On the second day of Christmas...

Emery was preparing to leave when Acnologia arrived.

"Hey. You were gone when I woke."

"Motherglare and I have been in Bellum."

She frowned. They'd been going off a lot without her. They were expecting her not to read the news. "Where is he now?" she asked.

"Still in Bellum. Along the Joyan border now. Where are you going?"

"To see Zen."

"That won't be necessary."

"What did you do?" Emery asked Acnologia, narrowing her brown eyes.

"What I had to."

She made a sharp gasp. "You didn't. Please tell me that you didn't tell Zeref to call in the Joyans."

He slapped her. "Don't forget that I'm the one in charge."

"Then why do you fear me?" she asked harshly before shoving past him.

"Don't you dare talk to me like that," he said, grapping her and pulling her to his chest. She thrashed against him, telling him to let her go.

His magic thrummed against her. It bruised her. It made her lust after him. Finally, she turned and kissed him.

There was always a part of Her dragon soul that urged her to pull his soul out. She now understood that was Dalviama trying to avenge her mate through her. For the first time, she listened.

His soul tasted foul. Like old coffee and soured milk. She almost gagged on it.

His grip loosened until he fell to the ground. She knew he still lived and release the soul to eventually return to him.

This would all be over if you just killed him, Dalviama said.

I love him. I'm not-

He's an abusive falzing. I don't understand why you don't see that.

Do all slayers have to listen to their dragons like this?

No. You only do because I wasn't dying when my soul was put in the lacrima.

You know he won't forgive you for this, don't you?

Emery hesitated as she picked up the teleportation lacrima. She ran to her bedroom and grabbed her parents' wedding rings before teleporting out.

.~*~.

It had been nearly three days with no word. Both Meredy and Vander's contacts confirmed the Pergrande and Joya were siding with Alvarez. However, they were struggling to find information on where the missing mages were being held.

According to Rogue, until Minerva released Lucy from her dimension bubble, neither the mating bond or the knighthood would be able to track her.

What worried Cristoff in particular was the fact that typically someone could only survive three days before critical dehydration set in. As awful as it was, he hoped Rhiannon was right because that meant they needed her alive.

"Mr. Cristoff," Thane said as Cristoff walked past his office to the elevator for Kaleb's apartment. "A call came to the guild for Master Kaleb but I'm not it would be beneficial for him given his current state of mind."

"Hello?" Cristoff said when Thane handed him the comm.

"You're not Master Pradesh," the feminine voice said.

"No. I'm his lieutenant and brother, Cristoff Pradesh. Who is this?"

"Emery Cuore."

There was a sharp intake of air followed by a low growl.

"Where is my brother and Queen?"

"The capital of Joya. And hurry. I'm assuming Zeref is the only reason Sydelle hasn't bound Zen to her yet."

"And you're certain she hasn't?"

"I'm a few miles outside the city and I can still feel him."

"Will you help us?"

There was a moment of silence before she said, "Yes. This isn't what I wanted to happen. I don't know if Lucy is here, but I'd guess that she is."

"They wouldn't take her to Spriggan?"

Her tone was surprised when she said, "Zeref is Emperor Spriggan."

Cristoff froze as he headed up to his brother. They'd known Zeref was calling the shots in Alvarez, but they'd been assuming that he was manipulating Spriggan or that the two were partners.

"Thank you."

"Thank me when this is over."

He was already making calls to ensure that the Saberfox was ready by the time that he got to the guildmaster suite. Kaleb had stopped going down to his office and was instead breaking his cardinal rule of never working from home. His emotions were making his magic fluctuate dangerously.

I know where she is, Cristoff thought before daring to enter.

The door flung open. "Where?"

"Joya." Cristoff watched as Kaleb froze. Even the pulsing of the lacrima at his throat stopped. "I already called to make final preparations for the Saberfox. Van and Meredy are due back in a few."

"Did they target her to get to me?"

"No, but I'm willing to be that they'll have traps planned for you. She's Queen of a tatsu. The tatsu. She'd have been a target regardless."

"Yeah…" Kaleb murmured.

Farron had called as soon as he found out about Lucy's kidnapping. He blamed himself for asking Lucy to deal with Fiore. While Kaleb would admit that part of him did begrudge his brother, Lucy was right when she said that they were preparing for war and needed to make sure everyone was on the same page. Presumably, she'd have been safe. The only things on her agenda were meetings at the castle and lunch with her father. For neither of those things would she have been able to bring another dragon. He and Cristoff had responsibilities at the guild that kept them in Bosco and they couldn't risk pissing off an ally by having Vander or Rogue shadow her.

"I told everyone to meet us at the skyport." Their father, with help from the royal family, had made sure that the Saberfox would be ready as soon as they knew where they were going.

"Are you sure you're stable enough to go?" Cristoff asked. "It's going to take six hours to get there."

"I'm sure as hell not staying."

"Then get control of yourself. At this rate, you'd crash the ship as soon as we got off the ground."

Kaleb nodded, closed his eyes, and took a few deep breaths.

"Okay. Let's go."

Despite why they were on the airship, Vander found himself amused by the childlike awe on Rhiannon's face as she gawked out the window. She was so jaded that he never thought that he'd have a chance to an awestruck expression like that. Except the time he'd made her orgasm with his shadows. That face was rather amazed as well.

"King Altiene would like to see us do this without killing Sydelle," Farron said from Stella.

"That might not be possible," Cristoff said.

"While he's not wrong that killing her would create a power vacuum, it might also be enough chaos to give us a little edge," Farron added.

"I vote we lie and say we tried," Vander said.

"I can't lie," Kaleb said.

"But he isn' wrong," Rhiannon said, still not looking away from the window. "Some people need killin'."

"Now I understand why the Fates made you mates," Presca muttered drily.

"What do your calculations say?" Farron asked.

She was silent long enough to make Vander walk over and wrap his arms around her shoulders.

"What's wrong?" he asked softly.

"I give it an hour tops for them tae realize Emery sold them out. An' that's the best case scenario."

"Most likely?"

She glanced at Cristoff who kept shifting from one foot to another but there were no signs in his expression that he even realized that he was being antsy.

"Less. Kaleb, ye should sit."

"Why?"

Almost as soon as the word was out of his mouth, he collapsed. His body started convulsing and the lacrima was nearly blinding. His mouth gaped open like he was screaming but no sound was coming out.

"How did you know that?" Vander asked as Xally and Cristoff immediately went to Kaleb.

"I dinnae ken how tae break a matin', but there's no way it isn' painful," she said, her gaze soft.

.~*~.

"If your certain they're coming, why haven't you mated the archangel?" Invel asked Sydelle.

"I've tried," the warqueen said through clenched teeth. "I've managed to make him hard. To fuck him, but that damned key is protecting him. We can't figure out why we can't remove it and the chain refuses to break."

"And Miss Heartfilia?"

Sydelle led Invel to the observation window for the room Lucy was in. She was bound to a bed with heavy cuffs though the strain to the floor and the bed from her thrashing was visible. It was hard to tell if she was conscious or not.

There was a strange distortion in the room as Minerva muted Lucy's pull to her mate and her dragons. Lucy wore a slight shift that barely conserved her modesty. Minerva had a wicked smile as she walked around Lucy and lightly touching her. Every touch made her react.

"Normally, we use the chemical to enhance pleasure, but we've tweaked it to enhance pain. The slightest poke feels like a stab wound."

"How will you know if it's working?"

"We've been bringing in Dragneel's vest to see if she reacts to his scent. So far, nothing."

One of the scientists brought in the vest. Then, for the briefest of seconds, she stopped thrashing.

"It's working?"

"I think so."

Emery hated Joya. She had since she was a child and a lilith was assumed to have taken her best friend. There'd been a part of her, a jealous part, that had wondered why they hadn't taken her as well. While Joya was more well-known for their slave trade, they also often abducted girls that showed magical promise to join their ranks.

She'd never been more grateful for that then she was as she walked through the town. Stealing some clothes had been easy enough and no one batted an eye at her coloring. In fact, she noted that it almost seemed as if she received elevated respect because they recognized that she wasn't a native born Joyan.

Are you going to rescue the Queen?

No. I'm just going to make sure that they don't do too much damage before the Boscans arrive.

I suppose that's better than nothing.

The next time they brought the vest in from Dragneel's cell, Lucy's eyes followed the scientist holding the vest as the woman moved around the room. Even when Minerva poked her, she jerked from the touch, but her gaze never strayed.

"She's ready," one of the scientists said to Sydelle. "Do you want us to wake up the fire dragon slayer?"

"Yes. Make sure the warding will keep him in his room."

"Are you sure waking him is the best idea?" Bryn asked. Bryn was the general that Brandish had released from a jar.

"Yes. From what we know, female dragon slayers demand submission from their mates. He'll need to be conscious to submit."

"Should we use Succubus Venom?"

"No. I don't want to risk it damaging the mating. Besides, with the pheromones she's putting out, I doubt he'd be able to resist her."

The room that they'd prepared for them was mostly bare except for a large bed. It had been Emperor Spriggan that insisted that proper accommodations were made. He didn't want his brother's memory of mating being on the floor of a cell. That didn't stop them from placing cameras to observe the process.

Natsu had just risen from the bed to get his bearings when they pushed Lucy into the room.

"Luce, what's-"

She launched herself at him. He'd forgotten what it felt like to be kissing her. His hands moved to her ass and lifted her so that she wrapped her legs around his waist. The scent of her dragoness pheromones and her natural strawberries and stardust was intoxicating. The shift she was wearing tore easily in his hand as he moved one to cup her breast.

He fumbled back into the bed as her mouth left his and nipped his earlobe. He groaned. It had been so long that he'd forgotten the spots where he was sensitive, but she hadn't. Gray had told him to go to a bathhouse and he'd tried but it hadn't been right.

She leaned back, her hands on his shoulder pushing him into the bed. "Submit."

The haze seemed to lift though it didn't ease the erection of her grinding her hips. This was the second time she'd demanded that from him. The first time, his instinct had been to submit. Even now, part of him wanted to let Lucy take what she needed from him. But more of him remembered, she wasn't his anymore.

He flipped her off and jumped to the other side of the room. "No."

"What?" Her voice was more of a growl than her usual sweet lilt though there was sincere confusion in her face.

"No. Kaleb. Remember Kaleb?"

It took a moment for the recognition to cross her face and her hands slapped to her abdomen. The oppressive feeling of her pheromones eased up.

From another room, Sydelle said, "Release the sleeping gas. Nadia, was blood taken from Heartfilia?"

"Yes."

Sydelle rewound the video to Lucy slapping her hands over her abdomen. "Run it again and check for pregnancy."

Lucy was crouched in the corner opposite of the door when Sydelle entered.

"Come now. We both know that you're in control of your faculties."

Lucy stood though her eyes stayed narrowed.

"Do you know who I am?"

"Warqueen Sydelle Habred. I'm assuming I'm in Joya."

"Yes. Emperor Spriggan wishes for you to be mated to Natsu Dragneel. And we both know that you're very nearly unmated." Sydelle was walking back and forth with a cocky smile. She was pretending that she didn't know that Lucy was watching every move she made. "It's just that child your carrying that's connecting you to Kaleb Pradesh. I'm certain the pain of fully unmating you will undo the archangel mating as well."

"There's no warding here. They're going to come for me."

"They already have. Left nearly six hours ago. By my estimation, I still have two hours. I can do a lot in two hours."

Lucy scoffed. "Like you said, you can't completely unmate me."

"No. But there's a ritual that would allow me to steal your child right from your womb. And do you know how long I've been trying to carry Kaleb Pradesh's child?"

Lucy froze, her hands immediately moving to protect her child.

"There's still even time for me to manipulate the gender to ensure a daughter. She won't be biologically mine but the child of a dragon slayer and an archangel, she'll make a damned good heir."

"You won't touch my child," Lucy growled.

"Then I guess you have a decision to make. Claim Dragneel of your own free will or once I take your child, you won't have the strength not to claim him."

"You're bluffing."

"The ritual is taxing but doable. Kaleb is an archangel. I'm a celestial mage. And once I'm carrying his child, are you certain that he'd be able to resist me?"

She closed her eyes and said, "Fine. I'll claim Natsu."

My Ao3 is still enchantedbeauty.