Sneak Peek at Lord of the War Dogs 2/19/2025

 Introduction:

This blog features random scenes from works in progress within the Draoithe Saga by Ophelia Kee. These works are primarily urban fantasy and paranormal romance with magical realism, dark themes, and fated mates sprinkled throughout. Here you will find scenes which are yet to be published as of the time of posting, and these chapters may require further editing. It's a look behind the curtain, a sneak peek if you will, at scenes from stories Ophelia Kee is currently drafting. 

If you want polished complete stories, this is not the right place. But if you enjoy bits and bobs of things yet to come, won't fall in love with a rough version, and want a taste of the dream before the magic coalesces, then you have found the spot. 

February 19, 2025 Sneak Peek at Lord of the War Dogs

Warning:

This is a work in progress and is subject to change at any time.

Read at Your Own Risk!

Copyright 2025

All Rights Reserved.

Useless

Sruthan

He went into his bakery at six on Saturday. His manager was there. The weekends were slower. 

The local breakfast restaurants that had standing orders had picked the fresh-baked biscuits up. The donuts were leaving the glass case along with the sweetbreads and pastries people liked for breakfast. 

The bagel sandwiches, croissants, and other breakfast items were rapidly selling down by eight o’clock as well. The straggler customers kept his manager busy while Sruthan baked. 

By noon, his manager was boxing up the leftovers to donate to the shelter. The leftovers weren't much, but at least he wasted nothing. 

“Mr. Cormac, I got the delivery. Do you need me to do anything else before I leave?” 

“No, I’m good. Thanks.” 

He heard the jingle of the bells on the door. The closed sign was up. He worked on the books, counted the till, and stacked the money in the safe after he wrote the deposit for the bank on Monday. 

He didn’t worry about locking the front door. He was a dragon. Even lacking his ability to shift, he still came back at dawn if he got killed, but few humans could get the drop on him. Any immortal who could was unlikely to be a thief.

He’d never stopped practicing for the fight. His sword still appeared in his hand when he willed it. 

Not even the loss of the Ulfheonar in the last battle had made him give up weapons training. He continued his daily routine as if stopping meant he lost, and he could not face that. He shut the memory down, and focused on the business side of the bakery. The past needed to stay in the past.

Sruthan was still mulling over the offer to buy him out of the bakery that he had received earlier in the week. It was an excellent offer. He thought he would sell the bakery after all. Starting again, building it himself as he wanted had grown too appealing. If he stayed in the Phoenix area, he already had business connections. Only the need to reinvent himself meant he should probably move.

Sruthan looked up when the bells chimed again, interrupting his train of thought. Leo walked through the door. He looked like shit. Did he mess things up with Valerie already? Well, he was the king of never having a second date. 

Leo had been too confident with her. She wasn’t like all the others. Valerie was human, fragile. He had warned him. Sruthan sighed. This had to get fixed. If he hadn’t messed it up too badly, maybe there was still a chance.

Without a word, Sruthan went to the back room and brought out the brandy and two tumblers. He set it on a table, and they both sat down. 

Leo drank. Sruthan sipped. 

Then Leo talked. Sruthan drank. 

He wanted to ask how things had gone so far off the rails, but seeing his old friend truly hurting made him hold his tongue. What difference did it make how it happened?

Leo didn’t withhold the details. Sruthan groaned. She was innocent. Fuck. That was the worst rejection pain ever. She didn’t even know what she said no to. 

Losing what she had always protected consumed her. She hadn’t made the conscious decision that Leo was who she wanted for herself. The loss had hit her hard. Her reaction devastated his king. 

Men didn’t value chastity as women did. She was human. She likely feared an unwanted pregnancy and disease. 

Sure, all the foreplay felt good, but if she hadn’t expected it to lead to the inevitable conclusion. There was no way she had the euphoric experience Leo had. She was human and couldn’t feel the magical connection with him, either. 

When he admitted to linking with her, Sruthan groaned. Leo knew Valerie was everything, and she had rejected him in a way that felt complete. He was swimming in misery and wanted to drown. Sruthan would have to fix it. At least the link offered hope.

“You’re lucky. Valerie will come back. She didn’t reject you. She wanted away from the situation you put her in.” 

Sruthan told him the truth. It would hurt like hell, but it wasn’t a lost cause. She needed space to decide how she felt.

“Why would she do that? I fucked up, Sruthan. If you had seen the way she looked, you wouldn’t believe it.” 

Leo sat staring, as if he could still see the way she looked. It ate at him.

“She’ll come back because you denied her nothing. You need to give her everything. The hard part is the wait for her to decide, to work it all out in her mind, so she could hear your offer. Have her dress cleaned and send it with the shoes back to her on Monday.” 

Leo shook his head, disbelieving him.

“Order your coffee, as you always do, and check on her. Do nothing but let her see you remain, watching over her. She has to be secure in her knowledge that you won’t run away, that what you shared mattered to you significantly. If you dump your heart on her, she will run from you because she’s too busy sorting out her feelings. She is human, Leo. If you were human, imagine the issues.” 

“Sruthan, why in the world would I believe you?” 

Leo looked so miserable and skeptical, Sruthan almost laughed. It seemed there were a few things Leo didn’t know about him after all.

“Because I once made the mistake you made. I was her first, but I was dumb enough not to realize she’d never been with a man because she was sassy and quick-witted. I waited for her to come around, but I made sure she knew I was still interested and still protected her. She married me.” 

Sruthan told his oldest friend about his life before he became a dragon. It wasn’t something he spoke about. It didn’t have a happy ending. Five centuries later, and his heart still ached.

“You were married? Five hundred fucking years, Sruthan, and you only now tell me you were married?!” 

The shock surprised Leo, but perhaps he would hear good advice this time. 

Leo had been born a king. Stubborn was practically the man’s middle name. Leo was a good man, but like all men, he had his faults. Being overconfident sometimes had a downside. At least being imprinted on Sruthan helped curb some of his darker inclinations.

“She was beautiful. She died in childbirth. It was before I became a dragon. It was probably better that way. She never suffered my death. It was long ago. I mourned her properly, and grieved the loss of the child, but it was too early. Without her mother, I couldn’t have cared for her, anyway. Oddly, it was easier.” 

Sruthan shrugged and closed his eyes. 

He waited for his words to sink in. He needed his friend to understand the truth behind them. Valerie would give him another chance if he didn’t pressure her.

“Then it seems I have a dress to get cleaned.” 

Leo spoke as if he hoped against hope the chase continued. He would take Sruthan’s advice because he lacked any other option, which didn’t result in his demise. But Sruthan was right. He could feel it.

Sruthan knew the truth. If Valerie chose against him, Leo would stay and protect her until she passed, then he would walk into the Netherworld and let the pain go. His friend and his king had survived long centuries without a mate. Sruthan knew of no other second-order shifter who had done so. If the hunt and chase ended, Leo would choose to fade.

It was too hard to face immortality alone. Sruthan had thought to follow his king and give up the memories. Dragons couldn’t simply die and cross over. He had no coins to pay the Grim Reaper. He could gain only peace in forgetfulness. 

He waited with one flicker of hope of his own. The grey dragons of Leinster had always spoken of a prophecy about a Dire Wolf King. 

Sruthan didn’t need the Dire Wolf King to free him. Leo had set him free long ago. But the free dragons were supposed to find their mates when the Dire Wolf King ruled. Sruthan waited to see if the prophecy held and if it applied to him. 

He had one hope he might still find a treasure like no other. If he found everything, perhaps he could face the unending years and live instead of hiding from his painful past and all the loss as he merely existed.

It was close to the time he thought that a Dire Wolf King should reign. The greys were all older dragons. They had to wait six centuries. 

If something didn’t happen within the next twenty years, and he took his walk knowing the prophecy was false and all hope lost, Sruthan would follow his king into the Netherworld, finding no treasure.

“It might not hurt to spend a little money. She needs help. She has debts. Allow me to handle some things for her?” 

Leo nodded. Sruthan would use the money to help his king.

“Have the tailors make her an entire trousseau, minus the dress. Even if she won’t have me, I would give her what should be hers. She liked pretty clothes.” 

Leo was right. 

All the wealth was hers. With no Ri ruirech to serve and no tithe to pay, the money belonged to the Ri bannach to do as she would. He would see that his king wasn’t destitute, and the Ri bannach was well-provided for. She had no family. It was dangerous for her to have no protection or aid. If Leo’s wealth couldn’t help her, it was useless.



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