thing I do know about you. When you worry, a little wrinkle forms right here.” He touched his lips to the bridge of my nose.

It was a sweet thing to notice, an intimate look inside his head while he tried to examine the inside of mine, and for some reason, it made the backs of my eyes burn that he’d cared enough to notice. “I have a feeling you’ll be seeing a lot more of that wrinkle.”

He shook his head. “Let us carry some of your burden.”

Sighing, I cupped his cheek, stroked his strong jaw with my fingertips. “You’re not a stovetop that hordes assholes.”

He grinned. “No?”

“Not even a little bit.” I leaned in and whispered, “Not even Tavis.”

“I heard that,” he called again.

“Then there’s only one thing left to do.” He swept me up into his arms with zero effort and then climbed the few steps up to the hot tub while I wrapped my arms loosely around his neck. “Drop the queen.” His grip on me loosened.

“What?” I screeched, practically strangling him.

He clicked his tongue, which was back to normal size, with a wide grin as he stepped us both slowly into the hot tub. “First thing you need to know about me is that I would never do that.”

I huffed, not even a little bit mad, just enjoying his company, this sense of freedom, if only for a little bit.

He set me on my feet with a kiss to my cheek, then dunked himself under the water. I did the same, squeezing my eyes shut while I let the water jets and rose petal scent do their thing. Not exactly a real bath, but it felt amazing and peeled off the layers of sour stress sweat I’d bathed in for the last twenty-four hours. I came back to the surface feeling renewed and whole again, especially with my other nine-year-old half just part of a limo away.

Vance surfaced, too, every naked inch of him blushed from the hot water, droplets of it tracing over the perfect cut of his pecs and abs. He slicked his white-blond hair back as he gave me a knowing glance. “Checking out the goods?”

It was kind of hard not to. Not with the beads of water sticking his eyelashes together or how the hair trailing down to his rigid cock shone with a silvery sheen when wet.

I licked my lips, and his eyes fevered as he watched the movement.

“Human or not, you look like a dragon shifter queen.” He moved through the water, took my face in his hands, and tilted it so he could set my soul ablaze with his kiss.

I circled my arms around him and slung my legs around his waist, and then he was sliding inside me again. He shoved me backward to the other side of the hot tub. Our wet skin slid against each other as he sat me down on the ledge. He shifted between my legs slightly so he could ground in deeper, and the water slapped higher against his hips and my thighs with each thrust.

When he trailed his kiss down my jaw, I tilted my head to provide better access and wrapped him up even tighter between my legs. His wet hair felt like silk between my fingers. He scraped his teeth along my neck at the same time his roughened fingers pinched my nipples.

With a loud moan, I bowed into his touch.

“You like it rough, Your Highness?” he rasped.

“I like everything you’ve got. And please don’t call me that.”

“What would you like for me to call you while I fuck you?”

I dragged his mouth back to mine and kissed him deeply with so much passion I didn’t even know I was capable of. And he kissed me right back with twice as much—me a lowly human thief. It burned me up, balanced me on the edge, and then cut me loose. I fell at the same time he did, an explosion of sensations that filled me up to the brim while we rode each one out, together.

While aftershocks still hummed through my blood, a laugh burst out of me. “My Thief. That’s what you can call me.”

He laughed too. ”Accurate.” His pale eyes sparkled with humor as he leaned in for another kiss. “My Thief.”

I could taste myself on his tongue while he danced it with mine. “What does a queen look like?” I asked between kisses.

“Fearless. Smart. Runs toward danger instead of away from it.” He pulled back and grinned. “Sometimes carries a vacuum.”

I laughed.

Vance placed his hand on my chest. “Loves with her entire heart.”

That was definitely true, at least for those worthy enough to love.

We climbed out and grabbed some fresh towels neatly folded on a nearby seat.

“But surely there’s another dragon shifter female better suited for the job?” I asked, pulling on my royal blue gown again. I’d need to get some clothes soon for Asa and me. Unless the castle had those too? If it did, I hoped there would be clothes Asa could grow into since all of his pants were too short.

Vance shook his head, already dressed in his jeans and white flannel with a snap of his fingers. Dragon shifters were clearly experts at time-saving. “I don’t think so, and Léas didn’t either. With the shifter females I know, it’s all about what the crown can do for them, what the money and power can do for them. They don’t care about anyone but themselves.”

“Well, they sound delightful,” I said with a sigh. “This will be so easy.”

We circled back to the video game section, where all was quiet and Asa was passed out cold next to Tavis. Calhoun sat opposite them, watching me with a slight smile as I gently folded myself underneath Asa so I could hold him tight.

“My opinion?” Vance said as he sat next to Calhoun. “You were chosen because you have nothing, you came from nothing, and that’s not a knock on you at all, Yara. Quite the opposite.”

I looked down at Asa, sleeping so peacefully, and who was getting too big for my lap. “But I do have something though.”

Vance nodded. “His survival is evidence that you have a heart.” 

“All of this hardly makes me queen material.” I smoothed Asa’s hair back and frowned. “What if I can’t do it? Or what if I just tell Léas ‘nah, I’m good’?”

Calhoun grunted. “At one point, the chosen queen did back out, because of super swanky bribes with no work required to get them. She dropped dead the day after. Pretty sure Léas struck her down.”

Great story. So basically I was fucked. “And you said the previous queen was killed a hundred years ago?”

Tavis sighed hard enough to make his blue hair flutter up off his face. “Yeah, but—”

“You’re not any previous queen,” Calhoun said simply, but it was anything but.

“No, I’m a human, even more breakable than shifters are.”

“After the coronation, you’ll have the dragon shifter queen’s power,” Vance said. “So you won’t be breakable, now or then.”

Power that I didn’t even want. And what would I do with it? Turn into a dragon myself? I couldn’t process that right now, not after everything I’d been through to get Asa. What I wouldn’t do for a couple of stiff Red-Headed Sluts right about now. And then sleep for fifty years.

“Will Asa still be in danger if I’m queen?” But I knew the answer as soon as the question was out of my mouth. Of course he would. The dragon shifters already despised me, and they’d already taken Asa from me once. They knew my Achilles’ heel because I’d announced it when I stole Asa back. They could take him again. My breaths seized in my throat, and I clutched Asa harder. “Oh god. I think I’m going to be sick.”

Vance leaned forward. “No. Stop. Listen to me. We can add Asa to our treasure trove, and he won’t be hurt.”

“The same treasure trove that was destroyed when your house was attacked?” I squeezed out.

Vance shook his head. “Items in treasure troves are never destroyed, even after the dragon owner’s death. We carry our trove like we do our magic. It’s always with us.”

“Even now.” Calhoun reached behind him to roll down the divider window at his back. “See?”

I did see, but I had no idea how I was seeing it. On the other side of the divider was their treasure trove, the very same one I’d broken into that morning, laid out the same with each item neatly labelled on little white cards and perfectly set in the middle of the rows of shelves. I could just make out the top lip of the haunted Ming Dynasty vase from where I was sitting.

“But...but I stole the pocket watch from you,” I said.

A low chuckle came from Calhoun as he shook his head. “It’s not stealing if we let you take it, now is it?”

“You let me?”

He nodded. “I saw the Mack written on your vacuum when you went to the bathroom, but with the attack, we were a little distracted. We let you have the watch so we could find it—and you—later.”

“Really, though, we just followed the smell of the dragon fire burning through your veins.” Vance gave me a searing look that melted heat in my lower belly. “No watch required.”

I cleared my throat, trying my best not to think about sex. With these three, though, that was hard. A bad pun goes here obviously, but instead, I said, “But Asa… He’s not an object. Can he still be added to a treasure trove?”

Tavis crossed one leg over the other with a nod. “You say the word, and we’ll imbue him with our trove magic. It won’t hurt him. He’ll be free to live his life as he usually would. We won’t let anything happen to him. Period.”

The largest, tightest knot of worry lodged in my chest eased some. All that mattered was that Asa was safe. Everything else was peanuts compared to that.

I smoothed my hand across the top of his head and pressed my lips to his hairline, breathing in his natural crisp fall smell. “I feel like I need to explain all this to him first so he knows what’s happening, but yes.” My voice cracked some. I looked at the three of them in turn as I attempted to swallow the lump in my throat. Their offer meant everything to me, but I no longer trusted my voice to carry to them just how much. I hoped they could guess, though, hoped I could lift a massive weight off of them someday in return.

“Unfortunately…” Vance weaved his fingers together, his elbows propped on his knees. “We can’t offer that same kind of protection to you.”

“That’s not to say that we won’t protect you,” Calhoun said in a rush. “We’ll do everything we possibly can to keep you safe, too, but because Léas chose you as queen, our magic won’t work the same way on you.”

“If we’d had time before you were chosen, we would’ve, but…” Vance sighed.

Tavis squeezed my knee. “I’m sorry, Yara.”

I waved my hand. “You have no reason to apol—”

A vision out the rain-dotted window made me suck in a breath, loud enough to stir Asa awake. It had to be a vision because places like that didn’t really exist. Standing on top of a high cliff, a white castle climbed up through the clouds and stars, its tall arches and turrets straight out of a fairytale. As the limo turned on a curve higher up the cliff, the castle sprawled out farther than I’d imagined. The thing was huge, especially when compared to what Asa and I were used to living in.

“Are you kidding me right now?” I whispered.

Asa blinked out the window, and his eyes widened. “What’s that?”

Tavis grinned at the scene beyond the window. “Your new home, big guy.”

Asa rolled off my lap like he was made out of liquid and plastered his hands and face to the window. Then he turned toward us, his mouth a perfect O. “Dude.” 

“My reaction exactly,” Tavis said with a laugh.

Asa erupted with ten thousand questions at lightning speed, and I was still processing…well, everything. I’d never been handed anything quite like this. A castle, a home. I’d tried my best to make our ramshackle apartment into a cozy oasis, but it was still a shitty place to live. This though... How would someone like me fit into something so majestic as that?

When the limo pulled to a stop in front of it, Asa couldn’t contain his excitement any longer, and he darted out, immediately went to his knees, and brought up fistfuls of rocks. “Look at the rocks. The rocks, Yara. We can paint all of them!”

The shifters laughed as they clambered out, and I followed, my feet sliding over the pebbles, slick with rain. Waves crashed against the cliffside about a hundred feet away, and birds sang to the light blue ribbon in the night sky, their wings fluttering the leaves in nearby trees. The air smelled fresh and clean, like a new beginning. It was peaceful here, serene even. I didn’t trust it, probably because I knew the feeling wouldn’t last.

We entered the castle through two humongous wooden double doors, each one engraved with panels depicting dragons. I was pretty sure that if I stared at them long enough, the panels would tell a story, but there was too much to look at. Like the golden doorknobs that were as high as my chin. I wondered how much I could sell them for because let’s face it—once a thief, always a thief. I roamed my fingers over them as I followed my three shifters and Asa inside.

The sight in front of me took my breath away. We stood in an enormous entryway with black and white checked marble floors drenched in sunlight from the high windows, even though the sun hadn’t yet risen. Two huge dragon statues spurted red fiery liquid from their mouths into stone fountains on either side of the room, and straight ahead, a wide, glamourous staircase  led to the second floor.

What sat in front of the stairs was what caught Asa’s eye. A long table piled high with food, still hot enough to curl steam. He ran toward it, making a sound like a sobbing laugh.

My eyes filled with tears—again, damn it—as I watched him. Like me, he knew the meaning of true hunger, beyond the kind that ate a hole through your empty stomach and seeped into your bones.

Everything you need, the goddess had said. It appeared she was right.

On my right, Tavis made googly eyes at the food table, too, and rubbed the blue pineapple over his stomach. “Léas must’ve sent some cooks to get here before we arrived.”

Calhoun, standing on my left, surveyed the space with narrowed eyes. “I’ll scope the entire castle out.”

Behind me, Vance pressed his knuckles gently into my spine, his breath soft on my back. “You okay?”

“It’s, uh... It’s a lot to take in,” I whispered.

“We’ll get you acclimated quickly,” he said. “Léas said the coronation is in one week, so we have time.”

Calhoun scoured the entryway from my side, worry drawn across his forehead. “The Queen’s Cross, the relic linking the goddess and you so you can communicate, should be right here.”

“You’re right…” Tavis said. “Hey, did you two get your power yet from the full-moon ritual?”

Vance and Calhoun shook their heads, and the three of them shared an anxious look.

“Something’s not right,” Vance said, his voice low. “Something wasn’t right at the ritual either. Léas said a sacrifice had already been given to her, but when? Nobody saw it.”

Oliver, aka Salt and Pepper and Rio’s dad. He had been the sacrifice. But was he supposed to have been?

I opened my mouth to say something as the three of them strode farther into the entryway. And then stiffened.

Vance snapped out his dragon tongue toward Asa at the same time Calhoun shouted, “Asa, don’t!”

Tavis sprinted over to the food table.

Asa had tossed up a green grape and was positioning his mouth underneath it. But Vance’s tongue smacked the grape away mid-fall.

Tavis put his hand on Asa’s shoulder. “Not that one, big guy. It was—”

“Rotten,” Calhoun supplied.

Vance whipped his tongue back into his mouth and whirled to look at me, his pale eyes bright with panic, as raw as I’d ever seen it.

A scream had crawled up from the pit of my stomach and slammed against my lips, but I covered my mouth to keep it contained for Asa’s sake. Not rotten. The grape hadn’t been rotten. 

“Here, big guy, try this. It’s fine.” Tavis handed him a plate of cheese and sausage and stuffed some in his mouth as he turned to me and nodded as if for reassurance. But the same raw panic gleamed bright in his and Calhoun’s expressions too.

And then pure rage in Calhoun as he looked toward the shadows in the back of the house and stalked off toward them with dragon steam curling out from behind him.

“Poison,” I whispered from behind my fingers.

Vance crossed back toward me and squeezed his eyes shut briefly. “The cooks… We’ll teach you how to detect all different kinds of poisons.”

I ripped my hand away as I backed toward the door. “I don’t care about me,” I hissed.

“Not even poison can hurt Asa when he’s a part of our treasure trove.” He held his hand out to me, but he didn’t make a move to stop me. “I swear to you.”

Dragon shifters wanted me dead. I’d just been chosen as their queen less than three hours ago, and already, they’d decided I needed to be removed from the picture. And really, could I blame them? What a slap in the face it must’ve been to learn they were now to be ruled by an inferior species.

If this was how it was going to be… I wasn’t cut out for this.

I took another step back toward the door. Once Asa was added to the treasure trove, he would be safer without me. I could leave here, try to avoid being struck down by Léas when she learned I’d refused to be queen because I wasn’t cut out for this. 

I could run. I turned to stare hard at the door while calculating my chances. They looked grim no matter what.

I could run… I looked to Vance and Tavis, two-thirds of my dragon shifter harem—yes, my harem—not hearing their calming words, and then behind them at Asa who was happily eating his fill of non-poisoned cheese and sausage. No way I could leave that little burst of sunshine behind. Or my harem.

I could run, or I could take the royal title as my own. After all, I was a thief, and I was damn good at taking. And the actual ruling part? I balled my hands into my fists. Maybe it was time for a lowly human to put the stovetops in their place.