The two most powerful men in the world stared at one another, neither looking away.

"Maddox, let’s not be dramatic. What would a dragon want with a wolf princess?" Nicholas turned to Renwick. "I’ll match that offer in gold. Full military support. Open borders. Add the entire western coastline. Ports, fleets, and fisheries."

A dark chuckle rolled out of Maddox Drakencrest. "Fishing boats and ports? Adorable. I offer skies and fire, and you counter with seafood. Tell me, Nicholas, do you plan to feed the princess sushi while I’m offering her an empire?"

He looked up at King Lunaris. "Double the gold. Five hundred million. Three fleets. And the girl comes with me tonight."

Guinevere’s brain stopped converting the number into anything meaningful. It was just a sound at this point. A big, terrifying sound.

Nicholas was the one who chuckled this time. "Charming, Maddox. A dick-measuring contest over a wolf that you have no context on. Five hundred tonight and for every male heir she proves. And I’ll personally deliver Stonehowl’s head on a spike."

"A problem with that plan, Nicholas. I’ve already turned him into a very expensive pile of ash. Keep your silver spikes. I prefer my enemies cremated. Cleaner."

"That might be so, but you are still a dragon," Nicholas countered. "She’s my fated mate. I don’t believe she can sense the matebond yet."

Every head in the room turned towards Guinevere. Fated mates were beyond rare. Sacred. The ace card.

Her stomach dropped. It actually left the building and moved. She glanced at her father, who seemed to be weighing that.

Nicholas pushed his chair back and stood, then turned his attention to her, eyes flaring molten.

Her wolf surged, causing her vision to flicker gold at the edges. She blinked, swallowing it down. Tonight was full of surprises.

But she’d never heard of that being a sign of a fated mate before. For all she knew, that was a very impressive, well-timed party trick performed by a king. She wasn’t ruling it out. She’d stopped ruling things out three bids ago.

Nicholas didn’t look away from her when he spoke again. "Sacred for our kind, Maddox."

Maddox rose from his chair. "Cute. Yes, you’re an Alpha and she has a wolf. Math checks out."

For the second time this evening, Shadowfell and Drakencrest locked eyes in a standoff. Two predators who had reached the same conclusion in the same moment.

After five long seconds, Maddox shifted his focus to Guinevere’s father. "She’s my fated mate. For dragons, it’s rarer than wolves."

"Convenient, Maddox. You’ve been on this continent for what, an hour? And you’re already an expert on wolves. Fated to one, no less."

Maddox lifted his hand lazily. Chests were brought into the room, in the center. At least fifty with gold in them. He didn’t look away from Shadowfell until all the chests were brought in and one of the handlers gave him something on his way out.

"Seven hundred and fifty million worth of gold, tonight. Three fleets." Maddox tossed the item in his hands to King Lunaris. An item the room collectively realized was an urn.

Tyler stared at the urn. Then at the gold. Then at Maddox Drakencrest. Then at the ceiling, like he was checking if the gods themselves were watching this. They probably were. This was the best entertainment in centuries.

Maddox turned to Guinevere. "I’d say this isn’t how I wanted to introduce myself, but I also just threw an urn across a throne room, so we’re past first impressions."

Scarlet flooded her face before she could stop it. Surely there wasn’t the dragon version of whatever her wolf just did for Shadowfell.

His eyes flared gold, brighter than an Alpha’s would, reaching her from across the hall. Warmth flooded past the place her wolf had just risen from tapping into something deeper. Something that had never been touched by anything in her life.

Her hand moved on its own. A golden orb of flame formed, levitating in her palm. Heat radiated from it, but it didn’t burn. She blinked at it, dazed.

Tyler made a sound beside her. Quiet. Strangled. The kind of sound a man makes when he has been close enough to a woman his entire life to think he knew what she looked like and has just learned, in real time, that he never did.

Cassian stared at her hand like it had betrayed him personally.

The warmth stopped abruptly, the flame leaving with it.

The hall erupted in whispers.

Maddox tracked her face for a reaction. Nicholas watched her for a tell. She avoided both of their gazes, but could feel them burning into her.

The rest of the Alphas sat back. Some impressed. Others frustrated. A few entertained.

King Lunaris rose from his seat and the hall went silent. "Shadowfell. Drakencrest. A word in private."

It was phrased like an invitation. It was an order. Guinevere knew because her father only used that tone when refusal was off the table.

Both kings stood. Nicholas moved first, his guards falling in behind him.

Maddox took his time, like a man who had already won and was in zero rush to collect.

"And me?" Raventhorn’s voice carried from his table. "I did offer one hundred million, Lunaris. Or has that slipped your mind?"

"Your offer was noted, Lord Raventhorn."

"Noted." He tasted the word. "Not accepted or declined. Noted."

His red eyes found Guinevere. "Very well then."

King Lunaris, Nicholas, and Maddox had just exited the hall when things took a turn.

Before Guinevere registered he’d left his chair, Raventhorn was directly behind her with his fingers clamped around her neck.

Next to her, Tyler dropped his drink and yelped. She was equally as startled and didn’t blame him. Cassian slowly turned his head, then leaned back in his chair.

The room fell silent, everyone just now registering what was happening.

"Composure is just that. Your pulse gives you away, sweetheart."

Chairs scraped back in unison. Alphas rose, along with every Lunaris officer.

Beta Draven’s voice cut through the silence. "Raventhorn, my son is sitting right there. If you make him do something brave, I’ll never hear the end of it. Let her go."

"Your son already dropped his drink. I think we’re past brave."

Tyler’s ears went red.

Beta Draven exhaled through his nose. "You’re holding the most expensive woman on the continent by the throat. In a room full of men who just bid for her. Think about that."

"I am thinking about it. That’s why I’m holding on."

He squeezed hard enough to make her wolf whimper and eyes burn. This man frightened her more than Stonehowl.

The doors her father had disappeared down opened. Maddox stormed in, Shadowfell behind him.

Lunaris entered last and took in the scene.