Wolf Princess Sold to the Dragon King novel Chapter 110

Chapter 110: Daddy’s Here & He Brought A Chessboard

Guinevere was six the first time she watched her father bribe a man. Most six-year-olds wouldn’t have understood. But she did. Gold in. Silence out.

Fourteen years later, somewhere in Drakencrest Keep, she was sleeping against her husband’s chest. And somewhere in Drakencrest Harbor, an Alpha King just docked.

Thirty wolves. One unmarked ship. Zero flags. The kind of arrival that starts a war or prevents one.

RULE 20: Buy the gatekeeper. Fuck the diplomat. Ignore the general. In that order. Stealth is a currency that appreciates the longer you hold it. By the time you sit down at the table, the gatekeeper is bought, the diplomat is fucked, and you’ve already seen the general’s hand.

A cloaked figure descended the gangplank before the ship was fully moored. The harbormaster met the figure at the end of the dock. The conversation was brief. A sack changed hands. Gold coins, heavy enough to strain the leather.

The cloaked figure returned to the ship and lowered his hood. Thomas Draven, Beta of Lunaris, slid into position at Renwick’s side the way a man returns to a seat he’s never really left.

Renwick surveyed Drakencrest the way a man surveys a chessboard where his opponent has been playing for three weeks without realizing there was a second game running underneath.

Moonlight hit the Keep’s obsidian, rising from the mountain in the distance. The kind of structure that wanted you impressed or intimidated.

Renwick felt neither. He felt the same thing he always felt when looking at power that belonged to another man: opportunity, dressed in patience, waiting for the right door.

Normally, an Alpha King and his Beta wouldn’t both leave their kingdom on the brink of war. Diplomacy was what sons were for. But this time, both of their sons were at home in Lunaris. The business here needed the big dogs and there was no room for fuck ups.

"Should I send word ahead?" Beta Draven asked, his tone suggesting he already knew the answer.

"Not just yet," Renwick said, his eyes still on the Keep. "We have an old friend to visit first."

RULE 21: Old friends are the most useful and the most dangerous men alive. Start with them first every time so they roll over like a good boy. Skip them and they mount you from behind.

✦ ✦ ✦

I am lying on top of someone.

That was the first thought she had.

The scent hit her next. Her wolf knew where she was before her mind accepted it was even possible.

She didn’t open her eyes just yet. Her neck throbbed, but the memory of what happened was fog.

Kael’s voice. She’s my mate. Maddox’s body hitting hers. Then nothing.

The questions poured into her as fast as the anxiety did.

Did he mark me? Is he okay? Did the failsafe fire? Is this my fault?

His lips pressed to the top of her head. The way he used to before the dark magic stole him. The exact same pressure, in the exact same spot, held for the exact same duration.

"Before you panic, we’re married."

She went rigid above him. "Where am I? Who are you?"

His hands stopped moving in her hair.

She made sure to hold it for three full seconds before glancing up at him.

Her mouth twitched. "Kidding."

The breath that left him could have powered a sail. "I’m going to kill you."

"Your face."

"My face is going to remember this, Guinevere."

"Worth it."

She felt the laugh before she heard it. His whole body vibrated beneath her and the sound that followed was so unguarded it made her throat tighten.

"You’re a menace, Wife."

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