Page 69 of Dragon King’s Bullied Mate

Entire patrol reports had vanished from certain years while documents referenced attached witness statements that no longer existed. The more Mikael searched, the more impossible it became to believe coincidence explained any of it.

Especially when Dag’s name appeared repeatedly around the missing files.

Mikael leaned heavily against the table and rubbed his eyes before opening another damaged report connected to a smuggling operation near the Stagholt border years earlier. Half the pages were gone.

Of course they were.

“Convenient,” he muttered darkly.

The dragon stirred restlessly beneath his skin, agitated by the same instincts that clawed through Mikael’s chest. Every path kept leading back toward Dag no matter how badly Mikael wanted another explanation.

He ran a hand through his hair. He was too tired to keep going, but he knew this was his fault. He had given Dag leniency and indulged his behaviors through the years because of their childhood friendship. Dag had gotten away with things that would have sent any other guard to the dungeon.

And now it was coming back to bite him. Not only because of the poisoning, but because Mikael had begun noticing something deeply unsettling every time the man spoke about Lyra.

Hatred. Pure, unadulterated hatred. Mikael no longer believed it originated from simple schoolyard cruelty.

A knock sounded lightly against the archive door before Malaya slipped inside carrying two steaming cups of coffee.

“You look terrifying.”

Mikael accepted the coffee immediately. “I feel terrifying.”

“That’s reassuring.”

He ignored the comment while scanning another page. “Look at this.”

Malaya stepped beside him.

“This operation took place fifteen years ago near the Stagholt border,” Mikael explained quietly. “The reports mention intercepted Skelvarn smugglers and corrupt guards assisting them.” He tapped the edge of the damaged paper. “But half the names connected to the arrests are missing.”

Malaya frowned. “Removed deliberately?”

“Yes.”

“And Dag?”

“Assigned to the border division less than a year later.”

Malaya’s expression darkened instantly. Neither of them spoke for a moment.

“Maybe you should go to bed. Start up again tomorrow.”

“I need to do it while the rest of the castle sleeps. I don’t need Dag finding out that I’m catching up to his secrets.”

She giggled. “The castle has been a tomb ever since you blew up earlier.”

“They had it coming.” But even he knew that his temper had become dangerously unpredictable whenever Lyra or Beckett were involved. He sighed. The thought of her alone softened something inside him.

Lyra.

Without consciously deciding to, Mikael glanced toward the archive doorway as though expecting her to appear despite the late hour. His dragon noticed immediately.

Possessiveness coiled warmly through him at the mere thought of her asleep, curled beneath heavy blankets with Beckett safe nearby while snow and rain battered harmlessly against castle walls.

She slept beside him every night now, not always touching and sometimes only close enough that he could hear her breathing in the dark. The dragon in him had become fiercely attached to even that small intimacy. Mikael knew that he had too.

Malaya noticed the shift in his expression instantly and smirked. “Thinking about the flower girl again?”