Page 119 of The Wild Prince’s Favorite (The Dragon Empire Saga #3)

A mountain was no small battleground, and if Alezya was held captive, his enemies would have plenty of time to take her elsewhere.

He and Kiera were amongst the best fighters of the Empire, but even they couldn’t split themselves to be everywhere all at once. He’d have to go in blind and locate Alezya quickly.

“We should find the best entry point and have Kein survey the area for us,” Kiera said. “He loves chasing them as they crawl out of the holes, so that might be what we need. Maybe if he–”

She was interrupted by a familiar, high-pitched dragon growl.

She and Kassein exchanged a confused glance before they darted outside, alarmed. Sure enough, as soon as they stepped out, they recognized Kiki’s familiar figure flying toward them. Why was Kiki back? Kassein felt worry pool in his stomach. Was something wrong with Lumie? With one of the eggs?

Before he could spiral too much, Kiki landed, and he noticed Lumie wasn’t there.

“Lorey?” Kassein frowned. “Where’s Lumie?”

“She’s fine,” Lorey said. “I left her with Lady Nebora; they’re back at the Onyx Castle.”

“Everything alright, honey?” Kiera helped her down from her dragon. “You look shaken up.”

“I... I’m not sure,” Lorey blurted. “Something... strange happened, I had to tell you. Uh... O-one of the eggs hatched.”

The siblings glanced at each other, utterly confused.

“No way,” Kiera scoffed. “Alezya shouldn’t be due for at least another seven months. There’s no way a baby dragon would have been born already. They usually wait pretty much for the due date–”

“It hatched, Kiera,” Lorey insisted. “Not only that, but, I–... I mean, it’s my fault; I should have stayed with it when I noticed something was wrong.

Right after you left, I noticed the bigger of the two eggs was growing way faster than the other.

I could see it grow with my own eyes! But I had to go and greet Lady Nebora; she’d just come to the castle after she’d noticed Kiki from afar, and.

.. and when I told her the situation, we went back to check on the eggs, but the black egg was broken open, no baby dragon to be seen! ”

“Wha–” Tievin choked. “What do you mean, Lorey, ‘no baby dragon to be seen’? Y-y-y-you can’t have lost a baby dragon!”

“I didn’t even see it!” Lorey insisted. “The egg was just... broken open.”

She directed her panicked eyes to Kiera.

“It can’t mean something happened to the baby, right?” she asked nervously.

“I don’t think so,” Kiera grimaced. “Grandma told us that in cases when the… pregnancy stopped, the egg stopped growing and rotted from the inside. She saw it happen many times during our grandfather’s reign. Are you sure the egg properly hatched?”

“Yes,” Lorey nodded. “It looked like it. It was the normal size of a mature dragon egg too.”

“There’s no way the egg grew that quickly,” Kiera frowned.

“Well, it did!” Lorey insisted, frustrated.

The two siblings exchanged looks, utterly confused. Kassein was just as shocked. They had never heard of an egg growing at an accelerated rate before. He had heard his brother’s dragon, Kian, had been born hours early to save their mother, but it was most likely because her labor had started.

“What about the other egg?” he asked.

“The white one hasn’t moved,” Lorey said. “I asked Lady Nebora to keep an eye on it just in case, but this one didn’t seem to be growing, at least not in a way we can see it grow second by second...”

“We lost a baby dragon,” Tievin muttered. “Father’s going to have my head. We lost a baby dragon!”

Kiera patted his shoulder with an amused smirk.

“Well, it’s best to consider that this egg hatched super early for some reason. You know, maybe it wasn’t even Kein’s egg. Since Alezya can’t have had a baby that fast, let’s just assume it was another dragon’s egg.”

Kassein frowned. Kian hadn’t been at the palace when he had visited. Had his brother gotten a woman pregnant as well?

“It doesn’t explain why the egg grew so fast.” Lorey crossed her arms. “Nothing explains how a dragon’s egg could have grown and hatched so fast! I mean, you all saw it, Kein couldn’t have laid those eggs more than a couple of hours after he brought Lumie, and... and...”

She stopped herself, her eyes opening wide, and then, suddenly, she turned to Kassein, opening her mouth and closing it.

“Lorey? You alright, honey?”

“Y-yes,” she finally said. “I thought... but it was just a silly idea. It can’t be.”

“I’d love to discuss this fascinating phenomenon a bit more, but we seriously don’t have time,” Kiera sighed.

“We have an attack to launch and an army waiting for us. That mountain is going to be no small feat to attack either. Look, we’ll keep in mind that we could be looking for a lost baby dragon, but. .. Oh, my dragon!”

She clapped her hands together, her eyes opening wide in sudden excitement.

“Oh. My. Fucking. Dragon!” she exclaimed, turning to her brother. “Kassein, I’m a fucking genius!”

“What?” He frowned.

“Our tunnel problem! I just found the solution!”

“...How?”

Kiera grinned from ear to ear.

“It just came to me! Our issue is that our dragons are too big to get in those tunnels, right? Now, dear brother, what happens to be just a tad smaller than an adult dragon?”

“...A baby dragon,” Kassein muttered.

“Exactly!! And who do we know happens to have a bunch of still-smallish dragons?”

“Oh, no,” Tievin paled immediately. “No, no. No, no, no, no, Your Highness! Princess Kiera, please! No!”

While Tievin looked on the verge of collapse, sweating buckets with his panicked eyes frantically going from Kiera to Kassein, Lorey smiled.

“...Our nephews and nieces,” Kassein muttered.

“Come on,” Kiera squealed. “We are hours away from Darsan’s place. I can fly Kiki, borrow a bunch of kids and baby dragons, and have them ready for the second assault!”

“My lady, PLEASE!” Tievin cried. “ Not the triplets! ”