The mage wanted her, and she was going to let him have her.

STEP ONE: Run the opposite direction of Blair at full speed with two broken ribs.

STEP TWO: Be as subtle as a signal flare.

"This way, sir. Try to keep up."

Guinevere snapped every branch like a drunk elk, the mage chasing after her. She didn’t see any others. Either they were flanking her or they were still attending to their dicks.

STEP THREE: Figure out the rest while running.

There was no rest. There was running and there was getting caught and the only thing between them was whatever her legs had left.

Two soldiers came out of the trees. She spun with her stolen blade and opened the first one’s forearm before he could grab her.

"Fuck. She fights like a feral cat in a bag."

The one she’d cut caught her by the arms, blood from his forearm smearing across her suit. His grip was furious.

"Easy. Gods, she’s still swinging."

They shoved her through the trees and down to her knees at the center of the clearing, where the masked mage was waiting.

The mage took a lock of her hair between two gloved fingers and rolled it in the sunlight the way a jeweler rolls a stone towards a lamp.

"White hair on the dragon continent. You are either from Solandris, doubtful. Or you are very lost and expensive. Which is it?"

Guinevere lifted her chin, looking at his mask. No eyeholes. Bold design choice.

Her ribs and right hand were throbbing with her pulse and she tasted blood. She was in no position to do anything but cooperate. But her mouth had other plans and what came out was not strategic.

"I can’t tell if we’re making eye contact, or how you can see, for that matter. Either you’re blind or lost a bet. Which is it?

"There was nothing but silence for three full seconds. Then he tilted his head like a dog hearing a frequency it didn’t expect, then turned his head towards a man who just emerged from the treeline. 𝑓𝓇𝘦ℯ𝘸𝘦𝑏𝓃𝑜𝘷ℯ𝑙.𝑐𝑜𝓂

"Is this her?"

"That’s the one. She dropped two of mine back there. Broke Varek’s nose. Took Hollis’s dignity."

"Did she now."

"In fairness, Varek’s nose had a crooked future ahead of it regardless. I gave it a much-needed correction. And Hollis’s dignity was a preexisting condition before I showed up."

Behind her, one of the soldiers laughed, then turned it into a cough.

"For someone playing with dark magic, your recruitment pipeline is a bottom-tier, clearance bin tragedy. And that villain aesthetic you’re going for is, frankly, the most ridiculous thing I’ve seen this week. A high bar you cleared with flying colors."

The mage’s posture stiffened. A small warm spark of joy lit in the cold pit of her chest. Worth it. Possibly fatal.

"Why you little—"

She cut him off. "Original. Truly. Why you little. Haven’t heard that one before."

There was a sound of wings from above, and a black dragon dropped into the clearing.

He shifted to human form as soon as he landed, already walking towards her.

He was tall. Not Maddox tall, but close. Dark hair, sharp features, a face that suggested old blood and older money.

Ignoring the mage entirely, he reached down taking the exact same lock of hair he was holding. The mage let go.

Guinevere looked at the mage, then back at the dragon. Pecking order established.

"Well." His voice was low and amused. "Things just got interesting."

He tilted her chin up with one finger. His eyes were the color of old iron.

"What are you."

Guinevere held his gaze. "I’m a servant."

He laughed. Actually laughed. It was a rich, delighted sound, and it chilled her more than the mage had.

"Not what I was asking. But please, insult my intelligence a little more, I’m enjoying it." He let her chin go and straightened. "Servants don’t drop armored men in under a minute. Servants don’t have a scent I can’t place on two continents. Try again."

"Upper ward laundry." Guinevere’s voice was flat. "The hours are brutal. The benefits are worse."

His mouth curved.

"Bind her."

They hauled her to her feet. One of the soldiers produced a length of rope from inside his cloak and stepped behind her. She didn’t flinch when they tied her wrists with cord that bit into already raw skin.

A second length of rope went around her waist. A belt.

She glanced up at the iron-eyed man, eyebrows raised.

"A rope belt. Bold. I assume there’s a vision."

He didn’t answer, arms folded, clearly mindlinking his men.

The soldiers binding her seemed to realize that too. One of them frowned, then moved to tie a cloth over her mouth, gagging her. She rolled her eyes, unimpressed.

Another soldier latched a rope onto the belt they made. Creative. A leash. Most wolves would’ve been offended, but she appreciated the irony.

They stood in the clearing, not moving, as he openly studied her. His nostrils flared once before he moved in a blur behind her.

Something hard pressed against her bound hands behind her back. Her wolf recoiled.

"We’ve met before, haven’t we?" he asked, voice low.

Everything about this man made her skin crawl and then some.

CRACK.

After smacking her backside hard enough to sting, he palmed the curve while his other hand traced down her sternum, stopping just above her heat.

No tears for this monster. She picked a knot in the bark and crawled inside it, pulling the edges closed and watched the rest of this happen to a girl who wasn’t her.

He pressed his lips to her neck, lips brushing her racing pulse before his teeth grazed the skin. She could feel his fangs elongating, just as a wolf’s would.

Her chest was heaving faster, full-on panic taking over. It felt like this man was about to mark her, if dragons marked. She wasn’t sure. The uncertainty was its own kind of violence.

Then his entire body went rigid behind her. His already hard cock started throbbing so hard she could feel his heartbeat through it. A low growl rumbled from his chest. One she could only assume belonged to his dragon.

He jerked away five feet from her, cold air replacing where he was.

Nobody moved.

She stole a glance. The second she met his eyes, they flared pure gold with no whites.

He closed them, while his fangs retracted slowly back inside his mouth. Then he blinked a few times and shook his head once.

Was he fighting for control? Gods she hoped not. But she’d seen that exact body language in enough wolves to know.

"Don’t flatter yourself." He wasn’t looking at her when he said it. He was looking at every single thing in the clearing that wasn’t her. "We’re done here."

The phantom of his mouth was still on her neck. But she was still standing. That was the only victory available and she was taking it.

They moved through the forest in a tight formation meant for a prisoner far more dangerous than a girl who broke her hand punching one of their faces.

The stranger and the mage walked side-by-side in front. Behind them was a soldier holding her leash. Two additional soldiers flanked her.

Four grown-ass dragons and a mage for one girl. A personal best.

She let her hands go loose behind her back.

The rope was tight, but not as tight as silver, and whoever had tied her had tied it just loose enough she could wiggle out of it. Probably never tied a woman before. Not only a woman, but one who could shift.

She worked the loops in tiny, patient increments as she walked. One millimeter. Two. A twist of her thumb joint. She felt her thumb dislocate. The world flared white for a second, a hot, screaming needle of pain that she buried under a layer of cold iron will.

It’d take a day to heal. She’d survived worse. Her first shift was much more painful than that.

She kept her steps shuffling and her eyes down and her breathing perfectly even, and by the time they had gone another fifty yards, she had bought herself enough slack that the rope would slide off the moment she chose to let it.

She did not let it yet.

She needed the moment. She was going to have exactly one.

"She stays with me," Kael said to the mage. "Have my quarters prepared. Remove her clothes and chain her to my bed."

"Strip and chain. Very original. Your father would be so proud of your diplomatic instincts."

Kael ignored him. "Send the others to Eldoria as planned."

"Naturally. And when you’re finished playing house with the mystery girl who kicked three of your men in the cock, does she join the shipment?"

"Triple the price for her for now. We’ll see how well she rides my cock. She might just be my little whore if she plays her cards right."

"You’re making long-term decisions with short-term anatomy," the mage said. "I want that on the record."

"Noted. Ignored."

The stranger with iron eyes glanced over his shoulder at her for the first time. Whatever he saw made him grin before turning forward again. Cute. She hoped his dragon choked on whatever it was scenting and his dick fell off in the shower.

The second he turned back around, she made her move.