Page 110 of The Wild Prince’s Favorite (The Dragon Empire Saga #3)

Alezya gathered just enough strength to get up and, with shock, peered inside the dragon’s bloody jaw. A baby was crying.

Alezya almost couldn’t believe her eyes and ears, but Lumie was there, still perfectly fine and wrapped in the fur coat, nestled on the dragon’s tongue, right behind the barrier of bone-breaking fangs.

The baby girl didn’t enjoy being tossed around, and she was squirming and crying under the covers, but she was fine; Kein had simply grabbed her the only way he could to tear her from the man without harming her. ..

Alezya was in utter disbelief but relieved beyond measure.

She only had a second to enjoy this, however, as Kein brutally veered off, and she saw a man’s blade stuck in the dragon’s flank.

“No!” she shouted.

Just then, hands grabbed her arms and hair, pulling her away from the dragon.

Kein growled in warning, but Alezya immediately made her decision and shook her head as hard as she could, trying to catch its eye.

“ Kein, fly! ” she shouted in the Dragon Clan’s language. “ Go! Take the baby to Lorey! To Kassein! Go! Fly away! ”

The dragon seemed hesitant to leave her, furiously growling at the men handling her brutally, and Alezya could have cried; she couldn’t even forgive herself for not trusting the dragon seconds ago. Kein wasn’t just willing to save her baby, it was reluctant to leave her behind.

She cried but did her best to smile through her tears. Lumie was safe, and she was going to be safe for good with Lorey and Kassein, and that was all she wanted.

“ Go,” she insisted, “ and thank you. ”

Kein let out another long, low-pitched growl, and after a beat, finally took off.

While she was aggressively pinned to the ground, men shouting around her, Alezya silently cried tears of joy against the fresh snow, watching with one eye as the orange dragon fled against the night sky. She was gone. Her baby was going to be free.

“Hold her! Hold the woman!”

With Kein flying away, the clans managed to regain a bit of continence, getting back on their feet, regrouping in their previous positions, helping each other up, and sorting out those who had been injured in the stampede.

In fact, most injuries had occurred because of their own panic and disarray more than anything Kein had done.

No one but the man whose arms had been bitten off had died, they slowly realized, which was a surprise as much as it was confusing.

Alezya was hauled back up on her feet, although she was tightly held with her arms behind her back, and someone gagged her before she could get a word out.

She found it laughable; they were terrified of her calling Kein back.

Many were now watching her with horror, shock, and even fear.

“See!” her father suddenly gloated, looking ecstatic. “The dragon obeys the Deklaan Clan!”

“Not your clan,” one of the chiefs spat angrily. “Your daughter.”

Alezya realized that she was heavily guarded not because of Kein but because of all the other clans that now had eyes on her.

They had all witnessed that she had been giving orders to the dragon, and Kein had faced her for several seconds before flying off. They might not have understood her words, but there was little room to misunderstand what they had all witnessed.

Her father’s expression gradually fell, transforming back from elation to annoyance.

“The girl belongs to my clan,” he hissed. “She is my daughter, she obeys me!”

“If so then why not let the child speak?” the woman with the long braided hair spoke up with a vicious glare.

“She will speak when we need her to,” Darak hissed, glaring at everyone who didn’t belong to his clan.

There was more tension in the air than when Kein had been there; this time, every clan was glaring their way.

The dragon’s attack and its wings had blown out two of the three fire pits, leaving the clans in a red glow, a dangerous semi-darkness.

Even surrounded by men from her own clan, Alezya could tell the tension was so high, things were a spark away from exploding.

Would the other clans attack hers just to get to her, the woman who commanded a dragon?

She could still see many eyes on her in the dark, and she guessed many were considering the idea.

Some were probably trying to gauge their chances, or how likely she would be willing to help; unfortunately, despite her hatred for her father, his clan was still very much rallying behind him, pulling Alezya away from the other clans and silently promising to fight anyone who tried anything.

“...This is nonsense,” the silver-bearded Clan Chief finally muttered. “If the girl can talk to the Dragon Clan, we should be negotiating with them!”

“Negotiating with the Dragon Clan?” another clan chief sneered. “Have you gone senile? They have been hunting us down for centuries! They are our enemy!”

“They will be our enemies for longer and kill more of us unless we take a chance to change things!” the older man retorted. “The girl can speak the Dragon’s language, by the gods! This is unprecedented, maybe our one and only chance in centuries!”

A heated debate began between those who were for and those who were against, and Alezya watched, stunned.

Her father loathed the Dragon Clan so much that she had never considered that other clans might be more willing to befriend them.

Those who didn’t constantly send spies and warriors to the other end of the mountains.

.. Alezya knew for a fact that the dragons didn’t need to eat humans, unlike what they’d always believed.

They attacked them because they were enemies; there was a necessity and a benefit to attacking the clans who attacked them back.

Alezya knew her clan and the neighboring ones, those who resided in the mountains at the edge, had attacked Kassein’s clan many times, and sometimes even in despicable ways.

Yet, some clans had few interactions with the dragons over the last decades and were most likely eager to take a chance at a very different relationship, one where they would be free to travel between mountains without worrying about the threat from above.

.. She watched in awe as the realization struck her that some clans loathed this ongoing war and were more than willing to take a chance to make peace with Kassein’s clan.

“Does the girl know what the Dragon Clan wants?” one of the clan chiefs redirected the conversation to Alezya. “What do they want from us? What would it take for the dragon to leave us in peace? We cannot continue fighting forever or worse, until they decide to wipe us all out!”

She could feel many eyes turning in her direction, but Alezya was tightly bound and still gagged by her father’s men, and she could hardly see anyone from the other clans with how they were grouped around her like a wall.

She was only lucky to be rather tall for a woman and able to glance over some shoulders because she was given no chance to speak for herself.

“Whatever you want to tell the Dragon Clan will go through me,” her father hissed.

“I am the Chief of the Deklaan Clan, and from this day on, we’re the only clan capable of negotiating with the Dragon Clan.

Therefore, I strongly advise you all to think things over until then.

For the future too. After all, she isn’t only able to speak their language, she will soon bear one of their dragons as well. .. See you next time.”

With those words and despite a few protests, her father turned around, gesturing to his men that they were done here.

Alezya was dragged along, quickly taken away from the gathering. She heard angry voices, but no one dared to attack; apparently, her father’s threat had been terribly effective. Her clan marched, dragging her along without leaving her much chance to protest.

While most of his men were securing their retreat, watching their backs for attacks, her father was already scheming, telling some of his men how they would conduct business with the other clans from then on, leveraging Alezya’s link to the Dragon Clan and the dragon he hoped to have in a few months’ time.

“And the girl? What if she sends the dragon to attack us? Even if we tie her in a cave, there’s a chance she’ll find a way to call the dragon. If it damages our tunnels or something...”

“I know where we will keep her.”

Her father’s cold voice sent a shiver down Alezya’s spine, along with a bad feeling.

She would have been a lot more alarmed if it wasn’t for the fact that little could scare her now; Lumie was gone, and she was fairly certain her baby would soon be in the safest place in the world, with Kassein.

Whatever her father did to her felt like a very small price in comparison to what she had earned today.

She could still seldom believe it, and while she missed her baby already, there was nothing that could make Alezya more relieved than the knowledge that her baby girl would be fine.

That was all she could have hoped for, except that she wished she could have seen it for herself, the moment Kein would deliver Lumie to Kassein.

She wished she could have been there to explain, to apologize, even to beg him to take care of them both. She could only wish things would go well for her baby.

It was almost dawn when Alezya and her people returned to their mountain, and much to their collective relief, Kein hadn’t reappeared.

Her clan had walked fast and taken detours to try and avoid the dragon’s eye, but there was no beast flying above them. Soon, her father’s men began to split, some taking the first tunnels back inside, but those who were with Alezya and her father didn’t return to the heights.

Confused, Alezya had no choice but to let herself be dragged between icy rocks, only recognizing the area as a dangerous route she would definitely not have ventured in by night, and not even by day.

She knew those were dangerous and treacherous, and when she remembered why, she foresaw her father’s plan.

“Here.”

She was violently pushed, and before she could stop herself in any way, Alezya fell through a thick layer of snow.

She closed her eyes, ready for her fall, and sure enough, she landed brutally several feet below. She winced and curled up, vicious waves of pain radiating from her left side throughout her entire body.

“Aren’t you afraid she’ll lose the child?” one of her father’s men commented from above.

“She wouldn’t. Those dragon bastards are nearly indestructible... If she truly is pregnant, I doubt she’ll die from the cold either. Dragons don’t fear the cold.”

Alezya barely suppressed the need to shout back that she wasn’t pregnant to curse them, but she held her tongue.

If he found out, her father might just try to get rid of her, and foolishly, she was holding on to the hope of seeing Lumie again.

Instead, she grimaced in pain, and her eyes found the thin ray of light coming from above.

The crevice was deep, narrow, and several feet under the ground. There was just enough room for about three humans to lie down there, and there was another crevice next to her, narrower, which seemed to go even deeper, and she shuddered, hoping the ice under her wouldn’t break.

It was awfully cold. She shivered, and curled around herself, missing the fur coat Kein had taken with Lumie.

“How ironic,” her father’s voice carried well in the cave. “You might face the same end as your mother, Alezya.”

“Wh-what? My mother?” She shivered.

“That foolish woman tried to disobey me too. She wanted to go back to her clan and leave me. I told her she was only allowed to leave if she left you behind. At first, she didn’t want to, but eventually.

.. So she left, the silly woman she was.

She really thought she’d get to leave me, the Deklaan Clan Chief.

Truthfully, I didn’t mean to kill her. My plan was to trap her in a crevice just like this one and make her regret her actions until she agreed to come back and be the obedient wife she was supposed to be.

.. It’s too bad she killed herself from the fall. ”

Alezya felt as if a block of ice dropped into her stomach, colder than the wind prickling her skin.

The horror gradually filled her in waves as she slowly took in her father’s words.

She had heard him, but it was so awful that it took her several seconds to really understand what he’d just admitted to.

She shivered and realized her body was reacting much faster than her head, violent sobs shaking her.

“You… You killed her…?” Alezya’s teeth chattered between her tears. “You killed my mother?!”

“She killed herself when she chose to leave me,” her father spat, “and you should know better than to repeat that stupid woman’s mistake, Daughter. I will make sure you’re fed, but until that bastard is born or we need you, you shall stay here.”

Alezya didn’t say anything.

She only lowered her head, letting her hair fall around her face, hiding the hatred she was feeling for her father at that moment.

She tightened her fists until her nails drew blood. Anger dominated her pain. Never had she believed she could hate the man more than she already did, but there she was, proven wrong.

She was silently grieving for a mother she’d already lost once, and shivering at the horror of facing the same fate, dying in a cold, icy pit.

It formed an unexpected resolve in her. Despite the painful protests of her body, Alezya forced herself into a seated position, drawing her knees to her chest and wrapping her arms around them.

It was cold, so cold that she wasn’t sure she would survive more than a day in there.

She was grateful for the sun rising, but there was no way she would last a night in this place.

.. and Kein couldn’t rescue her this time.

The ice above her would crumble and bury her alive under the weight of a dragon.

Her only hope was for Kassein to locate her, but within a day, it felt impossible. ..

She let out another tear, and then a full sob.

She tried to hold onto her memories of Kassein’s warmth or Lumie’s smiles.

Of delicious meat soups around a fire pit, of hot dragon scales, and a funny man in layers of coats. She wondered if they would look for her again... She had left the Dragon Clan twice. How could they forgive her and come look for her again after that betrayal?

“...I love you,” she whispered to the silence, snow and ice surrounding her.

Then, she let out a shivering exhale, closed her eyes, and rested a wet cheek on her knee.