Free Water Dragon's Baby(Dragon Shifter Scifi Alien Romance) (Elemental Dragons Book 3) by Juno Wells, Scarlett Grove

water. He had to get back to his bride and soothe her mind as soon as possible. He could sense her distress already.
    Anger filled his gut at the thought of his lords occupying his throne. It filled him with bitter bile, and he gritted his teeth at the taste.
    He needed his anger to defeat these rebel dragons. They wouldn’t have his throne for long. The admirals the other princes had sent to assist him while he was gone met him in their own speeders at the edge of a ravine under the deep ocean.
    It was the code of honor to meet an enemy dragon on a neutral battlefield. The rebel dragons would have to honor the code this time too. With the admirals gathered and in agreement, Shay haled the Coral Palace.
    “This is your prince,” Shay said through his holocom. “I demand an honest fight for the Water Throne.”
    “So, our leader has returned. With some sweet human bride, I assume. Why is it that the princes deserve females but the rest of us do not? Why do you deserve our loyalty?”
    “I understand your concern. But this is the way of things. Insulting your prince will not help you once I have my kingdom back. And if the water lords want to be included in the lottery, the fastest way to it is accepting a fair and honorable fight for the throne.”
    “Agreed,” said the water lord on the holocom.
    Shay couldn’t see his face, and he couldn’t recognize the voice of the dragon on the other side of the conversation. But clearly this dragon spoke for the rest of them.
    “Our terms are that you must fight all of the water lords at once if you wish to be considered our leader again.”
    “Preposterous,” said one of the admirals of the Fire Lands.
    Shay frowned. “And how many are you?” Shay asked through clenched teeth.
    “There are fifteen water lords currently fighting to be the top. If you best us all in a fair fight. We will step down. If not… You lose.”
    “Agreed,” Shay growled.
    “Good, proceed to the fighting pits.”
    After ruling over the Water Lands for a hundred and fifty years, Shay could not believe he was being spoken to this way by one of his own men. But since the last female had died, nothing was beyond the scope of the imagination. The other dragon had clearly lost his mind.
    If the history of Galaton weren’t part of their vast storehouse of data, Shay wouldn’t have believed it himself.
    He told the admirals of the other lands to follow him in their speeders, and the small armada sped through the deep ocean until they came to the entrance hatch into the dome over the Coral City.
    It was time for him to take back his throne and prove to his mate that he could protect her from anything from the Mulgor to his own men.
    The speeder descended through the exit hatch with the admirals’ speeders behind them. They landed on the landing pad outside the Coral Palace. Shay climbed down the exit ramp, looking around warily at the lords who’d come to greet him.
    For everything he’d done for them over the last one hundred and fifty years, he didn’t see a speck of gratitude in their eyes. The lower level lords desired nothing more than to be princes. The common dragons desired to be lords. And on and on it went.
    Shay and the admirals hurried through the spiraling pink and green coral entry hall to the elevator that took them down to the fighting pits below the palace.
    The smell of sweat and blood bit his nostrils as the door swished open. Without stopping, Shay hurried to the fighting pit where the opposing Dukes and Earls of Water were gathered. They faced him, their sharp teeth bared.
    “We will fight with laser swords,” one of the lords said, throwing a retracted laser sword at Shay.
    Shay caught it and turned it on, growling at the assembled men.
    “Your flunkies can’t help you,” the same water lord said.
    “I don’t need their help,” Shay growled through his sharp teeth.
    The fifteen lords gathered in the fighting pit and the rest of the audience stood back. A fighting pit