A powerful full drama movie filled with love, secrets, and unexpected twists.
Follow a powerful story where relationships are tested, hidden truths are revealed, and lives change forever. From romantic moments to shocking surprises, this drama keeps you engaged from beginning to end.
Featuring stories about CEO, billionaire lifestyles, family connections, and life-changing decisions, this movie delivers strong emotions and unforgettable scenes.
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Follow a powerful story where relationships are tested, hidden truths are revealed, and lives change forever. From romantic moments to shocking surprises, this drama keeps you engaged from beginning to end.
Featuring stories about CEO, billionaire lifestyles, family connections, and life-changing decisions, this movie delivers strong emotions and unforgettable scenes.
Watch the full movie and discover what happens in the end.
New full drama movies uploaded regularly. Stay tuned for more captivating and trending stories.
#drama #fullmovie #lovestory #dramatic #billionaire #ceo #family #relationships #movie #story
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Short filmTranscript
00:08To be continued...
00:30I thought by the time I turned 18, my body will explode for not finding a mate.
00:35But then Finn, the phoenix, rarest creature alive, chose me.
00:40I actually believed I was special to him.
00:43No, I wasn't.
00:45I only knew that until my sister Sienna's bonded dragon went rogue and lost control.
00:50Finn shoved me to bind with that monster without blinking.
00:55Here's the thing.
00:57Sienna and I are identical twins.
00:59Identical, except for the mark on my face.
01:02I wasn't chosen.
01:04I was kept as a spare.
01:05In the spiritual beast world, every human must complete a bond before their 18th birthday.
01:11Or their body tears itself apart from the inside.
01:14Sienna and I came into this world together.
01:16I was born with the mark.
01:18She was born a masterpiece.
01:20Every beast man in the territory fought to bond with it.
01:23And she chose the most dangerous one alive.
01:26Alak, the dragon.
01:27The most powerful being in our realm.
01:30Beast men carry a sickness called the Feral Curse.
01:33When it takes hold, they hunt their bonded by memory alone.
01:37Drag them into a shared nightmare and torture them to death.
01:41I always knew Sienna would pick Alak.
01:43Power calls to power.
01:45What I never saw coming was Finn choosing me.
01:48The day he announced our bond in front of the whole territory, I felt like I was drowning in honey.
01:54The air tasted sweet.
01:56Even the people who had spent years spitting on me blurred into background noise.
02:01I stopped hearing the insults.
02:03I forgot every ruse they'd left.
02:06I thought everything I'd survived was just the universe clearing the path to him.
02:11Except he never touched me.
02:14He never showed me his true form.
02:16When a beast man reveals their animal form to their bonded, it means love, trust, everything.
02:22Finn never once shifted in my presence.
02:25I couldn't find a single feather in the entire house.
02:28I told myself it was just his nature.
02:31That he was private.
02:33Then one night, I stayed up until 3am collecting morning dew, his favorite.
02:38And carried it to his room like an idiot with a smile on my face.
02:42And I saw the flash of Scarlet.
02:44His true form.
02:45He was showing someone his true form.
02:48I stumbled through the door.
02:49That someone was my sister.
02:53The moment he saw me, Finn pulled his form back in like a fist closing around a secret.
03:00Sienna smiled.
03:01Soft, unbothered.
03:03Like a cat who knows she owns the room.
03:06Samara, you know Finn and I grew up together.
03:08Revealing his true form animal side to me, it's not a big deal.
03:12My chest felt like concrete poured inside it.
03:15I kept my face very, very still.
03:18Right, I just came to...
03:20The dew I'd carried all night had already tipped and soaked the floor.
03:24I stood there, hands empty, useless.
03:27Finn looked at me once, cold, brief.
03:29Nothing urgent?
03:31Then go.
03:32I walked out with my head down.
03:34Sienna's voice followed me down the hall like smoke.
03:38Finn and I grew up together.
03:39But I met him first.
03:41I met him first, and nobody cares.
03:44That winter, I found Finn half dead in the forest while I was out cutting wood.
03:50Red light pulsed off every inch of him.
03:53The feral curse.
03:54He was losing control.
03:56Every survival instinct I had screamed at me to run.
04:00His eyes stopped me.
04:01There was something in them I recognized.
04:03The desperate, clawing will to live.
04:06I had been looking at that same thing in mirrors for 17 years.
04:10I brought him home.
04:11I didn't sleep for weeks.
04:12I watched over him, learned his fever patterns, held him down through the worst nights.
04:17His body healed.
04:19The curse didn't lift.
04:20Then one day, Sienna visited.
04:22She told me to leave him to die.
04:24That accursed beast wasn't worth the risk.
04:26I refused.
04:28Sienna left.
04:29The moment she walked out the door, Finn's curse vanished.
04:32Just like that.
04:33Like smoke in wind.
04:35He came back to himself.
04:36Powerful.
04:37Radiant.
04:38Healed.
04:39After that, he started showing up.
04:40At my place.
04:42At Sienna's.
04:43I thought he was paying a debt.
04:44He was.
04:45Just not to me.
04:46Ugh.
04:47I was so absorbed in the past memory that I forgot to see the front.
04:52When I looked up, I met the deathly gaze of Alaric.
04:55You do look exactly the same as your sister.
04:59Except.
05:02His fingers slowly traced my face.
05:04And he lowered closer to my face.
05:07Sorry.
05:08Overcome with fear, I ran fast past him.
05:11Without realizing, he stood there and watched my back for a long time.
05:16Finn got busier by the day.
05:18Busier arranging Sienna's bond ceremony with Alaric.
05:21I knew I should be grateful.
05:23I knew a bond at all was more than I deserved by this world's standards.
05:27But hearing about Sienna's ceremony?
05:29The flowers?
05:30The guests?
05:31The spectacle?
05:32Something pathetic inside me started imagining my own.
05:36I thought, fine, I'll plan it myself.
05:38I spent everything I had.
05:40Literally everything.
05:41I bought a young firebird nest tree.
05:44The rarest thing Finn could want as a bond token.
05:47And gathered armfuls of his favorite blooms.
05:49I showed up on the appointed day.
05:52I stood at the bond altar from sunrise.
05:54He never came.
05:55The crowd that gathered grew larger the longer I waited.
05:59Not to support me, but to watch.
06:01The flowers in my arms had died.
06:03I kept my chin down and my eyes on the ground.
06:07How could the phoenix ever want someone that ugly?
06:10He was obviously playing her.
06:12She's the only one who didn't know.
06:13Any other day, I would have put my fist through the face of whoever said that.
06:17Today, I just pushed through the ground.
06:20Silent.
06:21Trying not to drown.
06:22Someone shoved me from behind.
06:24I hit the ground hard, but I caught the nest tree sapling before it could break.
06:28Cradled it like it mattered.
06:29Then someone stomped on the pot.
06:32The clay exploded.
06:33The sapling went gray and dead in seconds.
06:36Shattered.
06:37I walked home and heard Sienna's voice floating out of Finn's room.
06:41Bright.
06:42Delighted.
06:43Finn, this dress is beautiful.
06:45You actually made this with your own hands?
06:48Sienna, as long as you like it.
06:50Finn's voice was as flat as always.
06:53But the upward curl at the end, that small, involuntary warmth, exposed him completely.
06:59The door swung open and Sienna walked out in a red dress.
07:03Red feathers lined the hem.
07:05Finn's tail feathers.
07:06The feathers a phoenix only plucks for someone they love.
07:11So that was why he'd rushed me out of the house last week.
07:14He didn't want me seeing him make her a dress.
07:17He'd pulled his own feathers, the most sacred part of a phoenix's body, just to get the color right for
07:24her.
07:24He didn't come to my ceremony because of Sienna.
07:27Sienna, all those years, every glance Finn ever threw across a room always landed on her.
07:34Even agreeing to bond with me, I finally understood that too.
07:38It was just a reflex.
07:40A moment of wounded pride after she chose the dragon instead of him.
07:44Samara, they were right.
07:46Every bit of this was you lying to yourself.
07:49I made up my mind.
07:50I would dissolve the bond before it was complete.
07:53I wasn't going to wait around to be discarded with an audience.
07:56I started looking for an available beast man.
07:59Anyone willing to bond with me before my birthday.
08:01I finally tracked down Riven, a low-rank lizard in the Outer Territory.
08:06And he agreed.
08:07I ran home, told Finn.
08:09He didn't look relieved.
08:10He looked furious.
08:14Samara, you're serious?
08:17You'd bond with that low-rank lizard instead of me?
08:22I didn't show up that day, but I had a reason.
08:24You saw-
08:25I stopped listening.
08:26I already knew the reason.
08:28Sienna's ceremony was approaching.
08:30He was busy.
08:31Too busy for me, never too busy for her.
08:34Because of my face.
08:35Because I was the ugly one.
08:37Because apparently, being born with a birthmark
08:39means I deserve to be stood up,
08:42mocked in public,
08:43and made to feel grateful for scraps.
08:45I closed my eyes.
08:47Yes, Finn.
08:49I'm bonding with Riven.
08:52Fine, Samara.
08:54Don't come crawling back.
08:55He said it like I was the one abandoning him.
08:58I genuinely could not locate his logic.
09:01I had no time to figure it out.
09:03My birthday was three days away.
09:05The next morning, I went to find Riven.
09:07Somehow, he'd changed his mind overnight.
09:10Apparently, someone had introduced him to a girl last night,
09:13and they'd already scheduled their ceremony for that afternoon.
09:17You think I would take someone else's reject?
09:21Then closed his door in my face.
09:23I stood there, lifted my hand to knock again,
09:25let it fall.
09:26People like me aren't meant to survive in a world like this.
09:30If I had maybe three days left alive, fine.
09:33I was going to spend them eating well.
09:34I walked to Mayfair Garden Cafe,
09:37the expensive coffee house I'd never dared enter before,
09:40and ordered everything that looked good.
09:42I was halfway through a plate of honey cake
09:44when I caught the conversation behind me.
09:46Heard the phoenix is giving Sienna the thousand-year heartwood?
09:49The one with healing properties?
09:51Healing?
09:51If it can heal, why didn't Finn use it years ago on Samara's face?
09:56Oh, wait.
09:57Obviously, because Sienna matters.
09:59Samara never did.
10:01He had a cure.
10:02He had a cure for my birthmark.
10:04He watched me get beaten, ridiculed,
10:07spat on my entire life,
10:09and he had the antidote in his pocket.
10:11He chose to give it to Sienna as a backup plan
10:14instead of giving it to me.
10:16Tears ran down my face,
10:18and I bit my lip until it bled
10:20to keep from making a sound.
10:22Tomorrow was my birthday.
10:23I was going to die.
10:25They would laugh at the way my body destroyed itself,
10:27so I would not cry.
10:29Not tonight.
10:29Not where anyone could see.
10:31I went home.
10:32Nowhere else to go in this world.
10:34The house was blazing with light.
10:36The crowd had packed the main hall,
10:38shouting over each other.
10:39Alaric, Sienna's dragon,
10:41that is not a fool.
10:43The feral curse had taken hold.
10:45Without a completed bond to tether him,
10:47Alaric wouldn't just hurt Sienna.
10:49He'd tear through the entire city.
10:51Dragons in rogue state always do.
10:54Everyone was screaming at Sienna
10:55to go through with the bond immediately.
10:57Only Finn was standing in her way,
10:59blocking her, keeping her back.
11:01But Finn couldn't hold the crowd forever.
11:03I looked at him one last time,
11:05but Sienna sheltered behind his back
11:07like she was made with glass,
11:09and walked to my room.
11:10His footsteps came fast.
11:11He threw open my door.
11:13Why was he here?
11:14His priority was right down the hall.
11:16Samara, you're the only one who can save her.
11:19Me?
11:19The dragon bonded with Sienna, not me.
11:22You and Sienna are identical,
11:23except for the mark.
11:24No one will know the difference.
11:26I opened my mouth to ask
11:27how I was supposed to remove a birthmark
11:29on three seconds notice.
11:31And then I remembered the conversation
11:33at Mayfair Garden.
11:34He already knew.
11:35Finn raised his hand.
11:36His expression showed something
11:38I might have called regret,
11:40but his arm was completely steady
11:42as it swung toward my throat.
11:44Samara, I'm sorry.
11:47But Sienna once saved my life.
11:50I can't let her...
11:51Those were the last words I heard
11:53before the darkness took me.
11:55Finn, even now,
11:56not one word about me.
11:58I came back to consciousness
11:59in a moving carriage,
12:01dressed in red.
12:02Finn's dress.
12:03The one he made for Sienna.
12:07I almost laughed.
12:09He worked so hard on it.
12:11And it ended up on the wrong twin after all.
12:14Outside, drums and horns.
12:16The city celebrating.
12:18They weren't celebrating the horns in the world.
12:20They were celebrating trading my life
12:22for their safety.
12:23The altar was already in sight.
12:25I didn't struggle.
12:26I walked up the steps,
12:28heard the crowd's murmur shift.
12:30A single, sharp inhale of surprise.
12:33The kind of sound people make
12:34when they see something unexpected.
12:36How funny.
12:37I had heard people gasp at my face
12:39my whole life.
12:40Always in revulsion.
12:42The one time they gasped in something else,
12:44I was walking toward my own death.
12:47My gaze found Finn at the base of the steps.
12:49He stood very still,
12:51staring up at me with an expression
12:52I couldn't read.
12:53This is what you wanted, Finn, isn't it?
12:55I looked away.
12:56Alaric stood at the center of the altar,
12:58radiating red light,
13:00barely controlling.
13:01His muscles looked like
13:02they were about to rip his clothes off.
13:04His eyes were burning.
13:06All animal.
13:07No human.
13:08But as soon as our eyes locked,
13:10a flicker of blue light
13:11flashed in his eyes.
13:13He got closer to me
13:14and cupped my face.
13:16You are different.
13:17The ceremony
13:19will now begin!
13:21We exchanged the bond tokens.
13:24Blood on both sides.
13:25The bond snapped into place.
13:27The nightmare dimension opened instantly
13:30and swallowed us both.
13:31I closed my eyes
13:32and waited to die.
13:34When I opened my eyes again,
13:35I was overtaken by the view.
13:39Not darkness.
13:41Not pain.
13:42Trees.
13:43Dense.
13:44Ancient.
13:45Green.
13:45A stream so clear
13:47I could count the stones at the bottom.
13:49A spotted deer drinking at the bank.
13:52This wasn't what the nightmare dimension
13:54was supposed to look like.
13:55And Alaric was gone.
13:57I turned in a slow circle.
13:59No dragon.
14:00No hulking rogue state predator.
14:03Something cool brushed my ankle.
14:06I looked down.
14:07A tiny white snake.
14:10Transparent scales.
14:11Two small delicate horns catching the light.
14:15Everyone who'd ever studied beastman biology
14:18could recognize those horns.
14:20Alaric.
14:21Reduced to his infant form.
14:23Small enough to fit in my palm.
14:25As long as there was breath,
14:27there was a way out.
14:28I carried baby Alaric through the valley.
14:32Trying every technique I knew.
14:35Healing herbs.
14:37Binding chance.
14:38Energy redirection.
14:39Nothing worked.
14:40He stayed small.
14:41His red light pulsed faintly,
14:43but never faded.
14:44I gave up for the night
14:46and went foraging instead.
14:49In the morning,
14:50I woke up with something heavy on my chest.
14:53Baby Alaric had coiled himself on top of me
14:55at some point in the night
14:56and was fast asleep,
14:58rising and falling with my breathing.
15:01I picked him up by the scruff.
15:05I don't know what you heard about mate binding,
15:07but sleeping on top of people
15:10is generally considered
15:11a personal boundary violation.
15:13He stared at me,
15:14completely unapologetic.
15:16His tail, however,
15:18slowly turned red.
15:25His tiny horns flushed darker
15:27as I kept holding them.
15:29I raised an eyebrow.
15:30I spent the next ten minutes
15:31poking his horns
15:32until he'd turned fully pink.
15:34Only then did I put him down.
15:36Satisfied.
15:38I went back to trying to fix him.
15:40Nothing worked.
15:40I pulled some leaves off a low branch
15:42and shredded them while I thought.
15:44One leaf caught my skin.
15:45Blood welled from a clean slice across my fingertip.
15:49Before I could move,
15:50Alaric flicked his tongue
15:51and licked the wound.
15:52The bleeding stopped.
15:54The cut started closing.
15:55Then he convulsed.
15:57I scrambled for medicine.
16:00Useless.
16:01Because he was already growing.
16:05The feral curse,
16:07gone.
16:08He was healed.
16:09We could go home.
16:11But he was also
16:12the most famous,
16:14coldest,
16:14most untouchable
16:16alpha in the territory.
16:17And I had spent
16:19the last two days
16:20poking him
16:21and calling him
16:22a personal boundary violator.
16:24I didn't get to figure out.
16:26He'd already shifted back
16:27to human form
16:28and landed in front of me.
16:30He was exactly as described.
16:32Sharp jaw.
16:33Cold eyes.
16:34The kind of face
16:35that made people
16:35get out of his way
16:36before they knew why.
16:39Samara.
16:40Are you familiar
16:41with a prophecy
16:42passed down
16:43through dragon bloodlines?
16:45Can't say I am.
16:46Only the goddess
16:47can break the curse.
16:50That he knew my real name
16:51or what he was calling me.
16:53I've examined
16:53the surrounding space.
16:55This isn't
16:56the nightmare dimension.
16:57It's a separate realm.
16:58One that appears
16:59to belong to you.
17:01I had a private dimension.
17:04I, Samara,
17:05the uglier twin,
17:06the spare,
17:07the girl who couldn't
17:08get a lizard beast man
17:09to bond with her,
17:10had a private dimension.
17:12We returned to the city.
17:14The streets stopped
17:15when they saw us.
17:17I went straight
17:18to Finn's estate.
17:20Alaric walked in
17:21beside me.
17:23I looked at my sister.
17:27Finn and Sienna
17:28were in the morning hall,
17:29performing grief
17:30in front of the
17:31assembled guests.
17:32Sienna,
17:32the name on that banner
17:34is wrong.
17:34The one who bonded
17:35with the dragon
17:36was me,
17:37Samara,
17:38not you.
17:39Prove it!
17:40How do we know
17:40you're even Samara?
17:42I smiled.
17:43I raised my hand.
17:45Sienna's birthmark,
17:47the one she'd painted
17:48on her face
17:49to impersonate me,
17:51dissolved.
17:51I already knew
17:53she wouldn't have
17:54actually damaged herself.
17:56She sent her own
17:56sister to die
17:57in her place.
17:58How is Samara's face?
18:02The heartwood.
18:04Finn had it
18:04the whole time.
18:09The feral curse,
18:11it's lifted?
18:12You can't possibly
18:13be walking around
18:14if it's not.
18:15You tear this city apart.
18:18The curse is gone,
18:19Finn.
18:20Samara cured it.
18:23The entire room
18:24pivoted to look at me
18:25like a single organism.
18:27Finn looked like
18:27he'd been hit.
18:29Alaric,
18:30you don't have to
18:30protect her.
18:32I know my sister.
18:35I'm not protecting her.
18:38Samara is the goddess
18:39our bloodline's prophecy
18:40describes.
18:41Her blood neutralizes
18:42the feral curse.
18:44Finn's hand tightened on
18:46Sienna's arm.
18:47Did you forget,
18:49Finn?
18:49Your feral curse
18:51broke the same way
18:52that Sienna who saved
18:53you that winter.
18:55It was me.
19:02I left that sentence
19:04in the middle of the room
19:05like a lit match
19:06and walked out
19:07with Alaric.
19:08The best revelations
19:09are the ones
19:10you don't finish.
19:11Life in Alaric's estate
19:12was the best
19:1317 days
19:14of my entire existence.
19:16Food brought to me.
19:17Warm rooms.
19:18No one spitting
19:19on the ground
19:19where I walked.
19:20Then the requests
19:21started coming.
19:22Word had spread.
19:23A rogue beast man.
19:25A fire fox
19:26had been brought
19:26to the gates.
19:27People wanted proof.
19:29Alaric and I
19:29looked at each other.
19:30Perfect timing.
19:31The crowd outside
19:32was enormous.
19:33I walked to the fire fox
19:35without hurrying,
19:36ignoring the way
19:37his curse form
19:38snarled at me
19:39and drew a clean line
19:40across my palm.
19:41A few drops of blood.
19:42His throat.
19:43He screamed
19:44and convulsed.
19:45The crowd turned
19:46on me instantly.
19:47She's a monster.
19:49That birthmark
19:50was a sign all along.
19:51She's poisoning him.
19:52I don't answer.
19:53I don't negotiate
19:54with panic.
19:55Alaric stepped
19:56in front of me.
19:57One look.
19:58That was all he did.
19:59One look at the crowd
20:00and every voice stopped.
20:01I watched his back,
20:03the width of his shoulders,
20:04the steadiness
20:05of his stance
20:05and something warm
20:07cracked open
20:08in my chest.
20:0917 years.
20:10First time someone
20:11stepped in front of me.
20:12The fire fox
20:13stopped convulsing.
20:14The red light faded.
20:15He blinked,
20:16calm,
20:17recognizably himself.
20:18The person who'd been
20:19loudest about poisoning him
20:20now looked like
20:21they might faint.
20:22started moving
20:23through the crowd
20:24like a wave.
20:25Within a week,
20:26my name was on
20:26every street in the city.
20:28Sienna,
20:29I heard,
20:29hadn't left Finn's
20:30estate in days.
20:32The neighborhood children
20:32had discovered
20:33she made an excellent
20:34moving target.
20:36I was not sorry.
20:37A servant announced
20:38a visitor one evening.
20:39I already knew
20:40who it was
20:41before I reached the hall.
20:42Sienna,
20:43on her knees.
20:43Samara,
20:44tell them you went
20:45willingly.
20:46Please,
20:46just issue a statement.
20:48She was pale,
20:49shaking,
20:49still managing
20:50to make it sound
20:51like a command.
20:52My voice came out
20:53very quiet.
20:54Give me one reason.
20:55You watched them
20:56torment me for 18 years
20:58and said nothing.
20:59You knew I was the one
21:00who healed Finn
21:01and you let him
21:02fawn over you anyway.
21:03And then you sent me
21:05to die in your place.
21:07Her mouth moved.
21:08No sound came out.
21:09She grabbed the hem
21:10of my sleeve
21:11and pulled like a child.
21:12Alaric had her escorted out.
21:14The moment he appeared
21:15in the doorway,
21:16something in me
21:16simply gave.
21:17The tears came
21:18without warning.
21:20I couldn't stop them.
21:21Didn't try.
21:22Alaric pulled me in
21:23without a word.
21:24I cried so hard
21:25I couldn't breathe.
21:2618 years of it
21:27finally out.
21:28I woke up in bed.
21:30Alaric was beside me,
21:31asleep.
21:31I remembered,
21:32distantly,
21:33grabbing his sleeve
21:34and refusing to let go
21:36as I passed out.
21:37My face was on fire.
21:38I had approximately
21:39five seconds
21:40to be mortified
21:41before a servant
21:42announced another visitor.
21:44Finn!
21:44He stood in the receiving room,
21:46looking wrecked,
21:47like he hadn't slept.
21:48His eyes found my face
21:49and stayed there,
21:50unblinking,
21:51full of something painful.
21:53Samara,
21:53I'm so glad you're alive.
21:55You have interesting timing,
21:56Finn.
21:56I'm only alive
21:57because you swapped me
21:58for Sienna.
21:59So technically,
22:00I have you to thank?
22:01Samara,
22:02every word you say
22:03right now
22:04is a blade.
22:05Good.
22:05I turned to leave.
22:06He caught my wrist.
22:07Mara.
22:08My old name,
22:08the short version,
22:09the one he'd used
22:10before he stopped seeing me.
22:12I hadn't heard it in years.
22:13Finn,
22:14you didn't lose me.
22:15You put me down
22:15a long time ago.
22:17I'm the one
22:17who finally stopped waiting
22:18for you to pick me back up.
22:20Finn and Sienna
22:20stayed away after that.
22:22What they didn't stay away from
22:24was a scheme.
22:26Rumors spread.
22:27A second goddess
22:28had appeared.
22:29One more generous than me.
22:31No conditions.
22:32No questions about character.
22:35And apparently effective.
22:37I sat in Alaric's garden
22:38eating candied plums.
22:40And genuinely
22:41could not find it in me
22:43to care.
22:44But I noticed something.
22:46Dead animals
22:47kept appearing
22:48outside the city walls.
22:50Strange variety.
22:52Wrong season.
22:53Sienna,
22:54if you actually had this ability,
22:56you would have used it
22:57before tonight.
22:58Alaric's people
22:59quietly investigated.
23:00The count of dead animals
23:02matched the count of beastmen
23:03Sienna claimed
23:04to have healed.
23:05Exactly.
23:07She'd been extracting
23:08beastman essence.
23:10Killing animals
23:11to fake a cure.
23:13She was arrested
23:14within the week.
23:15I went to see her
23:17before sentencing.
23:18She was barely recognizable.
23:21Dirty.
23:22Small.
23:23The careful performance
23:25of herself
23:25completely gone.
23:28This is your fault,
23:29Samara.
23:30You sent Alaric
23:31after me.
23:32I didn't.
23:33But go on.
23:35You,
23:36you and your goddess title,
23:38you ruined everything.
23:39And Finn
23:40is throwing me out.
23:42Dissolving the bond.
23:45He's leaving me
23:46to die.
23:46I went still.
23:48Sienna,
23:49what you did to me,
23:50that only hurt me.
23:52What you did
23:53to those beastmen,
23:53to this city,
23:54that was bigger
23:55than both of us.
23:56The reason you're here
23:57isn't me.
23:57It's every choice
23:59you made
23:59when you thought
23:59nobody was watching.
24:01She was still screaming
24:02when I left.
24:03She died three days later.
24:05I had her remains collected.
24:08Whatever she was
24:09to me at the end,
24:10she was still
24:11the person
24:11I grew up beside.
24:13Then Finn appeared
24:14at the gate,
24:15and every inch of him
24:16was glowing.
24:17The feral curse
24:18taking hold.
24:20He didn't ask
24:21for my blood.
24:29Before I lose myself
24:31completely,
24:32let this feather
24:32find the person
24:33it belongs to.
24:34I recognized it
24:35immediately.
24:36Finn,
24:37do you know
24:38what the last thing
24:38Sienna ever said
24:39to me to me was?
24:40The lizard
24:41who rejected me?
24:43You arranged that.
24:44You sent someone
24:45to him the night before.
24:46You made sure
24:47I had no options left
24:49so I'd have to
24:50stay within reach.
24:51That night,
24:52Alaric came to my room
24:53and set a dragon scale
24:54on my desk
24:55without a word.
24:56I pushed it back
24:57three times.
24:59His face went darker
25:00with each refusal.
25:02I took the scale.
25:06Alaric's estate
25:07was enormous.
25:07I spent two weeks
25:09learning the layout
25:09and still opened
25:10the wrong door
25:11half the time.
25:11One wrong door
25:12led me to a room
25:13full of dried flowers.
25:15Thousands of them,
25:16every variety,
25:17pressed,
25:18labeled,
25:18arranged in careful rows.
25:20After my mother died,
25:21I'd go out before dawn
25:22and pick whatever
25:23was for me,
25:24then spend the hot
25:25part of the day
25:25hawking them
25:26at the market.
25:27Until one morning,
25:28a house steward appeared
25:29and said his employer
25:30was very pleased
25:31with my work
25:32and wanted ten full
25:33baskets delivered daily.
25:34I had never seen
25:35the employer's face.
25:37It was Alaric.
25:38I summoned him
25:39to the main hall
25:40that evening.
25:41He stood in the center
25:42of them,
25:42unsure what to do
25:44with his hands.
25:45I didn't realize
25:45dragons had so many quirks.
25:48Sleeping on people's chests,
25:50collecting flowers,
25:52truly a complex inner life.
25:54Alaric,
25:54when we were little,
25:55you used to follow me around
25:56and call me Big Sis.
25:58I know I told you
25:59to stop once we were grown.
26:01I lied.
26:02I liked it.
26:05I looked at him,
26:06waiting.
26:08He didn't move
26:09for a long,
26:10agonizing moment.
26:13Big Sis.
26:14We'd met before Finn,
26:16before any of this.
26:17Him for being born
26:17without dragon horns,
26:18me for the mark on my face,
26:20left in the mountains
26:20to survive or die.
26:21He arrived after me,
26:22so obviously,
26:23I adopted him
26:24immediately.
26:25We lived like that
26:26for years,
26:27looking out for each other.
26:28Then his horns grew in.
26:31His family came to collect him.
26:33He didn't want to go.
26:34They tied him up.
26:34They told him if he fought it,
26:36they'd come back and kill me.
26:38He left to protect me.
26:40He found me again
26:41years later in the market.
26:44He was too afraid to approach,
26:46afraid his presence
26:48would put me in danger.
26:50So he bought all my flowers instead,
26:53every single day,
26:54at triple the market rate.
26:56He agreed to bond with Sienna
26:58because he knew what Finn was planning.
27:00He'd seen Finn watching Sienna.
27:02He knew the swap was coming.
27:04He let himself be exposed
27:05to the feral curse of my family
27:07to give me a way out.
27:08His own family found out
27:09and took it for them,
27:10an investment in keeping
27:11the dragon estate's power
27:12centralized in the younger side.
27:14He nearly died.
27:15So did I.
27:16And we both came out the other side.
27:19I turned the dragon scale
27:21over in my hands,
27:22a reverse scale I'd found out,
27:24the most sensitive point
27:25on a dragon's body,
27:26the thing they guard
27:27most carefully.
27:28He'd given it to me in a panic,
27:30terrified I'd changed my mind.
27:33I pressed up on my toes
27:34and kissed his horn.
27:37You absolute idiot,
27:38I said smiling.
27:40Why didn't you just tell me?
27:42He picked me up
27:43without any further discussion
27:44and carried me inside.
27:47I learned that night,
27:49thoroughly and at length,
27:50that dragon horns are not,
27:52in fact,
27:53for casual affectionate kissing.
27:57Life after that was sweet,
27:59genuinely,
28:00embarrassingly sweet.
28:02Except for the bird,
28:04the phoenix had started appearing
28:05in the tree outside my window,
28:07wherever I went,
28:08it followed,
28:09said nothing,
28:10just watched.
28:12Finn had disappeared,
28:14some said dead,
28:15some said he'd left the territory entirely.
28:17Today was my bond ceremony with Alaric.
28:20Some stories end with a bang.
28:23Mine ended with a bird being firmly escorted off the property.
28:27works for you.
28:29I love you.
28:32I love you.
28:38I hope that it wasn't after...
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