Page 196 of The Aurora Marelup Complete Saga Omnibus

Speaking of the happy couple, they drink and eat at the head table, watching the festivities. Nicodeamus and his mate Helle are sitting to their right, also enjoying themselves. Queen Gisella and King Consort Austin are sitting to Aurora’s left. It seems the two families are quite close, from what I can tell. I know that our little girl, Tia, was quite taken by their son, Draven. Oh, Goddess above, please let him be her mate. He comes from such a good family. I look up and see the questioning look in Aurora’s eyes as she follows my gaze towards Gisella and her mate.

I make the come here motion with my finger and Aurora giggles as she excuses herself from the conversation. Quickly, I meet her halfway, and she wraps her arms tightly around my neck. Her delicate scent is slightly enhanced with honeysuckle. Slowly, we dance gracefully around the ballroom. I am blessed tohave this time with my mate; not only are we enjoying ourselves, we are scoping out the attendees. Aurora’s beast softly purrs in my embrace, making me feel like I’m the king of the world. Her lips gently kiss me on the underside of my jaw before she runs her nose along my jawline. Whispers move through the crowd seeing our exchange. The queen is being submissive to her Omega. I wink at Aurora, and she smiles against my throat; Alaric’s plan is working.

Shortly after the whispers start, Alaric raises his hands and the music changes. He slowly steps down from the royal table and extends his hand in Aurora’s direction. She smiles and tilts her head looking at him. Gently, she kisses my cheek then moves to Alaric. Her movements fluid and graceful as she dips into a low bow. Her eyes are downcast, and a smile graces her lips. Playing submissive has become a game between Aurora and Alaric, getting ready for this very moment.

Old school protocols suck. With most dragon houses here being well over the five-hundred-year-old markers, they are stuck in the old ways. Aurora remains bowed low before Alaric till he gently touches under her chin to get her to rise up. Aurora stands up, back straight, and her chin held high. Alaric lowers his head to her and then bears his throat in a move that shocks the entire gathering. Aurora’s eyes shift to that of her beast and she stares down at her mate.

“The days of subservience are over.” Aurora’s voice booms as the temperature in the room drops swiftly. “My great-grandmother, the Blood Queen, bowed to no male!” she says as she helps Alaric to stand at her side as her equal. “I will not stand idly by allowing these archaic traditions to weigh down my daughters,” she says boldly as her hands shift to that of her gauntlets.

The double doors to the side of the ballroom open, and Dimitri and Dominik enter with all of Aurora’s children. Herdaughters each are wearing crimson dresses, a nod to their mother’s gown. Little ruby crowns rest upon their heads as they walk hand in hand towards their mother. Marco walks beside all of the princesses, allowing Luna to hold his hand as they walk. Ladon is in an exact replica of his father’s suit; he also has a ruby crown upon his head. Aurora motions for her children to line up around her as she looks at the audience. A quick wink to Tia and she shifts her arms to match her mother’s gauntlets. Tia’s eyes move to her brother, who removes his suit jacket, handing it off to Dominik and rolling up his sleeves. He looks up to Alaric and receives a smile and a wink; Ladon shifts his arms to that of his gauntlets, as well.

Aurora steps forward and motions back to her children. “Some call me a mutt, an abomination,” she says with a sexy smirk. “Well, I am here to tell you this abomination took down Nexus, Vladimir, and united the Great Dragon Houses.” Her eyes scan the crowd as the aristocrats start talking to their guards who were at the various battles to verify Aurora’s statement.

“We are entering a time of peace and growth; I would love for this to continue for generations to come.” She smiles as she steps back to her children. “Any who wish to challenge me for the throne,” she pauses dramatically and arches an eyebrow, then makes a sweeping motion with her hands, “meet me in the ring tomorrow morning. I will gladly show you what this abomination can do.” Aurora smiles sweetly, then shepherds her children to the main table and gets them settled.

Her ever watchful eyes scan the room slowly. Through the bond, she reaches out to myself and Dominik and asks us to shift and sit on either side of her children. We do so without question and rush over to the table once we return to the ballroom. I choose to sit on the same side that my daughter is on, and Dominik ends up taking the opposite side.

We stay as our wolves for the rest of the evening, ensuring no one that isn’t safe gets anywhere near the children. I look up and watch my daughter as she attempts to feed herself at the table. She keeps looking down at me and dropping scraps of food to me. The kid already has the idea to feed what you don’t like to the pet in the house. I shake my massive head and then rest my muzzle on my daughter’s thigh.

Gently, her tiny fingers run through my thick fur, and I hear her ever so softly going, “daddy daddy daddy.” It’s amazing how one so little knows who I am even in this form. The majority of the night goes off without a hitch, and we all head off to bed. Dominik and I decide to stay with the children as our wolves tonight to make sure that nothing happens. I know for a fact that my mate has just pissed off a few of the dragon households. I won’t be shocked if somebody doesn’t make an attempt either on her life or one of the children’s. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.

CHAPTER 153

Aurora

Morning’s here,and I couldn’t be more excited. Maybe it’s the sick side of me that loves the idea of going to battle. Or it’s just the fact I want to see exactly how many houses stand against us. My mates bring me my breakfast and I eat it in my room with them all present, along with our children. I don’t bother to choose an impressive outfit for this morning because in all reality, it’s going to get shredded the minute I shift.

As we start to head down to the arena, my father, Marco, Dante, and Edgar flank us as we move through the halls. I start humming to myself Danzig’s “Killer Wolf.” It’s a classic and quite honestly, I quite love the song and the tone of his voice—whoa, baby, is his voice sexy. We make it down to the arena and I step into the ring. My eyes scan the bleachers looking to see how many of the houses are present. I hold my head up high and raise my arms, instantly dropping the temperature in the room. I can do the most evil thing possible and start pulling on their beasts to make them realize exactly how powerful I am. I contemplate this idea for several moments before deciding that this is not the ruler I wish to be.

Two men come stepping through the double doors on the opposite side. Ah yes, the house of Equus. They are a bunchof power-hungry fools. “What is one lone hybrid going to do against the likes of us?” Tegan asks without a hint of remorse. His twin, Liam, steps forth and lightly bows his head. “You know we have to test you.” he says in a tone that tells me he’s really not sure this is such a good idea. At least one of the twins might have brains.

I smile and lightly dip my head to them. I see the panic on Gisella’s and Austin’s faces. The house of Equus comes from the same island of the Bronze Dragon Kingdom. They are shocked and appalled, rightfully so, that one of their noble houses dare to stand against me.

I lightly bow my head to Gisella and Austin and mentally send a message to Alaric to repeat to them. I watch the moment the words leave his lips, and they both nod and bow their heads lightly to me. I just pretty much informed them that the house of Equus will be short two heirs by the end of this morning.

Now I’m pretty sure that these two are a mix of Green and Bronze Dragons. To me, it says their dragons will have a decent size and no real punch to their hits, and they are not immune to ice. I’m seriously contemplating not even bothering to shift for this battle; I can end it quickly with just a thought. But now, I will give my people the battle that they are looking for.

Tegan and Liam end up shifting at the same time. As I suspected, both of them took more after the Green Dragon side than the Bronze, according to their coloration. I shift to my beast, and I watch as Liam raises his head sharply in shock as to what he’s seeing before him. By my coloration alone, you can pretty much assume I have an ice weapon. You can also tell my lineage of my great-grandmother, the Blood Queen. She was the most vicious dragon in the history of our people.

I practically snarl as I look at them with a feral grin. Standing still, I click my talons together, waiting to see which of these two males will make the mistake of charging. Tegan is the firstto attack, and I’m quite thankful for it. I may be able to spare Liam if he knows what’s good for him. I dodge out of the way of Tegan’s breath weapon, then roll and jump to launch up onto one of the pillars in the colosseum. I remain on the pillar for a moment till he whips his head around and starts blowing his breath weapon at me.

As soon as his maw is wide open and the moment I see fire coming at me, I jump. At this point, I am soaring through the air in his blind spot. He won’t realize that I’m almost on him till shortly after he closes his mouth. I land with a thud just above his nose. Quickly I sink my talons into his skin as I make my way up his maw. He starts thrashing his head around wildly, trying to shake me loose, but I refuse to let go. I see Liam suddenly start to back up into a corner. He shifts back to his human form and just stays pressed against the wall.

Tegan keeps thrashing his head around, still trying to throw me off. He takes several stumbling steps forward and attempts to ram his head into the wall. Just before he does, I flip myself around behind the two pitiful horns on his head. He crashes his own forehead into the sharp corner of the pillar, cracking his skull and allowing blood to ooze down his face. He starts to wobble, disoriented from the impact, and I go to work.

My big decision for this is: do I freeze him and then break the ice or do I rip his throat out and bathe the arena in blood? I’m going for option B. I slide down his neck as he still thrashes. He tries to bring his clawed hand up to grab me, but instead all he does is catch his own scales. I get underneath his jaw hanging upside down and lash out with my talons quickly. I catch part of the artery on the left side of his throat, watching the blood shoot out in spurts.

I maintain my grip and then reach out with my other taloned hand and slice the artery on the right side. As his heart beats, spurts of blood escape through the incision in his throat. Everybeat, another spurt. I just hang there upside down, watching him bleed out slowly. I leap off his body when I feel him starting to get woozy. I land on all fours and start growling at him with my tail thrashing wildly behind me.

Several minutes later, his body crashes to the floor. The arena goes dead silent; you can hear the lub-dub of his heartbeat as it starts to stutter and falter. I’m not merciless, so I stare at him for several more seconds before shifting back to my human form. Quickly, I raise my arms up, sending a giant ice spike up from the floor through his chest, impaling him to end his suffering.

Alaric jumps down into the arena with me and throws a robe around my shoulders. I look back at Liam, and he comes crawling over to me on his hands and knees. He starts begging for forgiveness, telling me that his brother bullied him into standing against me and that he really didn’t want to do it. I sense that Liam is an Omega, and just with that knowledge, I know that he had no choice but to follow his brother’s instructions. Gently, I place my hand on his head and bid him to rise.

When he’s standing almost at eye level with me, he can’t maintain eye contact. He tries twice but can’t look for more than several seconds, which further backs the proof that he is an Omega. I gently kiss both of his cheeks and tell him that he’s forgiven. I tell him to go back to his family and tell them about the boon I have given him. He drops to his knees and kisses my hands before getting up and running out of the arena quickly. I look back to Alaric before he starts to yell.

“Anyone else wish to stand against our queen?” The anger coming off him in waves is almost unbearable. He’s getting so tired of me having to fight constantly just to keep our people and us safe.

We watch the arena for any signs of someone coming to challenge me next. When nothing happens, he turns slowly in a circle before announcing. “The battles are over. We will all have lunch together, and at the next sign of any kind of betrayal I will wipe out an entire bloodline,” he says sternly as he snuggles me against his side. Alaric is finally acting like the king that he should have been born to be.

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