เรื่องสั้นแนวChildhood Sweethearts Fantasy และนิยาย Regret

I was the most spoiled little princess in the shifter world, because I had four powerful daddies. Darius is the head of the Dragon clan, and the King who rules over the entire shifter world. The other three are the heads of the Lion clan, the Serpent clan, and the Eagle clan. Everyone fears their power. My mother was their childhood sweetheart. When she was killed by rogue wolves, they found me still barely breathing inside her, and saved my life. The four of them spoiled me rotten. Whatever I looked at twice, it would be sitting in front of me by the next morning. Every girl in the shifter world envied me. Until the year I turned sixteen, when Vivian came back. She was the daughter of their first love. From that day on, my four daddies were completely different. Vivian cried to Daddy Darius and said I'd pushed her down the stairs. Without a single question, he threw me in a cell, bound my wrists in silver chains, and made me kneel on broken silver shards for seven straight days. Then she went to Daddy Orion and said I'd stolen the necklace her mother left her. So Daddy Orion melted down the only ring my mother ever left me and had it remade into a necklace for her. The last time, Vivian stabbed herself and cried that I'd tried to kill her. Daddy Rex didn't even ask. He just sentenced me to four years in the silver prison. The silver prison holds the worst criminals in the shifter world. The guards whipped me with silver every day, forced me to wash everyone's clothes, and some weeks I went days without a bite of food. Today, when my door got kicked open again, I was huddled in the corner shaking. I hadn't eaten in two days. Then I heard the Moon Goddess's gentle voice. “Child, do you want to leave here and go back to your mother?”

Everyone at the Golden Crown Court knew I was the Dragon King's youngest, most beloved daughter. A childhood injury had left my dragon breath — the power inside me — unstable. Every seven days, I needed someone to help steady it. But my three childhood friends had stayed by my side for more than a decade: Lucas Ashford, commander of the dragon knights; Darian Stormwell, my father's personal guard; and Silas Wintermere, a dragon priest. They'd sworn before my father that they would always take care of me. Then everything changed. On her first day at court, Kassan Blackthorn, a black dragon, defeated three of our dragon knights. Lucas was impressed. He called her a true dragon warrior. He forgot his promise to practice sword fighting with me and spent the next several days following her around, eager to please. Darian said Lucas was like a sailor under a siren's spell. "He's not worth getting upset over," he told me. A few days later, Darian missed his turn to help regulate my dragon breath, too. Pain swept through me, burning hot one moment and freezing cold the next. Just before I passed out, Silas burst through my door and gathered me into his arms. Holding me tight, he said, "Evelyn, whatever happens, I'll always be here for you." But three days later, I watched him fasten around Kassan's wrist the very dragon crystal bracelet I'd wanted for myself. He gave her the same tender smile I knew so well. That was when I realized I had nothing left. So I knocked on my father's study door and told him I wanted to go north and marry Derek Frostborne, chief of the frost dragons.

I am the Oracle, the High Priestess who connects the divine realm to the mortal world. My daughter, however, was born with only a trace of divine power, leaving her little different from an ordinary human. I brought four orphans back from the beastman world and raised them myself. I gave them only one condition: protect my daughter from harm. For years, her four brothers shielded her, leaving her free to be as willful as she liked. Then, on the day of her coming-of-age rite, her prayer reached me. "Mother, my brothers are going to sacrifice me so Daisy can receive the Goddess's protection." By the time I got there, my daughter was bound to the altar. My four sons were busy preparing the altar. Daisy preened at their side. I was about to begin the chant that would punish them. Christopher, the serpent, pulled Daisy close and wrapped a protective arm around her. Gardner, the polar bear, talked back to me for the first time. "Mother, our little sister hurt Daisy first. "We only meant to frighten her. "The rite only takes away her ability to speak with the Goddess. She is useless anyway. She may as well be ordinary." I looked at the ingrates I had personally raised and scoffed. They had forgotten something. Every skill, every power, every title they held had come from me. I had made them. I could unmake them just as easily.