The rain in the city was cold and heavy. It felt like the water was trying to wash me away.

I stood under a small, rusty roof of an old bookstore. My hands were shaking. I wasn't cold; I was just too excited. I was reading the last pages of my favorite book, The Dragon's Wife. I loved the main character, King Alaric. In the book, he was a man who had a dragon's soul trapped inside him. He stayed in his human body to rule his people, but to win wars, he had to turn into a giant black dragon.

Every time he changed, it hurt his mind. It made him cold and sad.

"He isn't a monster," I whispered to myself. My breath made a little cloud in the cold air. "He's just very lonely."

I was so busy thinking about Alaric and his sad life that I didn't see the danger. A large truck hit a puddle and lost control. I heard the loud scream of tires on the wet road. That was the last thing I heard. Then, the world turned white and very, very cold.

Wait... I thought. I haven't seen him be happy yet...

Whoosh.

Suddenly, the sound of rain was gone. Instead, I heard the crackle of a warm fire.

I opened my eyes and breathed in deeply. The air didn't smell like wet city streets anymore. It smelled like expensive wood and sweet incense. I wasn't lying on the hard ground. I was sitting on a soft, purple velvet sofa.

I looked at my hands. They used to be rough from working as a student. Now, they were soft, pale, and covered in heavy gold rings.

"The King is coming, My Lady," a voice said.

I looked up. A maid in a grey dress stood there. She was shaking with fear. "Please, do not make him angry tonight. He had to change into his dragon form during the war today. He is... he is not stable."

The King? Unstable?

I jumped up and ran to a tall mirror. I froze. The woman in the mirror was beautiful but looked very sharp and mean. She had high cheekbones, dark red lips, and violet eyes.

I was Seraphina von Malcor. I was the villain of the book! In the story, Seraphina married Alaric just for power. Later, she tried to tell his enemies his secret weakness. Because of that, Alaric killed her.

Suddenly, the giant doors of the room were kicked open. They slammed against the walls with a loud bang.

The temperature in the room jumped up. It felt like I was standing next to an oven. A "shiver" ran down my back.

A man walked in. This was Alaric.

He looked human, but only a little bit. He was very tall and strong. His shirt was torn, showing his chest. His skin was bronzed, but I could see shiny black scales along his jaw. His hair was long, black, and messy.

But his eyes were the scariest part. They weren't human eyes. They were glowing orange slits, like a fire.

"Out," he growled. His voice was so deep that the windows shook.

The maid ran away immediately. I was left alone with a man who looked like he wanted to burn the whole world down.

In the original book, the "old" Seraphina would scream here. She would call him a freak and hide under the bed. That rejection always made Alaric feel like a monster, and he would lose his human mind completely.

Alaric moved fast. He lunged forward and slammed his hand against the wall right next to my head. I could smell smoke and old blood. His skin was so hot it felt like it would burn me.

"Why aren't you running, Seraphina?" he hissed. His face was only inches from mine. "Can't you see the smoke? Do you want to see the monster tonight?"

My heart was beating fast, but I wasn't just scared. I was fascinated. I reached out my hand. My fingers were very close to the black scales on his face.

"The monster saved the kingdom today, didn't he?" I said. My voice was soft and calm.

Alaric froze. He didn't expect me to be nice. He looked into my eyes, searching for fear or disgust. But he only saw that I understood him.

"You're burning up, Alaric," I whispered. I used his real name for the first time. "The change... it didn't finish, did it? You are stuck between being a man and a dragon."

He gripped the wall tighter. I heard the wood crack under his fingers. "How do you know that? You only care about money and the crown."

"Because I am your wife," I said. I stepped closer until my chest almost touched his leather vest. The heat coming off him was amazing. "And our marriage contract? It didn't say I only get the King. It said I get the Dragon, too."

The orange glow in his eyes flickered. For a second, he looked confused. He was a man who had been treated like a weapon for a long time. He forgot that a person could touch him just to be kind.

"What do you want?" he asked. His voice was rough and broken.

"I want to help you stay human," I said. I looked him right in his glowing eyes. "But in return, when the war is over, you will give me my freedom. You will let me live."

Outside, lightning hit the roof. The light filled the room for a second. In that moment, Alaric didn't look at me like a wife he hated. He looked at me like I was a mystery he had to solve.

I was no longer just a woman to him.

Alaric's hand was pinned next to my head. His fingers dug deep into the stone wall. I could see shiny scales on his knuckles. It was proof that the dragon was trying to come out. The beast inside him was hungry and restless.

"Listen, Seraphina," he hissed. His voice was so deep it made my chest shake. "I know you are playing a game. I have watched you tell lies for years. I won't let you do it again. You just want to use me to make your family powerful."

I looked up at him. For a moment, my heart broke.

In my past life, I spent months reading about this man. I knew everything about him. I knew his favorite food. I knew he hated the smell of lavender. I knew he only turned into a dragon because he wanted to protect his people, even though they feared him.

To him, I was a bad person. To me, he was a hero who had never been loved. The disappointment tasted like ash in my mouth.

"No, Alaric," I whispered. My voice was shaking. "I just want to know you more. I want to be a part of your real life. Not just the one in the fancy ballroom."

As I spoke, Alaric's grip became strange. He wasn't just holding me; he was crushing the wall. His eyes turned from gold to a dangerous, glowing orange. The air around us became very hot.

"Alaric... it's too hot. Please, let go," I gasped. The silk of my sleeve was starting to burn against the wall.

He blinked, like he was waking up from a dream. He quickly let go of my arms. He stepped back, breathing hard. His hands were shaking. He looked at his own palms like they were dangerous weapons.

I took a deep breath. The cool air felt like a blessing. I didn't run away. Instead, I stepped closer to him.

"You think I want to use you?" I asked. I looked straight into his glowing eyes. "I know about the nightmares, Alaric. I know that every time you turn into a dragon, you feel like you are losing your soul. I know that your crown feels like a heavy collar of hot iron. I am not the woman you remember."

The room became very quiet. The only sound was the fire and the rain hitting the windows.

Alaric looked at me with suspicion. "Then who are you? Why should I believe your soft words? You are Seraphina. You are the woman who tried to sell my secrets to my enemies."

He stepped closer again. He leaned down until his face was inches from mine. He was looking for a lie.

"If you aren't her," he whispered, "then show me. Because the woman I married would never look at a monster like me with pity."

"It's not pity, Alaric," I said. I reached out and pressed my palm against his cheek. I felt the rough, hot scales under my hand.

He flinched. He expected me to pull away because he was "ugly." Everyone else did. But I didn't move. I moved my thumb over his jawline.

"It's recognition," I whispered. "I don't want your gold. I just want to make sure you don't burn alive from your own fire."

His orange eyes grew wide. For a second, the dragon's glow faded. I saw his real eyes—tired, blue eyes. He leaned his head into my hand for a tiny moment, like a lonely wolf.

But then, he pulled away. He made his face look cold again. His walls were too high to fall in one night.

"Get some rest, Seraphina," he said. He turned his back to me. "The contract signing is at dawn. If you want to be part of my life, you must prove you can handle the danger."

He walked out of the room. His black cloak looked like giant wings behind him.

I sat on the edge of the bed. My hand was still hot from his skin. I was playing a dangerous game. I was a fan who had walked into a sad book. I had just told the most dangerous man in the world that I knew all his secrets.

I have to change the ending, I thought. In the original book, tomorrow is the day someone tries to kill him. If I don't save him, he will die.

The Plan in the Night

Should I tell him? How can I stop him?

The thought circled my mind like a trapped bird. If I told Alaric the truth—that an assassin was going to kill him at the border—he would just laugh. He would think it was another one of my tricks.

He never believes me. But I have to do something. I want him to live. I want him to rule the kingdom in peace.

I stood up. My silk dress made a soft sound on the cold floor. I couldn't just wait for him to die. I had to act now.

"Call a servant!" I shouted into the empty room. "Call that man!"

A moment later, a tall man with scars on his face appeared. It was Kael, the captain of the guards. He looked at me with a mean look. He kept his hand on his sword.

"Lady Seraphina?" he asked. "Why are you out of bed so late?"

I took a deep breath. I tried to stop my hands from shaking. I moved closer to him in the shadows.

"Listen carefully," I whispered. "Tomorrow, a great danger is waiting for Alaric. We have to save him. But if he knows, he won't let us help. The big problem is he doesn't believe me."

Kael narrowed his eyes. "Danger? The King is the strongest warrior. Who would dare touch him?"

"The Shadow Sect," I said. I used the name of the killers from the book. "They will attack at the Iron Pass when the sun is high. They know the King will be tired tomorrow. They have special arrows that can hurt dragons."

Kael froze. He turned pale. This was a big secret.

"How do you know this?" he hissed.

"It doesn't matter how I know," I said. My voice grew stronger. "What matters is that tomorrow I am going with you. We need shields lined with lead to stop those arrows. We must be ready for war."

"You? Going to the border?" Kael looked shocked. "The King will kill me if I let you go to a battlefield!"

"He will be dead anyway if he goes alone!" I snapped. "I am not asking you. I am telling you what to do to keep your King alive."

Outside, the rain got louder. Thunder shook the stone walls. I felt a "shiver." The story was moving, and I was the only one who could change it.

"Prepare the horses and the men," I said. "We leave two hours before the sun comes up. Alaric must not know. If he sees me there, he might be angry, but at least he will be alive."

Kael looked at me for a long time. He was looking for the "mean" Seraphina. But he only saw a girl with fire in her eyes. Finally, he bowed his head.

"As you wish, My Lady. We will get ready in secret."

As he walked away, I leaned against the wall. I was terrified. I was just a reader who loved a book, and now I was going to a war. But I thought of Alaric's tired eyes, and I knew I couldn't let him die.

The mud of the northern trail was thick, clinging to my leather boots like the heavy weight of the destiny I was trying to rewrite.

In the original pages of The Dragon's Wife, Seraphina von Malcor was a creature of silk and greed. She loved three things: the power of the Malcor name, the glint of royal gold, and the feeling of a crown on her head. The "old" Seraphina wouldn't be caught dead within a hundred miles of a battlefield unless there was a chest of jewels waiting at the end. She was a woman who spent her afternoons drinking tea while her husband, King Alaric, bled for a kingdom she only wanted to spend.

But as I rode through the freezing rain, my fingers numb against the horse's reins, I wasn't thinking about gold. I was thinking about the way Alaric's eyes had looked in the firelight—shattered, tired, and burning with a heat he couldn't control.

"Lady Seraphina, we are approaching the gorge," Kael whispered, his voice barely audible over the thunder. "If the King sees us, there will be no mercy. He believes you are safely tucked away in your chambers, plotting how to steal from the treasury."

"Let him believe what he wants," I said, my voice shaking from a mix of cold and adrenaline. "Just keep the shields ready. Remember what I told you: the Shadow Sect doesn't aim for the men. They aim for the King's dragon-veins."

The Iron Pass loomed ahead—a jagged, obsidian-black canyon that looked like the open jaws of a beast. This was the place. According to Chapter 42, this was where the "villainess" Seraphina had leaked Alaric's route to the assassins for a pile of diamonds. But in this timeline, the diamonds didn't exist. Only the danger did.

As we crested the final ridge, I saw them.

Alaric's battalion was a thin line of steel against the mist. In the center, mounted on a massive black warhorse, was the King himself. Even from this distance, I could feel the heat radiating from him. He wasn't wearing his royal mantle; he was in full plate armor, his silver-white hair soaked by the rain. His dragon-eyes were glowing a faint, warning gold, scanning the cliffs.

Suddenly, a whistle broke the sound of the rain. It wasn't a bird. It was the sound of a bowstring being released—a specialized, heavy-duty bow.

"NOW!" I screamed, kicking my horse forward.

Kael and the guards charged behind me, their horses hooves thundering like a second heart. We didn't head for the front lines; we headed straight for Alaric's flank, right where the "Vulture's Peak" cliff hung over the path.

Alaric turned his head. His eyes widened as he saw the small, unauthorized unit charging toward him. When his gaze landed on me—hair wild, face covered in mud, riding like a madwoman—his expression shifted from shock to pure, unadulterated fury.

"SERAPHINA?" his voice roared, a sound that was half-human and half-dragon. "WHAT IS THIS MADNESS? GO BACK!"

I didn't stop. I couldn't. I saw it—the glint of a silver-tipped arrow at the top of the cliff. It wasn't a normal arrow. It was laced with Draconic-Iron, a substance that could pierce a shifter's scales and freeze their blood.

"ALERIC, DOWN!" I shrieked.

He didn't move. His pride was too great. He stood his ground, thinking I was just another distraction, a "game" I was playing to get his attention.

In that split second, I didn't think about my life in the real world. I didn't think about the book. I lunged from my horse just as we reached him, my body colliding with his armored leg, trying to pull him toward the shelter of the canyon wall. At the same time, Kael and the guards raised the lead-lined shields I had commanded them to build.

Thwack.

The arrow struck. It didn't hit Alaric's heart. It slammed into the lead shield I had forced Kael to hold over the King's head. The force was so great that the shield dented, the silver poison hissing as it touched the metal.

Silence fell over the pass, broken only by the heavy breathing of the soldiers.

Alaric stared at the shield. Then, he looked down at me. I was on the ground, my hands scraped and bleeding, my expensive riding leathers ruined by the mud. I looked nothing like the "Power-Hungry Queen" he knew.

He dismounted in one fluid, terrifying motion. He stood over me, his shadow swallowing me whole. The heat coming off him was so intense it started to dry the rain on my skin.

"You," he whispered, his voice a dangerous, trembling growl. He reached down and grabbed my arm, pulling me to my feet with enough force to make me shiver. "You were supposed to be at the palace. You hate the mud. You hate the cold. You love nothing but your own comfort."

I looked him straight in his glowing eyes, ignoring the pain in my wrist. "I love being alive more, Alaric. And I love... I want you to live, too."

His grip tightened. "How did you know about the arrows? This is a secret weapon of the South. Not even my generals knew they had reached this far."

"Does it matter?" I gasped, the heat from his body making me feel lightheaded. "The Shadow Sect is on that ridge. If you don't send the scouts now, they will fire a second volley."

Alaric didn't look away from me. It was as if he was trying to see into my soul, trying to find the "greedy" Seraphina he had hated for years. But she wasn't there.

"Kael!" Alaric barked, never taking his eyes off me. "Take the third unit. Clear that ridge. Bring me the archer's head."

"Yes, Your Majesty!"

The soldiers scrambled, the battle cry echoing through the pass. But Alaric stayed. He stayed right in front of me, his hand still clamped around my arm.

"You played me," he hissed, but his voice didn't sound angry anymore. it sounded... haunted. "You played the role of a selfish, power-hungry woman so well that I almost let myself be killed today because I didn't think you were capable of a single selfless act."

"I told you," I said, my voice cracking. "I'm not the woman you remember."

A shiver ran through me—not from the cold, but from the way he was looking at me. It was the "Obsessive" gaze I had read about in the books, but now it was directed at me. It wasn't a look of love yet; it was the look of a predator who had just realized his prey was the only thing keeping him alive.

The dragon inside him let out a low, rumbling hum that I could feel in my own bones. He reached out with his other hand, his fingers brushing the mud off my cheek. His touch was scorching.

"If this is another game, Seraphina," he whispered, leaning down so his breath fanned over my lips, "it is the most dangerous one you have ever played. Because now, I am never letting you out of my sight."

He picked me up, throwing me over his shoulder as if I weighed nothing, and turned toward the command tent.

The story had officially broken. The villainess had saved the hero, and the hero was no longer looking for his "True Love." He was looking at the woman who had bled in the mud to keep his heart beating.