Page 88 of In the Embrace of Dragons

My service has always been my life. That service has changed, morphed, but still one truth remains: they are my royalty and I am their guardian.

Impregnating Nissia changes that dramatically.

Vizarios’s smile falls. “Why not? We can have the healer test you while he’s here. I’m sure that you?—”

“No!” I don’t mean it to come out so strong, but I can’t help myself. The idea of it, the carrot dangling in front of me, is painful to even look upon.

I knew very early that I would never have a child of my own. I was only attracted to other male dragons, to begin with. Fatherhood has never once crossed my mind. My own family was never one to speak of, never one that I stayed in contact with after leaving the eastern territory where I grew up. It was a cold home, one that I would certainly not wish upon anyone else.

I have lived under the impression that I would take a firm rear seat in raising the king and queen’s dragonling. Though they have welcomed me into their lives with open arms, I always knew that moment would come.

And yet, now, the king is offering me a very different proposition from what I had envisioned, and I am unworthy.

Vizarios is so shocked by my answer that he falls silent, staring at me. It is Nissia who approaches, running one hand down my arm. I flinch, but she doesn’t relent, stepping even closer.

“Papa,” she says in a soft voice. “Why does this upset you?”

I gnash my teeth because I don’t have the words.

“Please,” she intones. “Talk to me.”

“An heir would be royalty,” I say at last. “I am not royalty.”

“So?” Vizarios chimes in. “Any heir born of the queen is a rightful heir to the throne.”

“The wardens will not see it that way when the dragonling comes out looking like me and not you.”

That would be very serious, I imagine, for the kingdom to learn that the heir to everything is my offspring and not the king’s.

But Vizarios looks unperturbed. “Word has already traveled around the kingdom about our... situation. So far there has been no rebellion.”

“There does not need to be a rebellion to be unrest.”

All the while, Nissia stands quietly, listening and stroking my arm. Her hand winds down to mine, and she interlaces our fingers together.

“There will be more unrest if there is no heir,” she says. “If there is no security for the future,thatwill certainly lead to a more disastrous political scale.”

I hate that she speaks wisdom. No heir is worse than an heir of another sire, as long as she is its mother.

“Besides,” says Vizarios. “Perhaps we could make it official, instead of hiding. We could make you our consort, so any of your children would be heirs to the throne, too.”

My mouth simply falls open. “You would make me... your consort?”

“Of course.” Vizarios steps closer and runs a hand up my chest. “You are royalty to me.”

The worst part is that my cock has already heard this conversation and lifted its head. My belly feels warm at the idea ofmyseed finding a home inside our queen,myseed growing in her body. It would be ours, mine and Vizarios’s, and it would perhaps be a gift that I could give him. I know how he longs for a child, and I could provide it.

I turn my head away, humiliated at how my emotions rise and fall, twist and turn like the sea.

“Papa.” When she says it, I tilt my head down to look at Nissia. “I understand if you don’t want this. I would never ask it of you against your will. No kingdom deserves that sacrifice from you.”

But Idowant it, painfully so, now that the idea has been presented—which is what makes it impossible.

I shouldn’t want it. I shouldn’t crave it. To see mydragonling sucking at Nissia’s nipple, to see it in Vizarios’s arms, sounds like a world beyond my comprehending, and I do not deserve it.

I choke as I manage to say, “It would be no sacrifice. It would be... my greatest honor.”

A smile splashes across my king’s face. He has taken this so well, the news of his physical malformation, that I don’t know what to make of it. He slaps me on the shoulder as he wraps his other arm around Nissia.