Page 77 of Dragon King’s Bullied Mate

But even as he shouted it, he already knew. Dag would never allow them to escape so easily.

Mikael’s gaze searched frantically through the chaos until he finally spotted her near the side exit gripping Beckett tightly against her side while attempting to push through fleeing guests toward the far corridor.

Relief lasted less than a second when another man stepped directly into their path. Tall and broad-shouldered with dark hair streaked with gray.

Boden.

Mikael recognized him immediately from the reports surrounding Beckett’s past. He saw Beckett freeze with pure terror transforming the child’s face as he stumbled backward against Lyra.

Boden lunged for him and Lyra reacted instantly. She seized a fallen dagger from the floor and drove it viciously into Boden’s shoulder before he could reach Beckett, moving with a savagery that stunned even Mikael from across the hall.

Boden roared in pain.

“Run!” Lyra shouted at Beckett.

But more figures emerged behind them. Skelvarn soldiers, and at their center, Dag. For one terrible moment the world tilted as Dag’s gaze met Mikael’s across the burning hall. Something cold and broken stared back from the face of the man Mikael had once trusted more than anyone alive.

Then Dag struck one of the castle guards across the throat and surged forward. Mikael moved instantly but three attackers intercepted him before he could reach them. By the time he cut through the last one, Lyra had already been overwhelmed, but still she fought.

Mikael watched her slam a serving tray into one Skelvarn’s face before she clawed desperately toward Beckett while another grabbed her from behind. There was nothing frightened about her anymore. Dag’s cruel high school taunts may have once reduced her to silence but now she looked like fury itself.

Another attacker jumped in front of him just as Boden struck her hard across the side of the head with a goblet. Lyra collapsed instantly.

“LYRA!”

Mikael’s roar shook the hall. Beckett screamed as Boden seized him while Dag’s soldiers closed protectively around them. Dag picked up Lyra and threw her over his shoulder and then they vanished into the smoke and chaos.

And something monstrous inside Mikael finally broke loose. He slashed the man in front of him before he ran down the corridor in hot pursuit.

The storm outside the castle raged violently across the mountains while Mikael rode at the front of the pursuit with blood staining both his clothes and his hands. His dragon clawed viciously beneath his skin with barely controlled fury.

The group of Skelvarns didn’t bother covering their tracks, not that they could in the snow. Mikael and his men tracked Dag north toward the caves hidden deep within the cliffs beyond the forest line.

Ancient smuggling tunnels which presented defensible terrain. Once again the sheer amount of planning they had done for the attack crossed Mikael’s mind.

Dag had known all the details necessary to pull it off.

Malaya rode beside him in grim silence before finally saying quietly, “You cannot lose control entirely.”

Mikael barely heard her. All he could see was Lyra collapsing and Beckett screaming. His failure to protect them would haunt him for the rest of his life.

“This isn’t your fault, Mik.”

“This is entirely my fault,” he snapped back. “I should have figured Dag out years ago.”

“But then you may not have met your mate.”

He cut his eyes at her. “Way to make a horror story into a positive.”

The mountain caves emerged through the snow shortly before dawn. Torches flickered near the entrance while Skelvarn guards scrambled into defensive positions the moment Mikael’s forces appeared through the blizzard.

Then Dag stepped forward from the shadows. Beckett stood several feet behind him with his hands bound. Lyra knelt nearby, bruised but conscious, struggling against the soldiers holding her in place. Relief nearly staggered Mikael before rage consumed it again.

Dag looked exhausted. Snow collected across his dark coat while regret and madness warred visibly behind his eyes as he stood on the cliff looking down at Mikael.

“You should have stayed dead,” Dag said bitterly.

Mikael dismounted slowly. “You betrayed your kingdom.”