Chapter 3

### Mikel Diego

I scented the beautiful woman and knew she had run into my bedroom. But how had she escaped Abigail and Nana?

I closed the door, knowing she wouldn't be able to escape or fly out the window, as I doubted she could fly. I had to dismiss them to avoid raising panic around the whole palace. I was the dragon king, but my mother, the queen, and my sister were around, and they hadn't seen her except for my chosen mate, Zuri, who was with me when Aaron arrived with her.

Zuri's eyes burned with disgust at the sight of the pretty human, and worse, Aaron had brought her in bare without her clothes. How could he?

I was taken aback by how sexy and curvy her waist was. I was a dragon king and 540 years old, but since my conception and birth, I had never seen a pretty human female like her.

We did not grow older in our kingdom, but we abducted human females to use them for crossbreeding in order to maintain balance in our system, as female dragons rarely birthed many baby dragons. They were jealous and possessive of us, and they hated the idea of us taking human females away from their households to use them for breeding purposes, but we had no other option.

Since I accepted Zuri as my mate, which was 300 years ago when I came of age, she had not yet conceived for me, and I didn’t know why.

Zuri refused to leave, and worst of all, she did not support me taking a second mate.

I knew she was burning with rage at seeing me stare at the pretty human with lust, as Aaron had clearly triggered me by bringing her in without clothes.

She possessed a strong personality, and I had a lot of questions to ask Aaron. He needed to explain to me where and how he chose to bring her in without clothes, especially with a multitude of people gathering in front of our magnificent palace and staring at her.

I'm sure many of them would soon come to purchase her, as we sold any newly captured human to any dragon family that wanted them as mates.

"King Mikel, we need to talk!" Zuri's loud voice echoed in the passage after I had dismissed Abigail and Nana. I walked up to meet her to prevent her from stepping into my room.

"Talk about what, Zuri? I will see Aaron later and find out why he chose to bring the human in without her clothes. I’m sure it wasn't intentional," I said to Zuri calmly, but Zuri was raging as if she wanted to breathe fire and burn the human female to death.

Some of the human females had been killed by jealous female dragons, and I just hoped I could protect this pretty stubborn human female from my mother, sister, and more likely Zuri, as Aaron wasn't the problem.

Aaron had his own mate, Aspen, who had given birth to two daughters for him, Lily and Lola, who were twins. Aspen was pregnant again, and we were hoping it would be a male dragon so that I could rest assured that Aaron's male child would be my successor to the throne and continue ruling over our kingdom.

"King Mikel, I don't want that human to be kept in this castle with us. Let her be sent away to wherever she came from; I don't need her around here," Zuri complained bitterly, and I continued walking through the passage, hoping Zuri wouldn't scent the delicious aroma of the human and that we'd meet with Aaron along the way.

Aaron indeed knew how to show up when I was in distress and asked, "What's going on here? Zuri, you know our tradition. Do you want to wipe out our entire clan? You're unable to birth a son or daughter for my brother, and you're sending away all the pretty females we've brought. Are you a witch, Zuri?!"

"Enough, Aaron! Let her be," Mother interrupted as she walked up with Lucy to meet us.

"Mikel, Aaron, where's the new female that was brought? I heard she came into this palace without clothes on," Mother asked, peering at me.

"Mom, I need to be left alone. Abigail and Nana are dressing her up and preparing her to be sold tonight." I lied, as the pretty one wasn't going anywhere.

I was the king, and whatever decision I made was final. I had a soft heart, but that didn't mean I would sit back and watch this pretty human be sold to a male in my clan when I was still unable to have a child of my own.

It seemed the gods of our lands chose to bless me not just with any human, but with a pretty one, and I smiled.

"Hmm... It's alright. Come, Zuri, let's go. Besides, you don't need to worry about the lady. She will be sold tonight," Mother told Zuri as she walked up to her and pulled her by the arm to follow her. Lucy only stared at me and Aaron in silence, her red eyes fixed on me.

Lucy had stubbornly refused to leave the palace, not wanting to lose her princess title. Luckily for her, we didn’t grow old and still maintained our youthful skin even as our age increased. We remained the same year after year, except for the humans. I had heard some dragons had lost their human mates, but this pretty one was not going anywhere.

I made up my mind to turn her into a dragon, as only I, Aaron, and my sister had the power to do so, being born of ancestral royal dragon blood.

Although we didn’t tell the other dragons about it so they wouldn’t be aware of the possibility of turning a human into a dragon, I was ready to try that on her. I patiently wanted to dismiss everyone else and shut the passage door closed so I could be left alone with the human female while waiting for night to fall, so she could be sold.

Although it wasn't the auction season, Aaron had brought her in without clothes, and many dragon males had seen her and how endowed she was. I was sure they would be ready to drop millions of gold to have her for even one night, but I wouldn’t let that happen.

"Brother, how do you see her?" Aaron turned to face me, and I breathed out in relief.

"She's beautiful. Where did you bring her from? She looks like the other princesses that have been sold," I said.

"Yes, brother, I think so, but she's strong and ruthless. She was the one who killed the two guards we sent to abduct the human females and bring them to the palace," Aaron said.

"How interesting. But I seem to like her, and that could be a problem. She escaped from Abigail and Nana's clutch and is in my chamber now," I told Aaron, and his jaw dropped.

"What?! That's even better! I purposely brought her for you. I could have killed her, as she disguised herself as a male, but when I felt her burning yellow eyes, I knew only the royal family of Sunfield had such yellow eyes. I perceived her scent and immediately recognized her royal blood, but I was confused seeing her dressed as a male. She's tough, brother; though she looks small, you have to be careful with her as she wouldn't hesitate to cut off your rod."

Aaron smirked and showed me his arm, which was still healing. I asked, "She did this?"

"Yes. She's a perfect sword mistress, and I'm sure she wants to avenge her late family and the disappearance of her sisters."

"Hmm..." I hummed.