“We are, especially if Amos isn’t going to block our plans.”
Amos held still, his silence an acquiescence to the Oracle’s words.
“It’ll happen at dinnertime. Be ready to leave.”
“Fine,” Amos snapped. “Get the fuck out of here.”
The Oracle stood and rolled his hand in front of him in a fancy bow. “Pleasure as always.”
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Amos clenched his jaw as he waited for the big distraction to come. It was two days later and dinner had gone on for twenty minutes already. He could see the harvest moon out the window of the great dining room. The portal was open and the King was ready to mate. Amos’s nerves were a wreck.
The King had chained Lucy’s hand to his own in the traditional consummation night jewelry. The cuff was the same gold of the one around her neck. Lucy sat at the head of the table, next to the King, and Amos could see her disgusted expression from across the hall.
This was torture. The meal was cleared away and Amos was sure he was going to lose his mind. After the dessert course the King was sure to take Lucy back to his chambers. Amos’s fists clenched.
The Oracle caught his eye across the room. He was telling him to calm down. Amos knew that. But then King Dalyer stood up, raising his goblet. Lucy had to stand as well because of the shackle around her wrist. The wives raised their goblets. Their bodyguards, Amos, and the Oracle were the only other people in the room.
Come on, Solar. Amos thought. Any minute now.
The King cleared his throat. “Thank you for being here on this very special consummation night. The night of the harvest moon. This is especially important to me, because the Oracle assures me that this is the night this wife will conceive the most powerful heir my family line has ever known.”
Amos noticed Zara looking queasy. He wished they could have let her in on the secret. But they weren’t sure she wouldn’t have given it away.
“In honor of this special night,” King Dalyer said, his eyes darkening. “I’m instituting primal law.”
Amos’s blood froze. He saw the Oracle’s face go white as a sheet. How the fuck could he not have seen this.
“No!” Zara yelled.
Lucy looked around, totally confused. She didn’t know that primal law meant the King was going to take her right then and there. Publicly. So there was no questioning that she carried his child, the heir to the throne.
The King pushed Lucy to floor, and not expecting it, she easily toppled. Amos felt something come loose inside of him. It was like an egg hatching. Something he’d been incubating for a long time finally came of age. An primal, ancient scream ripped out of his throat and everyone turned to stare at him as he shifted. Immediately full dragon.
King Dalyer looked up. “Amos. I knew you lusted after this woman, but to take it this far…” the King shook his head in fascinated disgust.
He unclipped himself from Lucy who immediately slid away as the King started his disgustingly wet shift.
The wives scattered as the King cuffed the dining table to one side. It smashed on the wall of the great hall as the two dragons squared off. The bodyguards lining the walls looked between Amos and King Dalyer in confusion. Two dragons they never thought they’d see fight were whipping their tails at one another and roaring with rage.
Out of the corner of his eye, Amos saw the Oracle usher Lucy and the wives to one end of the great hall. But that was the last thing he noticed about the room before he lunged at the King.
Sorry, ancestors. He was about to destroy the royal line.
His humongous jaw sank into the King’s shoulder and Dalyer gave a roar loud enough to shake the chandeliers. Amos drew back and stomped one of his mighty back legs straight to the King’s chest, flinging him across the room.
The duty inside a few of the bodyguards apparently woke up because suddenly Amos wasn’t facing off just one dragon, he was facing off three. One of them circled around to his blind spot and rose up in flight, trying to immobilize Amos from the air. Amos swung his tail without looking and plunged the vicious spike on the end through the guard’s wing. He didn’t want to kill these men.
Only the King.
Amos lunged at the King again, but the other two bodyguards got in the way, flinging him backwards. But they were no match for him. Amos burst through their wall and grabbed hold of the King with his front claws.
He picked the older dragon up as if he were a rag doll and tossed him fully into the wall. The great hall shook. King Dalyer stood, a wicked glint in his eyes, and Amos knew what he was going to do before he did it.
The King’s main weapon wasn’t his size or speed. It was the poisonous spikes he could shoot from his mouth.