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The cowardly kingdom sacrificed her to the beast, but she returned riding it to conquer them all. The epic, fiery payback in Fated to the Ancient Wyrm is the ultimate revenge story of a discarded sacrifice becoming a fearsome, unstoppable empress. Stream the Complete Series today!
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00:00This familiar scene is exactly the same as in the previous life.
00:03The sky outside turned the color of a wound.
00:06A Lycan lord, in his full power, in human form.
00:10But how did the person in his arms become my sister?
00:12In my previous life, on the day of the sacred bonding rite,
00:16my sister chose the phoenix.
00:18She left the bear shifter, the one nobody wanted.
00:21It was fate.
00:23A cast-off for a beast.
00:25Instead, I saved a Lycan lord by accident.
00:28He took me as his queen.
00:30After the bonding, I bore five airs for the Lycan bloodline,
00:34a clan that had gone generations without children.
00:36I became a legend across the realm beyond.
00:39My sister, bonded to the phoenix, was cast out for barrenness.
00:43I came home with my youngest.
00:45My sister poisoned my bowl, me and my child both.
00:55When I woke, it was the day of the rite again.
00:59Everyone present is a worthy son of their bloodline.
01:03Choose freely.
01:04The hall filled with glances,
01:06with quiet negotiations between bodies and bloodlines.
01:09I didn't want any of it.
01:11In my last life, childbirth had nearly killed me.
01:14I wasn't doing it again.
01:15I stood alone.
01:17Then the doors blew open.
01:18Time returns to the present.
01:20And for some reason, my sister has taken my husband from my previous life.
01:27Vivienne saved my life.
01:29From this day forward, she is my true mate.
01:31A Lycan lord choosing one of ours.
01:34Choosing her as first and only.
01:36It hadn't happened in living memory.
01:38I knew then.
01:39She'd been reborn too.
01:40Now I looked at her.
01:42Draped against the Lycan lord.
01:44Already victorious.
01:46She thought she'd won.
01:47She hadn't thought through what it would cost her.
01:49Lycan lords are of the fire element.
01:52Their mates sleep in fire.
01:54Eat fire-aspected food.
01:56For a bloodline like ours.
01:58Cold-aspected by nature.
01:59That's not a marriage.
02:00Delicious.
02:01It's a slow execution.
02:03Last time, I had no choice but to pretend to like it.
02:06Every day.
02:07I smiled through the sacred fire walks.
02:10Through the meals that felt like swallowing coals.
02:12By the time I was pregnant, my core was already cracked.
02:16The children drew what was left.
02:18Vivienne was cold-aspected too.
02:20She just didn't know what she'd agreed to yet.
02:23The whole heap celebrated.
02:25Every unmeted girl in the Order delayed her own bonding to help prepare Vivienne's.
02:30The gift list ran ten feet long.
02:33The High Lord nearly emptied the sanctuary's vaults.
02:36I was the only unmated woman left.
02:38That made me the obvious choice for handmaid.
02:41Vivienne stood over me and smiled.
02:43Before you were the Elder, I deferred to you.
02:47How does this feel, sister?
02:49I said nothing.
02:51Ha!
02:51That look.
02:53You'll get used to it.
02:54The High Lord has already agreed.
02:56You belong to me now.
02:58I'll hit you when I want.
02:59I'll hit you when I want.
03:00Praise you when I want.
03:01You have no say.
03:03Start learning.
03:04A courier arrived from the Lycan Lord.
03:07A red and gold cloak.
03:09Light as feathers.
03:10Fire-resistant.
03:12Enchanted for speed.
03:13Vivienne touched it with both hands.
03:15I knew that cloak.
03:17For fire-aspected bloodlines, it was a treasure.
03:20For cold-aspected bloodlines, it was a punishment.
03:23I'd worn it every day of my first marriage.
03:26It had carved away at my core for years.
03:29Vivienne would find that out eventually.
03:31Then a girl came running.
03:33Fire on the back mountain!
03:35What an awful omen.
03:37Today of all days.
03:38I didn't wait.
03:39I ran.
03:40The mountain was burning hard when I arrived.
03:43Black smoke.
03:44Screaming from inside the tree line.
03:46The elders stood at the edge and wouldn't move.
03:49That fire belongs to a Lycan Lord.
03:52We interfere.
03:53We offend him.
03:54Your sister's bonding is today.
03:56Don't make trouble.
03:57No rank fallities.
04:00I looked at him for a long moment.
04:02Then I went in.
04:03The smoke blinded me fast.
04:06The fire took my fur.
04:07But I was cold-aspected.
04:09Wherever I moved, frost spread behind me.
04:12It slowed the flames enough to matter.
04:18But I can't stop this fire with my own strength.
04:21I remembered what my foster mother taught me.
04:23Clear a line.
04:25Deny the fire somewhere to go.
04:26I shifted to full form and called out.
04:29Wolf.
04:30Eagle.
04:31Tiger.
04:32Bear.
04:33They came.
04:34They carried ice-hardened vessels in their jaws.
04:37An elephant used its trunk.
04:39Ants and mantises worked the fire breaks.
04:41We were losing.
04:43Then we weren't.
04:44Then the mountains shook.
04:45The ground split open.
04:47A dragon came out of it.
04:49Black.
04:50Ancient.
04:51Large enough to block the sun.
04:53He opened the mouth and it rained.
04:55The fire died.
04:57The dragon's voice didn't come from one direction.
05:00It came from everywhere.
05:03This mountain is mine.
05:05Who lit it?
05:07The elders said nothing.
05:08A thousand years in this valley.
05:10And nobody had thought to check whether something older already lived here.
05:14Then Vivienne pointed at me.
05:16Ash everywhere.
05:17Burned fur.
05:18It had to be her.
05:20Every eye turned.
05:21Charred.
05:22Bleeding in two places.
05:23The same hands that had just spent an hour fighting the fire.
05:26I was certain someone would say it.
05:28Any of them.
05:29They'd all seen me run in.
05:31The elder looked at me for a long time.
05:33Then he knelt.
05:36The dragon's sovereign.
05:38Our wayward daughter did this.
05:40She is yours to punish.
05:41We offer her freely.
05:43I stood still.
05:44Not one of them spoke for me.
05:48I had bent myself in half for these people in my last life.
05:51I had burned from the inside out.
05:53Carrying children for a clan that wasn't mine.
05:56For a man who never once made me warm.
05:59I'd done it for them.
06:00Kept them safe.
06:02Kept them proud.
06:03And now they were handing me to a dragon.
06:05To buy themselves a quite.
06:07The fire was Lyocon.
06:08Everyone here knows that.
06:09I'm coal dissected.
06:11How would I produce sacred flame?
06:12You're my handmaid.
06:13You had access to my husband's fire tokens.
06:15Easy enough to steal a spark.
06:17If I started it, why did I try to stop it?
06:19To look innocent.
06:20What do I have to gain?
06:22Any of it.
06:23What exactly do you think I wanted?
06:25Mara, just admit it.
06:27I'm done with this covenant.
06:28All every debt between us is settled.
06:30Enough.
06:31The girl comes with me.
06:33Whatever she is to you, she isn't anymore.
06:36When I opened them, I was somewhere else.
06:39Torchlight.
06:40Stone.
06:41A ceiling so high, I couldn't see the end of it.
06:44He was in human form.
06:45Black robes edged in gold.
06:47He sat like someone who had never once needed anything from anyone.
06:51He was watching me with something almost like amusement.
06:54He said.
06:55Go ahead.
06:56Say what you want to say.
06:58You knew.
06:59You knew the whole time what happened.
07:02Why play along with them?
07:03Because you needed a reason to leave.
07:05And my palace is considerably more comfortable than a foxhole.
07:09I thought you might prefer it.
07:10I thought about what he'd said.
07:12In my last life, he had sent me a healing stone during my labor.
07:16Only later did I understand.
07:18The mountain was his.
07:20I had defended it.
07:21He remembered.
07:22Thank you, my lord.
07:24I'll serve faithfully.
07:26Don't do it again.
07:27He looked satisfied.
07:28Do what?
07:30Throw yourself at people who aren't worth it.
07:32He tilted his head.
07:34Get dressed.
07:35We're going to watch the bonding ceremony.
07:38He handed me a gown.
07:40Black.
07:41Covered with shimmering scales.
07:43I put it on and stood beside him.
07:45And we looked like we matched.
07:46I felt my face go warm without meaning to.
07:49The ceremony hall blazed with firelight.
07:52Vivienne walked the red carpet on the lichen lord's arm.
07:56She looked extraordinary.
07:58She always did.
07:59Then they reached the threshold.
08:01Every lichen bonding began the same way.
08:03The new mate had to walk a path of sacred embers.
08:07The lichen lord stepped onto the embers without pausing.
08:10For him, it was nothing.
08:12Vivienne stopped cold.
08:14People noticed.
08:15He pulled her toward the embers.
08:17She dug in.
08:19The hall went quiet in that particular way that means everyone is watching while pretending not to.
08:24He leaned in and said something low and sharp.
08:28She went white.
08:29Then she walked.
08:30The sound when the fire touched her was something I would remember.
08:35She made it through.
08:36Barely.
08:37She knelt before the clan elder with shaking hands and held a cup of tea for half an hour before
08:42he finally took it.
08:44After the ceremony, in the corridor outside...
08:47No mate in our head have insulted the sacred fire at her own binding.
08:52Not one.
08:53You were the first.
08:55Congratulations.
08:56He walked.
08:58Don't wait up.
08:59I had turned to leave when my foot landed on a dry branch.
09:03Vivienne spun.
09:04How are you here?
09:05Her face twisted.
09:07She lunged.
09:08Her feet still burned, betrayed her.
09:11She went down hard.
09:12The dragon should have killed you!
09:15I touched the fabric of my new gown.
09:17He's fair-minded.
09:18He doesn't punish the innocent.
09:20I looked at her.
09:21I'm his now.
09:23You can't touch me.
09:24She grabbed my throat.
09:26Her nails drew blood.
09:28You're lying.
09:30If he wanted you, he'd be here.
09:32He wouldn't leave you alone.
09:34One more inch, and she'd have managed it.
09:36I'll kill you right now, and no one will care.
09:39The air moved.
09:41Vivienne flew sideways.
09:43She hit the wall hard enough to cough blood.
09:46A hand settled at my waist.
09:48Warm.
09:49Steady.
09:50Power moving through it, like current.
09:53The dragon sovereign said pleasantly.
09:55I'm her intended.
09:57You can call me Aldrich.
09:58Or dragon sovereign.
10:01Either works.
10:03Vivienne stared at him.
10:05You can't.
10:05She has no standing.
10:07She's nothing.
10:08The Lycan Lord appeared in the doorway.
10:10Took one look at the dragon sovereign.
10:13Your grace.
10:14I apologize for my mate's behavior.
10:17Today of all days, I hope you'll forgive it.
10:20Your mate could use managing.
10:22The dragon sovereign glanced back at Vivienne.
10:25Then he took my arm, and we left.
10:29The next morning, his household was buzzing.
10:32The Lycan Lord's new bride had lost favor on her wedding night.
10:36She'd insulted the sacred fire.
10:38He'd taken a sparrow shifter servant to his bed, and elevated her to second mate.
10:43Vivienne had locked herself in her chambers.
10:45That news traveled fast.
10:46I found a mineral spring in the upper realm.
10:49I went every night for a month.
10:51One night I arrived and heard laughter.
10:53I looked.
10:54Then I wished I hadn't.
10:56Vivienne was in the water, with two men.
10:58Two dragon shifters.
11:00Junior officers by the look of them.
11:02I left quietly.
11:03The heat didn't go away.
11:05I wandered the grounds trying to walk it off.
11:08Aldrich was outside his own chambers.
11:10Not sleeping either.
11:11He looked like the night had gotten into him.
11:13Dragon kind had their own rhythms.
11:15Their own seasons.
11:17I looked at him for a moment.
11:18Then I made a decision.
11:19I used the oldest skill our bloodline carried.
11:23He would experience it as a dream.
11:25He wouldn't remember clearly.
11:28You're too thin.
11:30I don't know how you're holding yourself up.
11:31His skin against mine carried a faint, natural coolness.
11:35Like stone in a river.
11:37It moved through me like relief.
11:57I'd planned to clear the memory.
11:59He seemed not to have noticed.
12:00Or not to care.
12:02Then my body reminded me of something.
12:04I recognized the feeling immediately.
12:06I was pregnant.
12:08Around the same time, so was Vivienne.
12:11The Lycan lord's servants spread it everywhere.
12:13Seven heirs expected.
12:15A miracle for a clan that hadn't produced children in generations.
12:18The keep rejoiced.
12:20Even Aldrich's household received the announcement.
12:22I thought about those two men in the spring.
12:25I hoped for her sake, she knew what she was carrying.
12:28She came to see me a few weeks later, surrounded by attendants.
12:32She looked radiant.
12:33She always found a way to look radiant.
12:35She pressed her hand to my stomach.
12:37Then looked at my broom.
12:38I thought you'd found yourself a dragon sovereign.
12:41Looks like you're still sweeping floors.
12:43I'm going to be named Holy Sovereign of the Lycan clan.
12:46First woman in a thousand years to carry their heirs.
12:49The clan elder promised.
12:51Once these children come, I'll have everything.
12:53You should stay away from my hall once I'm settled.
12:57Don't embarrass yourself pretending we're still family.
13:00She turned.
13:01With a gesture, she scattered dead leaves across the path I'd just cleaned.
13:05Then Aldrich appeared.
13:07The leaves reversed direction and hit Vivian in the face.
13:11My household staff aren't yours to entertain yourself with.
13:16I'm carrying the Lyland Lord's A's.
13:18You wouldn't dare hurt me.
13:20My wife is also expecting.
13:23You disrespect her.
13:25I haven't begun to address that yet.
13:27You, you have no bond, no ceremony, no standing.
13:32You're a hollowborn with a child and no covenant.
13:39Mara became my wife before heaven and earth witnessed it.
13:42This stone is my Lyne's oldest heirloom.
13:45It belongs to her now.
13:47She is my mate in full.
13:50A messenger arrived from the High Court.
13:53Mara of the Holy Maidim Bloodline,
13:55recognized for valor in defense of a sacred site,
13:57is hereby elevated to Holy Sovereign.
14:00Her bonding to the dragon sovereign Aldrich is sanctioned and recorded.
14:04Let it be so.
14:05Vivian's eyes filled.
14:06She cried silently, and the tears were not the soft kind.
14:10The Lycan Lord arrived shortly after.
14:13Dragon Sovereign, I apologize.
14:15The pregnancy is affecting her temperament.
14:17Aldrich looked at her one last time.
14:19She could use a firmer hand.
14:22Then he brought me home.
14:24That night.
14:26Do you remember it?
14:29My gift of recall isn't something your bloodline's arts can touch.
14:32You were never dreaming either.
14:35I wanted you.
14:36I've wanted you since I watched you fight a sacred fire to save
14:39animals that weren't yours and people who didn't deserve it.
14:45I took you to my bed.
14:47I owe you a name for it.
14:49A name isn't enough.
14:50So I owe you the formal bond,
14:52witnessed by heaven and earth,
14:54and every treasure in my line,
14:56and the largest bonding celebration the realm has seen in a century.
15:12I held onto him, and for the first time since waking into this second life, I didn't have to hold
15:18myself together.
15:19My body moved through the pregnancy with almost uncanny ease.
15:23I was tired, and hungry for strange things, and I slept too long.
15:27Vivian's nights were another matter.
15:29She screamed through them.
15:31Every night.
15:32Longer.
15:33The Lycan Lord put a silencing ward around her wing.
15:36It didn't reach the gossip.
15:37They sent fire-aspected tonics.
15:40Womb-strengthening remedies.
15:41All of it intensified the fire.
15:44None of it helped the mother.
15:45She came to show off, still.
15:47By the time I saw her, she was enormous.
15:50Her face had hollowed out.
15:51Her hands and feet were swollen.
15:53She moved like it hurt.
15:54I took her arm before she fell.
15:57You shouldn't be walking around like this.
15:59She shook me off.
16:01My husband says movement makes labor easier.
16:04He knows more about this than you do.
16:06He knows Lycan physiology.
16:08That's not the same thing.
16:09She looked at me with complete contempt.
16:11You're jealous.
16:13You've got that cold little belly, and you know I've won.
16:18Seven heirs.
16:19Seven.
16:20What do you have?
16:22One.
16:26I'm going to be holy sovereign of the most ancient shifter bloodline in the realm.
16:31My children will be legends.
16:33Yours will be a footnote.
16:35She used her power to scatter leaves across my clean steps on the way out.
16:39I watched her go.
16:41Vivian, what's going to happen when those children arrive?
16:44And none of them are what anyone's expecting?
16:47Vivian went into labor before me.
16:49I brought snacks and found a good position near the back.
16:52She'd been sending celebration suites to every household in the upper realm since she announced
16:57the pregnancy.
16:58Half the realm had shown up to witness the arrival of the Lycan clown's first heirs in
17:04a thousand years.
17:05The Lycan lord paced outside.
17:07His entire extended family had come in.
17:10The high court had sent observers.
17:12They weren't there to congratulate anyone.
17:14They were there to record.
17:16I spotted the two dragon shifters from the spring, both very still.
17:20Vivian screamed from midday to sunset.
17:23Then she went quiet.
17:24The crowd held its breath.
17:25The attending midwife came out first.
17:28Then six attendants behind her.
17:30One after another.
17:32Seven children.
17:33The Lycan lord went to look.
17:35He picked up the first one.
17:36It shifted in his hands.
17:38Black scales.
17:39His face had gone very wrong.
17:41What is this?
17:42My lord, please, don't.
17:44The Lycan lord looked at him.
17:46Then at the child.
17:48Then back.
17:48He understood.
17:50He picked up the next five.
17:52One by one.
17:53His hands were shaking by the third.
17:55None of them were Lycan.
17:57He looked up at the crowd.
17:59Hundreds of witnesses.
18:00The high court observers with their recording stones.
18:03Then six more men stepped forward from different directions.
18:07Each one claiming a child.
18:09The seventh child was half sparrow.
18:11The same bloodline as the servant Vivian had despised enough to betray on purpose.
18:16The crowd didn't make any sound for a long moment.
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