All Chapters of The Dragon King's Weak Mate : Chapter 1 - Chapter 7

The sun did, tearing through the servants' corridor beneath Mount Ashkar an hour before dawn, and by the time it reached the guards stationed outside Kael Ashveyn's chambers, no one could say for certain whether it belonged to a woman or a wolf.Kael was already awake. He had not slept properly in three nights, not since the bond-ache had first settled behind his ribs like a hook sunk into muscle, tightening a little more with every hour that passed. He rose from his bed without waiting for the guard to knock, pulling a robe over his shoulders, and was in the corridor before the second scream had even finished echoing off the stone.It was nothing, in the end. A kitchen girl, startled awake by a rat in the pantry stores, embarrassed and apologetic once the guards found her. But Kael stood in that corridor long after the commotion settled, breathing hard, heart pounding for reasons that had nothing to do with rats or screaming girls, and understood, with a dread that curled low and unw

Kael did not sleep at all that night, and by the third hour of pacing his chambers, he had begun to suspect he never would again.He told himself, over and over, that the growl which had torn loose in his chest during the presentation meant nothing. A reflex. A trick of overwrought nerves after three sleepless nights waiting for the bond to settle. It had nothing to do with the girl herself, nothing to do with the way her eyes had found his across the crowded hall and struck something loose in his chest that he still hadn't managed to put back in place hours later.He nearly believed it, until he caught himself standing at his window sometime past midnight, staring out toward the west wing, wondering whether she was sleeping."You're doing that thing again," came a dry voice from his doorway, and Kael turned to find Torv leaning against the frame, arms crossed, watching him with the particular assessing look he reserved for matters of state. "Standing very still and pretending you're

Sable's wine glass slipped an inch in her hand before she caught it . Across the banquet hall, she felt more than saw the way conversation had begun to still around them, nobles sensing, the way courts always did, that something worth watching had just entered the room even without fully understanding what."An unfinished acquaintance," Kael repeated, voice gone flat and dangerous in a way she hadn't heard from him before, not even in the cold formality of the throne room. He turned to her, something searching in his expression now, some question he hadn't asked yet. "You know this name.""Draven Kastor courted my pack's elders for my hand two winters ago," Sable said, keeping her voice as steady as she could manage though her pulse had begun to race. "They refused him. He didn't take it well, from what I remember hearing afterward, though I never met him directly myself.""He refused, or your elders refused him?""They refused him," Sable said. "They told him I wasn't worth the troub

The courtyard fell into a tense, watchful silence, Draven's eighty riders spread out along the mountain road behind him like a shadow the light hadn't caught up to yet, and Sable felt every eye at the gate shift between the two men, waiting to see which one would speak first."You're a week early, Kastor," Kael said, voice carrying the same flat, dangerous calm he'd used with the steward the night before. "The envoy was agreed for the formal date, not whenever your patience ran thin.""My patience ran thin two winters ago," Draven said easily, dismounting without waiting for permission, boots striking the packed earth with unhurried confidence. "I've simply grown tired of waiting politely for things that matter to me. You'll understand that instinct eventually, dragon king, once you've held a mate bond longer than a handful of days.""She is not a matter that concerns you," Kael said."Isn't she?" Draven's eyes slid to Sable, warm and possessive in a way that made her stomach turn eve