Her Dragon Captor (Her Dragon King Duet 1)

And Drama Free 100 relationships take work, I remind myself as I resume walking toward my best chance at a normal marriage. I push through past the well-wishers, offering me beads in exchange for a peek at my now queenly tits and saunter up to my tall Ghanaian wolf.

“Hey, Akwasi, you pissed I didn’t bring you up on stage with me?” I ask, giving him a playful shove. “You want a crown, too?”

“Nah,” he answers, shoving me back, but not nearly as hard. The apologetic smile he gives me makes him even more handsome. “This just isn’t my scene, Ola, that is all. It is…over the top.”

I hold on to my smile, but my wolf crooks its head inside of me.

He has a right to his opinion, I remind her. Even if that opinion completely dismisses the fete my uncles and I spent the last five months planning and doesn’t exactly scream supportive boyfriend.

But…compromise…understanding…giving—isn’t that what my fathers insisted it takes to make their marriage with my mom work after all the drama was done?

I decisively shove down my wolf and take Akwasi by the hands. “Hey, why don’t you go up to my suite and wait for me there?” I suggest with a flirty smile. “I know I said I wanted to wait until I went into heat for real, but tonight I feel like celebrating.”

Akwasi’s eyes light up at the word “celebrating.” He’d been a perfect gentleman about not having any sex until now. He’d even said that spending quality time with me was better than any hook-ups he could be having with his human groupies—which I believe, thanks to my spybot. But he’s still a male wolf with needs. Needs I wouldn’t mind meeting tonight.

I already know he’s the one I want to breed me when I go off heat control, and as the newly crowned Queen of North Dakota, my people will expect me to produce an heir for my own throne soon. No, I’m not off heat control yet. But… “Why not commemorate my coronation with a decommission of my virgin status?

“Are you sure?” Akwasi asks, his tone considerate but eager.

I smile up at him. No, it’s not quite love I’m feeling for him yet, but it’s definitely a strong case of getting there. And as for my virginity—ugh face emoji, it was such an outdated concept anyway, even for she-wolves who literally can’t get spontaneously wet until we go into heat. I’m on the back end of my twenties now, and this new queen title means I have zero use for anything that would get me labeled an innocent girl.

“Yeah, I’m totally sure. I want to. I want to with you.” I hold his gaze, liking the way his deep brown eyes soften at my words.

But then a hesitant look clouds over his tender expression.

“What’s wrong?”

“Before you came over, I received a message. My silent investor is in town,” he answers with another apologetic smile. “I must stop by and talk to him, even if it is just for a few minutes.”

“Oh,” I say, not quite knowing how to feel about that.

Akwasi opened a club called the Wolf Lounge a few months ago, shortly after Fargo became an unexpected hot spot, thanks to Go Gutierrez and Barron Calson deciding to establish a branch of GoBionics there. Akwasi bet both his and his silent investor’s money that a hot night club would give both the influx of tech workers and his sports fans somewhere to go after work and games, and that bet had paid off.

The Wolf Lounge became very successful and very popular seemingly overnight. And yeah, I’m enough of a businesswoman to know, you definitely want to stay sucking up to your biggest investor, so I understand why he would want to pay his respects. Still, a pang of some unfamiliar emotion went through me.

“You scheduled a meeting on the night of my coronation?”

“It was very unexpected,” he answers, his expression becoming even more contrite. “I only found out he was here a couple of hours ago.”

“You can’t just tell him you already have plans?” I ask, my tone tight with all the annoyance I’m trying to suppress to keep our relationship drama free.

“No, I can’t,” Akwasi responds as if I’ve asked if he can keep the sun from coming up tomorrow morning.

Anger, hurt, and disappointment snap through me. “Wow, okay…” I’m livid, but this is technically our first fight, like, ever, which makes me unsure of how to handle his refusal.

Old Ola would have cursed Akwasi straight out and called “next” to the first available hottie while walking away. But new Ola is trying for a healthy relationship, and I have the feeling that following my instinct to huff off and grab some new guy to grind on won’t win me any good communication awards.