Reborn to Choose the Wingless Dragon Chapter 06
I peeled Cecily’s fingers from my arm and stepped back.
“You know how to survive the full moon. Teach me!”
Her voice pitched high with desperation.
I met her eyes coldly. “Blood moon madness isn’t cured with tricks. If you want to live, there’s only one way leave Darius. But you won’t. You can’t give up being Queen.”
Her face twisted with hostility. “You just won’t help me! You’re scared I’ll beat you to it, aren’t you?”
“Fine. I’ll figure it out myself. Don’t think you’ll claim your throne before I claim mine!”
$he spat the words and stormed out, slamming the door hard enough to rattle the frame.
I stood in the silence. She wasn’t fighting for power. She was throwing her life away.
In my past life, during full moons, Darius never cared whether I lived or died. I was breeding stock, nothing more.
I thought obedience would keep me safe. It didn’t. Later, at Storm’s Edge, Kade reached for me as I fell, but Cecily cut the rope herself.
I learned my lesson. This life, I’d make no such mistakes. I wouldn’t sacrifice myself for any My life was mine alone.
throne.
The depths of Dragon’s Grave sealed out the world aboye. Months slipped by in that strange, suspended peace, time blurring together.
As storm season’s chill crept through cracks in the stone, my body began changing in ways I didn’t immediately recognize.
Then one night, Kade’s hand–resting on my waist as it always did–went rigid.
“When was your last molt cycle?” His voice was sharp, alert.
counted back. Two months, maybe? But my belly had only begun to curve slightly, nothing dramatic.
It can’t be happening this fast…” The words tumbled out.
Before I could finish, Kade was already up, calling for the dragon physician and the priest.
After the examination, the physician’s expression darkened. The room fell into tense silence. Kade’s eyes locked on me, wary and protective at once.
The physician finally spoke. “The fetus has quickened The dragon veins are accelerating its development dramatically. You’ll give birth within days. Three, maybe five at most.”
My mind went blank.
Days? I hadn’t even let myself think about being pregnant, and now-
Kade understood the danger immediately. Once word spread, people would come for the child.
From that moment, he wouldn’t let me lift a finger. He feared exhaustion, cold, anything that might harm the or the baby. He hovered constantly, suffocating in his care.
He even produced three Dragon Vein Moonlight Fruits–impossibly rare, impossibly expensive.
Remembering my past life, the neglect and cruelty among the wolves, this was the first time I’d ever felt truly protected.
But the Wingless Dragons were supposed to be destitute. How could he afford sacred fruit?
Everyone says you’re broke,” I said between bites. How can you afford these?”
Kade’s mouth quirked. He tapped the stone table. ” Laven, dragon wealth isn’t kept in banks or palaces. It buried here–ancient vaults, untapped veins of ore and gems. The world thinks we’re poor because they only see the surface. They don’t see what sleeps below
It clicked into place. I hadn’t chosen poverty. I’d chosen hidden riches.
If we weren’t struggling, then I wanted to go topside- to the Eagle capital. The Storm Season Sky Patrol Festival was approaching, and I needed supplies.
The next day, the tribute market in Eagle territory hummed with activity.
Halfway through our shopping, we crossed paths with Cecily and Darius. She wore a high–necked cloak hiding bruises, her arm hooked possessively through his.
His hand locked around her waist like a shackle, not a gesture of affection. This wasn’t a husband escorting his wife. This was a warden guarding his prisoner.
saw it instantly–she was pregnant again. And Darius clearly saw this child as his winning hand. She was trapped, utterly.
“Well, well. Little sister decided to join us?” Cecily’s hand drifted to her swollen belly, her smile
Venomous. “Can Dragon’s Grave even afford anything here? Try not to embarrass the Eagle clan at the festival.”
I kept my voice level. “I’m buying offerings for the sky, not for you.” What I really meant: I was here for blades sharp enough to keep me alive, not trinkets for show.
Cecily’s eyes narrowed, scanning my midsection with suspicion. My dragon scale armor concealed. everything. Kade stepped between us, his tone ice- cold.
“Dragon business is none of yours. At the festival, keep your hands to yourself. Don’t touch what doesn’t. belong to you.”
Cecily sneered. “We’ll see who shines brighter at the sky Platform.” Then she turned and left, Darius’s grip steering her away.
Three days later, Clan Leader Orton seated Cecily and me side by side at the festival–his two daughters, married off in political alliances, put on display to flaunt Eagle influence.
Cecily’s belly had swollen grotesquely, far larger than it should be. But she kept smiling, teeth bared in a rictus of determination.
Whispers rippled through the crowd. She carried “the future of the wolf throne.” My own pregnancy barely showed beneath my chest armor.
You knew how to survive,” Cecily hissed, leaning close. Her skin looked gray, bloodless, but her pupils burned with an unnatural red glow.
“You let me suffer. But I’ve won anyway. I’ll give the Wolf clan its perfect heir right here, in front of everyone.”
A stench rolled off her sickly–sweet herbs laced with rot and decay.
Ice flooded my veins. She wasn’t just inducing labor. She was burning through her own life with dark magic.
chest Before I could say anything, searing heat tore through my abdomen. The blood crystal at my flared white–hot, nearly melting through my armor.
I was going into labor.
Kade felt the shift instantly. Without hesitation, he swept me into his arms and bolted from the platform. Dragon guards surged forward, clearing a path through the stunned crowd.
At the same moment, Cecily shrieked and doubled over, clutching her belly.
Wolf clan attendants swarmed around her, shouting, The queen–she’s giving birth!” Darius’s face went crimson, his eyes wild.
The full moon blazed overhead, pouring down silver. Eagle elders cried out that the timing was auspicious, a sign from the heavens.
The crowd erupted, frenzied with speculation–who would deliver an heir first?
Pain dragged me under, my vision dimming. But even as consciousness slipped away, I heard two voices tangling together.
The crowd roared: “These children will lead the alliance into a new age of power!”
And beside us, barely audible, the dragon priest murmured: “The dragon veins stir… the royal blood returns.”