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He followed his insult by grabbing the edge of my collar, ripping it back to expose my shoulder, and drawing the blade of his knife across my flesh.

I yelped in surprise, though the pain was not as great as anything I could have felt. I wasn’t the only one who was surprised as blood ran down my skin from the wound Freslik had made. Freslik frowned, then drew the knife over the same spot he’d cut, going deeper. My pain increased.

“Get away from me!” I roared, jerking out of Freslik’s reach. Blood poured freely from my shoulder, and with the chain around my neck, I couldn’t heal myself.

“Where is your gold, dragon?” Freslik demanded, grabbing the front of my shirt before I could get away. “Where are your diamonds?”

It took me a moment to understand what he meant.

Freslik believed he knew things, but his knowledge was incomplete.

Only omega mates of dragons could produce whatever gem or precious metal their mate was known for, and no outside force could draw those things from them.

Freslik must have thought dragons were made of precious things.

“I have nothing for you,” I said through clenched teeth, panting because of the pain.

“You’re a dragon,” Freslik snapped. “Where is your hoard? I was told capturing a dragon would give me access to untold wealth.”

Only fleetingly did I wonder who had told him that. Before I could dwell on it or tell the bastard he was mistaken, the door to his chamber flew open and a red-faced and panting Obi dashed into the room.

“Argus!” he shouted, his face filling with love and relief. It was agony not to be able to feel that, though.

“You!” Freslik shouted, turning on Obi. “You should be dead by now.”

“I was just thinking the same thing about you,” Obi said in reply.

My beautiful, headstrong omega mate then did the most ridiculously brave thing I could have imagined. He charged at his father, lowering his shoulder at the last minute so he could slam into the man.

It was as unskilled and inelegant an attack as possible, but surprise was on Obi’s side. Freslik dropped his knife and stumbled backwards, falling over entirely. He took Obi with him, but that didn’t stop my mate from attacking further.

“You are a horrible, evil man!” Obi shouted, sitting astride his father’s prone form and grabbing his shoulders. “You have made my life and the lives of the people I love a misery, and for what purpose? Were you amused by everything you did to us?”

“Obi,” I tried to warn him, lurching forward, though between the chain and the blood that flowed from my shoulder, my head was swimming.

Obi didn’t listen to me. He gripped his father’s tunic, lifting him and banging the man’s head against the floor a few times in his anger. “You killed Papa! He died because of you!”

“Get off me,” Freslik snarled, like Obi was a pesky puppy who had jumped up on him. “Get your omega filth away from me.”

“I will not let you destroy this kingdom and hurt me and my brothers for a moment longer,” Obi went on, shaking his father harder.

It would have been endlessly amusing if Obi weren’t so desperately outmatched in strength. As soon as Freslik recovered from the shock of his youngest son tackling him, he pushed Obi off with relative ease and scrambled to retrieve his knife.

That was a miscalculation on Freslik’s part. Obi might not have been as strong as his father, but he was quicker. He leapt to his feet and raced to kick the knife farther from his father’s reach, then kicked Freslik in the side for good measure.

“I won’t let your reign of terror continue!” he shouted, kicking Freslik one more time before rushing closer to me.

“No! Don’t!” Freslik shouted, rising to his knees and reaching for Obi.

He wasn’t fast enough to catch Obi before he reached me, though.

“You’re bleeding,” Obi said, his voice high and worried, his eyes bright with excitement from the encounter.

“It’s nothing,” I said, all too aware of Freslik rising quickly to his feet. “Hurry and lift this chain from me.”

“No!” Freslik shouted again, his face going pale.

The man was alarmed for good reason. As soon as Obi lifted the chain, which was unnaturally heavy and gave him trouble, and threw it off to the side, the full force of my magical powers rushed back into me so fast and hard it left me gasping.

More than that, my bond with Obi was instantly restored, filling me with joy and a surging sense of determination to protect him at all cost.

“Oh, thank Goddess!” Obi sighed, sagging into me for a moment.

I dissolved the rope around my wrists and swung my arms around to hug my mate, healing my shoulder without much thought. That blissful moment of reconnection could only last a second, though.

“Your plan has been foiled,” I told Freslik, shifting Obi to my side and glaring at him. “You will be defeated. Abdicate now and leave for the farthest corners of this world and you might be spared.”

Instead of agreeing, Freslik began to laugh. The sound was low and slow at first, but grew to an almost mad pitch. “You think this is over?” he demanded, pure evil in his eyes. “This war has hardly begun. I will never give up my throne or my power.”

“Cousin Osric should be king of this realm,” Obi insisted. “He is a good and noble man who will rule far better than you ever did.”

“Osric is a fool!” Freslik shouted. “He is an upstart and a pretender. He doesn’t even know that he has a traitor in his midst.”

I frowned, a sense of dread forming in my gut at the revelation.

“What traitor?” Obi asked with fierce naiveté. “Tell me who it is.”

“You’ll never find out,” Freslik said. “He won’t even know until it’s too late. I won’t have to lift a finger to win this war, and when it’s done, I will make everyone who dared to oppose me pay.”

“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” Obi insisted. “Cousin Osric has a large and powerful army, and they’re headed this way. The people in this city support him. He will march straight up to the castle and take the crown without having to draw his sword from its sheath.”

“Omegas are so stupid,” Freslik said, sliding one hand into the front of his tunic.

“I will enjoy the shock and despair on your face, on the faces of your insolent brothers, too, once the truth is revealed and you see just how strong I am. I will revel in seeing the six of you publicly humiliated and violated for your insolence.”

“You will lose,” Obi said with enough fight in his voice to take on whatever army Freslik thought he had singlehandedly. “My brothers and I, and our mates, are stronger together than you could ever dream of. We will win this war and establish a just and good kingdom here. We will?—”

Obi’s brave speech was cut off as a crack split the air and a puff of smoke enveloped Freslik.

The smoke was noxious and left Obi and I coughing.

I grabbed Obi and pulled him closer to me, burying my face against him in an attempt to diminish the effect of the smoke.

When it cleared my eyes stung, but that didn’t stop me from popping them wide.

Freslik had vanished. He’d somehow used magic to escape the room, and likely the castle, entirely.