#13 The Dragon King and his Werewolf Princess
Chapter 1 River

All I have to say is, what the actual fuck?

I groaned and rolled over from my face-first position, spitting out a mouthful of snow. Staring up at the sky was my first indication that I was no longer in Kansas, Dorothy. It was a swirling canvas of blues and orange with a huge, sweltering sun shining in the cloudless sky. I looked to my left and right, noticing snow everywhere. Mountains and hills of shining white snow. Off in the distance were tall, spiky-looking snow capped mountains.

Snow. So much fucking snow.

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I sat up and shoved my dark red hair from my face, clearing away my vision. I was still wearing my party dress, a thin almond-colored tea-length dress made from a soft cotton material; needless to say, I was not dressed for the Arctic tundra. I jumped up and dusted the snow from my dress, tugging it down as far as it would go to cover up my bare legs. My pale skin was covered in goosebumps and I was shivering from head to toe. Wrapping my arms around my small frame, I continued to inspect my surroundings.

There was nothing as far as the eye could see, nothing but snow, trees, and mountains. Have I mentioned the snow? I looked down at my feet, which were bare and squished into the icy white fluff, and released a heavy sigh. I guess there’s nothing left to do but walk, I thought to myself as I began my trek to nowhere.

I was pretty sure that my extremities had fallen off by now and my lips were blue; I couldn’t feel anything, anymore, not even the sting of the icy air. I had been walking for what felt like hours and was no closer to anything that resembled civilization. I had just come to the definitive conclusion that I was going to die out here, a frozen werewolf popsicle, when the hum of an engine caught my attention.

I started moving quickly towards the sound, hoping to find the comfort of a warm vehicle, when up over a mound of snow came a herd of snowmobiles. Or, at least , what resembled snowmobiles. I stumbled to a stop as the machines began to circle around me, their engines revving loudly. Eventually, the army of nearly a dozen vehicles came to a stop, and three of them flung open their doors.

Three impossibly large men climbed out of the snowmobiles. I mean, I’m used to being surrounded by 6-foot-something-tall men on a daily basis, and yet the height of these dudes was completely unsettling to me. They had to be pushing seven feet or more. I couldn’t do anything other than stare at the giants stalking towards me with scowls painted on their perfect faces. They were handsome and large, likely made of all muscle.

“Who are you and what is your purpose here?” One of them grunted out.

“Who are you?” I snapped back with as much attitude as my frozen lips could muster.

These fellows didn’t like that answer very much at all. The two who didn’t speak marched up to either side of me, placed a hand on each of my shoulders, and shoved me down to my knees.

“You are addressing the Royal Guardians.” The man spoke plainly, glaring harshly at me.

“Excuse me? Am I supposed to know what that means? There are no Royal Guardians.” I leveled him with a glare of my own.

“Identify yourself! Show us your marks!” The man’s voice turned angry, his eyes flashing a bright, nauseating white.

“My mark? I’m not marked. I don’t have a mate.” I narrowed my eyes on the man in confusion.

Suddenly, he was hovering above me and the two men who were holding me down were twisting me this way and that. They grabbed my arms and yanked them upwards, inspecting every inch of my skin, before doing the same with my legs. One of them pinched my chin and roughly craned my neck to one side and then the other, looking for my mark. The two men yanked me from the ground and forced me to stand in front of the one who was doing all the talking.

“Remove your dress.” He said,

“Uh what?” I asked, dumbfounded.

The man didn’t wait for an answer. He reached out one of his large hands and ripped the dress from my body in a single motion. I screamed and struggled against their hold, trying to cover myself up to no avail. They looked over me with scrutinizing gazes.

“How is it possible that you don’t have a mark?” The man’s tone changed from anger to confusion.

“I told you already, I don’t have a mate!” I shouted.

“You are now in the custody of the Royal Court. You will be taken to the jails and await your judgment.” The man said, nodding towards the two who were holding me.

“Fine! Take me to the Royal Court. I am the Royal Court.” I cried out as they dragged me towards their snowmobiles.

One of the men shoved a sweatshirt over my head and then clasped handcuffs around my wrists before hauling me into the back of his snowmobile. It was several minutes into the trip before I realized that my wrists weren’t burning. I looked down at the handcuffs and came to the conclusion that they weren’t made of silver.

“We can escape.”

I jumped as a voice inside my head spoke up. It was a sweet, melodic voice that I had been waiting my entire life to hear.

“Hello?” I asked into the void of my own mind.

“Hello, River. I’m Lavender, your wolf.” The voice, Lavender, replied.

“I’ve waited so long to meet you.” I gasped.

“Me too. I wish it could’ve been under better circumstances.” Lavender sighed.

“What’s going on?” I asked.

“I don’t know. All I know is that this is the Moon Goddess’ plan for us.” Lavender said,

“Her plan? Her plan is for us to be kidnapped by some psychos who don’t realize I’m their princess? I mean, they call themselves the royal guardians, how crazy is that?” I scoffed.

“I don’t…..River, I don’t think we’re in the werewolf realm anymore.” Lavender said hesitantly.

“Of course, we’re in the werewolf realm. Where else would we be? The human realm?” I said with a humorless laugh.

“No, that doesn’t feel right either.” Lavender replied.

“Then where?”

“I don’t know. It doesn’t feel familiar. Also, I think something is going to happen soon.” Lavender said, sounding distracted.

“Something like being kidnapped and thrown in the back of a snowmobile half naked?” I asked in a snarky voice.

“No,” Lavender sighed, “Something bigger than that.”

“Well, we can figure that out later. Right now, let’s get out of here.” I said, tugging at the handcuffs.

“I don’t think….” Lavender started to argue, but it was too late, I had already snapped the cuffs like they were made of paper, “Okay.” She sighed in defeat.

I decided to wait until the snowmobile stopped, hoping that it would be closer to civilization than the frozen hellscape I’d been in. It seemed to take forever to reach our destination, but the snowmobiles finally came to an abrupt stop. I heard the sound of voices outside and prepared myself for an attack.

The second the door was opened, I lunged toward the person on the other side, landing a kick against his chest and running past him. I think I was free for about two seconds flat before I was tackled to the ground. The crushing weight of the behemoth-sized men knocked the wind out of me as I was flattened to the ground. There was incoherent yelling and then I was heaved off the pavement and shackled again. I barely had a second to focus on my attackers when one of them landed a heavy punch to my face.

I let out a cry of pain as I felt my nose snap and immediately started tasting blood. My vision blurred and I couldn’t focus on any of the men in front of me. I felt hands around me and then I was being shoved forward.

“Someone go get the King, he needs to be informed of this invader.” The man who spoke to me earlier called out.

The King?

“Get in there.” An unfamiliar voice ordered just as he gave me a hard push.

“Oof!” I gasped, stumbling forward and tripping over my feet. I hit the ground, hard.

By the time I sat up and cleared the blood and dirt from my vision, the cell door had been slammed shut and locked, leaving me stuck inside the tiny room. Once again, I was contained only by handcuffs made of something other than silver, and a jail cell made of, apparently, the same metal.

“Don’t do it.” Lavender warned me.

“Why not? If they’re going to be stupid enough to leave me in a cell not made of silver, why shouldn’t I escape?” I countered.

“Because you sucked at it the first time.” Lavender pointed out.

“Yeah, but look,” I nodded my head toward the other side of the cell door, “No one is guarding us.”

“That doesn’t mean someone isn’t out there somewhere. I don’t know, River, something just doesn’t feel right.” Lavender was shaking her head.

“So what? We just sit in here and wait to be greeted by whoever the King of these lunatics is?” I snapped.

Lavender stayed silent.

“I’m getting us out of here.” I decided.

I wrapped my hand around the bars and ripped the door down with one strong tug. It made a hell of a racket, but I wasn’t sticking around to see if anyone noticed. I snapped the handcuffs off again and started running. I think I might’ve made it about five seconds this time.

Once again, I was slammed into by, what felt like, a freight train. This time, I was pinned against the damp cement wall. A hot breath blew across my ear.

“Who the hell do you think you are?” Someone growled in a smoky voice.

“None of your damn business.” I bit.

The man yanked me away and then slammed my face into the wall again, causing fresh blood to spill from my nose, which Lavender had already healed once. He yanked me roughly back to the cell, but this time he entered the cell with me.

“I don’t know how you keep doing that, but we’re going to make sure you don’t move an inch from now on.” He sneered.

He called out to some of the other guards for the “heavy chains”, whatever that meant. About a minute later, two more monstrous men entered the cell.

“What do you people eat around here? Straight protein shakes?” I asked as they shoved me to the ground again.

Nobody answered me. Instead, they wrapped thick, heavy chains around my ankles and wrists, attaching each chain to a hook in the center of the floor. This time, they found the right cocktail because my skin caught fire and started to sizzle under the silver restraints. Lavender whimpered in my head and went silent.

“Don’t like that, do you?” The man laughed darkly as I winced in pain, “Good.”

The men left the room, slamming the cell door shut.

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