1 I went for a walk and ended up being stalked by a kid. He followed me for ten blocks, through every turn and alley, all the way to my front door. I definitely didn’t expect the little guy to breathe fire. While I was getting him water in the kitchen, he burned my entire front lawn. Panicked, he covered his mouth, then dug into his pocket, pulled out a glittering silver band, and shoved it onto my wrist. "I’m a hatchling," he squeaked. "I can’t control my powers yet. I had a huge fight with my family. Can I stay here a few days? I’ll give you my big brother as payment for the grass." I was speechless. Before I could process the burned lawn, glowing text suddenly appeared in the air before me: [Holy crap, that’s the Dragon King’s mating bracelet! Once worn, it’s for life. The male lead is now tied to this random extra!] [The male lead’s little brother is such a liability. He burned her yard and sold his brother to a stranger.] [Who cares? This cannon fodder girl is terminally ill anyway. Our female lead is already on her way—she just has to kill this nobody, take the bracelet, and claim the Alpha.] Right then, the doorbell rang. The little guy's face instantly darkened. With a soft pop, two tiny, golden dragon horns sprouted from his forehead. A smattering of iridescent scales crawled up his neck and tucked behind his ears, catching the porch light. He threw himself into my legs, burying his face in my jeans. "The mean lady who keeps harassing my brother is here. I hate her so much." Before I could even reach for the handle, the front door was kicked wide open. A woman in a blood-red designer dress stepped over the threshold. Her cold, reptilian gaze swept the room before locking dead onto me. The floating text hovering in my line of sight started refreshing like crazy. [She is here! The female lead, Penelope, has arrived!] [Our golden koi shifter finally enters the chat. She is the chosen one. All she has to do is mate with the Dragon King, and she will ascend to full dragonkin.] I glanced down at the glowing subtitles, then looked back up at the arrogant woman standing in my entryway. Oh. So she was just a little koi fish trying to sleep her way up the mythical food chain. "You have a lot of nerve, luring Harry all the way out here." She tilted her head, looking at me like I was something she had scraped off the bottom of her heel. "A dying human dares to touch a member of the dragon clan? You really are begging for a quick death." I took a step back, hoping the little dragon attached to my leg would explain the situation. But Harry just buried his face deeper into my jeans, trembling. Penelope waved a manicured hand dismissively, gesturing to the two massive bodyguards behind her. "Take her down. Ronan said anyone who harms his baby brother is to be executed on the spot. We do not even need to report this." The two heavily muscled men grunted in agreement and lunged toward me. My heart did a painful stutter in my chest. My oncologist told me I had exactly one month left to live. Now, somehow dragged into a turf war between mythical wildlife, I would be incredibly lucky to survive the night. The little troublemaker clutching my leg was shaking like a leaf, refusing to say a single word in my defense. I let out a resigned sigh and wrapped a protective arm around the kid's shoulders. I raised my arm instinctively to block the guards' incoming fists. But the second I moved, the two men hit the brakes so hard their boots skidded on the hardwood floor. The silver band on my wrist was pulsing with a low, dangerous golden light. The men stared at the jewelry, the color draining entirely from their faces. "Boss... that thing on her wrist... that is the Alpha's mating band." "Clan law is absolute. Whoever wears that claim has to be treated as the Dragon Queen." The guards exchanged panicked looks. The weapons in their hands slowly lowered to their sides. Penelope froze. For a split second, she looked utterly lost, but it was quickly replaced by explosive, blinding rage. "Where did you steal that? Take it off right now! That belongs to me!" She lunged at me, her sharp nails digging fiercely into my forearm. "You think a cheap, dying mortal like you can compete with me?" Harry suddenly snapped his head up. He opened his tiny mouth and unleashed a scorching blast of fire directly at Penelope's feet. "Back off!" He planted himself firmly in front of me. His golden horns vibrated with fury, and his pupils narrowed into dangerous vertical slits. "Do not ever touch her! She is going to be my brother's mate!" A shiver ran violently down my spine. Wait. What? Penelope let out a sharp, mocking laugh. "Harry, do you even hear yourself? You do not get to dictate Ronan's marriage." The kid stuck his chin out, his voice ringing loud and clear. "My brother spent months incubating my egg! I am his absolute favorite! Of course he is going to listen to me!" 2 The moment Harry finished his sentence, the glowing text in the air went into overdrive. [When their parents died, they left behind a single dragon egg. The male lead stayed awake for weeks straight to hatch his baby brother, and this ungrateful brat is what he gets.] [It is over. Penelope is totally in killer mode now. This sick mortal chick is not making it to morning.] Penelope's eyes were practically boiling with rage. She was seconds away from tearing my living room apart. I sighed, rubbing my temples. "Look, I really do not care about the drama between you magical creatures." I glanced down at the kid clinging to me. "If you want to crash here, you can." Then I looked back up at Penelope. "As for this bracelet, if you want it so badly, you can have it." I reached over and gripped the silver band, pulling at it. I yanked. I twisted. I pulled until my skin turned red. But it did not budge a single millimeter. The bracelet felt like it was fused directly to my bones. Penelope stared at my wrist, her eyes wide with absolute disbelief. "You..." Harry's face instantly lit up. He clapped his tiny hands and jumped up and down. "It will not come off! That means your biological compatibility with my big brother is at one hundred percent!" "You are his fated mate! I knew I picked the right one!" Penelope's face turned the color of storm clouds. I looked at her furious expression and offered what I thought was a very genuine, comforting smile. "Hey, do not stress about it. I have terminal cancer. The doctors gave me a month, tops. Once I drop dead, you can just slide it right off." Penelope choked on her own breath. She stared at me in horrified silence for several long seconds. "Fine. One month. I will be back in thirty days to collect your corpse." The second the front door slammed shut, the little guy on my floor let out a joyous, echoing howl. He was grinning so hard his cheeks looked like they were going to cramp. "I observed a lot of humans, and I knew you would be the perfect match for my brother! Now the three of us get to live happily ever after!" I looked down into his bright, glowing eyes, completely at a loss for words. Later that night, I sat alone on the edge of my bed. The doctor's voice echoed in my head. "It is your final month, Riley. Just try to enjoy the time you have left." Late-stage bone cancer was a nightmare. The cold did not just chill your skin. It seeped directly out from the marrow. I curled up under three layers of blankets. Just as I hovered on the edge of a restless sleep, I felt a solid, radiating heat press gently against my back. It was not invasive. It was just a quiet, heavy presence sharing its warmth with me. A broad chest pressed against my spine. I could feel the deep, steady rhythm of a heartbeat. I figured my brain was finally misfiring. A terminal hallucination. I let the warmth pull me under and closed my eyes. When I woke up the next morning, I stared at my hands. My usually translucent, ghostly pale fingertips actually had a healthy flush of pink to them. Harry, who was currently sprawled across my pillow drooling, rubbed his eyes and rolled over. He caught me staring blankly at my own palms. He stretched his arms high above his head, a tiny scaly tail swishing out from under the duvet. "Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you. That bracelet creates a sympathetic bond between you and my brother." "A huge chunk of your pain and sickness is getting siphoned off to him." He said it incredibly casually. "Our clan is super durable. A tiny human sickness like that is basically just a papercut to him." I sat there, completely paralyzed. That heat in my bed every night. That was him. The month flew by in a blur. But the person who showed up at my front door when the thirty days were up was not Penelope. It was my parents. They stood on my porch, launching right into a screaming match before I could even say hello. "We had to ask around just to find out you were not even staying at the hospice anymore! Why the hell are you still breathing?" "Your brother Finn needs those corneas, Riley. We had a deal. Once you were gone, his eye surgery was supposed to be fully covered." 3 Harry stopped playing with his Lego set on the floor. He slowly looked up, his little tail completely stiffening. My mother took a hard step into the hallway. "Are you faking this whole terminal illness thing? The doctors said you had a month. It has been five weeks, and you are sitting here looking perfectly fine." "Are you just scamming us for pity money? That whole dying routine was just an act to ruin us, wasn't it?" I opened my mouth, but the memories swelled up and choked the words right out of my throat. That was not how it happened. When the diagnosis first came back, the doctors told me if we started aggressive treatment immediately, I had a fifty percent survival rate. I went home and told them. My parents sat on the living room sofa in complete silence for a very long time. I thought they were doing the math, figuring out how to remortgage the house or take out loans. Instead, my father finally looked up and said, "We just cannot afford it right now. Finn needs his treatments. You are just going to have to tough this out on your own." My father's eyes suddenly darted past me, locking onto Harry. His face contorted into a nasty sneer, like he had just figured out a magic trick. He shoved past me, marching over and violently kicking over the Lego castle Harry had been building all morning. "Well, well. Look at this. No wonder your health suddenly bounced back. You are scamming your own family to play house with some stray brat! You are a disgrace!" Harry sat on the floor among the shattered plastic bricks. His tiny fists clenched tightly in his lap, and he bit down hard on his lower lip. Before I could intervene, a shadow fell over the open doorway. Penelope. "Not dead yet?" She smirked, leaning against the doorframe. "I guess I will have to do the heavy lifting myself. I cannot have you dragging this pathetic body around, trying to seduce Ronan. I am clearing the path today." My mother's eyes instantly lit up. She whipped around to face Penelope. "I knew this ungrateful bitch was out here sleeping around! We have been trying to figure out how to get rid of her for weeks. If you have a way to handle it, we will gladly hold her down for you." Penelope raised a perfectly plucked eyebrow. With agonizing slowness, she pulled a shimmering silver cord from the sleeve of her coat. Harry launched himself off the floor like a tiny cannonball, throwing his arms out to shield my legs. Penelope did not even bother looking down. She simply flicked her wrist. The silver cord shot out like a viper, wrapping tightly around the little boy and pinning his arms to his sides. "I carry this specifically for disobedient little lizards." Penelope shifted her gaze back to me, smiling sweetly. "There. All quiet." The three of them started walking slowly toward me. Harry thrashed violently on the floor, fighting the silver bindings. His voice went hoarse with panic. "Let me go! When my big brother gets here, he is going to rip you all to pieces!" Penelope elegantly adjusted her cuffs. "Ronan is incredibly busy right now. He does not have time to babysit you." She stopped mere inches from my face, looking down her nose at me. "By the time he finishes his business, your ashes will be cold. His only choice for a mate will be me." Without warning, she raised her hand and slapped me hard across the cheek. My head snapped to the side. A high-pitched ringing flooded my left ear like rushing water. Before I could recover, she grabbed a fistful of my hair, yanked me forward, and threw me straight to the floor. My forehead slammed against the ceramic tiles. My vision exploded into black spots. I could feel warm blood pooling in the grout lines beneath my cheek. But beneath the dizzying pain and the metallic taste of blood, something strange happened. A terrifying, explosive surge of pure rage bubbled up inside my chest. And it was not my own. The silver band on my wrist flared with a burning heat, pulsing like a second heartbeat beneath my skin. It felt like an invisible, massive hand was wrapping protectively around my pulse. I pushed my hands against the cold tiles and forced myself up. Penelope's smug, victorious face was right in front of me. I raised my hand, pulled back, and swung. I did not even process the movement myself. My hand connected with her jaw so hard her head violently whipped to the side. She stumbled back, clutching her rapidly swelling face, her eyes wide with absolute horror. "How the hell does a dying mortal have that much spiritual power?" she screeched. 4 The moment she yelled, the floating text that had been missing for a month suddenly flooded my vision again. [Holy shit! That was the Dragon King channeling his power through her to slap the Koi!] [No way, no way! How could the male lead hit our precious Penelope? Is the Koi-Dragon romance sinking before it even starts?] [This random extra is definitely using black magic. Poor Penelope, her face is totally red. I feel so bad for her.] [What is wrong with Ronan? Did he get possessed by this dying human? How could he lay a hand on our girl?] My parents and Penelope scrambled out the door, terrified of the sheer force of the blow. Penelope made sure to yell a classic villain threat over her shoulder, swearing I was using dirty tricks. She promised to go find Ronan, get the truth, and come back to skin me alive. I stood alone in the hallway, staring down at my tingling palm. That terrifying, foreign strength was already slowly bleeding out of my muscles. I let out a shaky breath, crouched down, and helped Harry untangle himself from the silver cord on the floor. He threw tiny punches at the air, his eyes shining. "I knew it! I knew my brother was protecting us the whole time!" I knelt down so we were eye to level. I looked at him very seriously. "Harry, thank your brother for me. Seriously. Tell him I owe him my life." He tilted his head, his little tail curling into a happy loop. "Just thank him yourself! You guys are literally soul-bonded through the bracelet. He can feel basically everything you feel in your heart!" Then, he suddenly leaned in close, dropping his voice into a dramatic, conspiratorial whisper. "By the way. My brother's Mating Season is starting in a few days." I blinked, still trying to process the magic slap. "Okay? And? What does that mean?" His chubby little cheeks instantly flushed bright crimson. Even the tips of his tiny dragon whiskers turned pink. He slapped both hands over his face and spun around, his muffled voice leaking through his fingers. "How am I supposed to know? That is adult stuff! Do not ask a baby!" A few days later, Harry spent the entire afternoon running wild outside. He claimed he made friends with a local pixie kid and they were going to look at lotus ponds. Before he sprinted out the door, he stuck his tongue out at me. "Do not wait up for dinner, Riley! I am eating lotus seeds with the bugs tonight!" When the sun completely set and the streetlights flickered on, he still wasn't back. I couldn't sit still anymore. I grabbed my jacket, ready to go scour the neighborhood. I yanked the front door open, and stopped dead. A towering, broad-shouldered silhouette was standing on my porch. I just stared, completely mesmerized. The man's pupils dilated slightly. A deep flush crept up his neck, tinting his ears red. "Are you Riley?" I snapped out of my trance. "Uh, yeah?" "I had my people drop Harry off at my estate. Thank you for watching him these past few weeks. He will not be bothering you anymore." He paused, his voice dropping an octave, turning rough and strained. "My Mating Season starts tonight. Can I stay here until it is over?"
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