I Left The Wolf King Who Loved Me For The Dragon King Chapter 09

I Left The Wolf King Who Loved Me For The Dragon King Chapter 09

The black dragon was colossal, a terrifying titan over three times the size of Aurora, looking as though he could swallow a mammoth whole. His scales were thick, coarse, and heavily armored, though the plating around his eyes was remarkably distinct—shaped like frozen, jagged teardrops.

A row of razor-sharp spikes ran the entire length of his spine. A suffocating heat radiated from his massive frame, warping and distorting the surrounding air into shimmering thermal waves.

He unleashed a torrent of white-hot fire, a warning shot meant to drive me back.

“Calm down, Draekon!” I roared over the crackle of the flames. “I am here to help you!”

A deep, commanding male voice instantly shattered the silence of my mind.

“I trust no one… leave this peak… all of you…”

The telepathic gift of the dragon lords.

I took another step onto the ash, shouting back, “I am Aylin Selwyn! A daughter of the high bloodline, carrying the pure magic of the moon! You demanded a Selwyn bride yourself—the least you can do is let me approach you!”

Draekon choked back his flame, his massive, terrifying head swinging down until he was mere inches from my face.

“A bride… don’t make me laugh…”

“You wolves never cross my borders without a knife hidden in your skirts…”

“I have no need for your hollow concerns! Leave, before I incinerate you where you stand!”

“Liars! All of you are liars!”

“You are nothing but a bastard hybrid! Get out!”

I filled my lungs with the sulfurous air and bellowed back with everything I had. “Do not call me a bastard! You think because you sit on a throne of ash, you are superior? You think fire gives you the right to humiliate whoever you want?”

“You look at the world and see nothing but deceivers because you have never offered a single shred of sincerity yourself—you attract liars because you are a cynic! Step down from your arrogant throne! The cosmos does not revolve around your agony!”

Draekon went completely rigid, a profound shock rippling through his massive frame. He had clearly never encountered a creature bold enough to spit fury back into his teeth.

But the feral madness of his failing core quickly surged back, his mental voice dropping into a lethal growl.

“Silence! If you truly claim the Selwyn blood, step forward and face the trial of the pyre! Only the woman who survives my embers is worthy of my bond!”

A violent tremor racked my broken body, but I wiped the sweat and soot from my face, hardening my jaw as I spat back in the exact same savage tone, “Bring it on! I accept your trial!”

Yet, he didn’t unleash the flame.

I began to march forward, closing the distance between us with heavy, deliberate strides. I needed physical contact with his scales if I was going to anchor his fracturing core and siphon the curse.

“Do not approach me! Halt!”

I ignored the command, my boots crunching against the igneous stone.

“I will burn you to ash! I mean it!”

I kept walking.

The black dragon exhaled a massive, suffocating cloud of dark soot, but I merely coughed through the haze, refusing to break my stride.

“Stay back! I am losing the tether—I cannot control the fire! I will kill you!”

Through the smoke, I saw the coarse scales across his chest fracturing, bright veins of glowing, molten magma expanding across his skin like a web.

The curse was reaching its absolute zenith. Realizing his core was on the verge of imploding, I broke into a sprint, charging straight toward the heat.

“GET AWAY!”

The black dragon thrashed his massive wings, attempting to launch his colossal weight into the sky to escape me. But his body was too weak, his desperate movements doing nothing but whipping up violent, blistering gale-winds.

Then, letting out an earth-shattering roar that made the entire mountain tremble, a dense, blinding sphere of golden fire began to materialize within his jaws.

Caught in the center of the vortex, I fought for every inch of ground, forcing my feet forward against the howling wind.

Draekon’s frantic, maddened roars continued to batter the interior of my skull.

“Get away! Get away! You will die!”

“You think I want to be here?” I hissed through my gritted teeth, pushing through the suffocating pressure. “I want to live more than anyone… if it weren’t for your sister, I wouldn’t have taken a single step into this hell!”

“When I was broken, when my own blood was beating me with silver-tipped whips, she was the only soul who stood between me and the strike! She bound my wounds… she was the first person to ask me what I wanted!”

The dragon could hold the volatile sphere no longer. The catastrophic fire, capable of incinerating the very fabric of life, erupted from his jaws. The entire midnight sky was instantly blotted out by a blinding, apocalyptic sheet of gold, turning the caldera into a living sun.

Perhaps the temperature had crossed a mortal threshold, because the agony never came. The world around me felt remarkably warm, bright, and serene.

Through the sheet of gold, I finally reached him. I threw my arms around his massive, magma-veined neck, leaning my exhausted frame against his rough scales.

“You absolute fool…” I whispered.

A vibrant, flawless column of silver lunar magic erupted from my palms, flooding the fractures in his armor.

“You are so much luckier than I am.”

“You still have a family who loves you, waiting for you to come home.”

A single tear spilled over my lashes, slipping past the heat.

The drop landed perfectly upon the teardrop-shaped scale beneath his eye.

The final trace of my energy spent, my knees buckled, and my consciousness dissolved into absolute darkness.

The apocalyptic fire that seemed destined to consume the island gradually withered into smoke. The colossal black dragon shape receded, his form shifting down until a tall, strikingly handsome man with a sharp jawline and golden eyes stood in the ashes.

He dropped to his knees, cradling my limp body against his chest, his gaze filled with utter, breathless bewilderment.

“Aylin!”

Aurora scrambled over the crumbling ridge, her chest heaving as she sprinted into the clearing. She skidded to a halt, her golden eyes widening in sheer, unvarnished shock as she stared at her brother. “Draekon? You… you can shift into your human skin? The curse…?”

“It’s gone,” Draekon murmured, his deep voice raw, raspy, and thoroughly shaken.

He tightened his arms around me, staring down at my unblemished face. “And… she survived the unfettered breath.”

“What?” Aurora’s breath hitched, her hands flying to her mouth.

In the ancient lore of the dragon lords, there was but one immutable truth: the soul who could walk through a dragon’s true fire and emerge untouched was the fated partner ordained by the stars. She was his life.