The Dragon Prince
King Zayne's Investigation

Alyssa

I woke up with Vincent's hand wrapped around me and my face buried in his bare chest. I traced my finger down his chiseled body. It was rock hard but soft to sleep on. My face turned bright red when I saw he was awake and loving my touch. "Please move your finger a little bit lower, baby girl,"' Vincent moaned.

"I'm sorry! I thought you were asleep, what time is it?" I panicked.

"It's around eleven o'clock," Vincent looked at his phone.

"We're misssing school!?" I started to get out of my bed. Vincent then pulled me back into his arms.

"It's Friday; we are taking an extra long weekend," Vincent brushed the hair out of my face. "Are you doing better? Do you want to talk about what happened during class?"

"No, not now," I shook my head.

Even though it was almost noon, I was exhausted. I didn't even know when I had fallen asleep last night. "You didn't have to sleep here you know," I giggled.

"I didn't want to leave you. Besides, your head was on my chest, and I didn't want to wake you. I also want to apologize for the way I acted yesterday. I tried to keep you safe, I can't explain it, but I can't bear the thought of another man being in your life when I fully know that we are mated for life; I hold your mark. Mix that with jealousy and you get the man from yesterday," Vincent said.

"You're not mad?" I asked him.

"Never!" Vincent smiled.

I again buried myself in Vincent's chest, loving how warm and safe he was in his arms. I suddenly looked at my clothing. "How am I in my night chothes?" I said.

"Your clothes were wet, so I helped you change," Vincent explained.

"How do I not remember that?" I said, embarrassed.

"You were crying for hours, exhausted and barely conscious," Vincent said.

I can't believe he saw me in my underwear. "Thank you for being here, Vincent. I'm going to forget the fact that you almost saw me naked, but you stayed while I tried pushing you away," I embraced him.

"I will always be here for you," Vincent kissed my head.

Without meaning to, I fell asleep again, cuddling with Vincent.

"I will always keep you safe, you are mine!" Vincent said lovingly. "I will never let anything bad happen to you,"

(Sometime Later)

"Did I fall asleep again?" I said as I raised my head to meet Vincent's gaze.

"You did," Vincent caressed my face. "Come one, we've been in bed for almost the whole day,"

"No, let's stay here," I cuddle up to him and look into his eyes. I stop above his pants and look at him playfully. With one hand, I slowly slide my hand down his chest. I planted a small kiss on his lips, and I could feel his sense as my hand reached his belly. I kiss him again, and I let the kiss linger longer. Then I place my hands on his side and push him out of the bed in one swift motion. "Time to get up," I laughed.

"What was that for?" Vincent groaned.

"I wanted to be a tease," I laughed again.

Before I could stand up, Vincent jumped back into my bed and grabbed me. His hand was on each side of my head and sat on top of me, preventing me from escaping. He lowered his head closer to mine. I could feel his breath on my lips as my face turned red. He brushed his lips over mine, but he didn't kiss me. I could barely breathe, and judging by Vincent's smirk, he knew the effect he had on me. "I can play too, my love," Vincent whispered. He gently kisses my forehead, and then, in one swift motion, he is out of bed. Damn it, he got me back.

I decided to take a cold shower as Vincent waited for me. After my shower, he told me that his father returned and wanted us to return to the palace so he could talk to us.

"And he's not talking no for an answer either, I tried to tell him that you are not the mood for talking, but he's stubborn. I know where I get that from," Vincent joked.

"Let's just go and get it over with," I said.

"You should talk with Isabella and Annabeth first before we leave, they were very worried about you last night," Vincent said.

"Yeah, I should apologize for that," I giggled nervously.

Before we left, I talked to the girls, explained what happened yesterday, and apologized for my behavior. Annabeth was all over me when she learned that Vincent and I 'slept' together. Despite how unfortunate that reason was, I was thankful that Vincent and I had an excuse to leave.

We entered the palace, but what bugged me was that I didn't have any clue why King Zayne wanted to speak with me.

"I still don't understand why your father wants to speak with me. I don't think he likes very much," I said.

"Don't say that. My father is concerned about the kingdom, and I have no idea why he wants to talk to us; he was very vague over the phone and sounded stressed. He just said that both of us needed to be here. He is most likely in his study, let's go," Vincent took my hand and guided me to his father.

We arrived at King Zayne's study, and Queen Rosetta was there, too.

"Mom, Dad," Vincent crossed his arms.

"Good to see you came and hello, Alyssa." King Zayne smiled.

"Hello," I nodded.

"Before we begin, I want to apologize to you formally. I realized I was hard on you when we first met. You are my future daughter-in-law, and I want us to see each other as family. You are mated to the future king of Varrfarrinn, which makes you Varrfarrinn's future queen. I want you to feel safe here, not the opposite," King Zayne said.

"I understand; you have a lot of responsibility," I said.

"You didn't call us here just to apologize to my mate. What's the real reason?" Vincent said.

"I also called your sister here to join this meeting, Alex should be here soon," King Zayne nodded.

"Sorry, I'm late," Alexandria said. She looked like she was out of breath.

"Good, now that we're all here," King Zayne snapped his fingers, and all the locks on the doors locked up tight. He walked to the shelf, opened a box, and picked something. In the box was a small round cube with beautiful complex carvings on the sides, with a glass sphere in the middle. He then placed the cube on the fireplace and touched the glass sphere. A blue light appeared inside it. I looked at it with confusion.

"This is a scanner, Alyssa. It's a powerful magical device that detects any spyware or listening devices. The blue light means this room is safe.

"What the hell is going on here, dad?" Alexandria said.

"First, I want to make one thing clear to each of you. Only a handful of people know what I'm about to tell you all, and what I tell you must never leave this room. You cannot speak of this to your sister or friends," King Zayne said, and everyone nodded, including me.

"Now, I've been away a lot longer than usual lately." King Zayne said.

"Really? I haven't noticed!" Alexandria scoffed.

"Alex! Now is not the time!" Rosetta growled as Alex rolled her eyes.

"As I was saying, magical beings have been mysteriously vanishing over the last few months, and some are showing up dead. I and a few other associates were set on the task of investigating and trying to keep it from inciting panic,"

"That means, you made sure that no one said anything," Alexandria scoffed again.

"Alex!" Rosetta huffed.

"Am I not wrong?" Alexandria leans on the wall.

"I'll admit that some needed more convincing than others, but that's beside the point. Three weeks ago, a body of a young water dragon was found. He had been missing for over two months, and I just got the autopsy report today," King Zayne explained.

"Since when did it take three weeks to examine a body?" Alexandria said with interest.

"Some mysterious substances in his body needed to be analyzed further. We believe he escaped from whoever was holding him but died from his wounds shortly after. He is with the goddess now," King Zayne explained.

"Why are you telling us this?" Vincent said. "Why does this need to be a secret?"

"When we found the boy, we found some noticeable changes that were not in the description in the missing person's report. The boy's eyes turned gold," King Zayne said.

"What?! You said that he was a water dragon. How is that even possible?" Vincent said with disbelief. I was shocked to hear this as well.

"He was a water dragon, but after reading the autopsy report, I concluded that someone was trying to create gold dragons. His body was full of chemicals, and magic,"

I now know why I'm here and can listen to all this. Zayne wants to see if I'm a true Golden Dragon or an experiment.

"So you think the disappearances are related to this case?" Vincent asked.

"One of my colleagues on this case said the boy was not the first test subject. The chemicals used are way too complex for it to be their first try. Alyssa, this is why you are here, there are certain things I need to know," King Zayne said.

"I'll do my best," I nodded.

"Rosetta told me about meeting with a few elders; you said you were experimented on. I don't mean to pry, but I need to know precisely what they were doing," King Zayne said.

"I was on drugs most of the time since I wouldn't obey, so I don't remember everything. They hooked me up to all sorts of machines. At first, they would do tests like, endurance, strength, and agility. And study the effects on my body under specific stress. They always injected me with a liquid to dull my mind or had Draconite on my wrists. They mostly experimented on me in my human form," I explained.

I can feel Vincent tensing up, his rage boiling.

"Did they take blood from you?" Zayne asked.

"Yes, all the time. I thought it was to keep me weak," I nodded.

"Dad, are you thinking that the guys responsible for taking Alyssa are the same people who are abducting and experimenting on dragons?′ Vincent said.

"I wasn't sure at first, but the pieces fell together, and hearing Alyssa's story wiped away all my doubts. These disappearances started around the time Alyssa was first taken," King Zayne said.

"Are they using my blood for their experiance to make more gold dragons?" I gasped.

"It would appear so, yes. And we would be none the wiser of that boy never escaped." King Zayne said.

"But who is behind all this, and why are you telling us now?" Alexandria said.

"It's evident that their experiments still need to be completed; as far as we know, there isn't another gold dragon aside from Alyssa," King Zayne said.

"I'll kill anyone that will try to take Alyssa from me," Vincent growled.

"Vincent, they might know that you are mated to Alyssa and will try to remove you from the picture to get to her. For now, I want Alyssa to remain here in the palace where she will be safe,"

"WHAT?!" I shouted.

"I agree," Vincent said, and I turned to him.

"So do I," Alexandria nodded.

Wow, Vincent and Alex agree on something for once. Shocker. I guess this means I don't have a choice.

"What are we going to tell Audrey, my friend?" I said. "They will ask why I'm moving,"

You could tell them it's to keep you safe, but under no circumstance, you tell them everything," King Zayne ordered.

You mean lie to them.

"Alright," I reluctantly agreed.

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