A Queen of Ruin (Deliciously Dark Fairytales 4)

Hannon stepped forward and pushed her to get moving. I was by her side in an instant, daring anyone to so much as move in her direction. I would rip their arms off if they touched her.

My mother was going to be so pissed. So pissed. We’d messed up in so many ways, I didn’t even know what to say. But fuck it. Starvos had decided to go in hot anyway. I now saw why. The magical world was afraid of the demon king. He’d pushed and beaten and manipulated them until they were afraid to act.

Hopefully we’d just given them some confidence.

If we didn’t, Starvos would tomorrow.

“Hannon, what’d you feel?” I asked as we entered the halls at a fast pace. I wanted to get back, get our nightly protections in place, and then fuck my mate. Her speech had me on fire for her. Desperate to feel her tight cunt wrapped around my cock.

“There was mistrust in droves,” he said. Weston walked beside him. “Along with suspicion and nervousness. I’d bet at least half have some sort of deal with the demon king or whoever else he is working with, and the other half are afraid of the repercussions of standing against him.”

“Caron and Yuna?” I asked, turning a corner and finding some staff lingering, chatting with one another.

They went to bow, but fear widened their eyes when they looked at me, and they hunched instead.

“Fear,” Hannon replied. “Caron and Yuna, I mean. Not those staff right there. Though…they are also afraid.”

“They clearly haven’t seen an alpha dragon in a while,” Weston murmured.

“I wonder if there was more to Caron and Yuna ignoring the dragons in their kingdom than simply a creature divide,” I said to myself, seeing more staff scurry away instead of bow to us.

“You think Dolion was encouraging them to turn a blind eye?” Finley asked.

“I don’t know. It doesn’t matter, though. The dragons can come to us. I don’t much care if the royals give a shit. They had their chance to include dragons in their affairs. They let it pass.”

“You seemed genuine when you apologized to them,” Hannon said.

“Royals in that situation rarely are, but we have to go through the motions. And directly after my apology, I called them out on their inadequate response to the dragons, and now we all know where we stand. My mother will be displeased I couldn’t control myself better.”

“The Flamma beta lacked in power compared to the Red Lupine beta,” Weston said. “I would bet the Red Lupine pack is still strong and well organized. The pack with the most power will pull alpha.”

“The Red Lupine Kingdom has aligned with the demon king,” I said, turning down another hall and finding it bare. “I obviously have no proof, but you heard our conversation. That would make the Flamma royals even more hesitant to deal with us.”

“What about you?” Hannon asked Weston. “When it comes to pack power, how do you stack up?”

“We have more powerful wolves but a much smaller pack. I’m a stronger alpha, without question, but with our tiny pack, they’d pull alpha.”

Finley looked back, incredulous.

“What?” Weston asked.

“You have a large and still-growing pack of dragons. Ain’t no bunch of wolves pulling alpha on us. Fuck that.”

Weston laughed. “And here I thought you didn’t have the typical arrogance of a dragon.”

“Come on, give me a break,” she replied, slipping her hand into mine as we walked. “We’re mighty because we work together, dragons and wolves. Don’t discount the dragons when you wolves get ready to measure your cock sizes.”

“Dragons specialize in enormous cocks,” I said with a grin. “We’d win that contest any day.”

“Goddess help me, their arrogance is insufferable,” Weston said to Hannon, but I could hear the humor in his voice. Also the excitement. For a moment, he really had forgotten that his pack was so much larger than the wolves in its ranks. He had literal firepower at his disposal. It mattered.

I also wondered if he sensed the danger coming. Dolion felt the walls closing in on him. There was a reason he’d been trying to kill us to keep us from getting to this meeting. He’d wanted to shut us up. Now he knew he couldn’t. He’d take drastic measures to get rid of us and hope he could cow the rest of them into overlooking his crimes.

Starvos had gotten it right: politics didn’t matter. Tiptoeing around the issue wasn’t the right way to play it. The magical rulers had descended into chaos. Dolion had dragged them into it, and there he reigned.

Or, I should say, he had reigned.

He’d dragged me in too, and now he’d discover it was a place where dragons thrived. Finley as well as myself. He’d made a deal with the wrong sort of creature. Now we got to prove it.