62 epsBeggar’s Throne
Approached in the dust by the queen of bards fleeing a political marriage, the vagabond warrior drew an ancient obsidian warhammer from his rags.
Noah Hayes accepts a specialized research post at the Cascadia Reptile Institute, tasked with managing Avery, an enormous and notoriously bad-tempered white python who terrorizes laboratory staff. Strangely, Avery refuses sustenance from other keepers, snaps at competing serpents, and wraps his heavy coils around Noah with possessive intensity. Believing the reptile views him as hostile prey, Noah struggles to maintain professional distance during daily health examinations.
A seasonal reproductive scan reveals a bizarre truth: Avery is a mythical shapeshifting beast engaged in intricate courtship rituals. When the creature manifests in Noah's nocturnal dreams as a silver-haired deity offering enchanted pearls, laboratory reality blurs into sensual fantasy. As black-market poachers infiltrate the facility to capture the rare specimen, the serpent king transforms to protect his human mate.
