MATED TO A DRAGON - Book 1CHAPTER 1: THE SACRIFICEThe village of Oakhaven had sacrificed a girl to the dragon for 200 years.Every Harvest Moon, they tied one to the stone altar on the mountain and left her. And every Harvest Moon, the dragon came down, fire in his throat, and took her.No one ever came back.My name is Elara Vance, I am 19, and this year, they chose me."It's an honor," the Elder said, tying my wrists with rope that cut into my skin. His hands were shaking. Not from guilt — from fear. If they didn't give the dragon a girl, the dragon would burn the crops."It's not honor, it's murder," I spat."You should have kept your mouth shut, witch girl," he muttered. "Your mother read too many books. Now you pay for it."My mother died last winter. She taught me to read, to write, to ask questions. In Oakhaven, that made me dangerous.They left me on the mountain as the sun bled red. The altar was cold. The wind howled through the black pines. I could see the entire valley below, my little house with the broken roofMATED TO A DRAGON - Book 1Chapter 2: The Dragon's LairI thought falling would kill me.It didn't. Flying did something worse — it stole my breath, my thoughts, my fear.Kael's arms were iron around me. His wings beat once, twice, and the cold mountain air turned into a hurricane. Oakhaven shrank below us into tiny lights. The clouds swallowed us whole.I should have been screaming. Instead, I was staring at his throat. The scales there were softer, almost glowing with heat. Every breath he took rumbled through my own chest."Stop looking at me like that," he growled, not looking down at me."Like what?""Like you are wondering how I will kill you.""Aren't you?"He finally looked at me. His golden eyes were still fire, but there was something else in them now. Confusion. Hunger. Not for food."I have waited 400 years," he said. "I am not going to kill you, little mate."Mate. That word again.We broke through the clouds, and I saw it.A mountain that wasn't a mountain. It was a palace carved into the peak of the world — black stone, spires that touched the stars, waterfalls of lava that flowed like rivers but never burned the stone. It was beautiful and terrifying, just like him.The Dragon's Lair. The place no sacrifice ever returned from.He landed in a courtyard of black glass. As soon as his feet touched the ground, his wings folded and dozens of lights flickered on — not torches, but floating orbs of fire that bowed to him.He set me down. My legs gave out. Four hours tied to an altar and a flight through frozen clouds — I couldn't stand.He caught me before I hit the ground."Careful," he muttered."Let go of me!"I pushed him. It was like pushing a wall. He didn't move an inch, but his eyes darkened."You are weak. You need heat.""I need to go home!""Your home sacrificed you," he said flatly. "Oakhaven is no longer your home."That shut me up. Because it was true.He carried me anyway, bridal-style, through huge doors that opened on their own. Inside, the lair was warm. Unnaturally warm. The walls pulsed with faint golden veins, like the mountain itself was alive.It was not a cave of bones like the legends said. It was a home. There were books — thousands of books — stacked to the ceiling. There was a massive bed covered in black furs. There was a bath carved from stone, steaming with hot water.And there were... things. Women's things.A silver brush on a table. A faded blue dress, neatly folded, that was clearly not made for a dragon."Who did those belong to?" I asked, my voice small.Kael's jaw tightened. He set me down near the fire. The fire, I realized, was not in aMATED TO A DRAGON - Book 1Chapter 3: First Night With The Dragon KingI didn't mean to fall asleep.I was supposed to stay awake, plan my escape, hate him. But the lair was too warm, the furs too soft, and after crying for hours on that altar, my body gave up.When I woke up, I was in his bed.Panic shot through me — I sat up, clutching the black furs to my chest. I was still dressed. My rough village dress was still on, though someone had draped a fur over me.Kael was not in the bed. He was across the room, sitting on the stone floor, his massive back against the wall, his wings wrapped around himself like a cloak. He was asleep.Or at least, I thought he was, until he spoke without opening his eyes."You were shivering. The floor was too cold for you.""You put me in your bed?""You fell asleep by the fire. I moved you. The stone sucks the heat from humans."His eyes opened. Molten gold, sleepy, watching me."You drool in your sleep, little mate.""I do not!""You do," he said, a faint smirk. "And you mumbled my name."My face burned. "I did not.""You did." He stood in one fluid motion. Seven feet of muscle and scales and wings in the morning light coming from the lava falls. He was shirtless. I hadn't realized dragons... well, he looked like a man who would love me and spend the rest of his life time with me.And he finally fall in love with me,I never knew.

She was sacrificed to a monster. He never expected to find his mate.I, Lyra Thorn, was the cursed daughter of Oakhaven. On the night of the full moon, my own family tied me in a black dress and left me in the forbidden forest as a tribute to the Wolf King.Everyone said he was a beast who devoured maidens. A cursed Alpha who killed his last Luna.They lied.The man who emerges from the mist is not a beast — he is Kael Blackwood, the most dangerous Alpha King in the North. Six foot four of pure muscle, scarred, hooded, with eyes that glow silver in the dark. And when he smells me, his entire body freezes."You," he growls, his claws digging into my throat. "You're my second chance mate. My forbidden bride."But I am not his. I was already rejected once. I was already promised to another. And I carry a secret that could destroy his entire pack.He says he will never let me go. He says I am his to claim, to mark, to breed.I say I would rather die than be mated to the Wolf King who ruined my family