Chapter 440: I Went To PRISON, Assholes

Kael was not listening to the briefing whatsoever, his eyes on one thing and one thing only. His expression very clearly said, he gets a cookie when I went to prison today. Where is MY cookie?

The young dragon had gone to prison, delivered a sex talk under fire, and drawn stick figures on an interrogation wall with permanent marker. But the mage who made the portal got a cookie, a flag in his cheese, and a straw that twirled. The injustice was biblical.

The majority of the room was not paying attention to the actual meeting anymore.

Ryker’s eyes were glued on the apple juice. "The straw is doing something to me."

"He’s going for the cookie before the cheese," Sterling noted. "That’s a morale-first approach. Questionable strategy but I respect the instinct."

Griffin folded his arms across his chest, which was the physical equivalent of a man building a fort around his feelings. "I would have gone cheese, cookie, cheese again."

"The cookie is a reward for finishing the sandwich," Sterling commented. "He earned it."

"HE EARNED IT?" Kael’s head whipped around. "I went to PRISON."

Nobody acknowledged this.

Brennan pulled the flag out of his cheese, studied it, and then noticed the entire room was watching him. He waved the tiny flag back and forth. Slowly. Like a surrender.

"I don’t know what I’m surrendering to but it feels right."

"Your dignity," Kael snapped. "You’re surrendering your dignity. It left during the straw."

Ryker and Sterling exchanged a glance that made it clear they already knew the precise reason the young dragon was bitter.

Five minutes later, the straw hit air. Brennan kept pulling like a man negotiating with an empty well. The rattling sound echoed through the war room like a starting pistol.

Mage fueled. Mission live. Begin.

???

FIVE MINUTES LATER

SOLVEIL - THE CRADLE OF CIVILIZATION

The portal snapped closed behind a rescue party that consisted of a fully-fueled mage (mask sold separately), two angry kings with separation anxiety (ignore the growling), a concussed dragon (personality ... 70% loaded), a High General who communicated with finger guns (both loaded), and a young dragon who still hadn’t gotten a cookie (accepting apologies in writing).

A whistle cut through the dark.

It came from the leftmost carriage, where a man was leaning out of the window with his chin resting on his forearm and his eyes raking down Maddox’s body.

Maddox Drakencrest, Dragon King of Velkaris, Commander of the largest military force in the world for an entire continent, turned his head so slowly, it could have been set to music.

His face cycled through confusion, shock, and the specific kind of offense that comes from being whistled at for the first time in your life by someone who has no clue who the fuck you are.

His gold eyes landed on the man in the carriage. The man in the carriage winked.

Maddox’s mouth opened. Nothing came out because his brain was still buffering on the whistle and the wink was a software update it had not consented to.

Ryker looked at the drug carriage. Looked at the sex carriage. Looked at the child with the blade. Looked at Maddox, whose face was cycling through colors that didn’t exist in nature.

"Congratulations, Commander," Kael commented, his voice carrying the kind of joy that only comes from watching your brother get catcalled. "You’ve been scouted. Should I negotiate your rate or do you want to handle that yourself?"

Maddox’s brain rejected every word. "What the..."

"The man whistled at you. That’s interest. In this market, that means he sees potential. Frankly, I’m offended he didn’t whistle at me first, but your jawline has always tested better with the criminals. I’m an ex war criminal. I would know."

Kael had more material. Nicholas had more sense. Sense won by three steps.

"Walk," Nicholas ordered, already moving.

The Dragon King walked. Stopped. The group stopped.

He looked left.

A carriage with blackout curtains was conducting business, a non-traditional pharmacist was counting something into a pouch for a customer.

He looked right.

A second carriage sat rocking hard enough to crack the axle, curtains twitching like someone inside was getting paid by the thrust.

He shot Brennan a sideways glance. "This is where my sister landed. Here."

The sentence was delivered at a volume that was technically a whisper and emotionally a scream.

"She can handle herself," Kael replied, walking again.

"Interesting," Ryker observed, tilting his head at the young dragon as they walked past another rocking carriage. "You gave Blair a sex talk in a closet, complete with visual aids and a dying man as a prop, but you’re upset about this alley. This alley has educational resources, Kael. Hands-on learning. Live demonstrations. Professional instruction. Frankly, this alley is better equipped to teach reproductive health than you were."

Sterling turned his head. The three knots on his skull throbbed in sequence, a rolling wave of pain that traveled from the base of his skull to the crown and back, but the throbbing was secondary to the sentence he had just heard.

"Sex talk," he repeated, like he was tasting something he did not like.

Ryker let out a dark laugh that matched the alley a little too well. "Oh yes. I was there for it. Front row. He gave it over a necklace. Damon was putting Blair’s necklace back on and Kael decided that was the gateway to pregnancy. Full presentation. Slides would have improved it. The word ’fornicate’ was used repeatedly."

"His hands were on her throat, Ryker," Kael snapped, his voice climbing, one finger raised in the universal gesture of a man who will die on this hill. "That is wolf foreplay. His fangs were extending. On Blair. I have been around wolves long enough to know that they enjoy biting things. I’ve been bitten by one. That’s exactly how it starts. He pretended a clasp was difficult. I left STERLING’S UNCONSCIOUS BODY to intervene and I would do it AGAIN because if I had been FOUR SECONDS SLOWER we would be having a VERY DIFFERENT CONVERSATION right now and that conversation would involve a CRIB. They were going to FORNICATE."