Dragon

From the open doors stepped out one of the tallest men I'd ever seen. He had to be at least over 6.5ft and had me craning my neck to gaze up at him. His presence was powerful, demanding respect without even releasing his beast power.

He had messy, silver hair that sat on his shoulders and white and icy blue scales that cover parts of his pale skin. Of course, my eyes lingered on the two large, white horns sprouting from his head.

Dragon horns.

A fantasy nerd like me could instantly tell that. I'd seen it so many times scrolling through Pinterest and Instagram it was impossible for me not to recognize it. 

I couldn't believe this was even real. I was looking at a freaking dragon?! Sure, Ahi said they existed, but I never really expected to actually come across one and in such an unexpected way. 

I wonder what his dragon form looks like. I silently mused to myself. Probably has white and blue scales from the looks of it, but will he look like the dragons from Eastern or Western mythology? Perhaps, they have both in this world-

"Apologies, Lord Altas." Rowan moved in front of us, bowing at the other male. "We didn't mean to disturb your meeting with the king…"

Rowan's words suddenly brought me back to reality and reminded me now was probably not the best time to fangirl. This guy could be a new can of worms by that cold look on his face. 

Hopefully not. The system was enough trouble for me…

The dragon ignored Rowan and turned his attention to me instead, making me gulp. My eyes quickly met his ice blue eyes as he stated in a monotone voice, "You…"

Me? I silently questioned, nerves kicking in. Please don't tell me he was angry about me being here. Did he hear what I was thinking? 

No, there was no way he could hear my thoughts. Only vampires could read minds last I checked. Maybe he was really upset about us being here.

My body instinctively inched closer to Xavier as he continued to stare at me in silence. The air quickly turned awkward with no one sure what to do or say next.

"Lord Altas! Did something happen?!" A voice yelled, breaking the weird moment as everyone turned their attention to the newcomer. A scrawny guy with dark, green hair and scales covering parts of his arms appeared from behind Lord Altas. He took one look at us and gasped in horror, pointing a finger at me, "You?! Master, she's-"

 Before the newcomer could even finish his sentence, I found myself in Lord Altas' arms. The sudden shift scared the crap out of me and instinct kicked in as I threw a punch in his direction. 

It connected with his right cheek and I almost broke a few bones trying to hit him. Damn beastmen and their thick skin?! I tried to shift my body out of his hold, but he just stared at me with a blank look.

"Who the hell gave you permission to touch me, you damn bastard?!" I yelled at him, deciding to pull at his hair knowing that wouldn't break my hand at least. "Let me down this instant!"

"How dare you speak-" The scrawny guy started, only to get himself knocked down by a very angry Xavier.

He was glaring at the dragon and growled, "Put her down now!"

Lord Altas glanced at him and Rowan before snapping his fingers. The air immediately got colder before he turned away from the frozen males. A chill ran down my body as he rolled his head up to stare into my eyes.

"Weak…." Lord Altas said in that damn montone of his. "...Pull… Harder…"

That instantly got my hand out of his hair. Of all the possible beastmen to have so much power, it had to be this damn freak of nature. And I just had to cross paths with him.

I had to get out of his hold, the question was how the hell I was going to do that. Pulling hair was definitely not going to work nor was punching him in the face again. 

At least not without me breaking a hand attempting something that could easily fail. As I racked my brain of how I could get out of this situation, my eyes suddenly fell onto his Adam's apple. 

I almost let a smirk out remembering a tip from my old man.

My right hand went back into his hair, pulling it as hard as I could to distract him as I fisted the other. His blank look finally changed to a choked look of surprise as my fist connected with his Adam's apple.

His grip loosened enough for me to slip down and add a knee to the groin for good measure. He let out a groan of pain, completely releasing me as he collapsed on the ground.

I quickly scrambled away from him, heading towards Xavier who was finally able to break the ice encasing him. His arms quickly grabbed me into his hold, moving to get away from the scene.

But before we could do anything, a voice roared out, "What is going on here?!"

Behind us walked a huge, older looking version of Rowan towards us. He had the biggest scowl on his face with an almost dark aura rolling off him. I immediately knew he was the Grasslands King.

"I leave for five minutes and come back to this mess!" The king growled at us. "Did I not tell you, Rowan, that I was busy…. And you, Lord Altas, I thought we had an agreement! You dare to break it?!"

"Mate…" Altas just huffed, still on his knees.

The king passed his rant and turned back to us, his expression darkening. "Who is this female?"

"My name is Elisa Wood, your majesty." I bowed my head in respect. "I came to the city to live here with my mate and came to seek your permission to allow us to stay here…. And then Lord Altas decided to put his hands on me. Xavier and Prince Rowan acted in my defense."

"I see… And where's this mate of yours?" The king questioned, his eyes searching for a marking clearly.

"He's actually a snake beastman, so didn't come with me." I answered, pointing at Ahi's mark. "Your strict rules made me want to seek permission before letting him come here."

The king was silent for a moment before he finally sighed, "Seems we will need to discuss this all… Xavier, fetch her mate and make sure to bring him to the west palace. We'll go over this whole matter there."

Xavier glanced my way and I bit my lip before turning back to the king, "If Xavier gets my mate, will you promise that no harm will come to him."

The king agreeing to let Ahi here seemed too simple. I'd already seen the reactions of many surrounding ferals and couldn't trust his words. For all I knew, he could be trying to lure and kill Ahi.

The king let out a small smile and nodded, "On the Beast God, you have my word that I won't allow any harm to come to your mate while he is in the city."

Pain circled around my wrist suddenly as a lion marking appeared on it for a second. With the vow, I could easily agree to having Ahi come. What concerned me now was what the king wanted.