Page 26 of Consorting with Dragons

The whole thing was inconvenient and embarrassing, but I had talked to the queen about it, hoping she could come up with a better solution. I’d heard that she and my uncle had been victims of the mating bond too, so she was able to understand and commiserate with me. Once I’d gotten the signed contract from his father, I would even agree to a small wedding appropriate to his station, even though I abhorred the idea of such a fuss being made over my domestic arrangements. The queen had some thoughts on that when I mentioned it.

“It’s not only about you now,” Queen Eujanie had told me. “Once you marry, it has to be about compromise and about what’s best for both of you. One person can’t expect to get their way in all things.”

I knew she was probably right, but I didn’t like it much. For now, I could only hope that Rylan didn’t fully remember all that had happened in that warehouse on the day we met. After all, it had been a rather disgraceful exhibition on my part. Thank the gods the Lycan officials had stopped me before I’d made a complete ass of myself. It had been a close thing, and that would have been difficult to make up to him, to say the least. I didn’t think he would ever have forgiven me if I had just gone ahead and done what I’d wanted to in front of everyone, and who could blame him?

It had been much harder than I’d thought it would be to stay away from him these past two days, but I knew I had to try. I had a great deal to do. I had notified the Moravian and Axis contingents of the whereabouts of the young prince as soon as we returned, and I gave them a few details about the entire incident, including the subsequent pirate attack and his injuries. Only an hour or so later, I received a return message from Prince Mikos asking me to stand by for a subspace communication.

After a short delay, the screen flickered a few times, and I was looking at the bloody prince of Tygeria himself, Prince Mikos, infamous to those of us who had sided with the Alliance and against his forces during the war. He had gained even more notoriety and fame when he later married a human male, an Alliance colonel, to secure a treaty that could end the war and would acknowledge the victory of the Axis. Their marriage did buy us some favorable terms and ended that awful war, though Earth itself—the instigator of the entire war—didn’t fare too well. Even though King Davos had married a human from Earth, he came down pretty hard against their leaders. Davos and his human mate had seven children together over the succeeding years, Prince Mikos, being the eldest. He was the heir apparent to the Tygerian throne.

The conversation with Mikos was every bit as intense as I figured it would be. He wanted precise details about the attack, and about his nephew’s condition, which I gave him as well as I could. The dicey parts came when he seemed a bit suspicious of my motives and asked if I was interested in some kind of “reward” for Rylan’s safe return. Did he think this was a hostage situation and I wanted a ransom? Since it had never entered my mind to want a payment of any kind, I assured him in no uncertain terms that I did not.

“I don’t need or want any kind of reward. I’m glad I could help him and regret that it was necessary in the first place. Had he been more cooperative in the beginning and not pulled a weapon and fired it at me, he would never have been detained at all.”

A total prevarication on my part—once I’d seen Rylan, and once I’d realized who he was to me, I’d felt like I had no choice but to keep him, but I thought it better not to reveal that just yet.

The prince gave me a long, steady look. “Thank you, Marshal General. Please give my nephew my regards and tell him hisomak and mine are both already on their way to pick him up and bring him home. Unless there is some objection to those plans.”

“About that, Your Highness….”

His tone turned even frostier. “Yes? Is there some problem with my nephew’s release, General?”

“Not a problem exactly. But there have been certain…complications.”

He gave me a look that should have peeled the skin off my face.

“What kind of complications?”

“I seem to have formed a mate bond with him.” I held my head high and gave him a bold look, because I couldn’t afford to show weakness to this man. And it was the unvarnished truth. Rylan was mine.

His face became suffused with red, and I could see that he was about to explode, so I held up a hand to stop him. “I will have a marriage contract ready for his father as soon as he arrives.Nothing has happened between us, and the prince is uncompromised in every way. But the moment I saw him…I knew he was mine. I assume you’re familiar with the Lycan mating bond? The Horvathian one is quite similar, if not exactly the same. And the bond goes both ways. I believe he feels it as much as I do.”

The prince slammed his hand down on his desk and for the next few minutes, he shouted at me, loudly cursing me, my family, my heritage, the day I was born and everyone I was ever associated with, past, present and future. Quite fluently. It was all in Tygerian, so I missed a few words, but I let him finish, and then I cleared my throat to speak again.

“I can see that you’re upset. Understandably so. None of this was in my plan either, I assure you. But I believe I’m worthy of consideration as his mate. I know he’s a royal prince twice over, but I am the Marshal General of Horvath. I myself also hold aroyal title on Horvath as my father was the late Prince Karlon of Horvath, who was killed honorably in the war. He created a tactical force called the Special Warfare Riders or SWR, which I now run. His brother, the late king of Horvath designated me as Riders Leader, a title he created for me not long before his own passing. In fact, I’ve had a fairly long and distinguished career in the Army. I believe my background is quite suitable, and we would have the blessing of the dowager Queen Regent Eujanie. We’d like to have yours and the king’s blessings as well, and of course, his parents’ blessing. But make no mistake, sir. Whether I have any of that or not…you need to understand that I’m not asking for permission. I fully intend to marry Prince Rylan. Very soon.”

An ominous silence filled the room. “Is that so?” he said softly, menacingly.

“Yes, it is. I’ve spoken to him about it as well, and he has raised no objections.”

“I see,” he said in a snide tone. “In other words, you’re simply ‘informing me’ of what’s going to happen, is that it? This is a done deal as far as you’re concerned.”

There was that term again, and luckily, this time I was familiar with it. I nodded. “Yes. It’s a done deal, as you say. He belongs to me.” For emphasis, and in case I hadn’t made myself perfectly clear, I repeated myself. “He’s mine.”

He glared at me for a long moment, practically daring me to keep staring at him. I knew that breaking eye contact would be seen as a weakness, however. And he didn’t intimidate me. We were equals in status as far as I was concerned.

“Then it seems, General,” he said, “that we have nothing more to say to each other. I’ll inform my father.”

On that note, he abruptly signed off without another word, and I was left staring at a dark screen.

I went to see Rylan that same afternoon to give him the news. I hoped he’d be good with it. He was sitting on a lounge chair by the window, and he looked up at me and gave me a beautiful smile as I came in. I blinked at him a few times, because I really hadn’t been expecting that. I wanted badly to go over and touch him, which was all a part of the craziness of this bond. I made myself stand by the door and gazed in at him instead.

“How are you feeling?”

“I’m much better, and I’ve just spoken with my uncle Mikos.” He held up a communicator to show me. “The doctor brought it in, because he insisted on speaking directly to me after the two of you talked. Thank you for notifying him, Quinn. My omak will be arriving soon, he said.”

“Oh? Yes. Good.”

I thought it was a bit unusual for Mikos to contact Rylan directly and so soon after speaking to me, but I suppose he wanted to hear his voice for himself and make sure he wasn’t being coerced or forced in any way. Our relations with Tygeria had never completely normalized since the war. As with the Three Planets of Lycanus, we had a sometimes-uneasy truce. Let’s just say, there wasn’t a lot of love lost on either side. Another reason why it was awkward for me that Prince Mikos knew I’d bonded with his nephew, without even asking Rylan’s father first.

---