"MATED TO THE DRAGON KING"

PART ONE: "TENSION AND FIRST SPARK. " The mountains didn't shake for earthquake. It shook because Kaelen was awake Elena felt it through the soles of her boots as she climbed the last switch back of the ember ridge. the part was narrow, the drop on her left a sheer fall into mist that never lifted not even in high summer. Below, the village of Thornevale looked like scattered embers against the pine. above the peak of darkmere loomed black against a sky the color of bruised fruit. "Stupid," she muttered to herself,"all of it, stupid." Her sister had called it a death wish, and the council had called it a heresay. The old priestess had just looked at her with wet eyes and said "then go if the dragon takes you, at least it will be quick. " That was three days ago, Today was choosing. Every forty years , Thornevale sent a tribute to the dragon of darkmere, not gold, not goats, not persons. The bargain was very much old-older than the stone walls of the village. the dragon stays in it's lair, it didn't burn the valley, it didn't take what it wanted from the fields and the beds at night. In return, it got one life, one willing life "Willing" was the part they never talked about at the festival. Elena wasn't willing, she was furious. Her name had been drawn, the lots were rigged -she knew it. Her brother has spoken out against the council last winter and now the family paid. If she didn't go, they would take him instead, He was just seventeen, all elbow and defiance and no sense of preservation. She had been climbing mountains since she was ten. So here she was, The cave's mouth was bigger than a house, heat rolled out of it like a living thing, carrying the smell of sulfur and old smoke. Scorched marks blackened the rocks around the entrance, no bones, the dragon was tidy. "Kaelen" she called, her voice bouncing back at her, too small, "I'm here, You come out." Silent. Then a sound like a landslide, slow and deliberate He stepped into the lights. Dragons in the old stories were beasts, wings like torns snails, eyes like molten gold, teeth like knives, But Kaelen wasn't as such. He was a man. Tall enough that she had to tilt her head back to see his face, scales ran down his forearm and collarbones in patches of obsidian and ember-red fading into human skin at his throat and jaw. Horns curved back from his back, not for show- she could see the muscles that moved them. His eyes were gold, yes, but slit-puplied and intelligent, and they were studying her like she was a problem to be solved. He wore nothing but a length of dark clothes around his hips. Modesty wasn't for humans, apparently. "You're late," She said, "His voice was low, reasonant the kind of voice that made the stone under your feet vibrate. " I had to walk, "Elena said she hadn't planned to be snarky, it just happened when she was terrified," your driver canceled. " One dark eye brow arched," You have humor, Good, the last one wept for six hours. " " Is that supposed to make me feel better? " " No, "He took a step forward, the heat intensified " You're the tribute? " " I'm the i***t they sent to keep my brother alive, yes" " Then, we have a problem. " Elena braced herself, this was it, The fire, the claws, the end. " I don't eat people, "Kaelen said," I haven't eaten a person in four hundred years." The bargain was made with my grand father, he's dead, I don't care of it. " Elena blinked," So.... can.. can I go home? " " No, "He moved closer , and now she could see the faint glow under his skin, like embers under ash. "Because you're mated to me." "What?" "Mating" draconic bond, Rare, Happens once in a generation, "if we're lucky," He gestured at her, as if that explained everything. "Your scent changed the moment you came within a mile of the peak, it's in your blood, I felt it." Elena looked down at herself, she smelled like sweat, pine resin in fear. "That's ridiculous," she said, "I don't know you." "You don't need to, the bond does," He reached out and she flinched. He stopped, his hand hovering an inch from her cheek, "it's in the blood, When a dragon finds it's mate the bond ignites. it's.... inconvinient, painful, irresistible. " "Try inconvinient, "she said, stepping back," I have a life, a family, I don't want to be bonded to a dragon who lives in the cave and speaks in riddles. " Kaelen's jaw tightened, The scales on his forearms shifted,darkening," You think I wanted this? I've spent four centuries alone, I don't take mates, Mates takes you. " The ground trembles again, not the mountains this time," Her". Something under the skin felt hot, like she had swallowed a coal, it wasn't fear, it was recognition, a pull, low in her guts towards him," stupid animal. " She hated immediately. " If I stay, she said carefully "what happens to Thornevale?" ."The bargain ends," Kaelen said, "with me, I don't want tribute, I don't want fear, I want the valley to forget I exists." " And if I leave?" " Then the bond will fray, it will hurt, for both of us " He exhaled,and the air shimmered with the heat," And the year after that, until I get angry enough to burn it down myself." Elena closed her eyes. She could see it,Her brother's face when they dragged him up here,the village square when the smoke started,her own body,charred and useless,at the bottom of the ridge. " Fine,"she said," But I'm not sleeping in a cave with you." Kaelen's mouth quirked,it wasn't a smile,not yet, there's a second chamber, it's cold, you'll hate it." "I already do." Elena said She followed him inside, The cave was vast,carved by water,time and dragon claws stalactites hung like teeth,pools of streaming water glowed faintly blue.And in the center a neat,Not of straw ,of gold,silver,old armour, and books. Hundreds of books,some with pages turned to dusts. " You read?"Elena asked, surprised. " I have times,"Kaelen said,he didn't looked at her as he moved to the edge of the nest," sleep "the bond will settle or it won't,in the morning you decide." " Decide what?"Elena asked " Whether you stay,or whether I let you go, knowing the costs." Elena sat on the edge of the nearest rock,it was warm, everything here was warm. " Why me?"She asked Kaelen was already turning away his back to her,The scales along his spine caught the light. " Because the bond doesn't care about reasons,"he said," it cares about the truth,and yours is loud." She woke up angry,and warm and not alone. Where we are at: Elena's in the cave,bonded to Kaelen but very furious about it,it wasn't her desire,the bond was pulling but she's got her family and her village on her mind. There's tension, mistrust and the start of something that could be romantic. PART TWO: SHE CHOOSES TO STAY. Morning,In the cave came out a storm. Light filtered through a high vent,in the rock,pale and blue, turning the steam from the pools into ghosts. Elena woke with her back against the warm stone and Kaelen's eyes fixed on her.He hadn't moved from his spot by the nest,but his gaze was sharp, assessing. "You didn't leave." He said. "Didn't say I would," Elena sat up, rubbing off the sleep from her eyes,Her head ached in a way that had nothing to do with the rock. to be continued.