Chapter 316: Make Me

"Your MATE," Maddox repeated.

"Obviously."

Kael said obviously like a man who had been waiting weeks for someone to acknowledge the thing everyone could smell and nobody would say. The Luminari could smell it. The wolves could smell it. Hell, his goddamn rug, Gerald, could smell it. Maddox was the only asshole pretending his nose was broken.

"Don’t act like you haven’t put that together. She’s my mate too, little brother," Kael added.

"Stop calling me little brother."

"Stop acting like one."

"I am your KING."

"You are my king. She is my mate. Both things are true. One of them is relevant right now and the other one can kiss my dragon ass."

"The crown can kiss your ass." Maddox’s nostrils flared. "You know what, Kael? You’re right. Let’s set the crown aside. King off the table. Let’s make this about two dragons and one mate. You still want to have this conversation? Because without the crown, I’m just a man with a very personal interest in removing your hands from my WIFE’s waist."

"A ring on your finger doesn’t cancel out my matebond. Nothing you bought, earned, or screamed about in this room changes that."

Kael played the ancient matebond card like a man slapping down a royal flush at a table that was playing Go Fish. Ironic, because Maddox was about to do the same thing.

"SO DO I! SHE MERGED WITH MY FLAME. I BOUGHT HER. I DREAMED OF HER. YOU ABDUCTED HER."

A thin line of blood slid from Guinevere’s left nostril. Neither man noticed because testosterone had temporarily disabled their pattern recognition.

"I rescued her," Kael corrected.

"You STOLE her."

"And then I saved her life. More than once. You’re welcome."

"You’re welcome." Maddox looked at the ceiling like he was petitioning the gods for help. The gods were busy. "You’re WELCOME. You want a medal? A parade? I will burn this goddamn room to the ground with you in it."

Two apex predators were arguing over a woman who was actively hemorrhaging between them. If natural selection had a blooper reel, this would be the opening clip. Welcome to Drakencrest.

"You done?"

"No. I also married her. I also had a flame merge. I also—"

"You also left the room. Voluntarily."

"I GAVE YOU FIFTEEN MINUTES TO TALK. I DID NOT GIVE YOU FIFTEEN MINUTES TO CUDDLE."

"It wasn’t cuddling."

"Her face was in your neck, Kael."

"That’s where her face reached. I’m taller than her."

Maddox’s brain heard taller and translated it to go fuck yourself

The door burst open. Sterling and Ryker filled the frame like two men responding to an explosion, which was fair.

"You were supposed to give us fifteen minutes," Kael snapped.

"I gave you eleven. You failed them."

"Don’t change the subject."

"The subject is you breaking your own word. I’m staying on subject."

"The SUBJECT is my wife on your THIGHS."

"My thighs are fine."

Maddox did not give a single solitary shit about the structural integrity of Kael’s thighs. The thighs could combust. The thighs could fall off. The only thing those thighs needed to do was stop being a goddamn seat.

"Your thighs are not the ISSUE, Dickhead."

"You keep bringing them up."

"Because she’s ON them."

"We’ve established that. Moving on."

"Shut up."

It was at this time that Guinevere wiggled out of Kael’s grip to stand. She felt like she was going to be sick. She was halfway to the bathing chamber when it happened. One second she was on her feet. The next, she was back on Kael’s lap at dragon speed. She blinked a few times, confused how she got back there so quickly.

"She chose me. In this moment, she chose me. That’s what’s eating you," Kael stated as if he hadn’t gotten up and wife-snatched Guinevere.

Maddox’s chest expanded. "She didn’t choose you. She asked for a conversation."

"She asked for me by name. In front of everyone. And you walked out because you knew if you stayed you’d make it worse."

"She was asking me something important," Kael said.

"She can ask me. I’m her husband."

"She didn’t ask you. She asked me. There’s a reason for that."

That landed. Maddox’s jaw locked so hard the muscle jumped twice. He closed the remaining distance, leaned down until his face was level with Kael’s, and said something through his teeth that Guinevere felt more than heard because it vibrated through her like a bass note.

"Get. Your goddamn hands. Off of my wife."

Kael didn’t move. "Make me."

Two words. The two worst words in the history of sibling rivalry. Two stupid, reckless, cock-swinging words that have preceded every stupid decision two brothers have ever made since the beginning of time. In this moment, it was either the bravest or the stupidest thing Kael had ever said. The answer was both.

Maddox grabbed her arm. Kael grabbed her waist. Guinevere was the rope in a tug-of-war between two apex predators who had forgotten she was a person and were treating her like a flag.

Maddox pulled. Kael held. Guinevere’s body shifted between them and something in the room changed. The runes on her skin flared white-gold, a pulse so bright it lit the walls.

Kael felt it hit through his matebond like a defibrillator to the chest.

Maddox saw Kael light up to match her and lost his shit.

The roar that tore out of Maddox was part dragon, part king. It was the sound that exists in the space between man and beast, the frequency that shakes walls and stops hearts, and it came from a place so deep in his chest it bypassed his throat entirely and went straight through the room like a shockwave.

His fangs dropped. He was on her neck before his brain cleared the motion, his mouth finding the junction of her throat and shoulder with the precision of a predator who had been fighting this impulse and had just lost.

Kael roared immediately in response. A sound that came from the same bloodline and carried the same ancient territorial fury, but aimed in the opposite direction. He felt Maddox’s claim searing into her skin, and his dragon responded the way any dragon responds when another male marks what’s his. His fangs sunk into the other side of Guinevere’s neck.

Did either of them stop?

Of course not.

They continued to roar while marking at the same fucking time.