Past Love's Triumph

By Ekaterine Xia

Once upon a time. Or so it usually begins, does it not?
They say my parents started it all with a blunder, that the King and Queen of House Lan were stupid enough to offend one of the Fey by neglecting to invite her to the celebration of my birth. They also say the weapon of choice was a spinning wheel. The spindle, to be precise.
A spinning wheel. As if.
In a way it fits. Bless the young princess with all the boons a future queen would want or need and yet make the cause of her demise something that is almost exclusively the province of the distaff persuasion. Poetic almost, perhaps the original storyteller’s bit of social commentary. A princess may become a queen and rule, but only if she stays far, far away from the feminine.
However, my king-father and queen-mother were not stupid and the Powerful One was not an enemy but an old and trusted friend. She did not utter a curse, but a warning.
Elianna didn’t say a spindle would kill me, but a spear. A man would break me upon himself, hollow out all that I was to create a legacy for him, and kill me in the birthing of that immortality. I could be a princess and then a queen and live, but only if I forsook the feminine side of myself.
As I said, the stories tell the truth as they saw it.

Note: this story involves one heroine and four heroes, three of whom have a prior relationship. Also, there is on the page boinking. Also sleep-sex.
Edited to add: No, the guys don't have on-screen sex, but they DO have a relationship.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Ekaterine Xia
• Release date: Dec 21, 2018
• ISBN: 9781634650168

Book preview

To my cousin, Hsuan, who loves the tale of Sleeping Beauty best, and who I’m pretty sure I won’t be sending a copy of this particular re-telling to of my own volition, thank you for being excited about this story.

To everyone who’s anchored me through the storms, thank you.

Thene. Riza. Eliza. Saro. Simon. Courtney. Tonya. This book would likely not have been finished without you.

Past Love’s Triumph

Once upon a time. Or so it usually begins, does it not?

They say my parents started it all with a blunder, that the King and Queen of House Lan were stupid enough to offend one of the Fey by neglecting to invite her to the celebration of my birth. They also say the weapon of choice was a spinning wheel. The spindle, to be precise.

A spinning wheel. As if.

In a way it fits. Bless the young princess with all the boons a future queen would want or need and yet make the cause of her demise something that is almost exclusively the province of the distaff persuasion. Poetic almost, perhaps the original storyteller’s bit of social commentary. A princess may become a queen and rule, but only if she stays far, far away from the feminine.

However, my king-father and queen-mother were not stupid and the Powerful One was not an enemy but an old and trusted friend. She did not utter a curse, but a warning.

Elianna didn’t say a spindle would kill me, but a spear. A man would break me upon himself, hollow out all that I was to create a legacy for him, and kill me in the birthing of that immortality. I could be a princess and then a queen and live, but only if I forsook the feminine side of myself.

As I said, the stories tell the truth as they saw it.

CHAPTER ONE

ADORA

The man sitting across from me in the romantic gloom of the restaurant was beautiful. Almost lethally so, especially with that aura of power he wore as easily as some men wore a suit. But he wasn’t mine and the mutual understanding hung between us like a shroud.

Gray Santiago had made a valiant effort to hide his disappointment when he’d kissed my hand, but there was no mistaking the flicker of grief. He wasn’t my  mate and I wasn’t his.

My dragon had sat up in interest briefly when he walked into the restaurant, but then she shrugged and rolled back into a supine position and I breathed out a sigh of relief.

Better to simply get it over and done with then.

Tell me, I purred, what makes you worth losing my life for?

The prince’s eyes widened slightly, perhaps the only non-scripted reaction I would get from the dragon prince most known amongst the Flights for his poise. Long lashes fluttered down to veil that piercing gaze, the sensual curve of his mouth flattening.

"Very direct, mi principesa," he murmured at last, lashes sweeping up again to reveal dragon bright eyes. Electric blue, unlike his human form’s bitter chocolate.

It is our way, I said, smiling to soften the edge I couldn’t hide. I was so tired of playing nice with all the dragon males who thought I might be their mate, but it was simply not done to refuse a meeting. At least not when you were a princess and saying no to a simple meal together could mean nasty diplomatic snarls.

Near immortality meant that our race could give new meaning to the idea of feuds and holding grudges.

We both know that we’re not each other’s mate. Why prolong the illusion? Things being what they are, there is little meaning to our coming together unless we were true mates.

What did he expect? All knew of the prophecy Elianna had spoken over me at my Full Moon Feast. I would be mated by the end of my sixteenth decade and the first time I took a man within me would be the start of the end.

Funny, on so many levels. Funny not funny, actually.

Many dragons could fuck for decades, even centuries, without being blessed with a baby, but apparently I would not have that issue. It brought a whole new meaning to the warning of it only takes once. And mated at the end of my sixteenth decade? Considering a dragon was still considered a hatchling until well into our fifth decade and a dragonlet until our first century and that many of our race were either centuries older than me or decades younger when I would be barely considered legal, it would be cradle-robbing either way.

I didn’t even want to touch on the question of why someone still hadn’t figured out contraceptives. My parents had set their minds to the task after the prophecy was spoken, but it was so simply not done that gaining traction had been difficult. Yet another thing I was very tired of. The questions of what was done and what wasn’t. Whether a dragon had the right to her own body and to decide whether or not she wanted children. Whether continuing the race was more important than personal desire.

Arguably, if someone did something, then it was done, no?

But fairly or unfairly, the reality was that most of dragon lore and healing focused on enhancing fertility, not the prevention of hatchlings and human means didn’t work reliably on the supernatural. A dragon’s naturally high body temperature made condoms laughable and infertility charms were mere snacks for the magic-loving beast.

Gray bowed his head in deference to my rebuke. Yes. I simply didn’t expect your question. I thought your parents had the matter well in hand. You are their heir, after all, princess to an ancient territory.

Why in the world was he dragging things out?

They have not declared success, as all know. The computer simulations are simply that, as non-fertility is a spectacularly difficult thing to prove in a subfertile race and there are no mated pairs willing to serve as experiment subjects. My parents had wanted to run the trials upon themselves, but I had won that battle. If I didn’t prevail against what the Fates had ordained for me, I wanted every chance for them to try for another heir. That had been a fun conversation for all involved, even though I knew early on that my parents’ passion for each other had not faltered in the least over their centuries together.

A small, secret joy tickled. My mother’s scales had seemed a bit duller the last time I saw her shifted, and she and my father had been disappearing together a bit more frequently than before. Perhaps there would be good news soon and they would announce that they and I would have a new heir.

Gray’s mouth curved, and this time his smile was genuine. Fact is, I’m not, he said simply. Worth your life, that is.

My turn for round eyes. I hadn’t expected that easy capitulation, not from a dragon of his age and not from a prince of another ancient House.

Gray’s smile widened. "We both know I’m not worth your life, mi principesa, so why would I try to persuade you otherwise?"

No desperate avowals of love and declarations of chastity after mating? I smirked. I like you more and more with every passing moment, Gray.

A slow, almost sensual shrug. If you were mine, I would have made the promises and vowed the same. Humor glinted in his eyes. And we would have both known it to be a desperate lie the minute the words were spoken.

I couldn’t resist a grin. Good thing I’m not, so you don’t have to lie to your mate mere moments after meeting her.

He sat back in his chair, his hands folding neatly in front of him. I could almost see him in dragon form, every bit as deliberate, every coil placed just so.

I like you as well, Seraphina, so I will ask you, what plans have you made for the prophecy?

His expression was straightforward, his eyes clear, body posture at ease.

Ah, here was where his true interest laid. Not surprising. Male dragons of a certain age started to get broody, and if I remembered the records correctly, Gray was far past the age when he would be wanting to set up his nursery. Since he hadn’t mated yet, his only possibilities laid within a female much younger than him. Probably a female younger than I was, at that.

Do you know, you’re only the third male outside of my family to ever ask me that? Interesting, and it made me like him all the more, even if I suspected that he had his own reasons for asking.

Is that so? he asked, his tone pure silken threat. How very remiss of your other suitors.

Indeed. I folded my hands, mimicking him. Why do you wish to know, Gray? I thought that it might be because your potential mate is going to be much younger than you, but honestly, what are the odds of her being similarly afflicted? Most dragon females simply weren’t fertile until they carried enough magic to keep the babe alive. The reason my prophecy had become so famous it turned into legend was because it was so very unheard of.

He flashed a smile at me. "Shall we order first, mi principesa? It seems cruel to keep the waitstaff hovering."

Charming, kind, and now it seemed he was considerate as well. It was almost too bad he wasn’t mine. Almost, because no matter how much I might have wished it, he didn’t call to me.

The Call was supposedly unmistakable, irresistible, and I didn’t know if I thirsted for it or feared it.

Very well.

The prince ordered a fourteen ounce steak with all the trimmings.

I was wavering over the surf and turf with steak and lobster or the lemon-roasted rosemary chicken when Gray shook his head slightly and ordered both.

If you’re worried about waste, I’m fairly sure it won’t be an issue.

No doubt. Adult dragons could eat up to their body weight in food if they wanted to, some unexplained evolutionary quirk that somehow persisted through the ages. That said, we didn’t need to eat that much and I sometimes felt queasy about doing so when, as my parents liked to tell me, there were starving people elsewhere in the world due to greed.

He made sure the waiter was out of earshot before continuing. It would be a pity if the world lost you, Seraphina, and that would be reason enough. However, I must admit to my own selfish needs. We both know why the prophecy was spoken and considering that my own mate will likely be younger than I, I would beg whatever knowledge you could give.

Dragon females do not become fertile until the magic allows it, I reminded him.

If that were entirely true, females would not suffer from magic exhaustion and males with less affinity for magic would not find themselves having to bring in another male for the Gifting.

True.

I studied him and he met my gaze squarely, without tension, his demeanor as serene as if we were discussing the weather. My smile deepened, almost against my will. Gray Santiago really was too smooth by half. He was also too much of a gentleman to use his strength against me even though technically, being the elder and of another royal House, he outranked me and etiquette demanded that I acquiesce.

Still, I would wait until our entrees were served to speak. Just to test his reserve.

Gray sipped elegantly at his wine, the air between us unruffled despite the silence. Perhaps this was one male I could begin to believe when he claimed he would be able to wait, even if all empirical evidence pointed to the contrary.

I’ve spoken to the Justiciars, I said, when the waiter had gone away again.

The prince’s eyes narrowed.

The issue is that the growing babe drains too much magic from the mother in too short a time, yes? I went on.

He inclined his head, still patient despite the obvious statement.

So what if we slow the entire process down by dumping the mother into one of the justiciar’s training tanks?

The justiciars of the Galactic Alliance were judge, jury, and often executioners. As such, they needed to be trained in all the laws of the various races in the Alliance and made aware of all of the minutiae involved in administering a legal system that spanned across galaxies. The only way to reliably do so was to take them young and suspend them in a half dream-state while all the info was poured into their brains. What many didn’t know was that the process had the unexpected side effect of radically slowing the effects of aging. I knew at least one justiciar who was more than a century old and yet didn’t look much older than a teen.

However, this is only hypothetical, no? The justiciars have always denied that there are any unintended side effects associated with their training tanks and they cannot lie. Gray murmured.

I laughed. Surely you’re too old to fall for that?

No unintended side effects? Sure. But who was to say that the justiciars didn’t design them that way? After all, it took at least a decade and often two before their new justiciars could be decanted. For some of the short-lived races like humans, who could make it to a hundred and twenty, maybe, that was way too long a chunk of time. Unless they could do something about the aging process.

His mouth quirked. Rather say, I’m unwilling to risk the life of my mate on unproven hypotheticals.

Fair enough. Neither was I willing to risk my own just based on what I’d guessed. I liked and trusted Aidoneus, but unless he was willing to come right out and say it, I was still the heir to House Xiu and I didn’t have the luxury of just jumping in one and seeing what would happen.

There is also the option of Sleep. There have been Ancients who took to the earth in order to safely pass their Trials. It is possible that a pregnant female could do the same, sheltered by the deeper magic within. A dragon was challenged by the Fates on every birthday that fell on a year ending in nine. Nine, nineteen, twenty-nine, and so forth. The challenges ramped up as a dragon aged, and those less blessed with an aptitude for magic were often culled.

A small furrow gathered between his brows. It is not quite the same. The Trial a dragon faces... it... His frown deepened further as he trailed off. It was similar enough, and he had to know it.

A dragon must hoard their magic and gather enough to deny the scissors of Fate while keeping themselves alive. How is that so different from garnering enough magic to gestate a hatchling and yet remain healthy?

Sharp white teeth caught his bottom lip as he thought over it. You may be correct. But again, unprovable.

Tell me about it.

My dragon rolled her eyes and flopped over.

I spread my hands. You wanted what I have, such as it is. I did warn you that there was no solution in sight. Much as I wished things were different.

The corners of his mouth twitched. Grimace or wry smile? I didn’t know him well enough to guess.

Back to the original thought of vowing chastity then?

A scoff escaped before I could stop myself. That is a worse idea than even my suggestions and you know it. The Call between mates was legendary, allegedly something that could draw mates together across worlds. There was a reason that the whole pure before marriage thing had never caught on amongst dragonkind. Nor most of the other shifter species, for that matter.

Dragons were elemental. Once we were set in motion by Fate’s hand and quickened by the presence of our mate, there was little in the known worlds that could stop us. Or want to. There was something about