“It is time to go,” Damianos says. Then he opens the old car’s back door. Like it’s a thing already decided.
“I’m not going anywhere with you,” I answer, my voice so fierce, my throat hits the binding collar with every word.
There comes that pressing sensation again. Then a heavy frown from Damianos. “I see this will be a bit more difficult than I planned.”
“A bit more?” I repeat, rage coursing through me. “If you think I’m getting in that car with you, you’re out your dragon-ass mind.”
The dragon king’s head tilts, like a scientist observing some new species. “Such coarse language,” he says.
“Oh, you think that’s coarse, bitch? I’m about to show you just how rough my Detroit ass can get—” I start to vow.
Damianos cuts me off with one word: “Akwasi.”
Then comes another click.
However, this one is much louder than the small sound of the biocollar snapping around my neck.
I turn to Akwasi, and my heart drops to my feet.
It’s a gun. Akwasi, my shy, and formerly sweet boyfriend has a gun made up of cold and grey metal in his right hand. But he’s not pointing it at me or Damianos. He’s pointing it at himself.
Horror ices through my veins. “What…what are you doing?”
He doesn’t seem to understand. Tears stream from his terrified eyes, even as he pushes the gun’s barrel deeper into the side of his own temple. “I don’t know! I don’t know!”
Behind us, the dark voice repeats, “Get into the car, Ola.”
I can’t understand how or why this is happening. But I immediately know two things: This isn’t Akwasi’s fault, he’s not in control of his body. And…despite not wanting to, he will shoot his own brains out right here in this parking lot if I don’t do as Damianos says.
Funny, everyone thinks I’m such a bitch. There were even articles on WolfNet about whether I was too selfish and abrasive to take over the North Dakota throne.
But I know in this moment, that I’m a good queen. That I would have been a good queen to the North Dakota wolves. Because without hesitation I turn to say to Damianos.
“I’ll get into the car. But you’ve got to let Akwasi go. Whatever hold you have on him, it ends tonight, and you will never use him like this again.”
Damianos studies me, his light brown eyes scanning my resolute face. “You realize I could snap your neck right now. End this negotiation.”
Oh, I realized it all right. Dude has an easy foot on me, like, fuck yo’ heels, Ola! And though I’ve often felt like the largest person in any room I enter, because of my height and weight, the dragon king’s hulk makes me feel like a petite little thing. Easily broken.
But…
“We all die. Even dragons, so my dads tell me. And being loyal as fuck is my thing. Kind of like being creepy as fuck is your thing. So if you’re going to snap my neck, do it. But I promise you, I’m not getting into that car until Akwasi drops that gun.”
The silence…it’s not quiet. It bangs between us, loud as a gong in an old martial arts movie.
Then I hear a clattering sound behind me.
And when I turn to look over my shoulder, Akwasi is sobbing into his empty hands. The gun…oh thank the Fenrir wolf…it’s now lying on the ground.
“Come now, she-wolf,” Damianos says, stepping back to the door. “Do not make either of us regret this negotiation.”
I think about running then. I’m a shifter, with half a brain in her head. Of course, I do. But this is the dragon that made my sister’s formidable mate turned tail and hide. Not easily gotten away from, I sense, especially with a biocollar around my neck. Also, if I try to run, and he catches me, I sense that both Akwasi and I will pay the price.
I remember the vows I made at this morning’s much quieter formal coronation ceremony. The one about protecting my subjects at all costs. Akwasi is my subject, and at the end of the day, I am his queen. The royal who must protect him. No matter what. Also, if I go and Akwasi lives, there’s a chance—a small one—that he’ll be able to get word to my people and send them to rescue me.
Expelling a quick breath, I get into the car.
Damianos closes the door. Like a warden locking me in his cage. A few seconds later, I hear him slip into the right side passenger seat beside me.
I don’t look. I don’t blink. I don’t cry.
I stare straight ahead. Trying my best but then failing not to think the obvious question.
Now that he has me, what is he planning to do with me?
Part II
The Royal Geneticist conceded in his petition that both the anthrohominids and his bio-engineered lupinhominids were primitive and lacked higher intelligence. They were only slightly more evolved—due to their larger brains and capacity for language—than their primate ancestors.