A Bride for the dragon king

Wedding day.  It was supposed to be the happiest day of a woman’s life, but I felt like I was attending my own funeral.  A vision in a cascade of red curls and flawless makeup, I was more a sacrifice than a bride, about to become a concubine to the Dragon King of the South. My own family had sold me, bartered my life to pay off my stepbrother’s gambling debts.  He'd stolen a box of gold, gambled it away, and left me to face the fiery consequences.  My future, my dreams, extinguished in a puff of dragon smoke. But the worst was yet to come.  As the wedding was about to begin, the Dragon King of the North, a terrifying figure of power and wrath, materialized before us.  My brother’s crimes were far more audacious than I could have ever imagined. He hadn’t just stolen gold, he’d pilfered the most precious gem from the tomb of the North King’s predecessor, a theft of unimaginable audacity.  With the North King demanding retribution, my brother had vanished, likely squandering the ill-gotten gains.  My fate, already bleak, had become a terrifying vortex of chaos. The Dragon King of the North had learned of my fate as a pawn in a power play, destined to become the Dragon King of the South's concubine.  But the North King wasn't one to stand idly by while his rival claimed a prize he considered his own. She knew the dangers of the North King's lust, the whispers of women lost to his fiery embrace. He was coming for me.  He was coming to steal me away from the Dragon King of the South, and a new, deeper terror gripped my heart.  This was no mere rescue, this was a power play between two titans, and I was the prize.