Chapter 2
“Iheard this one’s feisty. I’m ready to see how much she bites back when I finally fuck her half transformed,” Blade murmured to himself, his hands rubbing the arms of his chosen chair on my right and a step lower.
The dragon on my left, and on the same step as our brother, had two humans on their knees next to his booted feet, their eyes dropped and bodies half-naked and bruised.
Ones he’d no doubt taken without any regard to how it made our leadership look.
How it made me look. He was blatantly disregarding my orders by doing it.
Void found immense joy in torturing humans. They didn’t last long in his care. They either died of their injuries or killed themselves to avoid more. I might hate humans and what they did to my kind well before the Fall, but what Void did was unsettling and problematic.
My brother’s proclivities were getting worse with each passing year, and it was on me to fix it. I’d given him every criminal dragon and human to discourage treachery, but he liked his prey innocent.
Void was an incredible ally and fierce warrior for our territory, but he was a terrifying enemy to have.
And like Blade, he was only related to me through our father.
Which explained more than I’d willingly admit.
We all had different mothers. He’d never known his, same as Blade.
I’d spent my childhood with my mother, but she died before either of them were born.
Void’s clear mental deterioration and sadistic tendencies would be messy to deal with.
I couldn’t risk the other factions hearing about problems between us.
So for now, I limited his access to humans.
I punished moments like these behind closed doors.
I distracted him with bloodlust that served the faction, not his own sick fuckery.
My eyes settled on the two humans at his feet, ones who’d been stolen and not freely given. I’d have to pull Void aside after this nasty business of a human who’d somehow slipped through the cracks and been assigned to us.
It went against my orders to assign Tributes to us that didn’t meet very specific expectations.
For several decades, I’d kept Tributes out of our personal chambers.
Void was two kills away from being dubbed the Manic King and Blade was a shameless pervert who wooed and bred every female to come through the castle gates.
Blade for all his shortcomings and flaws didn’t require Tributes to spread his seed and warm his bed. All of the females he bed came willingly despite his crass bravado in this room. He liked to pretend to be an insufferable pig, but outside of the public eye, he was the farthest thing from it.
Void huffed contemptuously, his silver eyes eager for another female he knew he wouldn’t be permitted to have, even if it came to blows. His last one cut her own throat to escape his never-ending torture, and that very night I was visited by a terrifying dragon demanding change.
“I’ll have her first, Brother. You’ve had too many as it is.”
“You sick fuck!” Blade spat Void’s direction, sections of his vibrant red hair braided all the way to his shoulders. He hadn’t bothered to wear a shirt. He preferred to show off his body any chance he got, which he’d covered in tattoos and piercings.
His markings were for show, not war. His tattoos drew unnecessary attention to the pale-ass prat in both forms, because his dragon was pure white. The red tattoos stood out on his white scales, making this bastard easy to spot anywhere we went in dragon form.
It would’ve been easy for Blade to get inked without it affecting his transformation, but the insufferable loony wanted his enemies to see him coming. While Void and I preferred stealth, Blade lived loudly and blazed ahead without hesitation or regard for anyone else.
Blade’s claws and fangs were out, transformation bringing his glittery white scales to the surface under a maze of tattoos.
My brothers never ceased bickering because Blade despised Void’s sadistic treatment of humans.
And he wasn’t alone. But I was considered the leader among leaders.
I couldn’t take a side without it deciding everything.
I grounded the other two and their extremism, neither of which the previous leader wanted to rule alone, if at all.
Over the years, Blade had grown unnaturally attached to the females he claimed. He'd been fond of one in particular. Even pledged himself to her over the last decade, but that female died in childbirth a few months prior. A commonality these days.
Very few humans carried our dragon type to term, and even less survived the birth. He’d been a raving lunatic ever since. He and Iris had become insufferable about humans after his female’s death, and his disruptive behavior was another fucking fire I was expected to put out.
“First, you aren’t allowed. Second, every human you’ve claimed has died within a week or two.
You’re not even trying to keep them alive.
You make them suffer on purpose no matter who they are the second you get your claws into them, and even the strongest humans fail to live long against the torture you devise for them.
And what, we’re just supposed to let you send another one to their grave, huh, asshole?
” Blade spat, his words gravelly with his dragon voice.
The humans at Void’s feet shuddered violently when he growled. His hands gripped the arms of his chair, and they cowered in fear. I caught them sneaking a glance at each other, their hands touching briefly, before they were quick to separate.
I’d need to speak to Boris to find out who Void pawned them off of. They weren’t criminals, that much I could tell. I’d need to get them to Iris before Void killed them.
Another headache I didn’t need.
Humans were weak and entirely useless creatures. I couldn’t fathom how they managed to force my kind into hiding centuries ago. How these powerless things nearly wiped us out at one point in history, I’d never understand. Without their technology, they were helplessly fragile.
Humans were selfish creatures, but they were helpless against us. Their bones broke easily and their spirits even easier. Unfortunately, my kind needed them for more than we would ever say.
The dragons in my faction kept a secret that humans would exploit if it were ever discovered, so the dragons of old subjugated them and kept them in the dark.
Used their greed against them. Exploited their desire to live their pointless existence because killing a dragon was difficult.
But as a population, our weakness was the simplest of them all.
“This is the first Tribute in decades to be brought to our throne room. I’m owed it as much as you.” Void’s lips lifted violently, his dragon pupils thin and narrowed on our brother. “But sure, I’ll let it go if Onyx decides he wants her.”
Blade threw his head back and groaned. “How fucking sneaky of you. Our no-nonsense brother barely looks at humans within these stone walls, let alone touches them, and you want him to lay claim to one? He hasn’t taken a single human for himself in all the fucking years we’ve reigned as this faction’s leaders. Not even to breed.”
I didn’t engage the two. The battle they waged was never-ending and over a half-century old. The outcome would be the same regardless of their bickering. I’d rather get back to the issues sprouting up at our borders than humor another troublesome Tribute.
Leading the Sky Demons brought me to this very chamber every decade or so to distribute human sacrifices to the dragons within our ranks.
It was how the dragons of old boosted morale.
The Tributes repaid our most loyal dragons for their service to the faction.
They were given as slaves to breed or work until they were either dead or no longer of use.
It'd been that way since we claimed this land.
I might despise humans and their infinite list of weaknesses and flaws, but I never agreed with the enslavement of their kind.
There were other ways to ensure breeding.
Perhaps the dragons of old felt it necessary after securing our territory, but it was fracturing our faction in two the longer humans integrated within our society.
At one side, the newer dragons who were against human enslavement. At the other, the influential dragon families who wanted to keep the old ways. I’d been called too many times to settle disputes.
The dragons against enslavement had taken it upon themselves to become human protectors within our borders. I allowed it because females were being harmed, and chipping away at enslavement was less messy than eradication. Ending it would weaken us with a possible insurrection.
The dragons who preferred the old ways, mostly the lineage families, grew angrier every year over our dwindling slave numbers and my clear favoritism of dragons looking to protect rather than enslave.
Eventually, I’d need to address the growing divide. I’d need to choose a side. But any vulnerability detected within our leadership and ranks could make us a target for other dragon factions. With how eager the other factions had been to start something, I refused to give them the opportunity.
The oversized doors leading to our chamber opened, and I sighed, preparing myself for hours of bickering from the two beside me because there was only one human deemed satisfactory based on the impossible list I’d made.
In truth, there should’ve been none. I’d need to look deeper into why one made it through and punish the dragons responsible, but the looming issues with the other factions took priority.
What trouble could one Tribute cause, really?