Her Dragon King (Her Dragon King Duet 2)

Get this, that ultimate revenge plan had been so thorough, Grandpa Fenris was the very last name on the big dragon’s list. Damianos had even managed to hunt down the tooth of the polar bear that had been found dead next to Grandpa Fenris in the woods. But instead of using the artifact to go back in time and kill Grandpa Fenris before the bear could, he’d gone back in time and prevented Grandpa’s last fight with the bear from ever happening.

“So you see. He saved me,” Grandpa Fenris explained, patting the dragon king’s shoulder like he was a good boy. Not a seven-foot-plus monster whose original plan had been petty enough to include going back in time to slaughter the father of his father’s killer as soon as he was done with his present time revenge.

“And even if we’d known that particular artifact code would work for ccccertain,” Xenon had gone on to explain, “We could not be certain the fated mate spell to return Damianossss would alsssso be able to work. You sssseee there wassss a chancccce it had only worked for the other alternate timeline Damianossss becausssse he wassss in the full throessss of Widower’sssss Madnesssss…”

“What do you mean by the alternate timeline Damianos,” Nago asks Xenon.

But, I think I understand the most important part. The rest of Nago’s and Xenon’s conversation fades away as I raise my head to look back up at Damianos. “You didn’t want me to miss you if you couldn’t make it back to me,” I translate. “So you made it so I’d just be pissed off for the rest of my life instead.”

“I thought it a better alternative to the deep grief of knowing I’d been lost to time in the effort to pay you ultimate Reverence,” Damianos answers. “Forgive me if I was wrong.”

“I guess we’ll never know who was right and who wrong,” I answer, my heart brimming with love. “And I cannot thank you enough for creating all this drama.”

“It is not your thanks I want.” He bends his great head to kiss the hand he previously captured to stop me from slapping him a third time. “The danger, forgiving your fathers, it will all have been worth it, if we can finally be together in the way both of us want.”

“I get it, Reverence,” I answer, finally understanding the why of all the crazy romances in my family history. “Sometimes you gotta crack a few drama eggs to make a happy ending. That’s for real reverence.”

Confusion peppers all the good feelings flowing over our mate bond before Damianos apparently decides to stop trying to understand me and just sweep me up into his arms.

Our argument ends with him kissing me like the happy ending to a very epic novel.

But is it a happy ending?

As great as our kiss is, I pull back to face the rest of my family. I guess most of us are asking the same question. When I turn around, I find them all already looking at my dads who are standing at the front of the pack.

“So what do you say, Dads?” I ask the only two men standing between me and this totally unexpected, completely outrageous happy ending. “Is this enough to end your beef?”

Chapter Thirty-Five

Damianos and me marry the very next night under a three-quarter moon. The ceremony takes place in the meadow behind the gatehouse, in front of his dragons and my wolves. Just like Other Damianos promised.

Saving for everyone turning into wolves and going on a hunt after the main ceremony, we have a traditional Viking wedding. Grandpa Fenris provides the vows and Grandma Chloe provides the soundtrack, crying loudly in the background. Alisha, the triplet’s mom, and her two sisters, Tu and Janelle, also cry, but not nearly as loudly as Grandma.

I think we’re all just glad the long cold war is over.

“It’s funny because this is what marriage used to be all about,” my anthropologist cousin Koko tells me afterward as we watch my dads, Grandpa Fenris, and Myrna dance a Viking reel with Xenon and Damianos.

“Turning enemies into allies and healing wounds. It was only in the 18th century that certain societies started making it about love. But you and Damianos…your marriage is about both.”

She’s right. There’s never been a love like mine and Damianos before, yet our wedding feels like the most ancient of solutions. A practical healing for all wounds.

And the stars seem to be aligned for our impromptu wedding date. Family members I haven’t seen in ages, like Great Aunt Wilma, Aunt Tu’s husband, Grady, and Aunt Janelle’s husband, Mag, all drone in at a moment’s notice. As do dragons from all over the world. Even Thalia and Agda showed up with a few of the Lukos wolves…and the dress I wore to the coronation.