Malcor and Lyra were waiting in their cave, expecting a crying Roxy.
They didn’t expect Roxy Bell to kick the doors open with enough force to rattle the hinges. Roxy stormed in, her hair dancing wildly, her dress stained with the purple sludge of her dead crops.
She looked like a ghost out for revenge.
Zarek stalked behind her, like a towering shadow of death. Both of their entrance caused their hearts to hang in their throat from fear.
The Elders went silent.
"My Queen?" Malcor stepped forward, feigning shock. "We heard... is it true? The crops are dying?"
This fucking cunt!
Roxy snapped her eyes at him, spitting rage. "Cut the crap, Malcor," Her voice echoed off the cave walls.
She walked straight to Lyra, who stood innocently in the middle of the cave, looking at Zarek with heart in her eyes, her cheeks flushed red.
Roxy didn’t care for such; she didn’t stop walking until she was nose to nose with Lyra. The latter flinched. She tried to look defiant, but maybe because of the child in Roxy’s belly, she shrank back under Roxy’s gaze.
"I didn’t do anything, my Queen," Lyra stammered. "This might–"
"This might not be anything, Lyra. You put venom into my irrigation trench," Roxy cut her off, her voice icy. "You did!"
A gasp went through the room.
"Lies!" Malcor shouted, stepping between them. "You accuse a Dragon daughter without proof? This is madness!"
Dragon daughter? She was just a gigantic lizard that couldn’t keep her ass in her own business.
"Proof?" Roxy laughed. It was a sharp, ominous sound. "I don’t need proof. I have eyes! Look at her claws."
She pointed to Lyra’s hands.
Everyone looked. Lyra tried to hide hr hands behind her back, but it was too late. The tips of her claws were stained a faint purple, the same color as the dead crops.
Viper venom was potent; it stained everything it touched.
"You didn’t wash your hands, sweetie," Roxy mocked. "Rookie mistake."
Zarek saw the purple stain.
The realization hit him like a physical blow. Someone dared to touch the Queen’s things under his own nose.
The air immediately dropped.
"TRAITOR!"
Zarek didn’t need to transform. He backhanded Malcor, sending the massive Elder flying into a stone pillar with a bone-shattering crunch.
Then his hand shot out and grabbed Lyra by the throat.
He lifted her six feet into the air. Lyra kicked and clawed, choking, her eyes bulging and pleading. Thinking the king would find her attractive and forgive her.
Roxy scoffed, her hands crossed over her breasts.
If she had the strength, she would have been the one strangling the motherfucking cunt.
His grip tightened. Smoke began to curl from Lyra’s scales. He was heating his hand. He was going to burn her head off. Roxy’s blood was boiling to see it. She was not the kind soul everyone knew.
Sometimes death is deserved for people who didn’t have compassion.
She was never a nice person, and just because she didn’t want them to have war, doesn’t mean she would sit at the side and smile with someone who planned to sabotage her hard work.
[TheWorldbuildingGod understands you.]
[TheMotheroftheWorld looks at you with sympathy.]
"My King!" Malcor wheezed from the floor, blood trickling from his mouth. "Mercy! She is my blood!"
"She is a traitor! She doesn’t love her clan members, nor does she put them in her mind!" Zarek roared.
Okay then, if they wanted me to be good, I would be good. I can’t afford to see blood right now either way.
"Stop."
The command was soft, but it cut through the violence.
Zarek froze. He didn’t drop Lyra, but he stopped the heat in his palm. He turned his wild, golden eyes to Roxy.
"She dies," Zarek stated. It wasn’t a question. "She deserves such punishment."
"She dies, and I lose a worker," Roxy said calmly. She walked up to Zarek, ignoring the thrashing dragon in his grip. She placed her hand on his forearm.
"Put her down, Z."
"Why?" Zarek growled. "She is a threat."
"She’s not a threat," Roxy said, looking at Lyra with utter contempt. "She’s an employee who just cost me a month of profits. And she is going to work it off."
Zarek hesitated. He wanted blood. But he wanted to please Roxy more.
He dropped Lyra.
She hit the stone floor, gasping for air, clutching her bruised throat. She looked up at Roxy with terror. She didn’t realize how terrifying this female was until now. She had the power to move the Dragon King.
More than any other dragon female.
Roxy stood over her.
"You think I’m going to kill you?" Roxy asked. "No. That’s too easy. You destroyed my field. Now, you are going to fix it. Every damn thing."
She turned to face the entire Clan.
"Lyra will not be executed," Roxy announced. "She is sentenced to Labor. She will dig the new trenches alone. She will carry the water alone. She will replant every single seed she killed. And she will do it on half-rations until the harvest comes in."
She looked at Malcor, who was struggling to stand.
"You were the one who gave her this. You are stripped of your rank. You aren’t an Elder anymore. If I see you holding anything other than a shovel, Zarek can finish what he started."
The silence in the hall was absolute. Because they knew that the King was capable of doing this.
Roxy looked at Lyra, who was weeping on the floor, not from relief, but from the crushing weight of the shame and the work ahead.
"Get up," Roxy ordered. "The weeds aren’t going to pull themselves."
She turned and walked away, her head high. Zarek watched her go, his chest heaving, his eyes burning with a new, intense emotion.
She was vicious. She was practical. She was a Queen. And he wanted to pin this woman to the wall and do things to her.
Roxy didn’t realize what trouble she had caused in Zarek’s mind.
[Ding! Affection +10%! Target is aroused by Host’s ruthless actions!]