Page 57 of The Fury Queen's Harem

“It’s my decision as well,” I said, my Fury voice still hoarse. “Look at me, I’m not exactly a defenseless damsel, and we’re in this together now.”

If Rai hadn’t rescued me from the drones, and if the princes hadn’t ventured to my chamber to try to win me, their ship wouldn’t have suffered such a fate and many of their kin would have been alive.

“You’ll need to treat me as an equal, who not only share your joy but your burden, danger, and grief, if you ever want me to be your mate,” I continued. “Plus, what I proposed is the best way to reduce the enemies’ numbers—we are twenty-two against over a hundred demons and the hunters combined, unless you have a better idea.”

I planned to lure the demons, and the hunters who had survived the ship crash, into the Vampire Tower, before they could all come down upon us, which they would do soon. We could hold on for a while in the jungle, but the casualties on our side would be grave.

I had told the princes and their men about the Vampire Tower—any non-vampires who entered it would never get out, except for me. The tower was indestructible due to its ancient dark magic. Too bad the dragons too would be trapped if they entered the tower, or we could use it as our headquarters.

At my mentioning of “mate,” every dragon man snapped their attention toward me, especially Quintrell, who had wanted Rai to decapitate me instead of making me his mate.

Blaze grinned, despite all the disaster today and the grave situation ahead. “So, you agree to be our mate?”

Rai gazed at me with hopeful look, and Iokul’s ice expression melted a little.

The princes’ men widened their eyes. Even the wounded stopped their groaning. Quintrell sighed audibly, as if this was even more unfortunate than the destruction of the ship.

Evidently, no one, except the three dragon princes, could perceive how a Fury beast could be their princes’ mate.

But I knew in my beastly heart what they all meant to me.

They’d saved me, risked for me, and accepted me for who I was, no matter what form I took.

They might not be my true loves since the curse still leeched on me as I still wasn’t able to shift to a dragon or stay as Fae as long as I wanted.

But true loves be damned.

I’d decided to throw my lot in with the dragon princes when they’d all kissed my beastly form. Wait, Iokul hadn’t kissed my Fury form.

I blinked. Was that why my cursed hadn’t fallen off?

Would that be the requirement to lift off the curse—not just a kiss from three true loves, but a kiss from three true loves on my hideous beastly form instead of my Fae form? No one had a problem with kissing a beauty, but it would take great, blind love to behold the ugly as the beauty and kiss her, right?

I’d have to test the theory and get Iokul to kiss my scaled Fury lip, soon.

“We can talk about the mate thing after we have victory over our enemies,” I said.

Quintrell nodded in approval. “That’s sensible.”

All three princes glared at him for his interference, until he murmured an apology and stepped back.

Before I mapped out what we needed to do to get the demons and the hunters into the Vampire Tower, the men threw tons of questions about the vampires’ diet and why the tower was a permanent, supernatural prison for non-vampires.

The dragons were a curious bunch. Even the wounded had forgotten their pain and joined to question me. I wasn’t in the mood for a Q&A, particularly when I was in my Fury form. I tended to think better and was less hot-tempered as a Fae.

I puffed out a few streams of black fire.

But instead of quieting them, they got curious about my fire. “If she’s a dragon, why isn’t her fire red or orange?”

In the end, Rai put an end to their questions and ordered them to be quiet.

“Daisy is tired,” he told them.

After another round of discussion, Rai, Blaze, and Iokul reluctantly agreed that drawing the enemies into the Vampire Tower was by far a workable strategy.

All they had to do was hide under the canopy and shoot down any missile or the drone that chased me.

As soon as the men were in position, my three Furies soared toward the skylight of my chamber and sailed away from the jungle.

---