Both the teenage heir and Vorian froze completely solid, their heads snapping toward the cluster of snow-covered pine trees.

Roxy marched out, her dark fur cloak billowing behind her. Her face was flushed a brilliant, furious shade of scarlet, her brilliant green eyes narrowed into lethal slits filled with wrath.

Directly behind her, towering like a massive, deeply embarrassed shadow, walked Zarek. The Dragon King had his arms crossed, his golden eyes pointedly avoiding the gaze of his subordinate.

"Mother!" Drax gasped, his green eyes blowing incredibly wide. He scrambled backward until his boots hit the heavy wooden door of his new quarters.

"My Queen!" Vorian instantly dropped into a salute, the cold sweat on his forehead suddenly freezing in the wind.

"Do not ’My Queen’ me!" Roxy snapped, stomping directly up the wooden steps. She pointed a perfectly trembling finger directly at the wooden floorboards. "Both of you. On your knees. Right now."

The sheer, audacious command hung in the mountain air.

Drax, who had spent his entire life learning exactly how dangerous the Matriarch’s temper could be, did not hesitate for a single microsecond. The teenage drake immediately dropped to his knees on the freezing, snow-dusted wood, keeping his back entirely straight and his eyes glued to the floor.

Vorian, however, blinked in profound confusion. He looked past the tiny, furious human woman and cast a desperate, pleading glance at his King. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝙚𝔀𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝒐𝒎

Zarek simply raised a dark eyebrow and offered a slow, unsympathetic nod. Do as she says, or I will put you on your knees myself. Vorian let out a heavy, defeated sigh. His knees hit the wooden porch with a heavy thud.

The visual was completely, ridiculously absurd. Two terrifying, heavily muscled apex predators, capable of summoning lethal hellfire and ripping apart solid steel, were kneeling in the snow like scolded toddlers before a human woman who barely reached their chests.

Roxy paced in front of them, her hands planted firmly on her hips.

"What in the name of the ancestors is going on here?!" Roxy demanded, her voice echoing off the stone walls. "I leave you alone for one morning, Drax, and I come to check on you only to find you treating the most intimate, sacred act of bonding like a battlefield analysis! And you!"

She whipped around, glaring directly at Vorian.

"You are supposed to be protecting my son and teaching him how to survive the peaks, not giving him a horrifyingly graphic biological briefing on the front porch!"

Vorian’s flat grey eyes widened in sheer, indignant protest.

"My Queen, with all due respect, why am I being punished too?!" Vorian complained, his deep voice rumbling with genuine grievance. He gestured to his massive, kneeling frame. "I am an elder of the peaks! I have three grown hatchlings of my own! I am a respected warrior!"

"Because you are teaching him bad stuff!" Roxy shouted, throwing her hands up into the freezing air. "He is just a teenager! He is just starting his life! You do not tell a teenage boy that mating leaves you completely vulnerable to an ambush! He already thinks everything is a combat zone!"

Vorian’s scarred face twisted in defensive frustration. He was a Vanguard soldier; he dealt in facts and survival, not the delicate sensibilities of human parenting.

"I did not initiate the interrogation, my Queen, he ambushed me!" Vorian argued, gesturing wildly toward the kneeling teenager beside him. "And furthermore, Drax deserves to know! His draconic core is maturing. His destined mate might walk into his life at any given moment. He needs to be prepared for the biological imperative!"

The sound of a hand violently striking the back of a thick skull echoed sharply across the snow.

Vorian pitched forward slightly, grunting in shock as his chin nearly hit his chest.

Zarek stood directly behind the kneeling guard, his massive hand slowly lowering. The Dragon King’s golden eyes were burning with a dark, uncompromising, and deeply paternal hellfire. The very idea of his teenage son suddenly finding a mate and leaving the absolute safety of the pack’s control was entirely unacceptable to the Vanguard Alpha.

"The boy will not get a mate until he comes of age," Zarek stated, his deep voice vibrating with absolute, terrifying authority. He glared down at the back of Vorian’s head. "He has years before his core reaches that level of maturation. Do not rush his development with your clumsy lectures, Vorian."

Vorian slowly reached up, rubbing the stinging back of his head. The legendary, terrifying dragon guard pushed his lower lip out in a massive, deeply offended pout, looking completely wronged. He muttered something under his breath about the absolute unfairness of Vanguard parenting, but wisely kept his eyes firmly planted on the floorboards.

Roxy let out a long, heavy exhale, the fierce matriarchal fire slowly burning out into deep exhaustion. She pinched the bridge of her nose, shaking her head at the sheer ridiculousness of her family.

"Alright. That is enough," Roxy sighed, dropping her hands. "Stand up, both of you. Before your knees freeze to the wood."

Vorian and Drax immediately scrambled to their feet. The elite guard offered a quick, deeply embarrassed bow before hastily retreating into the shadows of the pine trees, desperate to escape the Matriarch’s wrath.

Drax, however, stepped forward to escort his parents back to the edge of the clearing where the snow was deep enough for a safe takeoff. The teenage drake looked incredibly sheepish, entirely stripped of his usual arrogant Vanguard swagger.

Roxy stopped at the edge of the tree line and turned to face her eldest son. She reached out, gently grabbing the heavy leather straps of his tunic, forcing him to look down into her serious green eyes.

"Listen to me, Drax," Roxy warned, her voice dropping all the anger, leaving only a fierce, protective love. "Do not listen to anyone else in this camp about mating anymore. Do you understand me? If you have questions about your core, or about bonding, you ask your fathers. You do not ask the perimeter guards."

Drax violently nodded his head, his green eyes wide with genuine trauma.

"I agree strongly, Mother," Drax swore, his voice completely devoid of any teenage rebellion. He shuddered, recalling the horrifying lack of armor Vorian had described. "I have absolutely no interest in the subject. I will focus entirely on my hellfire drills."

"Good boy," Roxy murmured, pulling him down for a tight, fierce hug. Zarek stepped forward, offering his son a firm, proud clasp on the shoulder before stepping out into the deep snow.

With a deafening crack of shifting bones and expanding scales, Zarek transformed into his colossal, black dragon form. The blistering heat from his draconic core instantly melted the frost in a wide circle around him. Roxy climbed effortlessly up his wing, settling securely into the familiar groove between his neck spikes.

With a final, booming roar of farewell that shook the snow from the pine branches, Zarek launched them into the crisp winter sky, banking sharply toward the south.

The flight back to the Iron-Wood was swift. The adrenaline of the comedic, highly inappropriate morning slowly faded, leaving Roxy completely relaxed against Zarek’s warm scales. The heavy, dark shadow of the Demon King felt miles away, buried beneath the beautiful, chaotic reality of her pack.

But the Beastworld was never peaceful for long.

As the sprawling, magnificent stone towers of the Iron-Wood Manor came into view over the frozen canopy, Zarek began a rapid descent. He landed with a heavy, earth-shaking thud in the center of the eastern courtyard, his massive wings folding tightly against his sides.

Before Zarek could even begin to shift back into his humanoid form, the heavy, reinforced oak doors of the Manor violently burst open.

Dena rushed out onto the freezing stone steps. The young wolf-shifter helper wasn’t wearing her winter cloak, and her apron was entirely askew. Her face was deathly pale, completely stripped of blood, and her eyes were wide with sheer, unadulterated panic.

Roxy’s maternal instincts instantly spiked. The blood ran cold in her veins. She practically threw herself off Zarek’s back, her boots hitting the frost-covered stone before he had fully transformed.

"Dena! What is it?!" Roxy shouted, sprinting toward the steps.

"My Queen!" Dena gasped, her voice cracking as tears spilled freely down her cheeks. She wrung her trembling hands, her entire body shaking. "It’s the Little Prince! It’s Fedor!"

Roxy’s heart completely stopped. The air vanished from her lungs.

Zarek materialized beside her, his massive hands instantly grabbing Roxy’s shoulders to steady her. "Speak clearly, Dena! What has happened to my son?!"

"He has been crying for a while," Dena sobbed, completely terrified by the Dragon Alpha’s booming voice, but forced to deliver the devastating news. "Syris cannot soothe him! He is having a terrible, blistering fever, and..."

Dena looked directly into Roxy’s terrified green eyes, delivering the final, catastrophic blow.

"Even the gemstone is not working on him anymore."