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“Explain yourself,” I finally sigh. “Why are you making it so completely impossible to keep you safe?”

“Why areyoumaking it so fucking hard,” she swears back. “They want you fucking dead. They came here to kill you. The kobolds died because they want to kill you. I’m trying to save your fucking life.”

I stare at her for a long moment, and then mirth overtakes me.

“Fuck you,” she curses as I roar with laughter, unable to stop myself.

“Sweet little human mate, there is no world in which those humans could beat me. Not in a hundred thousand years. Not if there were ten thousand of them. Not if they had every artifact in the land. Not if they brought the most horrific technology from your world, the nuclear kind, and deployed it against me. I am ancient in a way you cannot yet fathom, and they will never understand. It is sweet that you are trying to protect me, but I assure you, it is entirely unnecessary.”

“You don’t understand how strong they are,” she whimpers.

“No. You don’t understand my strength. And that is understandable because humans have made themselves the measure of all things. But I can assure you…” I sigh, because I know she will not understand. “Equinox’s little game has made you believe in the power of people. Believe me, brat. Humans have very little power except the power to ruin what little they have.”

“Harsh,” she mumbles, rubbing her ass. She must be so sore. I have thrashed her and fucked her and lectured her to the point of very nearly breaking her. Yet still she stands defiant in front of me.

I soften, I draw her into an embrace, I kiss her deeply and with passion.

“I love you, but you have to start trusting me. I am not going to be defeated. Not by my nephew, not by a human army, and certainly not by a few dozen humans. There is no way.”

“You’re too proud, and that’s how they’ll get you. They’ll come for you.”

“They’re not coming for me. And if they do, they will rue the day. Now, let’s get you to the dungeon.”

“To the dungeon? Why?”

“After all you’ve done? You’re lucky I am not having them make a whole new dungeon just for you. You’ve behaved incredibly terribly. You are going to spend some time in confinement to think about what you’ve done.”

CHAPTER 20

Melissa

“So he put you down here, huh? You’re like his sex slave?”

“I’m his mate. He’s trying to make me have his baby.”

“That’s fucked up.”

“Yeah.”

“We should just kill him. What’s the worst that can happen?”

“We all die?”

“What did they do with our gear?”

“I bet they put it in the guard room.”

“We can take them.”

I listen to the conversation, knowing that they are going to break out and kill Ornix, and knowing that he won’t see it comingbecause no matter how many times I warn him, he just doesn’t believe it’s possible.

Later that night, they make their move. Someone in the party has leveled lock picking and taken it as a legendary feat, which means they literally cannot be kept behind any physical door for more than twelve hours. It seems overpowered to me, but the developer of this world isn’t interested in nerfing it yet.

I experience such incredible helplessness, knowing they are going to go for Ornix, and that he will not only not anticipate them, but completely underestimate how dangerous they are. I am about to be stuck forever in a dragon realm with a bunch of humans who just killed my mate.

And then it hits me. I’m a magical winged human sitting in a box like I don’t have any control over the situation. Okay, I can’t open portals to the human world anymore, but maybe I can open one to outside the dungeon.

I mutter the magic word, and a second later, I am standing in the kitchen.