QSFer Kit Kennedy has a new gay fantasy out: The Sacrificial Soulmate.
Prince Valerian Tallis has always been forbidden from searching for his soulmate.
Once, the Tallis royal line was strongly bonded with the dragon shapeshifters of the land. However, when Valerian’s ancestors grew too greedy, the dragon shapeshifters went into hiding.
Dragon shapeshifter Kaenor Alreny has never known anything but total isolation and to keep clear of the royal family.
But when the kingdom is invaded and the Tallis family taken captive, Valerian has no choice but to seek out Kaenor and beg for his dragon soulmate’s help. Kaenor’s price is simple: to break their soul bond. Which means that for Valerian to stand a chance at saving the world he’s always known, he’ll have to give up the person he’s always dreamed about.
The Sacrificial Soulmate is a m/m dragon shapeshifter novella in a fantasy setting that includes: ritual sex, loss of virginity, and sex with shapeshifting elements. It contains explicit sexual content and is not suitable for young readers.
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Excerpt
“Oh,” he says. “It’s you.” His eyes flit back to Valerian’s. “Get off my land.”
Valerian blinks. He’d never been entirely sure what to expect of Kaenor or his reaction. But being immediately tossed out certainly wasn’t one of the options.
“I’ve been looking for you,” Valerian protests.
“Yes, well, you’ve found me,” Kaenor says. “Now you can fuck off to wherever you came from.”
“You can’t be serious!” Valerian says. “We’re soulmates.”
The word hangs between them. It carries a strange amount of weight when they’re two people who don’t know each other at all. But Valerian was born with magic and destiny at his side. He’s spent so much time wanting to know more about their entangled fate and being told that he had to hide and ignore it.
“I don’t want to be your soulmate,” Kaenor says flatly. “But you know better than most why you shouldn’t press me on this. Get the fuck out of here.”
Even if Valerian was only here for himself, he wouldn’t accept such a lackluster explanation. And he isn’t just here for himself. A lot of lives depend on him and Kaenor, and Kaenor is the only person who can help him.
“You’re not even going to dignify me with an explanation as to why?”
Kaenor shoots him a withering look that, perhaps, could kill lesser men.
He holds up his own palm, which has a matching crown-shaped scale. He points emphatically at it.
“My parents sent me away as soon as I could make it on my own, because they knew that, sooner or later, you or someone on your behalf was going to come and find me,” Kaenor says. “And that I would be a slave to you the same as my ancestors were slaves to yours.”
Valerian winces. He can’t exactly fault that logic. Generations ago, his family – the royal line of Ealinyth – had made a bond with the dragon shapeshifters of the land. They had promised to fight together and protect each other. Over time, they had developed a particularly profound bond, which showed itself through a royal child and a shapeshifter child bearing matching scale marks. They became known as soulmates then. Their magics worked together even more strongly. But, as Kaenor had said, the relationship had soured in recent generations. Valerian’s family had gotten too greedy.
The shapeshifters started to hide from him. The soulmate marks stopped coming. The magic dried up.
Until Valerian. By the time he had come along, it had been widely believed that the dragons had died out. Valerian’s parents had done everything they could to prevent anyone from finding out about his soul mark. They had tried to have the scale removed once, even, when Valerian was young. It was a traumatic experience for him that had led to a painful, tearful night that yielded a morning with a regrown scale.
They had been sure that if someone knew, they would either try to kidnap or kill Valerian, either to gain a dragon for themselves or to stop one from interfering with the human world again, respectively.
Because of his own curiosity, he supposes that he had assumed that Kaenor would be equally interested in him. He hadn’t seriously considered that, after so much time, Kaenor would feel that he needed to be protected from him.
“Please,” Valerian begs. “I need your help. You have to understand that at now of all times.” He’s ready to beg, to give Kaenor whatever he wants to guarantee his help. Men hadn’t been able to stand again Pyted’s army when it had invaded, but the last thing Pyted and his invaders would expect would be the youngest prince to return with a dragon at his back.
“I don’t care what happens to your family,” Kaenor says.
“It’s not about just my family!” Valerian bursts, truly on the verge of losing his temper now. “It’s about saving our country, the people of this land!”
Kaenor snorts.
“Your family, Pyted’s family,” Kaenor shrugs. “What does it matter to me which is on the throne?”
“Whatever you think of my family,” Valerian snarls, “I know you know it’s not the same. I know you have people who care about you down in that town, and I suspect you care about them too even if you’ll plead indifference. And it’s child play to pretend that there isn’t a difference to them.”
There, finally, his comment finds its mark. There’s a flicker of something in Kaenor’s eyes, a tightening in his jaw.
“What do you want?” Valerian presses. “More land? Money? The crown itself? You can have any or all of it for getting rid of Pyted and his men.”
Kaenor sneers at him. He’s clearly about to make another scathing comment when the last of Valerian’s patience snaps. He strides toward the other man, not even entirely sure what he’s about to do. Before he can find out, Kaenor hits him in the face.
Valerian staggers back, floored for a moment. He presses a hand to his cheek, which is already reddening and ringing with pain. It takes him another instant to figure out what just happened.
“What’s wrong, princeling?” Kaenor taunts. “That the first time anyone ever dare to smack that pretty face?”
“I have three older brothers,” Valerian says, indignantly, before he can stop himself to think of something smarter or tougher to say.
He sounds tragically like the younger brother that he is.
Still, it’s merely the truth; they were all close enough in age that no matter how their mother tried to keep tabs on them, they were always off somewhere being a little too rough with one another.
Kaenor snorts out a laugh. Valerian – wrongly – takes this as Kaenor softening toward him and step forward once more.
Instead, Kaenor tries to hit him again. This time, though, Valerian is prepared – three older brothers, after all. He tackles Kaenor and they go down in a graceless heap, reduced more to a scuffle between boys than a proper fight between men. Kaenor hisses and scratches underneath him, calling him every foul name he knows while Valerian does what he can to try and pin Kaenor to the ground. They end up rolling over one another several times, dusting themselves in grass and dirt.
Author Bio
Kit Kennedy is a professional writer and editor who has emerged from the depths of the fandom underworld to bring you the best and most delicious of tropes.