Ryder & The Kings Eyes (Book 3 Hell in the Realm Series)

CH 9

Waylon

He’d seen Ryder’s horse come back and thought he’d have to get up and go and find her, but then reminded himself of what she was; a King’s Eyes, reminded himself of where she had once come from; that horrid place. She and her troop had survived much worse.

He relaxed back down and settled himself once more, though he also felt the ominous attack on her, and he’d closed his eyes and focused upon it and caught a glimpse of the pack’s Luna throwing a knife at her, even saw Ryder snatch it out of the air. That made him smile to himself, that scale of his on her came in handy at times.

It would always alert him to feel her emotions over being attacked so he could get there in time to stop it if need be. But she was just fine. He liked watching her in action, the way she spoke to that Alpha Wolf with disregard for his own bloodline. He was now curious as to how long this group had been riding around, and just how old this she-wolf was. She was intriguing him quite a bit.

Those omegas finally arrived with food and water for everyone, including the horses. He couldn’t understand how they were dressed; in thread bare clothing. One should make sure those in their domain were healthy, looked after and provided for. Even those in his valley and citadel wore proper clothing, and they led their own lives once outside their working hours, because it was not of his concern, unless there was harm coming to one of them.

He didn’t like those around him abusing their power. He’d seen a lot of that in his lifetime. Hated all of his half siblings for that as well. Most around him thought all his wounds came from wars between dragon families, battling for the land to expand and claim other territories.

When, in fact, all his scars came from his own kin, before he’d come into his dryad druid powers. He understood he was the product of a union outside his father’s mate bond, and the queen had suffered through the pains of his father mating his mother.

That Dragon Laws were very different to all the other realms, that once you were bonded, no tie could ever be severed without ramifications. Rejecting a bond came with the loss of the Dragon itself. Breaking a mate bond was certain to see both in the bond become dragon-less. That regardless of who you were, or what status and wealth you held, what your rank or bloodline and even clan one was.

The moment you opted to sever that bond, you were relegated to naught within the Dragon Realm. In the blink of an eye, a king and his queen could become human slaves overnight. If one broke their bond, their own children, their brothers and sisters, parents even, would treat you as worthless, and kick you about for the fun of it.

Once you lost your dragon, it could not be regained, not without their own God coming back to them. Many had tried to recreate him from the prophecy, which foretold of how he could be reborn. Only from the child of a moon flower born daughter of the fairy realm. A child created from the union between the Dragon and Fairy bloodline was it said that the Sun God’s soul could be brought back into their world.

Dealings were made to the Fairy Realm for sun fairy daughters to become dragon concubines to conceive a cross-breed or hybrid child, that would be able to bare the sun god's strength and heat. It had never once worked, he’d not really understood all the constant trying, because moon flower born wasn’t the only condition.

The most important factor was always missing and couldn’t seem to be created, because to even get a moon flower born child, there must first be a fairy created from a true mate bond between the two fairy realms. That child that they produced would be the one to have the moon flower born child. Which could then produce the child with a dragon that would birth the Sun God's soul.

It was too difficult to achieve, unlikely to be achievable at all in his eyes, because Freya had ripped the fairy realm in two at the loss of her Dragon Mate. Now no night fairy and sun fairy could be mated to each other. There were no true Mate Bonds between any fairies anymore. She’d been so devastated by the Fairy Realms' betrayal, so much so that she refused to allow them a Goddess-Gifted Mate.

So, it was to him an impossible prophecy to try and bring about.

Two of his own brothers used that prophecy to get themselves sun fairy concubines. They were literally just something for his brothers to f**k when they wanted to and nothing more. The ones that did conceive had mostly perished from trying to birth a dragon. Not many out there could carry a dragon without some sort of dragon lineage behind them. Conceive yes, bring to full term and survive it; No.

Waylon, at three hundred, had no off spring at all. He would wait for the one that was meant for him. He’d never tried to create a draglet, which like so many of his brothers’ dragon concubines had done, those that had managed it, the child was not recognized as their true lineage anyway, and held no status at all within their world. Because their own mothers weren’t in a Mate Bond with any of his brothers.

Those dragon concubines were foolish, and deluded themselves into thinking his brothers would take them as their Mate if they could give him a son or daughter. His brothers, however, were cold and uncaring, they could be charming and full of love and devotion if they so chose to be. But they were only like that in order to get a new concubine. It was all a game of deception. For his brothers, they would only take a Goddess-Gifted and no other. He thought that even doing that would see that poor creature suffer at his brothers hands. They would not be faithful.

He had been raised by his father, after his mother had handed him over, because when he had been born, she’d sensed no dryad within him, and he couldn’t live the way she did. So giving him up to his Dragon father was the only option. His father had actually acknowledged him as his kin, because his mother held great druid powers, it was possible that one day he too would come into that.

But his father was not a compassionate man either, cold and heartless for the most part, for although he had acknowledged him, he had then left him with the queen, to raise him, and she had hated him from the moment she knew about him.

He’d never seen his father throughout his growing years, wasn’t worthy of being in his presence, was to his father nothing more than a concubine's child. Only had his father truly acknowledged him and accepted him in his presence, when Waylon had produced fire in his human form. None of his father's other children, Waylon’s half siblings, could do that. And that to his father saw that his illegitimate son was actually stronger than his own true heir to the throne.

Waylon, at 18, had returned to his mother after that, a woman he’d never been allowed to see. The queen had forbade it, but she’d had no choice once he came into his true powers. No one could stop him, and so he'd left to learn the Dryad Druid ways, had spent the next 50 years with his mother.

Only to return when it was demanded of him. His own father had threatened him with burning down his mother's forest, effectively killing her. She’d smiled a little sadly at him and told him to go. Upon his return, his father had given him the title of Dragon Flame and his half-siblings were no longer allowed to touch him, torture him or harm him in any way, as they had done all through his growing years.

It was now written by his own father's hand that if Waylon found his Goddess-Gifted before his oldest sibling and produced an heir, he would be seated as the new King of the Dragon Realm. Waylon, on the other hand, didn’t want it and, to his father's disappointment and his brother's joy, he’d declared he had no intention of reigning and had handed that title right back to his brother.

His brother thought it was because he’d been afraid of him, but it was simply because the Dryad in him longed for a peaceful life in the forest of his own valley and nothing more. Daxton had no interest in the cruel world of Dragon backstabbing and killing to get to the throne either. His beast was large and impressive, but had a gentle nature like the Dryads.

Neither he nor his beast wanted anything to do with dragon politics, or the royal family bickering and traitorous ways of how they got power for themselves. Those in the royal families of dragons were all power-hungry, greedy, and overly ambitious creatures who had deceit running in their veins.

All his siblings hungered for the throne, tried to lord their power over each other, in an effort to get their fathers' approval for the throne, but none could obtain it, because none had bonded to another. Dragons were stubborn, willful creatures and wouldn’t allow their human to mark one that was not their Goddess-Gifted Mate.

The Sun God had been a dragon, who’d loved the Moon Goddess with his entire soul, and he never strayed from her. His own dragons were no different, they loved their God's Mate even though he was no longer with her or them.

Every kingdom within the Dragon Realm had temples of worship for Selena, the Moon Goddess, and they prayed one day her one true Mate would be blessed back into the realms. That they could be reunited and happy.

Waylon pulled himself from his thoughts and turned his eyes to the King’s Eyes, as they sat quietly and ate, he knew they were communicating between themselves, and he left them to it. They were likely discussing their plan from here on out.

His only plan was to wait for what they did, then collect what he was owed. No one could stop him. He out-muscled everyone here, including the King’s Eyes. But he’d made an oath, and his word was always true, he never lied to someone, saw no point in it. If he didn’t want to do something, he just stated no and walked away. No one could make him do anything he didn't want anymore and none could stop him, not even his own father. That irritated the Dragon King a lot, which just amused Waylon. He liked to antagonize the King of Dragons nowadays.