(Katelynn POV)

“Wait… so you mean to tell me that your parents are the ones who want you to marry?”

The prince in front of me nodded meekly.

“... What the hell kind of fairytale trope are you living in, kid?”

His eyes narrowed in disdain and he scoffed. “It wasn’t my idea,” he said. “And I’m not a kid.” That only made him sound more like a child though.

“You’re younger than me. So you’re a kid.”

He looked away and muttered ‘whatever’.

“So, I told you my story, how about yours? Y’know, where you think that a literal monster is your brother?”

‘When will this little bastard stop calling Zair a monster? He’s never even met him!’

“You want the truth, you mean?”

“Sure. The truth.”

Little prick. Fine. Maybe it’ll help if Royal-Pain-in-the-Ass knew that I really did have a dragon as a brother. If I do marry him, it would help my chances of outlawing Hunters if said Hunters were a danger to His Highness’ brother-in-law. Maybe he’ll even be afraid of Zair, though he would never actually hurt anyone, and ensure an easy ruling for me. Honestly, it was good luck that I was taken like this. Now the prince might let me have more power out of guilt, or simply because I’d be his wife. He seems like an idiot, so if I married him and he ascended to the throne, I could easily pull strings. Marriage is not how I wanted this to go, but I will admit it’s probably the easiest. People respect royals, and I might even gain favor with the common people since I was one… But I’m getting too ahead of myself. First I need to convince dear Prince Ric here of my relation to Zairyn.

“Do you know of Dragon Vines?”

“Is that… a plant?” Idiot indeed. I know that Humans didn’t like Otherkin very much, but this was pretty basic.

“Sort of. Dragon Vines allow Dragon-kind to reproduce-”

“Dragons don’t have sex???” the Prince rudely interrupted.

“That’s your main concern? Really?” He actually started blushing a bit. It was harder to tell on his darker skin, but there was some reddish tint creeping up his neck.

“No… I was just wondering. Why do they need a Vine if they can just, y’know. Do it?”

I sighed. “Yes, Dragons can have sex. Yes, Dragons can procreate in the way Humans and many other creatures do. No, they do not need to, and it is often preferable to have a child via the Vine, for many reasons. May I continue?” I slit my eyes at him, daring him to tell me no.

“Go on…” he mumbled, rather sheepishly to my surprise.

“Thank you. Now, Dragons prefer to have kids via their Vine, which naturally starts growing in their dens after their first Protection Cycle. No one really knows why, besides the Queen and King of the Otherkin of course, they’re the ones that made it that way, but we just assume magick.”

When I paused to take a breath, this kid actually did something else surprising. He raised his hand, like a little schoolboy wanting to ask a question.

“Yes?” I asked, a little confused.

“Uh, what’s a Protection Cycle?”

I explained what the Cycle was, and Prince Ric actually looked… interested?

“So this Vine thing, it just, like, appears once a Dragon wakes up from its first Cycle?”

“Pretty much. It grows slower or faster depending on how emotionally and mentally mature the dragon is though. One of the most important things to the Queen and King when it comes to childcare is if the parent can actually care for a kid or not. If the Dragon isn’t ready, the Vine will grow slower and slower until they are. And even for those whose Vines grow quickly, they don’t have to ever have children if they don’t want to,” I decided this was a good place to introduce how my brother came to be.

“My little brother, he was born from my mother’s Vine. She’s technically my stepmom, not biological or else I’d probably have at least fangs or claws, but she will always be my Mom.” I could feel my mood start to plummet even more than it already was. I both loved and hated talking about Mom and Da, but it was even harder to do so with someone who wasn’t Zair.

“And your father?”

“Human, like me. My biological mother… wasn’t a very good one. My Da worried for my safety, so he ran away with me, and Mom found us. Scared the shit out of us too, at first, but we got to know her better over the following year. Then they officially became mates. When I was five, they decided to try and have a child together. My little brother.” I practically whispered the last part. I had planned to fake-cry to gain some sort of pity, but I don’t think I need to fake it anymore. I missed Zair. I missed Mom. I missed Da. I honestly just wanted to go home again.

Just for a moment though. I have a mission, and I need to carry it through.

“So that Dragon that we saw, that really was your brother?” I nodded, and Prince Ric rubbed the back of his neck, turning his gaze downward.

“It probably doesn’t mean much at this point, but sorry,” he said, genuinely looking sorry.

“I’m not going to say it’s fine, because it’s not, but I think that if he got to know you, my brother, Zairyn, would probably forgive you. He’s always had a soft spot for, basically anyone,” I chuckled dryly.

“Even for Humans?”

I paused at that. Would he forgive a Human? I know that over the years he became even more and more bitter towards them for our parents’ murder, but I’m sure if he heard why the prince kidnapped me he might not be so mean at least.

“I don’t know about Humans. Our parents were killed by them,” I said bluntly.

The prince didn’t say anything, only silently gasped and averted his eyes as quickly as possible.

“Can… Can I ask how? Or even why?”

“No, you cannot. I’ve spilled enough of my private life to you, now tell me again why you can’t just tell your parents you don’t want to get married? Or that you’re not ready?”

His face grew hard at my words. “It doesn’t work like that,” he said, much colder than the inquisitive boy I saw minutes ago.

‘Okay then, moving on’

But he was one step ahead of me, switching the conversation back to Zair. His face also seemed to go back to the natural look of curiosity and wide-eyed stupidity. His face would be funny if his sudden mood swing wasn’t so unsettling.

“I know you said you were done talking about personal stuff, but your brother, Zairyn? Did he always look like that, I don’t know, big? And I heard Dragons had Human forms, why didn’t he just shift and pull a protective-brother sort of thing?”

“He did pull a protective-brother thing… and he can’t shift… Not yet at least,” I added on, making it sound almost like a threat, but obviously not enough for Prince Blockhead to notice.

“Oh, so he’s too young? I know that most Other that can shift to Human do so at a young age.”

“No, he’s um, he’s actually nineteen. He never had a chance to learn.” I emphasized the last part to drive home what guilt I could. Manipulative I may be, and I have no qualms with making princey here squirm, especially if it will help me reach my goal.

“He’s nineteen too!?”

‘Too? He’s the same age as Zair, I wasn’t expecting that.’

“I didn’t know you were nineteen as well…” I said carefully, tilting my head in his direction.

“Well then, I guess I’m not the only ignorant one. This information isn’t exactly secret,” he smiled, a small smile, at me.

I knew that there were three royal children, an elder brother, a middle sister, and the youngest son. I knew that their parents were barely tolerant of Otherkin. I knew that to gain the favor of those above you in status you have to seem either very powerful or pitifully weak. But I guess I didn’t know anything else about the royal family, nothing personal, like their names or ages, however open that information may be. I really needed to get out more; it would certainly help my plan.

“I guess so. If you weren’t the Human that just kidnapped his sister, I think you and Zair would get along. You guys seem to have almost the same personalities.” I was mainly guessing based on our relatively short conversation, but both Prince Ric and Zair seemed to be overly curious about things, and were complete idiots; but not in an exactly bad way?

‘He might've been a friend to Zair if circumstances were different.’ The thought came unbidden to my head, and I felt bad for my little brother all over again. I knew some people from the markets and such, but he’s only had me since Mom and Da passed.

‘Who knows, if I actually go through with marrying this kid, he’ll have another brother to hang out with.’