The two most powerful men in the world stared at one another, neither looking away.
Nicholas Shadowfell's hand tightened on his goblet until the metal groaned. "Maddox, let's not be dramatic. What would a dragon want with a wolf princess?"
He turned his attention back to King Lunaris. "I'll match that offer in gold. Full military support. Open borders. Add the entire western coastline. Ports, fleets, and fisheries."
A dark chuckle rolled out of Maddox Drakencrest. "Fishing boats and ports? Adorable. I offer skies and fire, and you counter with seafood. Tell me, Nicholas, do you plan to feed the princess sushi while I'm offering her an empire?"
He turned his gaze back to King Lunaris. "Double the gold. Five hundred million. Three fleets. And the girl comes with me tonight."
Guinevere's brain stopped converting the number into anything meaningful. It was just a sound at this point. A big, terrifying sound.
"Charming, Maddox. A dick measuring contest over a wolf that you have no context on. Five hundred tonight. Every year for a decade and for every male heir she proves. And I'll personally deliver Stonehowl's head on a spike."
"A problem with that plan, Nicholas. I've already turned him into a very expensive pile of ash. Keep your silver spikes. I prefer my enemies cremated. Cleaner."
"That might be so, but you are still a dragon," Nicholas countered. "She's my fated mate. I don't believe she can sense the matebond yet."
Every head in the room turned towards Guinevere. Fated mates were beyond rare. Sacred. The ace card.
Her stomach dropped. It actually left the building and moved. She glanced at her father, who seemed to be weighing that.
She then looked at the king of the largest wolf pack in the world claiming her as a fated mate and thought, very clearly: Come again?
He turned his attention to her, eyes flaring gold. Her wolf surged, causing her vision to flicker gold at the edges. She blinked, swallowing it down. Tonight was full of firsts.
She'd never heard of that being a sign of a fated mate before. For all she knew, that was a very impressive, well-timed party trick performed by a king.
She wasn't ruling it out. She'd stopped ruling things out three bids ago.
"Sacred for our kind, Maddox."
"Cute. Yes, Nicholas, you're an Alpha and she has a wolf. Math checks out." Maddox Drakencrest looked up at Guinevere's father. "She's my fated mate. For dragons, it's rarer than wolves."
A low laugh rolled out of Nicholas Shadowfell. "You've been on this continent for what, an hour? And you're already an expert on wolves. Fated to one, no less. Convenient, Maddox."
Maddox lifted his hand lazily.
Chests were brought into the room, in the center. At least fifty with gold in them. One of the handlers handed him something on his way out.
"Seven hundred and fifty million worth of gold, tonight. Every year for a decade. Three fleets." Maddox tossed the item in his hands to King Lunaris. Which the room collectively realized was an urn.
Tyler stared at the urn. Then at the gold. Then at Maddox Drakencrest. Then at the ceiling, like he was checking if the gods themselves were watching this. They probably were. This was the best entertainment in centuries.
Maddox Drakencrest looked at Guinevere. "I'd say this isn't how I wanted to introduce myself, but I also just threw an urn across a throne room, so we're past first impressions."
Her face heated, completely taken aback by what was happening.
His eyes flared gold. Brighter than Alpha wolf gold.
The gold reached across the hall, found the place behind her sternum where the wolf had just risen, and walked past it to something deeper. Something that had never been touched by anything in her life.
Guinevere felt her hand lift on its own. She was vaguely aware of it when it happened.
Her fingers opened palm-up, and her body went still and quiet and waiting in a way that had nothing to do with permission and everything to do with recognition.
Then the flame appeared.
She looked down at the golden orb in her hand. It didn't burn, but she could feel heat radiating from it. It sat there, alive and impossible, flickering against her skin like it belonged there.
There was a pressure on her chest, as if he had put his palm against her sternum without moving from his chair.
She looked up at him.
He was watching her, expression neutral, but she caught the corner of his mouth twitch.
Tyler made a sound beside her. Quiet. Strangled. The kind of sound a man makes when he has been close enough to a woman his entire life to think he knew what she looked like and has just learned, in real time, that he never did.
Cassian stared at her hand like it had betrayed him personally.
She looked away from her hand, and felt the fire extinguish.
The hall erupted in whispers.
Maddox tracked her face for a reaction. Nicholas watched her for a tell. She avoided both of their gazes, but could feel them burning into her.
The rest of the alphas sat back. Some looked impressed. Others frustrated. A few entertained.
King Lunaris rose from his seat and the hall went silent. "Shadowfell. Drakencrest. A word in private."
It was phrased like an invitation. It was an order. Guinevere knew because her father only used that tone when refusal was off the table.
Both kings stood. Nicholas moved first, his guards falling in behind him.
Maddox took his time, like a man who had already won and was in zero rush to collect.