Chapter 193: Dragon Boyfriend Alpha Speedrun
Kael Ashenvale had given this kingdom military strategy, three dead guards, a regime change, and fucked up the face of their pee-pee prince. Now he was about to give it his blood. The universe owed him a tab.
She was dying slowly. Kael could feel it. The flame he’d pushed into her was barely holding. He could also feel another tension coming from her that was not flame. It was definitely the Luminari light. The ring on his finger was growing hotter by the second.
"Blood loss is a problem," the healer said without looking up from her. "Her body can’t replace it fast enough on its own, and the hypothermia slowed her production to a crawl. If we don’t get blood into her soon, her organs will start making decisions about which ones get to keep working."
"I’m a match. Take mine," Kael said with zero hesitation.
He had two units of blood to his name and a woman who needed most of them. The math was bad. The alternative was worse. He rolled up his sleeve.
The healer’s skepticism was visible.
"Do you people not do blood transfers?" Kael asked. "Or do we just slap some leaves on her and call it a day?"
"We do."
"Then you have a goddamn match for her. I’ve given her blood before."
He hadn’t.
The healer didn’t question Kael further and got to work immediately. Kael’s blood was red with a shimmering gold thread that made the healer pause and mutter, "Well that’s new."
His vision dimmed as the vial filled slowly, but he didn’t say a word.
The healer set up an I.V. for her in silence. Kael waited, watching the color come back into her face.
For a few minutes it was working. Then the healer frowned.
"It helped. You are a match. She’s stabilizing, but my instincts say she needs wolf blood too. It’s not enough."
Kael dragged a hand down his face. He knew a bloodbag in a dungeon, but he was planning on killing that fuck tonight.
"Is the crybaby prince a match for her?" He already knew he was going to hate the goddamn answer.
The healer paused, choosing his words carefully. "Yes, a sibling would be the most ideal. But he’s currently in silver, and it will take a few hours for the silver to leave his bloodstream. If his face is infected, that would also compromise his blood."
A sibling. The ideal blood match for the woman who’d been beaten half to death was the man who’d beaten her. Kael wanted to set something on fire. Specifically, a prince.
"Are there any other matches?"
"Not as ideal. His Alpha blood is the best for healing."
Kael looked at the healer. The healer looked at Kael.
The healer looked like a man being voluntold for a mission he hadn’t signed up for, didn’t want, and couldn’t refuse because the alternative was a dragon.
Tyler walked in without knocking, which was either confidence or a death wish.
Immediately Kael pulled the blanket over Guinevere’s body before his second boot crossed the threshold. The motion was fast, instinctive, and communicated a very specific boundary.
Tyler’s eyes flicked to the blanket. Then to Kael. Then back to the blanket. He understood the message. The message was: I will burn you alive if you look at her body. Tyler did not look at her body.
"Report," Kael ordered.
"First wave eliminated, Sir."
Kael gave a single nod. "Casualties?"
"Zero."
The word sat in the white room for a full second.
"Zero," Kael repeated.
He’d briefed an army he just met, in a Keep he’d never seen, against an enemy they’d never fought, and not one of them died. Either these wolves had nine lives or Kael’s instructions were just that goddamn good.
"Yes, your strategy worked. Three got splashed, all three washed it out immediately. One of them gargled with actual piss, but he’s alive and coherent, so nobody’s complaining."
"One of them gargled with piss."
"He took your instructions literally, sir."
Kael almost smiled.
"They’ll probe again before dawn. Maybe two hours. Double your archers. More of them will be flying. A good chunk will go for the entry points again, so rinse and repeat everything else."
’Rinse and repeat’ was a hell of a phrase considering this pack’s piss fetish.
Tyler was taking mental notes with the focus of a man who had just discovered what competent leadership looked like and was memorizing every detail.
Every life in this Keep depended on this Beta remembering the instructions of a half-dead dragon. A beautiful goddamn chain of command.
"I need something from you," Kael added. "Her blood loss is critical. Puddle prince is a match. You and the healer go down to the dungeon. He gives us blood. In return he gets the silver off his wrists and his face cleaned. He stays in the dungeon."
It was the most generous deal Kael had ever offered a man he wanted dead.
Tyler’s eyes flicked to the healer then back to Kael. "And if he refuses?"
"Then you remind him that I’m upstairs with her getting less patient by the minute." Kael’s eyes held Tyler’s. "If he pulls anything, I will kill him and we will take our chances with a Beta’s blood as a donation."
Tyler looked at the healer. The healer looked at Tyler with the expression of a man who would rather perform surgery on a live bear than walk into a dungeon and ask the prince for blood.
"Wonderful," the healer said, in a voice that communicated the opposite.
"One more thing. I need you to send a raven to Shadowfell. Tell them Lunaris is under dark fae attack, the Alpha is missing, and you have a Drakencrest military commander running your defense who would very much like to go home but can’t because your communication system has feathers."
Tyler’s mouth twitched. "We are traveling in a day to meet him for a war summit." He paused. "Or I guess I am."
"Send it anyways."
Redundancy. Belt and suspenders. Raven and road trip. Kael didn’t trust a single method of communication that could be defeated by rain, and on this continent, that was all of them. Send the damn bird.
"Thank you," Tyler said at the door.
Kael looked at him.
"Don’t thank me yet, kid. The first wave is always the small one."