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“But I’m only twenty,” he said, sounding so, so young. “I wanted to be a warrior and fight for justice.”

“You still can,” I laughed, stroking his back gently. “Most of your brothers who have eggs still fully intend to join the fight.”

Obi was silent for a moment, breathing slightly heavily. “Leo really suffered when he had an egg in him and tried to fight with us before.”

“But he’s fine now,” I pointed out. “All of your brothers’ eggs are healthy and growing. I believe Tovey’s eggs are ready to hatch any day now. He still plans to help Lord Osric’s cause.”

It took Obi a few more seconds of deep thought before he nodded and pulled out of my embrace. He didn’t say anything or look at me, which was a painful sign that he still didn’t trust me entirely, but at least he wasn’t trying to run or fight me.

I showed him the washroom just off my bedroom, and while he bathed, I called the chief servant of my house, Veronica, and ordered breakfast from her.

Once Obi was clean and I’d made some fresh clothes for him with my magic, I took a turn to clean up myself.

I could have done that with magic as well, but taking a few minutes to wash the ordinary way gave Obi a few more minutes to himself.

When I finished with my ablutions, I found Obi standing on the large veranda right outside my bedchamber.

My bedchamber was on the ground floor of the sprawling house I’d built hundreds of years ago.

The veranda faced the ocean, which I was the guardian of under ordinary circumstances, when I did not have omega princes to protect from their vicious father.

A wide beach of white-pink sand stretched down from the edge of the veranda to a secluded cove.

Clear, turquoise waves lapped peacefully against the sands while brilliant sunlight glittered off the water.

“It’s beautiful,” Obi said in awe as I joined him at the edge of the veranda. “I had no idea anything could be so beautiful.”

“Neither did I,” I said, smiling at him. It was a bit on the nose, but when Obi turned to me and realized I was talking about him, he smiled and blushed.

Then his expression turned dark and impatient again.

“See?” he said, banging one hand against the railing at the edge of the veranda. “It isn’t fair. I shouldn’t just roll over and glow under your compliment like that.”

“Why not?” I said with a shrug. “We might not have chosen each other, but we can enjoy the choice that fate made for us, can’t we?”

Obi made a grumpy face that had my heart beating faster. I couldn’t speak for him, but I found him completely charming. Fate had chosen well for us.

“I just want to be my own person is all,” he said quietly, looking out over the ocean. “I don’t want to end up as the prisoner of an alpha I can’t get away from like my Papa did.”

He pressed his mouth together sharply at the end of his quiet words.

My heart went out to Obi. His life had been terrible so far in ways I didn’t fully appreciate.

He’d had so few choices and so little love in his father’s castle.

It wasn’t surprising that he was bristling and eager to break free now, or that he would see bonding with a fated mate and conceiving an egg as the end of his bid for freedom before it had even started.

I pledged then and there that I would show him that love was not a prison and even papas could still be free to live their lives.

“Breakfast is ready, my lord,” Veronica’s polite announcement dispelled the sudden intensity of the moment.

Obi and I both turned to her, and I felt a rush of delight from Obi as he caught sight of the huge, laden cart she pushed.

“I’m so hungry I could eat it all,” Obi said, breaking away from me and hurrying to see what the kitchens had made for us.

My servants had outdone themselves. The tray contained every sort of treat either of us could have desired.

There were dishes made with eggs and bacon and sausage, platters of pastries, both sweet and nutty, and enough tea to last us all day.

I gathered up the lot of it with magic and moved it down to the soft sand of the beach so that we could enjoy our morning feast in the most relaxed possible setting.

“This is all unbelievable,” Obi said, his mouth half full with the breakfast sandwich he’d made for himself with sausage and eggs between two halves of a croissant. “I suppose I could get used to a prison like this.”

“I promise you that I will not make your life feel like a prison,” I said, reaching out and brushing a lock of my mate’s hair back from his shining face.

Obi either didn’t notice the tender gesture or didn’t mind that I’d made it. He glanced to me with a question in his eyes as he chewed, and when he swallowed he asked, “Are you the same dragon Argus as the one in the stories Councilor Dormas has been making me copy?”

Again, I hesitated to come right out with the truth. I had a hard time believing Obi hadn’t put the pieces together yet. He wasn’t unintelligent, but my magic was strong enough to make my disguise as an old man incredibly convincing.

“Yes,” I answered with a teasing smile, figuring I could use my own, sly joke on him as a way to make certain he saw the truth. “We might not have had an opportunity to meet the way we should until last night, but that didn’t mean I wasn’t letting you get to know me.”

“So you really did defeat a mountain mystic at a game of chess?” Obi asked with a lop-sided grin.

“I did,” I laughed.

“And you actually rerouted the path of a great river in order to save a village of fairies?”

“I did,” I laughed even harder.

“You’re just bragging now,” he said, smiling more warmly.

“I’m a dragon who has lived a long time and seen a lot of things,” I said with a shrug. “I’m allowed to brag.”

Obi’s expression shifted to something like uncertainty. “So if you’ve lived a long time, I bet you’ve had a lot of lovers.”

“They were all in the past,” I said, shaking my head. “None of that matters now.”

“You’ve been hiding in my father’s castle, looking out for us,” Obi said, sitting straighter. “Who are you? One of the guards?”

“No, of course not,” I said. “I thought you already knew. I’m Councilor?—”

“Argus!”

Obi and I both jumped and twisted to look back toward the house, where Rufus and Tovey were coming down the veranda stairs toward us.

“Tovey!” Obi said, scrambling to stand and hold his arms out so his brother could see his bulging belly.

“Obi!” Tovey called out in return, picking up his pace as he came to meet his brother. “So it’s happened? You’ve mated and bonded with your dragon?”

“And now I’m going to have an egg,” Obi said, laughing.

I was glad that he was happy, at least. But what concerned me more was the serious look on Rufus’s face.

“We’ve just come to fetch you,” my brother said. “Lord Osric has called a meeting to discuss the attack on King Freslik.”

“So he’s going to move quickly then?” I asked.

Rufus nodded. “More quickly than you might know. The meeting is being held at merchant Miniver Baxia’s house.”

My heart sank to my gut. It took me a moment to realize that was Obi’s reaction and not my own.

“Cousin Osric is holding a meeting to discuss attacking my father in the house of a merchant that isn’t more than a hundred yards from the castle walls?” he asked.

“We need the help of the merchants and farmers in the king’s city if we’re going to be able to get the war over with quickly and with as few casualties as possible,” Tovey said.

“Which is why this meeting is about to take place,” Rufus added with a nod. He glanced to me and said, “Are you coming?”

I felt Obi’s disappointment and anger before I’d even opened my mouth. “It’s not fair,” he said. “I need to be a part of this, I want to be a part of this.”

“Then come be a part of this,” I said, almost teasingly, reaching for his hand. “I said I wasn’t going to stop you.”

Obi blinked. “Really? You’ll let me come to the meeting? Even though I’ve got an egg in me?”

“Yes, of course, dear boy,” I said, shaking my head.

“Oh,” Obi said, deflating a little. “Alright, then. Let’s go.”

My mate’s smile and the excitement I felt through our bond was a treat. The lad was going to be the death of me.