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His face became suffused with red, and I could see that he was about to explode, so I held up a hand to stop him.

“I will have a marriage contract ready for his father as soon as he arrives. Nothin g has happened between us, and the prince is uncompromised in every way. But the moment I saw him…I knew he was mine. I assume you’re familiar with the Lycan mating bond?

The Horvathian one is quite similar, if not exactly the same.

And the bond goes both ways. I believe he feels it as much as I do. ”

The prince slammed his hand down on his desk and for the next few minutes, he shouted at me, loudly cursing me, my family, my heritage, the day I was born and everyone I was ever associated with, past, present and future.

Quite fluently. It was all in Tygerian, so I missed a few words, but I let him finish, and then I cleared my throat to speak again.

“I can see that you’re upset. Understandably so.

None of this was in my plan either, I assure you.

But I believe I’m worthy of consideration as his mate.

I know he’s a royal prince twice over, but I am the Marshal General of Horvath.

I myself also hold a royal title on Horvath as my father was the late Prince Karlon of Horvath, who was killed honorably in the war.

He created a tactical force called the Special Warfare Riders or SWR, which I now run.

His brother, the late king of Horvath designated me as Riders Leader, a title he created for me not long before his own passing.

In fact, I’ve had a fairly long and distinguished career in the Army.

I believe my background is quite suitable, and we would have the blessing of the dowager Queen Regent Eujanie.

We’d like to have yours and the king’s blessings as well, and of course, his parents’ blessing.

But make no mistake, sir. Whether I have any of that or not…

you need to understand that I’m not asking for permission.

I fully intend to marry Prince Rylan. Very soon. ”

An ominous silence filled the room. “Is that so?” he said softly, menacingly.

“Yes, it is. I’ve spoken to him about it as well, and he has raised no objections.”

“I see,” he said in a snide tone. “In other words, you’re simply ‘informing me’ of what’s going to happen, is that it? This is a done deal as far as you’re concerned.”

There was that term again, and luckily, this time I was familiar with it. I nodded. “Yes. It’s a done deal, as you say. He belongs to me.” For emphasis, and in case I hadn’t made myself perfectly clear, I repeated myself. “He’s mine.”

He glared at me for a long moment, practically daring me to keep staring at him. I knew that breaking eye contact would be seen as a weakness, however. And he didn’t intimidate me. We were equals in status as far as I was concerned.

“Then it seems, General,” he said, “that we have nothing more to say to each other. I’ll inform my father.”

On that note, he abruptly signed off without another word, and I was left staring at a dark screen.

I went to see Rylan that same afternoon to give him the news.

I hoped he’d be good with it. He was sitting on a lounge chair by the window, and he looked up at me and gave me a beautiful smile as I came in.

I blinked at him a few times, because I really hadn’t been expecting that.

I wanted badly to go over and touch him, which was all a part of the craziness of this bond.

I made myself stand by the door and gazed in at him instead.

“How are you feeling?”

“I’m much better, and I’ve just spoken with my uncle Mikos.” He held up a communicator to show me. “The doctor brought it in, because he insisted on speaking directly to me after the two of you talked. Thank you for notifying him, Quinn. My omak will be arriving soon, he said.”

“Oh? Yes. Good.”

I thought it was a bit unusual for Mikos to contact Rylan directly and so soon after speaking to me, but I suppose he wanted to hear his voice for himself and make sure he wasn’t being coerced or forced in any way.

Our relations with Tygeria had never completely normalized since the war.

As with the Three Planets of Lycanus, we had a sometimes-uneasy truce.

Let’s just say, there wasn’t a lot of love lost on either side.

Another reason why it was awkward for me that Prince Mikos knew I’d bonded with his nephew, without even asking Rylan’s father first.

But that just wasn’t the way this bond thing worked.

“He doesn’t like you much,” Rylan told me with a mischievous grin.

“Uh, no, it seems not.”

“He said you were arrogant and full of yourself. I agreed with him.”

“Rylan…”

“But I told him I planned to marry you anyway. No matter what he said.”

“You-you did?”

“Yes. Oh, and my omak-ahn Blake is coming with my omak. He’s the king’s consort and Mikos’s bearer.”

“Yes, you’ve mentioned that a few times. And they’re both coming here? I didn’t realize you were so close to your grandparents.”

“Oh yes. Blake is close with all of his children and grandchildren. And my grandfather, Davos is too. He wanted to come, but Mikos said you weren’t giving him enough notice. He said you were insistent and rude and far too impatient.”

“I-I simply feel that we should be married right away. I’m sorry your uncle feels that way. But you can’t stay here in the hospital forever, and it would be unseemly for you to stay with me before we marry.”

“Unseemly? I barely know what that word means, but I think it means improper . Funny you should worry about that, considering the liberties you took with me on Lycanus 3.”

I could feel my face burning. I wasn’t proud of my actions on Lycanus 3. “Rylan, listen…”

“The good news is that you’ve already seen my ass and felt me up too.”

I had no idea what that last part meant, though I could certainly guess. “Did you like what you saw?”

“This is not a proper topic for conversation, Rylan.” I could feel my face practically melting with heat. “Not at all.”

“Did I tell you my brothers and I used to stay at Davos’s palace on Tygeria during school breaks? Blake’s wonderful. You’ll see when you meet him. And my omak is too, of course.”

“I-I look forward to it,” I said, a little dizzy from the change in subjects and lying through my teeth.

I had neither the time nor the patience for visits from spoiled and pampered consorts, like this Blake was reported to be, and like Rylan’s “omak” undoubtedly was too.

And I dreaded their questions, not to mention their disapproval.

I expected this visit to be most unpleasant.

And if they insisted on trying to take Rylan home with them—I wasn’t sure what would happen. But Rylan wasn’t going anywhere.

Of course, I’d be polite to them for as long as I could. I’d have to notify the queen, too, and she might want to have a reception for the royal visitors here on Horvath if there was time. Unless they didn’t want that. I had no idea how any of this worked.

Meanwhile, I was far too busy for all of this.

I was having problems with the new hatchling and carrying on my normal duties.

And somehow, I also had to solve the problem of what to do about this bond the hatchling had with Rylan.

I’d been able to ignore the problem with the hatchling for the past couple of days, but I’d had a disturbing call about him just that morning, and it was weighing on my mind.

“How’s my little dragon?” Rylan asked eagerly, and I jumped a little. It seemed like he could read my mind sometimes. “Can you tell me how he’s doing? Where is he exactly?”

“He’s at the training facility, and I haven’t heard any negative reports on him. Not really.”

“What do you mean by, ‘not really?’”

“He’s uh…he’s had a little difficulty settling in, but the head trainer has assured me he has it all in hand.”

“That man who came here to see me? He was an idiot.”

“Rylan…” I sighed. But he wouldn’t be dissuaded. Not that I disagreed.

“He was mean to the hatchling, as you call him. And rude to me.”

“I did reprimand him, if you recall.”

“Not enough. And what do you mean by saying that the baby dragon is having problems settling in? What’s happening?”

I raised my eyes to the ceiling and considered not telling him, but the truth was that I was a bit worried about the little dragon. He was on his second day of not eating—which for a young vetami and this little Golden in particular—was extraordinary and would soon make him very ill.

“He’s not eating much. And he-he cries sometimes.”

“What?” He jumped from his chair, hurting his side and clutching it for a moment in pain. I rushed to his side to lower him back down.

“Now see what you’ve done,” I said, as alarms went off on his monitor. “The doctors will be in here in a moment. You could have hurt yourself again.”

“I didn’t, so let them come! Tell me about my dragon.”

“Rylan, be reasonable, please. He’s not your dragon.”

“He sure thinks he is.”

Since that was undoubtedly true, I could hardly deny it. The doctor came in then and reset the alarm. He gave me an odd look as he went back out and told me to please be careful not to undo all his hard work. I sighed again and tried to change the subject.

“Look, we need to talk about your relatives’ upcoming visit. They’ll be here very soon, and preparations need to be made.”

“First I have to see my dragon.”

“Rylan…”

“Please. Maybe he’ll eat for me. He’s too young to go without food. Please let me try to talk to him.”

I blew out a breath. “If I were to take you to him—and I’m not saying I will—then you can’t make him think he’ll be leaving. You have to coax him to eat and accept his new Rider.”

“Oh no. He won’t accept his new Rider either? That poor baby. What have you people done to him?”

“Rylan, he’s not a baby, so please stop calling him that. And he won’t stay little for long, you know. I told you how big he’s liable to get, and he could even get bigger. My dragon is fully grown and weighs almost 12 tons. Are you familiar with Alliance measurements?”

“Yes. Blake is human, and he taught us lots of things about Earth.”

“Yes. I knew that. We’ve heard a lot about King Davos’s consort.”

“I’ll bet. And some of it may even be true. But only the good stuff. You’ll get to meet him soon, and you’ll see for yourself. Both my omak and my omak-ahn are wonderful.”

“I look forward to meeting them,” I told him. Again, I didn’t mean a word of it.

“You don’t look so sure about that, but you’ll see. I’m so anxious to see them both. But I want to see the dragon now. Please take me to him or bring him here to me.”

“That may not be a good idea.”

“Why not?”

“Because he’s already confused, and he has to stop all this foolishness and settle in. Otherwise…”

“Otherwise, what? What will you do to him?”

“You understand that the ten-ton beast he will become one day has to earn his keep…which is considerable. We’ll give him every chance, but…”

“But what?” His face visibly paled right in front of me. “Would you kill him?”

“ Kill him ? Certainly not. But we’d have to send him to the breeding grounds and clip his wings so he couldn’t fly away.”

“No!” Rylan shouted at me in outrage, his eyes dark with anger. “I forbid it. No, I’ll talk to King Davos, and he’ll forbid it!”

“Stop all this now and calm down. Getting so excited is not good for you.”

“Then you’d better take me to my dragon. I insist!”