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Things went from bad to worse quickly after that.

I went over to the window to look out while the Marshal General battled it out with the others behind me.

Thankfully the rest of the entire conversation was conducted in Horvathian, so I was spared having to listen to what the training people were no doubt saying about me.

The dragon was clinging to me with its legs wrapped around my waist, which felt very odd, I had to admit.

His little body wasn’t all that heavy, and he was surprisingly warm, so it wasn’t uncomfortable, but I began to wonder if I hadn’t spoken too soon, and in a far too imperious manner.

Probably the only one who would understand at all would be my omak and Blake, both of whom were always in my corner—and who both loved all animals as much as I did.

Blake always had baby animals around the palace, including the puppies he insisted on having.

In my omak’s case, he especially loved the animals that he could ride.

He was already familiar with the vetami from his Training Academy days, and he would help me, I felt sure, if I somehow managed to pull this off and keep the little dragon.

And that was a big “if” judging by the occasional dirty looks being aimed my way by the Horvathian trainers.

Finally, they finished their argument and the two training people left, casting me dark looks.

I stared back out the window again, but Quinn didn’t speak.

In fact, a little silence fell over the room, so I turned to see if the general might have left along with the others, but no such luck.

He was still in the room, leaning against the edge of my hospital bed.

He had his arms folded and his head turned down slightly, seeming to be deep in thought.

He was aware of me turning though, because he lifted his head and gazed directly toward me.

“This won’t work, you know,” he said, in a conversational tone.

“And all you’re accomplishing is to make this harder for him.

When we signed our peace treaty with the Axis, a part of the deal was that we were to have full authority over our dragons.

Davos won’t go back on that, and Prince Mikos wouldn’t agree to it either.

They’re not going to go back on their promises to our queen in a signed treaty just to cater to your whims. And I’m sorry, Rylan, but I’m not going to stand for it either. ”

I gave him the look I thought that statement deserved, as he stood up and began walking toward me.

“This isn’t much I wouldn’t do for you, Rylan, but this is about the vetami and what’s best for him, too.

This is what’s going to happen instead. You’re going to let me take him, and if you really care about him at all, you’ll try to help me make him see that it’s for the best that he remains among his own kind and gets the training he needs.

You’ll ask him to accept a new Rider and do his best, knowing that he’ll soon forget all about you and all of this and move on. ”

“That’s what I’m going to do, huh?”

“Yes, it is. Now please, baby. Say your goodbyes, and I’ll take him.”

I glared at him for a good ten seconds or so, while he gazed serenely back at me. I think it was the word ‘baby’ that did it, though I couldn’t believe I liked it. I never had before with anyone else, but somehow it was different with him.

“Take him then,” I said. “But I’ll hate you for this forever.”

He stared at me solemnly for a moment and then nodded. “I really hope not. But this has to be done for the dragon’s sake. Rylan, he’ll one day be as tall as a two-story building and weigh about 20,000 pounds. You have to be reasonable about this for his sake.”

I glared at him some more, and then finally, I gently pried the dragon’s little forelegs off my waist and bent over to whisper in his ear.

“I’m sorry. So very sorry, and I tried, but it’s for the best if you go with the men who came for you and go to meet the other dragons.”

He began to make little distressed noises, as the Marshal General pulled him away, and I didn’t watch as Quinn turned his back and walked quickly out of the room with him.

I could hear the dragon’s loud wails drifting back down the corridor.

I fell back down in my chair and let all that had happened mingle with what I was feeling about the dragon, and I’m not ashamed to admit that it took me a few moments to gather myself again after he left.

****

Quinn Fortina

It had been two very long days since I’d last seen Rylan, though I’d checked on him often. It had killed me to stay away from him, knowing that he was upset with me and upset about the dragon. Those two days I’d spent waiting on his family to come and dreading what would happen when they did.

I was hopeful that they would agree on an immediate marriage and agree to Rylan living here in my home in Horvath afterward.

At least for the foreseeable future. I still didn’t like the idea of being parted from him for long, so that had to be a priority.

Perhaps in the future, I wouldn’t feel as strongly about it, and he could go home for visits.

Probably not, though. With each day that passed, I felt more and more attached.

He hadn’t actually agreed to marry me, though he hadn’t said no. I clung to that and hoped he’d come around. I was giving him a little time and distance to do that, and I hoped it would work.

The whole thing was inconvenient and embarrassing, but I had talked to the queen about it, hoping she could come up with a better solution.

I’d heard that she and my uncle had been victims of the mating bond too, so she was able to understand and commiserate with me.

Once I’d gotten the signed contract from his father, I would even agree to a small wedding appropriate to his station, even though I abhorred the idea of such a fuss being made over my domestic arrangements.

The queen had some thoughts on that when I mentioned it.

“It’s not only about you now,” Queen Eujanie had told me. “Once you marry, it has to be about compromise and about what’s best for both of you. One person can’t expect to get their way in all things.”

I knew she was probably right, but I didn’t like it much.

For now, I could only hope that Rylan didn’t fully remember all that had happened in that warehouse on the day we met.

After all, it had been a rather disgraceful exhibition on my part.

Thank the gods the Lycan officials had stopped me before I’d made a complete ass of myself.

It had been a close thing, and that would have been difficult to make up to him, to say the least. I didn’t think he would ever have forgiven me if I had just gone ahead and done what I’d wanted to in front of everyone, and who could blame him?

It had been much harder than I’d thought it would be to stay away from him these past two days, but I knew I had to try.

I had a great deal to do. I had notified the Moravian and Axis contingents of the whereabouts of the young prince as soon as we returned, and I gave them a few details about the entire incident, including the subsequent pirate attack and his injuries.

Only an hour or so later, I received a return message from Prince Mikos asking me to stand by for a subspace communication.

After a short delay, the screen flickered a few times, and I was looking at the bloody prince of Tygeria himself, Prince Mikos, infamous to those of us who had sided with the Alliance and against his forces during the war.

He had gained even more notoriety and fame when he later married a human male, an Alliance colonel, to secure a treaty that could end the war and would acknowledge the victory of the Axis.

Their marriage did buy us some favorable terms and ended that awful war, though Earth itself—the instigator of the entire war—didn’t fare too well.

Even though King Davos had married a human from Earth, he came down pretty hard against their leaders.

Davos and his human mate had seven children together over the succeeding years, Prince Mikos, being the eldest. He was the heir apparent to the Tygerian throne.

The conversation with Mikos was every bit as intense as I figured it would be.

He wanted precise details about the attack, and about his nephew’s condition, which I gave him as well as I could.

The dicey parts came when he seemed a bit suspicious of my motives and asked if I was interested in some kind of “reward” for Rylan’s safe return.

Did he think this was a hostage situation and I wanted a ransom?

Since it had never entered my mind to want a payment of any kind, I assured him in no uncertain terms that I did not.

“I don’t need or want any kind of reward. I’m glad I could help him and regret that it was necessary in the first place. Had he been more cooperative in the beginning and not pulled a weapon and fired it at me, he would never have been detained at all.”

A total prevarication on my part—once I’d seen Rylan, and once I’d realized who he was to me, I’d felt like I had no choice but to keep him, but I thought it better not to reveal that just yet.

The prince gave me a long, steady look. “Thank you, Marshal General. Please give my nephew my regards and tell him his omak and mine are both already on their way to pick him up and bring him home. Unless there is some objection to those plans.”

“About that, Your Highness….”

His tone turned even frostier. “Yes? Is there some problem with my nephew’s release, General?”

“Not a problem exactly. But there have been certain…complications.”

He gave me a look that should have peeled the skin off my face.

“What kind of complications?”

“I seem to have formed a mate bond with him.” I held my head high and gave him a bold look, because I couldn’t afford to show weakness to this man. And it was the unvarnished truth. Rylan was mine.