"Where’s Onyx?" Serena and Elara said at the same time the moment Gav walked in.

He was supposed to be taking Onyx potty and getting him a fresh bottle so Elara could come into the war room.

Gav dropped into his chair. "He’s with Velkaris."

"By himself?" they asked in unison, both already on their feet.

"Yes." Gav’s voice was flat, the kind of flat that came from losing an argument with a baby dragon. "And I’m not going to give a dragon a bottle. That’s ridiculous."

Serena and Elara were already moving towards the door. Both shot Gav a look of pure annoyance. He said he’d take care of Onyx.

"Stop." Tiberon’s Alpha tone hit the room like a wall. Both women froze mid-step, turning slowly, their expressions identical masks of maternal mutiny.

Dex and Hale felt it immediately, their mates’ frustration bleeding through their matebonds like a low current of heat.

Aegon: She is upset.

Dex: She is misinformed.

"Serena." Dex leaned forward, keeping his voice even. "Velkaris has been around baby dragons before. He’s not going to hurt him."

Serena’s jaw tightened, but she didn’t argue.

"You are both not finished," Tiberon said. His tone left no room for negotiation. "Sit."

They sat. Neither of them looked happy about it.

Tiberon waited until they were settled, then folded his hands on the table and turned his gaze on Dex and Hale. The look carried the full weight of a king who had been dealing with the consequences of everyone else’s decisions for far too long.

"Next item on the agenda. You’re caught up on the administrative side. Now, you need to be caught up on protocol punishments."

Dex straightened. Something in Tiberon’s tone shifted, the temperature in the room dropping a full degree.

Serena went very still, eyes widening.

Elara’s fingers curled around the arm of her chair.

"I was given a summary before I left," Dex said carefully. "Serena went against a direct order during the battle on the wall. I’m aware."

"You are aware of one line in a very long story," Tiberon said. He opened a leather-bound folder. "Sit back. This will take a while."

Dex frowned. "How long of a while?"

Tiberon didn’t answer that. Instead, he looked at Serena.

"Shall I, or would you prefer to deliver this yourself?"

Serena swallowed. "You may."

That answer alone made Dex uneasy.

Aegon: I don’t like this.

Dex: Neither do I.

Tiberon began.

In the span of ten minutes, Dex’s jaw had dropped several times and he almost shifted on the spot. Serena reported to him as part of the Draken Forces. But more importantly, she was his mate.

Aegon: We don’t let her out of our sight. Ever.

Hale’s head came up at the mentioning of Elara’s name.

"That brings us to the Fae operations." Tiberon flipped to another page in the folder. "After you went missing in Orosia, Serena and Elara requested a portal from Alaric to go after you."

Dex’s eyes moved to Serena. She was looking at her hands.

"He denied it," Tiberon continued. "They acted independently and made a portal to Orosia."

Serena and Elara glanced at one another, neither going to throw Aeron under the bus. So they stayed quiet. Sure. They made a portal. They’ll go with that.

"Without authorization." Dex’s voice was controlled, but the vein in his neck was visible.

"Without authorization," Tiberon confirmed. "They infiltrated enemy territory."

"Once inside, they were discovered by the Second in Command of Velanthor. He drew his sword and pursued them through his own chambers."

Dex’s jaw tightened.

"During the pursuit, they engaged in what I can only describe as improvised combat." Tiberon glanced at his notes as though confirming this was actually written down. "Items thrown at the Orosian officer included: a travel bag, a goblet, and pillows."

Gav made a noise.

"The pillows were effective enough to disorient him momentarily," he continued. "They were not effective enough to stop him."

"Pillows," Dex repeated.

"Yes," Tiberon confirmed. "Against the second in command of Velanthor."

"Elara attempted a high-ground strategy by mounting his bed," he added.

Hale slowly dragged both hands down his face. It was just as awful to hear the second time as it was the first.

"It did not work," Tiberon said. "He resumed pursuit. During the chase, they were cornered near a weapons rack."

Gav leaned forward, already grinning. He loved this part.

Tiberon paused. Not for effect. For endurance.

"A decorative axe fell from the wall and decapitated him."

Dex blinked.

"I’m sorry," he said. "A decorative axe."

"Yes."

"Fell from the wall."

"Yes."

"And decapitated the second in command of Velanthor."

"The head landed in Serena’s lap," Elara added helpfully. "She screamed for two minutes."

"You were screaming too," Serena snapped.

"I didn’t say I wasn’t."

Dex looked at Gav. Gav was biting his fist to keep from laughing, eyes watering.

Hale had his forehead back in his hands.

"They then thought it was a bright idea to carry the head to the Orosian throne room," Tiberon continued, with the tone of a man who had accepted that this was his life now, "and delivered it to the High General."

"Delivered is generous," Elara said. "Serena kicked it."

Serena shot Elara a look that could have murdered. "I told you that was an accident."

"You kicked a severed head into the arms of the High General," Tiberon repeated, the same way he had said it the first time, with the patience of a man who had been forced to say this sentence more than once and would never forgive the universe for it. "Accidentally. With perfect aim."

Dex’s mouth opened. Then closed. Then opened again.

No words came out.

Aegon: I do not believe it. Mate is not capable of that.

Gav lost the battle. A wheeze escaped his chest, high and strangled, and he pressed both hands over his mouth.

"After the throne room," Tiberon continued, "Serena did not have enough magic to make a return portal. Instead of retreating, she requested a direct audience with a second Fae High General. King Kaelith of the Velanori Isles."

Dex’s expression flatlined.

"They cuffed her. The audience was granted on the condition that she fight a warrior."

"She what."

"Yes, she fought a Fae Queen warrior. She refused to harm her, but was forced to melt the cuffs when the Queen kept coming. She then entered into negotiations that resulted in a ceasefire."

Dex sat perfectly still in his chair. His face had passed through several stages: shock, disbelief, horror, fury, more disbelief, and had finally settled on the expression of a man whose soul had physically departed his body and was currently hovering somewhere near the ceiling.

"A ceasefire that saved your life," Serena said, speaking up for the first time. "And in the first throne room, the lives of twelve Hidden Flame and two alliance members. No man was left behind on our side. Your master mage was out for eight weeks."

"Six hours for the first. Two hours for the second." She swallowed. "Twenty four hours total I was gone. If that’s against protocol, then I respectfully request the orders given to me be reevaluated."

What she wanted to say was then I’m in the wrong damn kingdom, but she held that to herself.

Silence. Nobody talks back to Tiberon Drakenfell. But Serena just did and she held his gaze. No regrets. She meant every word.

Dex opened his mouth, then shut it. He was still processing the severed head. But then her words landed. "Serena—"

"Yes," Tiberon said, cutting Dex off. "Which is why you weren’t given consequences for the throne rooms. Your commander, however, still needs to be made aware."

"They also broke into the restricted section of the library again," Tiberon added to Dexmon, as if she wasn’t there. "Repeat offense for Serena. Their punishment is recataloguing the Lower Archives."

Dex didn’t react. The library was the literal last thing he gave any fucks about.

"Serena hasn’t had to do the punishment," Elara said. "So really I’ve been doing double punishment."

Serena exhaled, already wanting to go back to Shadowclaw. There was no universe where she’d be doing that punishment. At least that’s what she told herself. She saved their lives. She was here to see Dex and only Dex, because she missed him.

And to friendzone him. Which she didn’t want to. Maybe it wouldn’t hurt to push it off for another day.

She shook her head once. No.

Her resigned ’over-it’ energy flowed to Dex through their matebond. Dex’s brows knit, not liking that at all. He hadn’t felt that from her.

Tiberon closed the folder.

"You are now caught up. She falls under your command now." He said it like a parent dropping their kids off at school, and letting the teacher decide the punishment.

After he left, and the door closed, nobody moved.

Then Gav, who had been holding it together by a thread of rapidly disintegrating willpower, broke.

"A decorative axe," he wheezed. "That got me last time you two got chewed out and it got me again."

Hale groaned from behind his hands.

Dex stood, and pulled Serena’s chair out from the table. She looked up at him, waiting.

He stared at her for a very long time. He closed his eyes. Opened them. Exhaled through his nose.

Then he picked her up off the chair and threw her over his shoulder.

She squealed, the high-pitched sound echoing off the stone walls.

"Dex, put me down."

"No."

Hale stood and looked at Elara.

Elara held up one finger. "Don’t even think about it."

Hale thought about it.

He picked her up anyway.

"HALE."

"Safety protocol," he said, borrowing Dex’s line. "You’ve been flagged as a flight risk."

The four of them disappeared down the corridor: two men carrying two women who had, in their absence, committed acts of war, assault, international diplomacy, decapitation by home décor, and a complete reorganization of the national archive system.