Page 1

Chapter

One

Obi

T here was only so much an energetic young omega prince with ambition could take.

The world and the kingdom as I knew it balanced on the edge of tremendous change.

My father, King Freslik, was a razor’s edge away from being deposed by his nephew, my cousin, Lord Osric.

My brothers had begun to find their fated mates among the dragon alphas of a magical kingdom that we had access to through an enchanted doorway under my eldest brother Rumi’s bed.

New lives were about to start, both in the form of the dragon eggs four of my brothers had already borne and in terms of the new kingdom I just knew would rise up after my father was deposed.

“And I’ve been set the task of copying lines for that old bat Councilor Dormas,” I complained to some of my new, magical friends as I explained it all to them in the dancing pavilion just down the hill from the dragon’s castle in the magical world.

We were seated in an alcove off to one side of the dance floor, sipping refreshments while the evening’s ball swirled merrily around us.

That night’s theme was sunset, so everything was decorated in shades of red, orange, and gold with glittering garlands of gems and magical lights that bathed the entire pavilion in warm, cozy hues.

It was all designed to relax everyone attending the ball and to make them happy, but I couldn’t possibly be happy when I was so restless.

“Copying lines?” my omega friend Billi asked, blinking his large, violet eyes and shaking his head like he didn’t understand. “What is the purpose of that?”

“To torment me,” I said, crossing my arms. “That can only be what my father had in mind when he wrenched me away from Rumi and had me taken to the dungeons.”

“Your father separated you from your brother?” my other friend, Gandy, asked. “Why would he do that?”

“I think he suspects that whenever my brothers and I are close to each other, we can outwit him,” I said seriously, leaning toward my friends. “He’s finally figured out that together, we are a force to be reckoned with.”

“It’s a bit late for that,” Rumi said, lounging in his chair across from me with a smug grin. “Four of us have already made this world our home. Father thinks they’ve somehow escaped the castle and traveled all the way to the western frontier to join Cousin Osric.”

“Which is exactly what I want to do,” I said, gesturing with my punch glass.

“Why don’t you do it now?” Billi asked with a shrug. “There are all sorts of ways to travel between the magical world and your world besides the door in your bedchamber.”

I let out a breath and dropped my shoulders.

Why didn’t I just rush off to join Cousin Osric?

I wanted to be a great warrior, like he was.

I might have been young at barely twenty, but I knew I was capable of great things.

I could be as heroic as my brother Leo, as clever as my brother Selle, and as determined to overthrow my father and create a much better world for the people of his kingdom as Rumi.

So why wasn’t I rushing off to make that happen?

“I don’t want to abandon Rumi,” I said, though I wasn’t certain that was the whole truth. “It’s just the two of us now.”

“You don’t have to stay on my behalf,” Rumi said, far more relaxed about things than I could ever be. “I’m only remaining in the castle so I can keep a close eye on Father. As soon as the time is right, Emmerich will come fetch me and we’ll join Cousin Osric to begin the war to defeat Father.”

Hearing Rumi mention his fated dragon mate made something in me squeeze tight.

Rumi already knew that the emerald dragon, Emmerich, and he were fated, though they’d both agreed the time wasn’t right quite yet to mate, bond, and produce an egg or two.

All of my brothers had met their fated mates.

I was the only one who was still completely in the dark as to who mine was, though I knew he had to be the brother of my brothers’ mates.

That was just the way things worked in dragon families, apparently.

I hadn’t met anyone who made me feel like we were destined to be together.

I’d danced with plenty of gorgeous, exciting alphas since we’d started coming to the magical pavilion to dance nearly a year ago now.

I’d fancied myself in love with some of them…

for all of five minutes. But I hadn’t met my mate.

Rumor had it that my dragon mate was a spy in my father’s castle.

Apparently, he’d been there in disguise all along, watching out for us and making certain our father didn’t hurt us or marry us off to some horrible nobleman who would do terrible things to us.

I didn’t think my mate was doing a very good job, all things considered.

If he was supposed to be looking out for us, then why had we been locked in our bedchamber?

Why had he allowed Father to board up the windows that looked down into our papa’s garden?

And before that, why had he allowed Father to give some of my older brothers’ heats to disgusting lords with whom he was trying to curry favor?

Even though I knew on a logical level that whoever he was, my mate was meant to be my perfect match and one true love, once I did figure out who he was, I definitely intended to give him a piece of my mind.

“One thing I don’t understand,” Gandy said, bringing us all back to the original conversation, “is why, if your father was trying to separate you and Rumi to keep you from plotting, he would give you to some old councilor to copy lines.”

“Father trusts Councilor Dormas,” Rumi said, his expression strangely pinched, as if he were trying not to laugh. “And Councilor Dormas is too old to take any inappropriate interest in a twenty-year-old omega.”

I huffed and rolled my eyes, but at the same time, I felt strangely hot and uncomfortable thinking about old Councilor Dormas.

“That first time that Father had me dragged out of the room and taken down to Councilor Dormas’s chambers, I thought the old bat was going to torture me,” I said.

“He just looked me over with that clever grin of his, sat me down at the table in his anteroom, and shoved a pen in my hand.”

“What does he have you writing?” Billi asked.

“Nothing, really,” I said. “He has me copying an old book of stories is all. Stories about a dragon named Argus who does all these heroic deeds to save villagers and defeat trolls and things.”

Rumi suddenly snorted his punch, blowing some of it out his nose, even. He coughed and I had to get out of my chair to thump his back, but he kept laughing all the same.

“It’s not funny,” I told him with a frown.

“Oh, yes, it is,” Rumi wheezed when he could breathe more or less freely again.

I scowled at him. It wasn’t the first time I’d suspected my brothers were making fun of me somehow.

It was like they knew something I didn’t and they were using it to tease me.

I hated it. I might have been the youngest and I might not have had as much experience of life as any of them did yet, but that was no reason for them to tease me.

I was a warrior to be. Warriors weren’t teased.

“Does your father know that this old councilor is just having you copy out stories?” Gandy asked, leaning forward in their seat with their eyes narrowed. “That doesn’t sound like the sort of thing he would approve of if he is trying to teach you a lesson or torment you in some way.”

“Believe me,” I said. “Being forced to spend hours closed up in a room with an ancient relic is torture enough.”

Rumi still hadn’t entirely composed himself and snorted again. I glanced his way, then shook my head and turned back to our friends.

Gandy was still trying to puzzle things out. They shook their head and said, “Something isn’t right with that arrangement. You said that your fated mate is a spy in your father’s court and a protector secreted away somewhere in your castle. What if the old councilor is your fated mate in disguise?”

I shook my head. “He couldn’t be,” I said, absolutely certain of myself.

“On the one hand, why would Father purposely hand me over to the one alpha who is supposed to mate with me, give me immeasurable power, and free me from his grasp? On the other, Councilor Dormas is old . I mean really old. He’s stooped and wrinkled and his beard is as long as my arm.

I refuse to believe I’m fated to mate with a dragon that’s older than dirt. ”

Rumi was still laughing, which annoyed me more than ever.

“I suppose that makes sense,” Gandy said, sitting back in his chair with a puzzled look.

“It does,” I said with a nod. “I’m convinced that my fated mate is one of the guards. They have better access to all of us than?—”

My logical explanation died on my lips as I glanced up and saw the most beautiful alpha I’d ever laid eyes on striding toward me from the side of the pavilion that opened up toward the castle.

He was resplendent, even though the clothing he wore was ordinary, as opposed to the fanciful finery that so many of the guests at the ball wore.

He wasn’t wearing a mask either, unlike so many of the other guests.

That meant I could see his chiseled face, his pale blue eyes and the slight smile lines around them, and the streaks of silver in the dark hair at his temples.

He was a bit older, but I would be lying if I said older men didn’t do wicked things to my insides.

They were just so sure of themselves and so experienced.

My mind raced to a thousand things that the gorgeous alpha had probably done to and with omegas in his years, and those imaginings had me completely speechless with lust by the time he arrived at our group.