“Ahh… yes?”
“It’s all right, Fern.” Lancey boy’s voice was all soft and reassuring. Probably because he was rubbing our girl’s arms like they belonged around him. “I won’t let any harm come to you.”
“Me neither.” I took a step closer and suddenly every uniform had his hand going to the hilt of his sword. My hands went up in the air and I grinned as I adopted an attitude of surrender. “We’ll sign up to become cadets.”
“We will…?” Lorien hissed.
Dain just sighed, his hands raking through his hair.
“As long as no one lays a fucking finger on the girl that belongs to us,” I finished, staring meaningfully at the general. “Call your dog off or?—”
“Lance?”
So that was what it was like to wield that kind of power. Atthe general’s word, Lance stepped away from Fern and looked shocked that he’d obeyed.
“Good lad,” I said, my smile widening as I saw the other man’s expression grow dark.
“You need a sword master?” he said to the general, not me. “Count me in, but you’ll promote me to the rank of officer.”
“Done.” The general nodded. “Now, all cadets need to report to the requisite hall for intake. Cora, take Fern.” When the blonde went to escort our girl past, we turned to follow. “Lance, I mean Lieutenant Axton, you can take these three cadets to the men’s intake hall. Everyone else…” He scanned the crowd. “You either find something productive to do or I’ll have someone assign you to latrine duties.” As people started to move, he turned to the neatly dressed man. “Christian, you’re with me.”
“This way, cadets.”
What Lance was up to was clear. He thought because the general had made him an officer that he could lord that shit over us. Well, he was about to get a rude shock if he thought that was the case.
“What the fuck…?” Dain hissed as we followed Lance down the stairs. “We came here to get our land back.”
“And to win our girl.” My stare matched his in intensity. “Who knows that more than you, brother?”
What we had with Fern, it was destiny, and no one knew the dictates of Lady Fate more than Dain. My brother had the gift of sight, so he had to have seen Fern in his dreams. That lack of communication was something we’d talk long and hard about.
After we signed up to become fucking cadets of the Royal Riders of Nevermere.
Chapter 11
Auren
Stupid, arrogant males.
The largest silver dragon took a ponderous step towards me.
I took in his size, then noted the way his spittle burned holes in the stones themselves. Was he an acid breather? They were usually green and… that didn’t matter. My tail whipped across the courtyard as I drew myself to my full height. I’d had to deal with idiot males insisting they had a right to my body, my potential eggs, since the moment I came into maturity. These dragons would be dealt with the same way as the others that ‘came to visit’ my father’s cave.
With my fangs and claws.
As I surged forward, the scales around my neck rattling in a threat display, I was shocked to see I was not alone. My father coming to stand beside me was perhaps expected, but Viridian? A flash of green and he was there before me, roaring his displeasure into the muzzles of these interlopers.
For just a moment, I felt a rush of gratitude, but that was replaced by concern as the other silver dragons joined their brother. For such massive creatures, they moved like the lightningthey resembled. They loomed over Viridian, heads hanging like one of those weapons humans use to execute criminals. I was moving and so was Father, when the courtyard became very, very crowded. Royal corp dragons had obviously come teeming out of their burrows in the mountain of Wyrmpeak, and they landed around us, making clear what a mistake it would be to attack. These interlopers might be able to dispatch one, maybe two dragons, but not all of us.
Stand down, my father snarled, his muzzle pulling back to reveal his fangs. To any other dragon, this would’ve been incredibly impressive. Battle scarred, there was a broken canine he earned in the Battle of Two Queens hundreds of years before my birth. To any other sensible dragon, my father was a legend, his size almost as big as his reputation, but these silver beasts seemed insensible to that.I brought you to Wyrmpeak. Don’t make me regret that act of hospitality by insulting my daughter.
This queen belongs to us, old one, the largest silver dragon growled.
By all the gods, if they thought to court me, then they were gravely mistaken. My wings flapped out as I leapt over Viridian and my father, landing neatly on the stones between us and the interlopers.
I belong to myself.When I took a step forward, some small part of me was gratified to see the silvers do the same backwards. Perhaps because I wasn’t entirely sure they would. What I was doing was madness, but I could not seem to find it in me to backdown.How dare you come here and try to stake a claim on me without even a by your leave?Acting like wild beasts, not civilised dragons. Who the hell do you think you three are?
Yours.
