Page 2 of Dragon King’s Duty Bride

All three were sleeping when he entered their suite of rooms. Stella’s stuffed bunny had fallen to the floor, so he picked it up and tucked it under her arm. He kissed her forehead and moved on to Luna’s bed. He fluffed her pillow and she mumbled and snuggled down in the comforter.

Celeste lay crossways on her bed with the blankets kicked aside. She moved around as much in her sleep as she did when awake. He tried to resituate her on her pillow, but her body stiffened and short of waking her up and risking her wrath, he gave up and adjusted her blankets. He tucked it around her with a slight smile.

She looked so much like Dian already. At only ten years old, she already had a lifetime of responsibility on her shoulders with her sisters. He tried to spend as much time as he could playing mother and father, but with his duties, Celeste inherited a lot of the mother duties.

Guilt ripped at him but he had never found an answer. Unfortunately, it seemed like maybe the council had, and it was a decision that could assist on several fronts.

He just didn’t want any part of it, regardless of the potential benefits. With a long sigh, he kissed Celeste on the forehead and headed toward his meeting chamber.

The doors to the chamber stood open and the council, twelve elders, sat in a crescent shape made with their chairs. They all looked slightly bored but sat up and adjusted when he entered the room. Lucas knew that most of them would have chosen to be anywhere except where they were about to exert their will upon him, but like him, they had no choice.

And they had chosen his destiny. He wasn’t about to waste time with niceties so got right to the crux of the issue.

“Who is she?”

“Sia,” Aldrek answered. Just one word.

The name that struck like a blow to the chest. Lucas couldn’t prevent the sharp intake hiss.

Dian’s younger sister.

Sia, who shared her smile in quiet moments and her stubbornness in loud ones. Sia, who had stood beside his daughters at Dian’s funeral, grief etched into every line of her face while she held them upright when Lucas himself could barely breathe.

Due to her schooling, Lucas hadn’t had much contact over the years with Sia. They had gotten along well when they did cross paths at family events, but it was always in passing. Dian and the girls had been much closer to her than he had been.

“No,” Lucas said immediately. “Anyone but her.” She would be such a reminder of his late wife.

“There is no one else,” another elder said softly. “Her blood aligns with the crown. The council’s opinions converge only with her.”

Lucas felt his dragon stir, restless and agitated. The bond it had shared with Dian pulsed painfully and rejected the very idea. Marriage in Crystafalls was not merely political. It was magical and completely sacred.

To marry Sia would mean standing beneath the falls again while they spoke vows meant for Dian alone. It would mean binding himself to a woman who carried his true mate’s blood right along with her memory.

It felt like betrayal.

“I will not dishonor my wife,” Lucas said, his voice low. “She was my dragon’s one mate. There will never be another.”

“You would honor her,” Aldrek said gently. “By protecting what she loved most.”

Lucas’s thoughts flew, unbidden, to three little girls asleep under star-lit enchantments.

Dian’s children. Their girls.

Slowly, painfully, he bowed his head.

“For the kingdom,” he said. “But mostly for my daughters.”

The council exhaled as one.

Lucas straightened, every inch the king once more, even as something inside him went still and cold.

“I will marry Sia,” he said. “But understand this with nothing but crystal clarity. My heart is buried with Dian. This union will give you an heir, nothing more.”

He strode back to his post near the falls as mist curled upward and he closed his eyes to the pain that memories wrapped him in.

The future had shifted and created new destinies. One that he didn’t want any part of. But his gaze once again traveled to the tower windows.

Without a monarchy, his daughters’ lives would be forever altered and not necessarily in good ways. He wouldn’t have the powers that he had now to protect them if he lost his crown. He had to accept the fact that Aldrek was right. Life went on even after his heart had died.