Zarek captured her lips in a devastating, all-consuming kiss. It wasn’t tender; it was a desperate, territorial branding. His large hands tangled into her dark curls, anchoring her face to his as his tongue swept into her mouth, tasting of woodsmoke and pure, unadulterated Alpha hunger.

Roxy gasped into his mouth. She wrapped her arms around his thick neck, pulling him closer, entirely surrendering to his overwhelming heat.

Zarek pulled back just enough to look down at her, his golden eyes blazing like twin suns in the dim sapphire light of the cavern. He pushed her thighs apart with his knees, settling his heavy, heavily muscled hips perfectly against hers.

"You are mine," Zarek growled, his voice a raw, primal vibration in the echoing cave. "Not because a voice told you to be. Because my soul demands yours."

With a smooth, powerful thrust, he claimed her completely.

Roxy cried out, her back arching off the furs as the sheer, overwhelming fullness of the Dragon King stole the very breath from her lungs. Zarek let out a guttural, feral groan, burying his face into the sensitive crook of her neck.

He held himself perfectly still for three agonizingly long seconds, allowing her mortal body to adjust to his devastating size, before his hips began to snap forward in a relentless, punishing rhythm.

The glowing blue cavern echoed with the heavy, wet sounds of their union and the frantic, breathless whimpers escaping Roxy’s lips. Zarek’s stamina was terrifying, fueled by the ancient, bottomless energy of an apex predator. He worshipped her body with a single-minded, apocalyptic focus. He kissed his way down her jaw, his teeth scraping lightly over her collarbone, leaving hot, dark bruises that claimed her skin as his territory.

Roxy’s fingernails dug violently into the thick, corded muscles of his broad shoulders. She was completely lost in the sensation, entirely consumed by the blinding friction and the suffocating heat.

But the Dragon King was nowhere near finished.

With a sudden, effortless surge of raw strength, Zarek completely lifted her off the cavern floor. Roxy yelped, wrapping her legs tightly around his narrow waist to anchor herself. Zarek didn’t break their connection for a microsecond. He walked them across the stone floor and slammed her back squarely against the cool, rough rock of the cavern wall.

The violent contrast of the freezing stone against her bare back and the blistering furnace of Zarek’s chest pressing her flat sent a violent, electrifying shockwave straight to her core.

"Z~!" Roxy gasped, her head falling back against the stone as he abruptly increased his brutal pace.

"Look at me," Zarek commanded, his massive hands gripping her hips, holding her exactly where he wanted her. 𝒻𝑟ℯℯ𝑤𝑒𝑏𝑛𝘰𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝒸𝑜𝘮

Roxy forced her heavy, incredibly flushed eyelids open. Through the haze of pure ecstasy, she saw the sheer worship in his golden eyes. The blue light from the crystals illuminated the sweat glistening on his heavily scarred chest, highlighting the magnificent, terrifying power of the beast she had tamed. He pounded into her against the wall, driving her higher and higher until her vision completely whited out. Roxy screamed his name, her body violently clenching around him as a massive, earth-shattering climax ripped through her transmigrated soul.

Zarek roared against her lips, his massive frame shuddering violently as he poured his absolute essence into her, cementing their bond and defying the heavens with every ounce of his draconic magic.

Yet, her mate’s vitality was legendary. After only a few minutes of breathless recovery, Zarek’s golden eyes darkened once more.

He moved them again. This time, he laid the heavy fur cloak directly over a massive, flat-topped luminous stone protruding from the center of the cavern floor. The sapphire light glowed brilliantly through the dark fur. He laid Roxy onto her stomach over the stone, the cool, magical energy of the crystal pressing against her flushed skin.

Zarek took her from behind, his large hands gripping her hips as he pulled her flush against his blazing torso. The visual of the ethereal blue light washing over her pale skin and his dark, towering silhouette was breathtaking. For hours, the secluded ravine vibrated with their passion. They exhausted every drop of fear, grief, and cosmic dread from their systems, replacing it entirely with an unbreakable, fiery devotion.

By the time they finally collapsed together into the tangled furs on the stone floor, completely spent and tangled in each other’s limbs, the Beastworld sun had already begun to rise.

Meanwhile, on the jagged, snow-swept upper ridges of the Dragon Peaks.

Drax stomped heavily through the knee-deep snow, his thick leather boots crunching aggressively against the frost. The teenage drake’s dark brow was furrowed into a spectacular, incredibly grumpy scowl. He had his heavy winter fur pulled tightly around his shoulders, his breath pluming in angry white clouds in the freezing morning air.

He was absolutely fuming.

Late last night, while he had been attempting to enjoy his desperately needed, mother-mandated grace period of sleep, his heightened draconic hearing had caught a very distinct, earth-shattering roar echoing through the valleys. It was the unmistakable sonic signature of the Dragon Alpha. His father.

Drax had tracked the scent perfectly. His parents had flown all the way to the Dragon Peaks territory, landed in a highly secluded, off-limits ravine near the base of the mountain... and they hadn’t even come up to the training grounds to say hello to him.

"Unbelievable," Drax muttered to himself, kicking a large chunk of ice off the path. "She practically drowns me in tears and flower crowns yesterday, but today she flies right into my backyard and ignores me? And my father just lets her? I am the Heir! I demand a visitation!"

To be honest he just missed his mother.

Determined to crash whatever secret Vanguard meeting his parents were holding, Drax marched directly toward the narrow, winding path that led down into the hidden sapphire ravine.

But as he rounded a massive, jagged boulder, his path was abruptly, completely blocked.

Standing dead center in the narrow pass was Vorian. The elder dragon guard was a towering, heavily armored mountain of scarred muscle, possessing a pair of terrifying, flat grey eyes. He stood with his massive arms crossed over his chest, looking like an immovable stone statue.

"Halt, young Prince," Vorian rumbled, his voice like grinding tectonic plates. "You cannot go past this place."

Drax abruptly stopped, his green eyes narrowing. He recognized Vorian. The warrior was one of his father’s most loyal, elite subordinates in the peaks.

"Move aside, Vorian," Drax demanded, puffing out his chest and attempting to project his absolute best, most intimidating Alpha King impression. "I caught their scent. I know my mother and father are down in that ravine. I am going to see them."

Vorian did not move a single, microscopic inch. His expression remained entirely blank.

"The Alpha King gave explicit, uncompromising orders, young Prince," Vorian replied smoothly. "The ravine is completely off-limits to all. Including you. I must ask you to return to your quarters."

Drax’s draconic pride violently flared. He was a teenager, he was annoyed, and he wanted to see his mother.

"I am the heir to the beast world!" Drax argued loudly, stepping forward and attempting to exert his royal authority. He glared up at the massive guard. "I outrank you, Vorian! You will step aside right now, or I will force my way past you!"

Drax dropped his center of gravity, his hands glowing with a faint, threatening spark of black hellfire as he prepared to physically shove the massive elder out of the way.

Vorian sighed. The stoic guard pinched the bridge of his nose, realizing the stubborn, thick-headed teenage drake was actually about to start a brawl over this. The guard had absolutely no desire to fight his King’s son, but he also valued his own life too much to let Drax interrupt the Matriarch.

"Drax, stop," Vorian ordered, losing his formal tone and throwing his hands up in sheer exasperation.

"No! Get out of my way!" Drax shouted, lunging forward.

"By the ancestors, boy!" Vorian yelled, finally snapping and grabbing Drax by the shoulders to physically halt his charge. He leaned down, staring directly into the teenager’s furious green eyes. "You cannot go down there! Your mother and father are making another baby!"

The spark of hellfire in Drax’s hands instantly, violently extinguished.

The teenage warlord froze entirely solid. The absolute, unadulterated horror of the guard’s words hit his developing brain with the concussive force of a falling meteor. He stared blankly at Vorian’s scarred face, the blood completely draining from his cheeks, leaving him as pale as the snow beneath his boots.

Drax’s mouth opened, then closed, then opened again. His green eyes were blown incredibly wide, filled with pure, innocent, and completely traumatized confusion.

"How..." Drax whispered, his voice cracking into a high, terrified pitch. "...how are babies made?"