Dark Prince's Captive

What happened in Dark Prince's Captive?

One minute, I’m in a hospital, about to kick the bucket, and the next, I’m in a weird jungle teeming with ridiculously oversized bugs and demon-like lizard people determined to enslave me. Nope, I didn’t die. And no, sadly, it’s not a hallucination. I’m pretty sure it’s going to end badly, but then a darkly gorgeous, terrifying man steps through a portal and dissolves the lizard dudes where they stand before carrying me away. Apparently, he’s a prince with scary superpowers… and I’m his fated mate.

What tropes are in Dark Prince's Captive?

• alien-prince-romance
• captive-and-captor
• Captivity
• court-intrigue-and-assassination
• dragon-companion
• Enemies to Lovers
• Fantasy Romance
• Fated Mates
• Forced Proximity
• portal-fantasy
• possessive-protector
• prophecy-of-destruction
• rescue-from-slavery
• secret-royal-identity

Where does Dark Prince's Captive fall in A Realm of Dragons & Scrolls?

Book 1 of A Realm of Dragons & Scrolls. Reading order

What should I read next?

Dark Prince's Mate by Anna Zaires.

Chapters

2. Chapter 2

   Twenty-two-year-old Elsie Barnikoff receives a terminal prognosis in a Cleveland hospital room: her failing heart cannot be transplanted, leaving her weeks, perhaps days, to live. Rather than surrender to grief, she retreats into her Greek Lit paper, deflecting her parents' desperate attempts to make her 'live' with academic defiance. After Dr. Moore exits and her parents reluctantly leave, Elsie cries alone for an hour before rationalizing her fate through grim humor and past survival. She emails her completed paper to her professor as insurance against an early death, then closes her laptop—only to watch swirling blue, purple, and pink lights coalesce in the air. The circle expands, screaming as it sucks her into the unknown, ending the chapter on the threshold of a terrifying transformation.

3. Chapter 3

   Elsie wakes from a hospital dream to find herself in a pitch-black alien jungle, her terminal heart mysteriously steady. Five towering reptilian captors with shark-toothed maws surround a fire, and when she tries to flee, a giant caterpillar beast attacks her with acidic spray. After the creatures drag her back, beat her, and force charred meat on her, Elsie discovers her body is miraculously healed—her heart strong, her old melanoma scar vanished. As dawn paints the jungle sky in orange and pink, she realizes she’s not dead, but stranded on the world called Zerra, where the reptilian leader declares she is now his slave. The chapter closes on her bruised, defiant knees and the chilling certainty that she’s been taken for a purpose she doesn’t yet understand.

4. Chapter 4

   Prince Aruan of the Alit endures the fearful whispers of his court as he patrols the Water Palace, his body enhanced beyond mortal limits and his heart numb with grief over his believed-dead mate. When a sweet, scorching vibration floods his senses at dawn on the Sky Bridge, he realizes with shock that his soul has recognized its match—she lives, and she is near. Dragging his portal-skilled sister Gaia into his sealed quarters, he forces her to hunt for the woman through endless trial portals, hiding the discovery from their parents to prevent the kingdom from learning that the mate prophesied to destroy their world has returned. As Gaia’s exhaustion mounts and betrayal flickers in her eyes, Aruan clings to the exquisite, terrible ache of the bond, determined to reclaim his mate before anyone can stop him.

5. Chapter 5

   Elsie, a human captive on the alien planet Zerra, endures brutal beatings and stinging jungle flora while being marched toward a slave barge. After a desperate escape attempt into the black-sand river fails, she faces imminent assault by her reptilian captors. At the precipice of horror, a powerful humanoid man with silver eyes emerges through a circle of purple light, dissolving her attackers into nothing and rescuing her. Though traumatized and battered, Elsie is struck by an involuntary physical attraction to her savior as he carries her toward the portal, leaving her suspended between terror and reluctant fascination. The chapter closes with her pleading to be returned to Earth, uncertain whether her rescuer is ally or another kind of threat.

6. Chapter 6

   Elsie awakens in a cavernous chamber beyond Earth, her face bruised and two teeth missing from her ordeal. Carried in a bridal hold by the bronze-skinned stranger who killed her reptilian captors, she struggles to understand whether he is savior or captor. A silver-eyed woman—clearly kin to her rescuer—dissolves the stone walls to reveal a steaming pool scented with milk and honey. The fumes make Elsie lethargic, her resistance melting as an intoxicating attraction to her holder's musk overwhelms her. Just as her fear peaks, he submerges her in the milky water, pinning her airway shut as she plunges into a dark vortex. In the drowning dark, she reads the truth in his mercury-colored eyes: not malice, but regret.

7. Chapter 7

   Aruan has finally rescued his fated mate from Earth slavers, finding her battered and unconscious after an attack by Phaelix monsters. Cradling her in his healing bath, he contains his raging power as protective fury wars over her injuries—bruises, broken ribs, and teeth knocked out. He summons his siblings Kian, Vitai, and Gaia, detaining his sister with a wall of force when she tries to leave. Vitai expends tremendous energy to heal the small, frail woman while Kian uses mind manipulation to bridge their language barrier. Realizing she was brought from forbidden Earth by someone with immense power, Aruan feels a surge of possessive rage. He seals the room, carries his unconscious mate to bed, and departs for the royal quarters to uncover who trafficked her—leaving the chapter on the precipice of confrontation and the ache of her vulnerability.

8. Chapter 8

   Aruan storms into the sunroom to confront his mother, accusing her of betraying him by lying about his mate's death. His rage unleashes destructive power—shattering a thousand-year-old window and cracking the roof—as he reveals that his fated mate is alive and demands she be presented at court tonight. Rushing to his quarters, he finds Laliss—a woman from Earth rescued from reptilian slavers and healed by his brother—awake, frightened, and wrapped in a bedsheet. Though their mate bond ignites an irresistible physical pull between them, he restrains himself, choosing instead to explain her true purpose: she is his destined partner. As confusion and fear cloud her eyes, Aruan resolves to claim their bond before the night ends, setting the stage for a high-stakes confrontation with his family and an uncertain future for the newly awakened mate.

9. Chapter 9

   Elsie wakes in a stone chamber on the world of Zerra, confronted by Aruan, a powerful royal Alit who insists she is his fated mate. Despite her protests that she is merely Elisa Barnikoff from Cleveland, Aruan and his brothers Kian and Vitai debate her lack of power, with Aruan threatening his sibling to defend her honor. After they depart, Elsie discovers a hidden archway leading to a breathtaking cliffside cavern overlooking a ravenous sea, where she encounters a massive quetzalcoatlus—a local 'dragon.' Gaia, Aruan's sister, arrives to warn her of danger and reveals that Elsie's biological parents were Alit royalty from Marikanea who died in a volcanic eruption, leaving her stranded on Earth as an infant. As Elsie processes this revelation while feasting on exotic Zerran cuisine, she learns she is to be presented at a court banquet where Aruan plans to claim their bond through vows and consummation, leaving her trapped in a destiny she never chose.

10. Chapter 10

    Elsie is pampered and transformed in Aruan's quarters, dressed in a pearly gown and sprayed with rare dragon flower perfume, before the prince confronts her with the truth: they are fated mates destined to bond for life. Despite her protests and terror at the forced union, her body betrays her with unwanted arousal. At a lavish banquet in the vaulted hall of Lona, Aruan publicly presents her to the King and Queen as his mate Laliss, cementing their vows with a ceremonial toast. When a tiny anurognathus accidentally knocks over her goblet of moon flower aphrodisiac, a tuatara laps up the spill and dies instantly, revealing a poisoned assassination attempt. Aruan whisks the shaken Elsie from the hall, their dangerous attraction and the deadly threat hanging between them unresolved.

11. Chapter 11

    When an assassin strikes at the Great Hall banquet, Aruan races to protect his mate Elsie, drinking from the poisoned goblet to save her and tearing away her tainted dress to check for exposure. Discovering the garment's protective lining saved her skin, he is overwhelmed by the primal mating urge and nearly claims her against the hallway wall before his brother Kian interrupts with urgent news: their mother, the Queen, has been poisoned. While Elsie is secured and sedated in Aruan's quarters, the royal family seals the palace and launches an investigation. Aruan orders Kian to read the minds of every guest to find the culprit, all while nursing his own suspicions about his mother's convenient illness and the lingering mystery of how Elsie came to Earth. The chapter ends with Aruan alone with his sleeping mate, torn between tenderness and the protective rage of a man who nearly lost everything twice in one night.

12. Chapter 12

    At sunrise, Prince Aruan finds his brother Kian interrogating terrified guests in the Great Hall, searching for the culprit who poisoned his mate Elsie. When Elsie wakes in a panic, their empathic bond transmits her terror to Aruan, forcing him to leave the questioning to comfort her. They retreat to a secluded lakeside for breakfast, where Elsie reveals she once suffered life-threatening illnesses in her former world—sparking Aruan's protective rage and causing him to accidentally summon lightning. Their tender moment is shattered when locals flee from them in fear, reminding Elsie of the dark prophecy that marks her as the trigger for Aruan's destructive power. Consumed by possessive desire, Aruan pulls her into a passionate embrace, but their intimacy is interrupted when his sister Gaia bursts through a portal to announce the palace is under attack.

13. Chapter 13

    Elsie arrives with Aruan at the palace Great Hall only to find it under siege by the reptilian Phaelix. While the royal family and guards battle the invaders at the waterfall barrier, Aruan reveals his terrifying power to vaporize the creatures on sight. Elsie is ordered to safety but refuses to hide, sneaking back into the fray where she finds Aruan wounded in the banquet hall. Their reunion ignites an intense, charged moment that escalates rapidly in the cleansing room, only to be interrupted when Vitai arrives to treat Aruan's shoulder injury. Humiliated and flustered, Elsie flees, leaving the chapter on the precipice of consummation while the threat of the Phaelix still looms over the palace.

14. Chapter 14

    Aruan reels from his mate Elsie's rejection at the threshold of their physical bond, the shame and horror on her face cutting deeper than the Phaelix blade that wounded him. While his brother Vitai heals him and his mother lies exhausted from battle, Aruan learns a traitor within the palace opened the way for the attack—and that human slaves are being trafficked through portals from Earth, implicating another Alit besides his mother. As the royals debate sending an ultimatum to the Phaelix, Aruan privately vows to end the slave trade. Later, when Elsie begs to be returned to Earth, Aruan's possessiveness curdles into a chilling ultimatum: in fourteen nights, he will claim her as his mate regardless of her consent, leaving her stunned and their future hanging in the balance.

15. Chapter 15

    After a week of icy silence, Elsie and Aruan break their stalemate when he escorts her to a forbidden sacred site, where ancient holographic scrolls hint at a terrifying prophecy. There, Aruan confesses that his latent power once unleashed a catastrophic explosion that sterilized a moon-cycle’s radius, revealing him as a living weapon feared by his own people. The revelation shakes Elsie’s trust, but their fragile truce is tested when a massive quetzalcoatlus—whom she recognizes as “Betty”—approaches; she throws herself between the beast and Aruan’s lethal intent, proving her bond with the creature and forcing him to stand down. The chapter closes with Betty’s haunting farewell cry as the couple retreats, leaving Elsie desperate to find a way home while wrestling with the danger of the man she is bound to.

16. Chapter 16

    Aruan drags his mate Elsie to his brother Kian’s quarters to demand answers about her uncanny bond with a lake dragon. When Kian tests Elsie, she effortlessly commands a water dragon and then summons hordes of spiked and pixie dragons throughout the palace, revealing she possesses the powerful ability to mentally control non-Alit creatures. The revelation shatters Elsie: she is not human Elsie Barnikoff, but Laliss, an Alit whose identity was erased and sent to Earth. Aruan confesses his mother orchestrated the destruction of her past, leaving Elsie devastated yet irrevocably tied to her true heritage. As rumors spread and dragons swarm her trail, Elsie must confront that she belongs in this world—and that her power, however terrifying, is her birthright.

17. Chapter 17

    Elsie Barnikoff—actually the alien consciousness Laliss inhabiting her body—confronts Aruan after discovering her true identity is a fabrication. Trapped in a hostile world where she is considered his fated mate by destiny, she resists his claims of ownership with bitter defiance. When he pins her to the floor during their struggle, the physical restraint ignites an undeniable carnal pull that overrides her anger. Despite her loathing for being a prisoner, her body betrays her, responding to his touch with explosive need. They consummate their bond in a raw, primal encounter on his bed, but the mating remains spiritually incomplete. Aruan's cold detachment afterward—treating their union as duty rather than desire—crushes her. Heartbroken and humiliated, Elsie summons her dragon-like companion Betty and leaps from the balcony, fleeing into the sky to escape the man who claims her body but not her heart.

Editions

Nothing has been published here yet.