Chapter 470: Rejected By A Dragon’s Dick

Sterling was about to play the dragon card, which was the only card that outranked a king’s fury, because dragon certainty about mates was biological. Irrefutable. Above politics.

"She’s unconscious because I marked her. What you are seeing is what happens after a dragon marks his mate. And she is my mate. My dragon is certain of it."

"She is pure Luminari." Landon’s light did not dim. "That is not possible."

Sterling blinked at him. The blink was the Sterling equivalent of a jaw drop. The man whose fated mate already had a dragon fated mate who had merged with her dragon fated mate’s flame, something only the purest fated bonds can do in dragon culture, that man was claiming that was not possible. The audacity of that had its own gravitational pull.

Sterling had played the dragon card. And the dragon card did not work. Solveil was not a dragon kingdom.

Based on Sterling’s prior interactions with this man, this king was not rash in nature. He was being emotional right now. Sterling was also concussed. Both things were true.

"And regardless, you were doing that with my cousin in front of her," Landon finished, voice cracking. The image of his sister watching, unconscious or not, while a man was inside another woman beside her, that was the detail that turned political fury into personal devastation.

Phaedra raised her hand like she was in class. The current environment was not, in fact, a classroom. It was a diplomatic crisis involving her cousin’s virginity and the dragon who had "taken it." The hand went up anyway.

"It is true. I got on right after her, cousin. It was not his fault. I wanted the marking too," she explained casually, like they were taking turns riding a horse, not a dragon’s cock.

"My dragon did not try to mark Phaedra," Sterling added. "It has never done this before in my life, and it chose one woman tonight. Not two."

Phaedra crossed her arms, furious and visibly insulted. Her pussy had been rejected by a dragon’s instinct.

"I still smelled good. You said I did," she snapped. "I was on you LONGER."

Landon Solveil was fighting a two-front war: a Third marking his sister and a Second finishing inside a woman’s mouth in front of his cousin. Both men were pinned against his wall. Both men had explanations. One was being diplomatic. The other was Ryker.

"I have heard enough. Their lives end now." His light flared to killing brightness, his eyes cutting between the two with open murder.

Maddox looked at his Third. He knew Sterling Emberfell the way he knew his own hands, and Sterling did not lie. Sterling did not guess. If Sterling said the woman was his fated mate while standing against a wall with execution light aimed at his chest, then the woman was his fated mate and the light was pointed at a man telling the truth.

"If my Third is telling you that, then it’s true. And if you hurt him, Solveil, it will hurt your sister through their matebond."

Landon dropped Sterling without a word, his focus narrowed on Ryker. "AND YOU. You were finishing inside my cousin’s lady-in-waiting three feet from my virgin cousin."

The pivot from Third meant the Second got to absorb the remaining fury. Ryker received the transfer with both hands raised.

"I was not aware Aurora was your cousin, your lady-in-waiting was your lady-in-waiting, or that this was a family reunion. They were serving us food and drinks and led us to believe they were servants. Then they came onto us. Aggressively."

"I was riding him, cousin," Aurora offered, her voice sincere. "The dragon told me to mount him so I did. But he did not want to finish inside me, or mark me, so he finished in my lady-in-waiting’s mouth."

Landon’s expression hardened. "You stole Aurora’s virginity as well."

Ryker’s mouth fell open.

"She was definitely not a virgin," he informed the room with zero apology, in front of the king who had enough light in his hands to atomize him.

Maddox’s hand went to his face because Maddox was very aware that was not the correct thing to say and his Second needed a muzzle. "That’s not helping anyone, Ryker."

"It’s relevant context." Ryker turned back to Landon, undeterred. "Your cousin walked in here with an agenda, and the agenda was a dragon marking. She got on top of me. I was sitting. Minding my business. Being charming. A full-contact event occurred without my sponsorship."

"That is not true." Aurora lifted her chin, wounded. "I was going to the concussed dragon, because you told me his fiancée faked her own death and he had a difficult day. But then you told me to stay. You told me to ride you. So I did."

Ryker gave her a look that communicated, clearly and at length, that was not what happened. "You climbed on top of me. Started taking off your clothes."

"You told me that was the dragon way."

"I did no such thing. That is not the dragon way. You came into this room with a plan. And you knew exactly who I was. Care to explain that?"

Aurora blinked. "I don’t understand."

"My rank. You knew it. You called it out. Loudly. I never told you my rank. I don’t lead with it. So explain how a woman I met forty minutes ago screamed my job title at the ceiling."

"You told me."

"I absolutely did not." Ryker’s eyes narrowed, and the levity under his voice thinned into something with an edge. "These women came in here with an agenda and they did something to their scents. My dragon couldn’t tell the difference until right now. Hers is manufactured. Too clean. Too strong. It’s bait."

Aurora’s face crumpled and she began to cry.

Every woman in the room rushed to her, folding around her in a protective huddle, glaring at Ryker. That is, every woman except Electra, who was blissfully unconscious.