The Alpha King's Mate of Flames and Cinders

*Rhys* “Your Majesty, don't," a soldier said, gripping my arm. I shook him off and headed for a light flickering in the distance. Screaming echoed through the night as flames reached for the sky. I pushed past a crowd of horrified shifters standing frozen and doing nothing. Someone had to do something. The lady was on fire. Tied to a stake, with flames rising around her and eating at her clothes, the woman shrieked for help… for mercy… For the Moon Goddess. But no help, either mortal or divine, was forthcoming, and I didn't know why. As I wedged my way between the last two rows of onlookers, I saw the problem. There was a monster. There was no other way to describe the thing. Scaled with a long tail and bony ridges along its back, the thing was black as the night around it. Yet the scales glinted like starlight in a kind of macabre beauty. Glowing yellow eyes, with pupils like marquis-cut black diamonds, stared coldly at the burning woman. There was no mercy in those eyes. Its great, fanged maw was spewing flame at the girl tied to the stake. The people around me were petrified. They were petrified of the thing. I stared at the beast. It would have been so easy to stand frozen like the others or turn and run. But I was a prince, I reminded myself, and I'd be damned if I was going to let some great scaly creature barbecue one of my subjects. Taking out my pocket knife, I ran to the woman, diving behind the thick stake to avoid the flames. The monster saw me and stopped its onslaught, roaring at me instead. I sawed my knife through the woman's restraints and pulled her burning body toward me. She was alive, but I realized she was badly burned as I swatted out the flames on her dress. The creature drew a great breath, and I knew it was going to blast us. I hefted the woman over my shoulders and ran, just ran. With a roar, the beast lumbered after us. I was faster but just barely, weighed down by the woman. The woman clung to my shirt as we ran right out of the village. I saw a patch of woods nearby us and set my path that way. Shrieking with rage, the monster fell behind. At least, I thought it had. There was a huge whump and then a rush of air behind me. I risked a moment to turn and look. The beast was gone. I was not about to risk both our lives relying on that fact. I kept running for the woods. Just as we were about to reach the trees, I heard a roar from above. In my wildest thoughts, I never expected the thing would have wings. It swooped down, diving at us, and I knew we weren't going to make it to the woods. I tumbled the woman off my shoulder and dove on top of her, protecting her with my own body as the creature descended with outstretched claws. The beast raked its claws down my back. It then latched onto my belt and dragged me off of the woman. It hovered above the ground and dropped me aside in a heap. The monster grabbed the woman in its terrible talons and beat its wings downward, soaring up into the sky. It looked down at me with vengeance in its eyes before blowing fire at the ground below. Instead of burning me, it razed the village to the ground. All I could do was stare helplessly, the smell of sulfur singing my nostrils. Feebly, the woman continued to scream. *** The screams jolted me upright in bed, echoing through my mind. Flickering images of fire, a woman's anguished face, and an enormous winged beast faded back into the darkness. Icy sweat dripped down my temples as my heart hammered inside my chest. The vivid nightmare clung to me like smoke, even as the last images dissolved into reality. With a weary sigh, I rubbed the sleep from my eyes and swung my legs over the side of the plush bed, the silken sheets pooling around me. The first glow of dawn pierced through the balcony doors, but I made no move to summon the servants. These plaguing visions came too often for such disruptions. I dressed for the day and left my royal chambers, the guards outside snapping sharply to attention in surprise. My boots echoed down the empty corridors as I headed toward my private study rather than the dining hall. My insides still roiled too much for food, though it had been nearly a full day since I last ate. Sustenance came difficult when the phantom flames of my dreams chased away my appetite. The study soothed me with its familiar walls of leather-bound books and a crackling fireplace. I ignored the lush chairs and sat at my heavy oak desk. My hands moved on their own, pulling open a bottom drawer to remove my leather journal kept under lock and key. Pen and ink glided over fresh parchment as the grim images flooded back in full and horrible clarity. I saw the sobbing woman bound by ropes thick as snakes. A beast descended upon us both, massive wings throwing gusts of scorched wind. I recorded every detail just as I had for years, ever since the coma during my youth brought on these visions. Usually, setting the visions to page granted some small measure of peace, distancing me from their grip. It was not the case that day. Even as ink formed the woman's anguished face, I could not shake the piercing familiarity I felt. It wasn't the first time I'd dreamed about or drawn her. A heavy knock jerked my focus away from the woman. I straightened up from my slumped scribblings. “Rhys?" Daxton's muffled but cheerful tones seeped under the door cracks before he pushed inside at my wordless grunt. I didn't mind his blatant disregard for formalities. My good friend and future beta had seen me both at my strongest leadership and in the throes of helpless night terrors. “The nightmares again, huh?" Daxton asked, eying the still dripping journal pages with sympathy and softening his handsome features. Though only five years my senior at twenty-six, my friend had been ever-present through my teenage years of temper and trauma. He positioned himself casually atop my desk, his muscled arms braced on his knees. His eyes met my own. “The red-haired girl still caught up in them?" he asked directly in a way that might sting from any other tongue. “It was bad this time, Dax. Worse than anything before," I replied. “They had her tied to a stake in the middle of a burned forest," I said at last, striving to keep my tone coolly detached but unable to prevent the shudders rippling across my shoulders. “I could smell the smoke and flesh searing as the beast fed the flames. Her screams… " My bleak expression and clenched fists said more than sentences could convey. “I managed to cut her free, but that great winged devil swept down out of the darkness and grasped her tight in its claws before I could save her. I can still hear her shrieking as it carried her off into the burning sky." Silence spanned the chamber in the wake of my pronouncement. Daxton remained quiet, absorbing the grim images almost in solidarity. With reluctance, Dax clued me in on the source of his early disturbance. “The council session starts within the hour," he said with a clear apology for reminding me of duties when rest and recovery would be better for my frayed mind. I hurried through the stone corridors with Dax, our boots echoing off the walls as we made our way to my father's chambers. Lost in thought, I didn't notice the tall figure striding toward me until we nearly collided. "Watch it," my cousin Malcolm snarled, blocking my path. I tried to sidestep, but he blocked my path again and sneered. "Going to play king again with your father? We all know I'm the one actually fit to rule." I bit my tongue, unwilling to be baited, though his words ignited my temper. Malcolm had coveted the crown since we were children, seething that his birth order made me heir despite what he felt was his superiority. "The only thing you're fit to rule is the pets in the kennels," came Dax's smooth voice. He stared Malcolm down, muscles coiled beneath his crossed arms. Malcolm clenched his fists. After a tense moment, he stepped aside, muttering vaguely under his breath. Dax watched him depart before turning concerned eyes to me. "Don't let him get to you. Everyone knows he's no match for you when it comes to leadership." Dax's steadfast words bolstered me for the council meeting. We continued on our way. “Long night again?" my father asked when we reached his chambers. “No longer than usual," I responded evasively. He looked to Dax. “Good morning, Your Majesty," Dax greeted. “Thanks for escorting the prince," the king replied and nodded for him to leave. Dax bowed respectfully and left the room. “Mhm. Are you sure you want to do this today? I can excuse you if you've had another bad night," my father said in a low tone. I sighed. “I have more bad nights than good these days, Dad. I have to learn to push through, or I'll never be a good king." My father nodded. We walked the last few yards to the throne room in silence. The doors opened, and everyone bowed as my father and I approached the dais. My father settled himself on the throne, while I took a plush antique chair at his right hand. I forced the cloying dream fragments to the back of my mind as my father intoned, “We will now hear petitions." I questioned his use of the word “we." I glanced at my father, but his focus was straight ahead. He'd never said “we" before to include me. A line of petitioners formed and went all the way out the throne room doors and into the hall. “Dad," I whispered between the twenty-sixth and twenty-seventh petitions. “How can we possibly see them all?" “We can't," my father replied sadly. “Some come back twice a week, every week, for months." “Months?" That didn't sound right at all. I couldn't believe I'd never noticed before. “Months." My father gave the order to dispatch a field biologist to petitioner twenty-seven's farm to see what might be poisoning his well. “That's not right, Dad," I murmured. “I mean, that farmer couldn't possibly wait that long." My father inclined his head in agreement. “I think we need to find a better system, don't you?" “Yes," I responded emphatically. “I mean, some of these complaints are so petty, while some of this is life-or-death, or at least threaten livelihoods. Someone should be weeding through these ahead of time and picking out those who need attention the most and putting them at the front of the line." “Good. Then we're agreed," my father said with a slight smile. We were on our thirty-first petitioner, and I hadn't even noticed the people pass. “Yes. We're agreed." “You're going to start reviewing the petitions and complaints prior to holding court and sort them, just as you said," my father decided. I blinked. “Me?" My father gave me a confident look. “Is anyone more suited for the job than the future king?"