Victor

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“The princess what?” Prince Victor of Rodica demanded.

The messenger cringed before Victor’s commanding glare. “She... I...” The man suddenly flung himself at the prince’s feet. “Spare me! I’m only the messenger!”

Victor glanced at the mirror that hung on the wall across from him. Sure enough, his eyes had gone from their usual warm amber to blazing molten gold. No wonder the man was terrified.

“Get up,” Victor said, stifling a sigh. “I’m not going to turn into a dragon and eat you alive.”

At that, the messenger gave a yelp of fear and managed an impressive backwards slither across the throne room’s marble floor. “Please don’t!”

Aunt Agatha let out an exasperated sniff. “Victor!”

“What? I said I wouldn’t eat him.”

“That’s hardly reassuring,” his aunt said with another sniff.

She marched over to the cowering messenger, her gold-crowned head held high, and dropped a small silk bag at his feet. Even from across the room, Victor could sense the gold inside. The messenger certainly couldn’t do the same, not being a dragon shifter, but he lifted his head slightly at the thud and clink the bag made when it landed.

“Here’s some gold for you,” said Aunt Agatha. “Now do tell us what happened to my nephew’s fiancée.”

My fiancée, Victor thought. Princess Eugenia of Doru.

For the millionth time, he wished that he loved the woman he was bound to marry.

Oh, she was pretty enough. Curly brown hair, big brown eyes, plump kissable lips. Very tempting, if you liked that sort of thing, and Victor liked that sort of thing. And yet he wasn’t tempted.

She was nice, too. Sweet. Polite. Though perhaps a little boring.

She is very boring, hissed his inner dragon. So much talk of numbers!

It was true that Princess Eugenia didn’t seem interested in anything that you couldn’t attach a number or abbreviation to. She had a very pleasant voice, but when she went on and on about the effect of value-added tax on the GNP, it became a lullaby that nearly put Victor to sleep.

So it wasn’t love at first sight, thought Victor, trying to cheer himself up. Maybe we’ll come to love each other once I’ve sat through a million monologues on tax brackets, I mean, once Eugenia and I get to know each other better.

We will experience love at first sight when we meet our mate, hissed his dragon. Sparks will fly.

Stop going on about mates, Victor thought at his dragon. You’re driving me crazy.

But he had to admit that no sparks flew between him and Princess Eugenia of Doru. He wasn’t even sure she really wanted to marry him. Oh, she’d told him she did. But then she’d added, “Our marriage will strengthen trade relations and reduce tariffs between my country and yours. Both Doru and Rodica will see our economies grow by at least 2.9 percent!”

She’ll lie back and think of Doru, and I’ll thrust in and think of Rodica, Victor thought glumly. Sexy.

Then don’t marry her, hissed his dragon.

Stop saying that, Victor thought back. Not to sound like Princess Eugenia of the 2.9 percent economic growth, but I really do need to do what’s right for my country. I can’t be confirmed as heir until I produce an heir of my own, so I need to marry someone and get her pregnant. I’ve already wasted years hoping my mate will come. It’s time to face facts. I don’t have a mate, and I need a baby. Princess Tax Bracket it is.

The messenger cleared his throat, jolting Victor back to the present. The man kept his gaze fixed on Aunt Agatha, no doubt to avoid looking at Victor, as he said, “Princess Eugenia has disappeared.”

“She’s wha—” Victor began, then cut himself off. He didn’t want to do a repeat of “yell, messenger hits the floor, messenger refuses to get up, Aunt Agatha has to bribe him with gold to make him spit out the news.” The entire point of the marriage was to make Rodica prosper, not to empty its treasury. In a tone calculated not to scare even the most delicate of infants, Victor said, “Go on.”

The messenger shot him such a horrified look that Victor decided to keep his mouth shut from then on.

“Go on,” said Aunt Agatha.

Apparently Aunt Agatha’s non-scary voice was better than Victor’s. The messenger continued, “When Princess Eugenia’s maid entered her room with her breakfast this morning, she found the princess gone. The guards searched the area, but she could not be found.”

Victor was appalled to feel a surge of relief at that news. If she’s not here, I don’t have to marry her!

Then his relief was overtaken by guilt. For all he knew, she’d been kidnapped and was in terrible danger.

“Was there any sign of a struggle?” he asked.

“None,” said the messenger.

Perhaps she ran away of her own accord, hissed Victor’s dragon. Perhaps she went to seek out her own true mate, and leave you to continue seeking yours.

Stop going on about true mates, Victor replied. That ship has sailed. Our marriage has already been announced. For tomorrow. If I announce that it’s off, the people will riot in the streets.

His aunt, who was undoubtedly thinking the same thing, looked dismayed. “Who knows that the princess is missing?”

“Only the maid, the guards, the Lord Chamberlain of Doru, myself, and the two of you,” replied the messenger. “The Lord Chamberlain warned the maid and the guards and me not to tell anyone else, on penalty of instant dismissal... or worse.” He shot a nervous look at Victor.

“I’m not going to eat you,” Victor said. His voice lowering menacingly, he added, “Unless you tell anyone about Princess Eugenia’s disappearance. Please inform the Lord Chamberlain that I received his message and wish to see him to confer upon a plan of action, at his earliest convenience.”

The messenger gave them the world’s fastest bow, then turned and fled the room, letting the door slam behind him. Since it was decorated with gold and jewels, like everything else in the palace, it was extremely heavy and made quite a loud slam. Victor just hoped it didn’t terrify the man so much that they’d find him quaking on the floor outside when they left the room, and be forced to comfort him with yet another bag of gold.

Victor and his aunt looked at each other. Since his parents had died when he was a child, Aunt Agatha had been named Queen Regent of Rodica as well as his guardian. She’d raised him herself, and had always treated him like her own son.

But their situation was a precarious one, for Rodica only accepted rulers who had proved their fertility. Aunt Agatha, who had never borne a baby, could never be the official ruler of Rodica. She could only act as one until Victor could take her place. And he couldn’t legally be confirmed as heir, let alone crowned king, until he sired a child on a woman of royal blood. If Aunt Agatha were to die before that happened, the country would be plunged into chaos.

“We must find the princess before nightfall tomorrow,” said Aunt Agatha. “Or, if she cannot be found, we will need to obtain a substitute.”

“A substitute?” Victor echoed blankly. “We can’t hold the wedding with some other woman.”

“It would be better than no wedding at all.”

“But it can’t be just any woman,” he pointed out. “My heir must be of pure royal blood. I have to marry a princess.”

“I know, Victor,” Aunt Agatha snapped. He could see that her temper was fraying, but he didn’t blame her. She’d worked so hard to arrange his marriage, and now, at the last minute, it was suddenly in doubt. “But if we can’t find Eugenia, you’ll need another princess.”

Victor couldn’t decide which was worse, marrying a woman he already knew he didn’t love, or marrying a total stranger.

That was assuming a stranger could even be produced. How did you find a princess on short notice?