Reborn to Choose the Wingless Dragon

After the catastrophic war between the four great races ended in ceasefire, the Supernatural Council established an ironclad law—the Pact of Heirs.

Every hundred years, a Mating Season would open, where eligible heirs would compete to determine who would rule the world for the next century.

In my previous life, I chose to marry the wolf prince Darius, desperate to escape my status as a black-feathered orphan in the eagle clan.

The wolf clan's rule was brutally simple: whoever bore the first child carrying the matrilineal eagle-eye bloodline would claim dominion over all. I gave Darius that child. My son secured his throne and granted him absolute power.

My sister Cecily—the chieftain's true daughter—had set her sights on the vampire heir, drawn by their ancient nobility and dark allure. She married into their clan willingly.

But vampire bonds were cold as death itself. Her human-adjacent body couldn't sustain their offspring. She lost her fertility and became a cautionary tale whispered at every gathering.

Twisted by jealousy and shame, she decided I was to blame for her failures. She drugged my wine at a feast, then hurled me off Storm Cliff while I was too weak to spread my wings.

As I plummeted toward the rocks, someone tried to catch me—Kade, the exiled wingless dragon, his dark-scaled hand reaching desperately from a ledge.

But above us, Cecily stood at the cliff's edge, smiling as she cut through the safety rope he'd thrown. I hit the stones and everything went black.

When I opened my eyes again, I could still feel the phantom warmth of Kade's hand and the venom in Cecily's smile.

But somehow, impossibly, I was back—returned to the very day the Mating Season began.

Through the one-way scrying glass at the Observation Altar, I looked down at the moonlit sacrificial platform below. Cecily was already there. And she wasn't alone.

She'd been reborn too. I was certain of it.

But she didn't know what I knew—that Darius was a monster to his lovers.

During the full moon, when the wolf took over completely, he'd killed more than one partner in his bed. Their bodies couldn't survive his frenzy.

On the cold altar steps, Cecily's ceremonial cloak lay crumpled and forgotten. She was naked, legs spread wide, while Darius gripped her hips and drove into her with punishing force.

She moaned shamelessly, her body shaking with each brutal thrust. His fingers dug into her pale flesh hard enough to bruise as he used her.

"Harder," she gasped, raking her nails down his back. "Don't stop—"

"You fucking love this, don't you?" Darius growled, yanking her onto all fours. "Beg me for it."

I finally tore myself from the memory of my death and slammed my hand on the scrying glass's amplification rune. My voice boomed across the altar chamber below.

"Cecily. What the hell do you think you're doing?"

The sound of my voice ricocheted off the stone walls.

Cecily looked up, still pinned beneath Darius, and her eyes found the Observation Altar as if she could see straight through the enchanted glass. Her face was flushed, but she managed to look wounded.

"Raven, please—Darius and I... we're in love. You have to understand."

She bit her lip, playing the role perfectly. "We've already sworn the bonding oath. If I don't marry him now, the Council will punish me for impurity. You know what they'll do to me."

I watched her coldly, this performance she thought would move me.

My adoptive father, Alton—chieftain of the eagle clan—stepped from the shadows behind me. He looked down at the obscene display and frowned, but his voice held no real anger.

"Raven, this is unfortunate, but it's done. Don't make this harder than it needs to be. Choose another mate and let's move forward. No reason to drag the family through scandal."

In Alton's eyes, nothing Cecily did would ever truly be wrong. She was his blood, his golden-feathered heir. I was just the black-winged foundling he'd taken in—useful when convenient, expendable when not.

I stared down at Cecily on that altar. Tears streaked her face now, but I could see the triumph glittering behind them. The ambition she couldn't quite hide.

She actually believed she was stealing my destiny. That by bedding Darius first, she'd claim the future I'd lived—the power, the throne, everything.

The memory of Storm Cliff flashed through me. The betrayal. The fall. Her smile as she cut the rope.

Rage flooded my chest, white-hot and wild. I wanted to fly down there and tear her throat out with my bare hands. Make them both pay for what they'd done—what they would do.

But I dug my nails into my palms inside my sleeves, using the sharp pain to drag myself back to clarity. I forced the killing intent from my eyes.

I smiled into the amplification rune—cold and knowing.

"If you love each other so much, then by all means, be together. I won't stand in your way." I paused deliberately. "I just hope you won't regret it."

Cecily froze, clearly stunned that I'd surrendered so easily. Then excitement broke across her face, so overwhelming she forgot to maintain her tears.

"God, Raven, I—thank you. You don't know what this means—"

She couldn't resist twisting the knife. She pushed back against Darius deliberately, taking him deeper, and cried out—the sound echoing off the altar walls like a taunt. Like a declaration of victory.

Alton exhaled in relief and produced the official mating registry, already moving to smooth everything over.

"You're being very gracious, Raven. That's good." He flipped through the pages. "Now then, your remaining options are the vampire heir, or..." He hesitated. "That creature in the Dragon Tombs. The wingless one."

"The vampire clan would be suitable," he continued, trying to guide my choice. "Ancient bloodline, significant political power, cultured."

His lip curled slightly. "That dragon, on the other hand—he's crippled. Can't even fly. And they say he won't live past thirty. Hardly worth considering."

"Dad." I cut him off, my voice clear and final.

In my mind, I saw it again—that moment of falling. Kade's dark-scaled hand reaching through the air, trying desperately to catch me even though he'd been exiled, even though saving me would gain him nothing.

I lifted my chin and looked past the shadowed temple, toward the wasteland where the Dragon Tombs lay.

"I choose the wingless dragon, Kade."