Born to Burn: The Dragon Prince Chose the Wrong Mate

Theater: NovelMaster  |  Language: English  |  NEW

Synopsis

Tags: Shifter Romance, Rebirth, Revenge, Sisterhood, True Power
To consolidate power and purify their bloodlines, the Phoenix and Dragon clans had intermarried for generations.
I was merely an adopted daughter in the Phoenix clan—a lowborn nobody anyone could step on.
In my past life, the Dragon Clan’s crown prince chose me. He spoiled me endlessly, convinced I would bear him a supreme Golden Dragon heir.
But the day I laid a pitch-black egg, he flew into a rage, smashed my egg into pieces, and devoured me alive.
After wiping his bloody mouth, he turned right around to propose to my pureblood sister, Seraphina, swearing they were fated mates.
Seraphina killed him with a single blast of phoenix fire.
Only after I died did I learn the truth. Seraphina had always known his Dragon Core was fractured. He could never sire a talented child.
When I opened my eyes again, the Dragon crown prince was standing right in front of me, reaching out his hand...
"Freya, I fell in love with you at first sight. Will you be my bonded mate?"
I heard that familiar voice, dripping with fake devotion, and saw that slender, hypocritical hand.
I was reborn. Back to the exact day of the Mate Choosing Ceremony.
This time, I was going to make them pay.
Standing in front of me was my husband from my past life.
Damian, the crown prince of the Dragon Clan.
By all rights, he should have chosen Seraphina, the true-blooded daughter of our clan chief. They were supposed to be the ultimate power couple.
Yet somehow, he bypassed her divine bloodline and picked me—an adopted stray.
A girl whose true form was nothing more than a common Rainbow Pheasant.
In my past life, I actually believed he loved me.
After the wedding, he showered me with royal luxury. But the moment I laid a dark egg, he tore me apart and devoured my flesh.
He shattered my egg right before my dying eyes.
Then he crawled back to Seraphina, claiming they were destined soulmates.
Seraphina killed him on the spot.
It was only in death that I realized Seraphina had also turned back the clock. She had made a completely different choice this time around.
And Damian had too.
I had done nothing wrong. I simply took the man Seraphina threw away!
Why did my baby and I have to die?
I didn't understand. Even now, the unfairness burned in my chest.
The Dragon Clan was divided by scale color: Golden Royals, Fire Reds, Azure Winds, Frost Whites, and Dark Abyssals.
Golden dragons held the purest royal blood, while dark dragons were seen as tainted outcasts.
I could understand his fury at seeing a black egg, but I could never forgive what he did to me.
I carried that child with all my strength.
And in the end, I wasn't even left with a whole corpse.
I would never let that monster share my bed again.
I took a deep breath and glanced at Seraphina, who stood right beside me. "Seraphina, do you still want him?"
I had asked the exact same question in my past life.
"He might be a dragon prince, but I'm the daughter of the Phoenix clan chief. I don't beg," Seraphina replied coolly, exactly as she had before. "Besides, if he likes you, you should take him."
Her answer confirmed everything. I was definitely back.
I nodded, turned toward Damian, and met his gaze head-on.
"Prince Damian, you courted Seraphina for years. Now you suddenly claim to want me. What kind of joke is this? What does that make me?"
I refused to walk down that bloody path again.
I was done being anyone's stepping stone, and I would never let my future child die twice.
When my words fell, Seraphina stared at me in pure shock.
Across the room, Damian’s jaw dropped.
Neither of them expected my refusal.
Damian’s face darkened instantly.
I knew exactly why he was furious. He considered himself a supreme royal dragon. A lowborn adopted girl like me should have fallen to her knees in gratitude.
Rejecting him in public was an unforgivable insult.
"Watch your mouth, Freya!" Clan Chief Alden snapped, his voice trembling with anger. "He is the Dragon crown prince. Who gave you the right to say no?"
Seraphina narrowed her eyes, studying me with a sharp, thoughtful look.
I knew I had no real standing here, but jumping into the same fiery pit twice? Never.
I bowed slightly toward Alden. "I respect Seraphina too much to betray her. If Damian can discard her on a whim just because of his title, where does that leave the dignity of our Phoenix Clan?"My words rang out clear and steady.
The noisy ceremonial hall went dead silent.
Alden’s expression turned utterly sour. He clearly hadn't expected me to speak with such backbone.
Damian glared at me with cold fury. "Freya, you should consider my favor your greatest honor!"
"It’s only an honor if I want it," I fired back. "You showered Seraphina with affection yesterday, and today you claim love at first sight with me? Who would buy that lie? Seraphina outshines me in every way. If you don't even value her, how could you possibly value me?"
I glanced back at Seraphina.
In our previous life, we rarely spoke. She had dropped subtle warnings telling me to stay away from Damian, but back then, I thought she was just jealous. I ignored every word she said.
"Chief Alden, Freya has a point," Seraphina suddenly spoke up, her voice ringing across the hall. "She may be adopted, but she still bears our clan’s name. Letting the dragon royals walk all over her would drag the Phoenix Clan's reputation through the dirt."
She was backing me up.
A massive weight lifted off my chest.
Alden didn't particularly dote on Seraphina, but her bloodline talent was undeniable. She was the clan's best shot at producing a supreme heir, so Alden couldn't dismiss her easily.
Damian realized the tide was turning against him. He couldn't force me, and his pride wouldn't let him crawl back to Seraphina.
"Fine," Alden said coldly, his tone leaving no room for argument. "I have another daughter. Perhaps you would like to meet her?"
I stayed quiet, ready to enjoy the drama.
Damian looked furious, but he couldn't afford an open war with our clan. He gave a reluctant nod.
Alden gave a signal, and guards soon escorted Kendra inside.
She was stunning, radiating a bright, sacred glow. But she wasn't a phoenix. Her bloodline had degraded into a peacock shifter.
"Are you mocking me?" Damian sneered the moment he saw her feathers.
I almost laughed out loud. "Your Highness, if you can settle for a common pheasant like me, why look down on the chief’s own flesh and blood?"
I was going to push him into taking someone else. It was the only way Seraphina and I would stay safe.
Kendra’s eyes lit up the moment she saw Damian.
She turned and shot me a venomous glare. "Freya, stop flattering yourself. You’re just a dirty barnyard pheasant. Why would the dragon prince ever want trash like you?"
Of course she would say that.
Kendra was desperate to elevate her degraded bloodline. She assumed mating with the dragon prince would solve all her problems, completely blind to the fact that Damian was nothing more than an empty shell.
Not that I cared.
She had bullied and beaten me for years just because she was Alden’s biological daughter. I had endured it then. Today, she could have him.
"A pheasant? You truly are beneath me," Damian sneered, desperately scrambling to save face.
He was reborn too. He knew damn well what I was. He just needed an easy exit, and Kendra handed him one on a silver platter.
He reached out his hand toward Kendra. "Will you be my mate?"Kendra couldn't believe her luck.
Without a second thought, she slapped her hand into his. "I would love nothing more, Your Highness~"
Her overly sweet voice made my skin crawl.
I turned my head, only to meet Seraphina’s assessing gaze. I simply offered her a small, quiet smile.
Having secured a partner, Damian regained his arrogant smirk. "Now, let’s see who the rest of you end up with."
He believed he was superior to all his brothers and wanted nothing more than to watch us fail.
Seraphina scanned the crowd of dragon warriors, her eyes calculating. Finally, her gaze settled on a quiet, unassuming man standing near the edge of the courtyard.
"I choose him," she declared firmly.
My heart skipped a beat. This had happened in my past life too.
Julian and Seraphina were truly made for each other. In our previous life, they went on to hatch a breathtaking Golden Dragon, and Julian eventually took the supreme throne.
I knew she would be happy with him.
Damian let out a mocking laugh. "Seraphina, you picked that nobody? What kind of useless runt do you expect him to give you? If you drop to your knees and beg, I might still consider taking you as a concubine."
Seraphina ignored his sneer completely. She walked straight toward Julian and stopped in front of him. "Will you have me?"
"Always," Julian answered without hesitation.
Seraphina was settled.
That left only me.
With my low status, I had no right to make demands. I was just a pheasant, after all.
And none of Damian’s brothers dared to step forward. After seeing me humiliate their crown prince, nobody wanted to paint a target on their back.
I was left alone. Exactly as I expected.
Alden waved an impatient hand, clearly sick of the circus. "That’s enough. The ceremony is over."
I didn't care about the dragon royals. I grew up in the Phoenix territory; I wasn't an ordinary wildfowl. I could always find someone outside the dragon lands. Dragons were merely an easy ladder to the top.
When I returned to my quarters, Seraphina was already waiting for me inside.
A faint, genuine smile played on her lips. "You’re smarter than you look, Freya."
I blinked, feigning confusion. "What do you mean, Seraphina?"
"Refusing Damian was the best decision you’ve ever made," she said gently. "Don't worry about finding a mate. I’ll keep an eye out for a good man for you."
I nodded obediently. "Thank you, Seraphina."
I realized then that Seraphina hadn't kept her memories from our past life; she was just naturally sharp and protective. In our last life, she had tried to warn me, but Damian manipulated me into believing she was jealous.
Thinking back on how blind I had been, I felt sick to my stomach.
"Rest well. You did the right thing today," she said warmly, placing a glowing, fiery red pearl into my hands. "I took this from the clan archives. It was tucked inside your blanket the day they found you as a baby."
Before I could reply, a sudden knock sounded at the door.Seraphina left.
I stared down at the fiery orb in my palm, feeling a surge of raw, untamed flame pulse through my veins.
Suddenly, the surface of my courtyard pool broke with a splash.
A glowing golden koi leaped straight out of the water, lunged toward me, and swallowed my pearl in one bite!
Shock froze me. Before I could process the theft, the golden fish began to morph, shifting into human form right before my eyes.
He stood there completely naked, his skin flushed crimson, his dark eyes glowing with faint red heat.
I immediately covered my eyes with one hand and shoved the other forward. "Who are you?! Give my pearl back!"
My searching hand touched something smooth, rock-hard, and distinctly masculine.
Wait... why was it cold on one side and burning hot on the other?
A low, husky groan escaped his lips. "I didn't expect you to be so eager."
Before I could pull away, he stepped closer. An intoxicating mix of frost and wildfire enveloped my senses. The sheer intensity made my head spin.
My thoughts melted into a hazy fog. By the time I regained any semblance of clarity, we were already tangled together.
On my bed!
His scent drove my instincts wild. Any urge to fight back evaporated into thin air.
Driven by raw adrenaline, I flipped our positions and pinned him beneath me. "Who are you? Are you trying to be my mate?"
With effortless strength, he rolled me onto my back again, pinning my wrists.
He was breathtakingly gorgeous. If I looked closely, he shared a faint resemblance to Julian, the man Seraphina had chosen. But my brain was too fried to think straight.
"I always take responsibility for what's mine," he murmured against my throat.
His cool lips trailed down my neck in burning kisses, completely unraveling my defenses.
And truthfully? I didn't want to fight it.
I wanted him. My body craved him, and so did my soul.

Chapters (4)

Chapter 1   Chapter 2   Chapter 3   Chapter 4

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Watch & Promotions

• Search this code in the NovelMaster app: 539187 Open NovelMaster → Search code → Find the title