Dark Prince's Mate

What happened in Dark Prince's Mate?

I thought nothing was worse than dying. Then I discovered there are things that hurt an awful lot more than chemo—like getting your heart trampled on by the insanely powerful superhuman prince who claims you’re his mate. Right after we consummated the mating, no less. Well, he can have a nice life. The moment an opportunity presents itself, I’m out of here. I just need to locate someone who’ll portal me back to Earth before he finds me.

What tropes are in Dark Prince's Mate?

• alien-prince-romance
• Captivity
• Enemies to Lovers
• Fantasy Romance
• Fated Mates
• forbidden-interworld-contact
• Found Family
• portal-fantasy
• possessive-and-protective-prince
• powerful-heroine
• rejected-mate
• royal-conspiracy-and-betrayal

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

Book 2 of A Realm of Dragons & Scrolls. Reading order

What should I read next?

Dark Prince's Captive by Anna Zaires.

Chapters

2. Chapter 2

   Elsie lies on a sunbaked shore in the parallel world of Zerra, still riding the adrenaline of having escaped Prince Aruan on the back of her quetzalcoatlus, Betty. Though she fled their fated mate bond and the volatile intensity of their first encounter, a heavy sense of loss claws at her chest as she confronts the terrifying possibility that she may never return to her grieving parents in Cleveland. When she spots a Phaelix slave encampment where human captives are being brutalized, her protective instincts ignite. Using her Alit mind-control powers, she commands a swarm of giant prawn-ants to massacre the reptilian slavers and captures three survivors who might know how to open a portal back to Earth. But as she interrogates them, fresh Phaelix reinforcements ambush the clearing, and when her powers fail against intelligent minds, a crushing blow to the head sends everything into darkness.

3. Chapter 3

   Elsie wakes with a concussion in a Phaelix prison cell on Zerra, where she joins fellow human captives from Earth—Sandy, Karl, Maeva, Alexa, Irina, and Eucabeth—abducted through random portals. As forced laborers in a treehouse village, they endure starvation and torture; Elsie’s empathic powers remain dulled by her head injury, thwarting escape attempts. When the slavers march them to a hidden beach inside a volcano for a slave auction, Elsie is stripped and presented before a crowd of reptilian buyers. She fights back against her handler but is overpowered and sold to a massive Phaelix whose vulgar display leaves her terrified. The chapter closes with Elsie at the mercy of her new owner, her powers still offline and her hope fading.

4. Chapter 4

   Aruan desperately searches for his mate Elsie after she escapes Lona on the back of Betty, the dragon he once spared at the lake. With his sister Gaia burning through portal after portal and his mother weakened by poison and the recent Phaelix attack, the prince races against time while wrestling with a devastating truth: their mate bond failed to strengthen after they were intimate, signaling Elsie's deep rejection. As memories of her flight haunt him and his emotions threaten to unleash his dangerous power, Aruan's possessive need clashes with the hollow emptiness where their connection should burn bright. Just as despair freezes his heart, his mother's voice cuts through the haze—she has located Elsie through a portal, offering a fragile hope that the bond might yet be salvaged.

5. Chapter 5

   Aruan bursts through a portal into the heart of an erupting volcano to find his mate Elsie bleeding and captive in a Phaelix slave market. His rage dissolves her attacker instantly, but sealing the exit traps them with the slavers and a row of imprisoned Earth humans. With the mountain collapsing, Aruan hesitates to bring the humans to Lona—the sacred scrolls forbid Earth contact, and his mother alone can open portals home. Elsie refuses to abandon them, offering a desperate bargain: she will willingly return to his bed and stay forever if he rescues the captives. Though stunned by her offer, Aruan accepts, warning that her past escape still demands punishment. As they flee through the portal with the humans, Aruan unleashes his power one last time, burying the slave market in lava—but the unresolved tension of Elsie’s promise and his pending retribution hangs heavy in the air.

6. Chapter 6

   Aruan defies his father's wrath to bring his injured mate Elsie and a group of human refugees into the royal palace, risking scandal among the Alit nobility. While Elsie recovers from a head wound that has temporarily stripped her of her powers, Aruan tends to her in the cleansing pool, their unresolved mate bond fueling a volatile confrontation. Old grievances about their incomplete bond and her previous flight surface in heated accusations that dissolve into desperate intimacy. Despite her lingering resentment and refusal to bear his children, Elsie surrenders to Aruan's claiming touch, their connection burning with possessive intensity yet still haunted by the cold void where their bond should solidify. The chapter ends with them entangled in fragile union, Elsie's safety secured but their future uncertain amid political fallout and forbidden secrets.

7. Chapter 7

   Elsie awakens tangled in Aruan's arms after an intense encounter, wrestling with the disappointment bleeding through their bond and her own complicity in their physical intimacy. When they move to bathe, Aruan gifts her a poison-detecting necklace—a silent acknowledgment of the attempt on her life during their failed mating ceremony. Elsie discovers her animal-summoning abilities have returned with the arrival of her dragon Betty and a pixie dragon named Pip, sparking joy that quickly curdles into conflict when Aruan forbids her from threatening the creatures she loves. After checking on their human captives—now healed by Vitai and interrogated by mind-reading Kian—Elsie learns Aruan manipulated her into promising to stay. The chapter ends with bitter accusations flying as Aruan reveals he knows she never truly chose him, only bargained for her friends' safety, leaving their unresolved destiny hanging in the balance.

8. Chapter 8

   Elsie recovers from her ordeal with the Phaelix, only to find herself under house arrest by Aruan, who declares her confinement his "punishment" for endangering herself. While Kian pressures to read Elsie's mind for clues about the traitor and the Alit negotiating with the Phaelix slave traders, Aruan refuses, revealing his possessive terror at losing her again. Their tense confrontation escalates into a heated, possessive encounter where Aruan pins Elsie against the wall, asserting dominance and claiming her completely despite her protests. The chapter closes on the charged aftermath, with Elsie both victor and captive in her own desire, as the investigation into Zerra's dark secrets—poison, betrayal, and illegal slave trading—remains unresolved.

9. Chapter 9

   Aruan grapples with the aftermath of claiming his fated mate Elsie, whose emotional rejection leaves their bond incomplete despite their physical union. When Queen Nia summons him for a private audience, Aruan confronts his mother about banishing Elsie to Earth as an infant, discovering her motive was to prevent a prophecy of Aruan's destructive power. The revelation triggers a dangerous surge in Aruan's abilities, scorching trees and triggering a landslide that threatens the village below. As Aruan struggles to contain his rage and power, the royals debate how to train Elsie in her terrifying animal-commanding abilities while concealing the threat from a frightened populace. The chapter closes with Aruan having averted disaster but left with the crushing weight of his mother's betrayal and the uncertain future of his fractured bond with Elsie.

10. Chapter 10

    Elsie follows Kian through a portal to a Lona village devastated by a rockslide triggered when Aruan lost control of his sun-altering power. Summoning pangolins to dig rescue tunnels and quetzalcoatluses to lift debris, she proves her strength while Aruan arrives to confront Kian for hiding her distress. After the king mediates and Aruan clears the rubble with stone manipulation, the royals work alongside villagers to save ten trapped families. Later, in Aruan's quarters, Elsie finally verbalizes their mate bond, accepting her place beside him despite her fear of his destructive potential. Aruan reveals his mother banished infant Elsie to Earth, causing the disasters, and vows vengeance, but tempers his fury with tenderness as Elsie negotiates intimacy for the chance to see her human friends and the scrolls.

11. Chapter 11

    Elsie wakes beside Aruan grappling with the terrifying realization that she may be falling for her mate, a complication that threatens her plan to escape Zerra through a portal to Earth. Their morning is charged with unspoken tension as Aruan kneels to fit her boots—a gesture of devoted care that ignites something deeper than physical attraction despite her insistence that their bond remains purely physical. Over breakfast, Elsie discovers her psychic power has surged: she can now dissolve solid stone walls into molecules, opening her own exit for the first time. But when she probes the forbidden topic of Earth and portal travel, Aruan's protective nature hardens into cold fury, forbidding the conversation and leaving Elsie to retreat with her fragile new feelings frozen. The chapter closes on her unresolved determination to leave, even as the bond between them deepens beyond mere intimacy.

12. Chapter 12

    Aruan watches his mate Elsie storm away after a heated argument, his possessive nature sabotaging a moment of reconciliation. Fleeing to the jungle clearing behind the palace, he finds his brother Kian waiting to spar. Their brutal hand-to-hand combat escalates from taunts about Elsie into a vicious brawl interrupted only by jungle predators—a parasite vine and a trumpet worm—adding chaos to the fight. When their father, the King of Lona, arrives wearing his ceremonial crown, he reveals a devastating secret: he masked Elsie’s mind to test her loyalty and the extent of her powers during a recent crisis. Despite Aruan’s fury at the violation of their mate bond, the King announces that Elsie’s uncle and aunt—the monarchs of Marikanea—have arrived, and she will leave tonight to visit her birthplace, leaving Aruan desperate and enraged at the forced separation.

13. Chapter 13

    Elsie arrives at the guests' quarters nursing bruised feelings from a fight with her mate Aruan, only to find Vitai entertaining the human captives from Earth with breakfast stories. After showing off her new ability to dissolve walls and part the waterfall, she leads the group onto the Sky Bridge for a view—where the structure begins to fail. Boards collapse and ropes fray as the group teeters over a deadly drop until Vitai stabilizes the wood with his powers. With time running out, Elsie mentally summons two pterosaurs, her dragon Betty and a wild istiodactylus she names Ducky, to support the bridge beneath their feet and carry everyone to safety. When Aruan arrives through a portal, visibly injured and furious, Elsie realizes through their mate bond that the bridge was sabotaged to target her specifically. Before she can process the danger, Sandy confronts her for hiding that she is an Alit, leaving their fragile trust shattered as Aruan pulls Elsie away toward his quarters.

14. Chapter 14

    Aruan pulls Elsie into his quarters for a desperate reunion after the bridge attack, their mate bond driving an intense physical consummation that cements their claim on one another. Though the intimacy brings relief, Aruan remains consumed by protective fury over the attempt on her life, confronting his brother Kian's recklessness with threats of violence. As they discuss the saboteur—suspecting palace insiders—Aruan vows to keep Elsie at his side permanently, announcing they will flee to Marikanea to meet her biological family and escape the danger. The chapter closes with unresolved tension: a traitor still lurks within Lona's walls, and Aruan plans to interrogate suspects, including the human woman Sandy, before they depart.

15. Chapter 15

    Elsie navigates a tense day in Zerra while assassination attempts shadow her every move. Her biological family from Marikanea visits but is kept at a distance, their departure delayed by the Queen’s banquet until tomorrow. Aruan insists on constant proximity—escorting her through witness interrogations, then to the sacred site where ancient projections flicker with images of a lost civilization. There, Elsie theorizes that the Alit evolved from humans merging with AI, explaining their powers and fated bonds. Aruan pressures her to complete their incomplete mate bond, claiming it’s the only way he can protect her, and issues a chilling threat against his brother Vitai when she asks about his mate. The chapter closes with Elsie caught between her longing for her Earth parents and Aruan’s possessive claim, the saboteur still unidentified.

16. Chapter 16

    Aruan investigates the morning's near-disaster at the Great Hall before confronting Sandy, who accused Elsie of deception; he threatens the human woman into silence and reveals that Elsie, raised on Earth, only recently discovered she is an Alit. Summoned by his mother, the Queen of Lona, Aruan watches as the royal couple thanks Elsie for saving lives during the rockslides and today's bridge collapse. When the Queen offers Elsie any treasure from her vaults as reward, Elsie demands the abducted humans be returned to Earth. Aruan seizes the moment to demand his mother open a portal for Elsie to visit her parents on Earth—redemption for banishing the infant Elsie years ago. After tense negotiation, the Queen agrees. The chapter ends with Elsie voluntarily slipping her hand into Aruan's, their mate bond strengthening through quiet trust rather than desire.

17. Chapter 17

    Elsie basks in Aruan's unexpected kindness as he agrees to escort her to meet her biological family before the royal banquet. Their intimate bath in the cleansing room deepens their connection, with Aruan tenderly offering to postpone conception until Elsie feels ready—a compromise that stuns her. Dressed in the queen's finest gown, Elsie steps into the queen's quarters to find her aunt Evolet and uncle Kal waiting, the air thick with old wounds. When Kal accuses the queen of banishing Elsie to Earth, tensions flare until the queen reveals she saved Elsie's life from a volcanic eruption. Reluctantly, Evolet and Kal accept the peace offering, toasting an alliance between Lona and Marikanea. Elsie learns her mother could command plants and her father could summon rain, leaving her to wonder if she and Aruan represent destruction or something nurturing—and Aruan's whispered promise that he will "make it good" leaves her heart vulnerable.

18. Chapter 18

    Elsie and Aruan portal to Marikanea, the underground palace built after a volcanic eruption destroyed the old city. During a scenic beach approach, Elsie is overwhelmed by the emotional weight of their mate bond—Aruan suffered greatly while believing her dead on Earth, and she fears her absence damaged their connection permanently. They encounter the Slitheax, hermaphroditic snake-like guardians who identify her by scent, forcing an uncomfortable but bonding initiation. After a dangerous eastern wind threatens to sweep them away, they reach the palace where Elsie and Aruan consummate their strained bond in a passionate encounter that temporarily heals their intimacy, though her guilt over leaving her Earth family lingers. The chapter closes as they prepare for a welcome celebration, with Elsie finally feeling at home on Zerra.

19. Chapter 19

    Aruan brings his mate Elsie to Marikanea to help her embrace her Zerran heritage, but their homecoming is shadowed by danger. While Elsie tours the palace with guards, Aruan learns from his brother Kian that the saboteur who attacked Elsie on the sky bridge can alter memories to deceive even skilled mind readers—meaning the enemy hides among the royals. When their mother, the Queen of Lona, arrives to announce she will erase the Earthlings' memories and send Elsie back to her adoptive parents, Aruan refuses to let his mate become bait, vowing instead to spy on the entire palace to protect her. Overwhelmed by the conspiracy, he demands Kian teach him English before they portal to Earth to confront the threat at its source, leaving the chapter on a note of determined, protective urgency.

20. Chapter 20

    Elsie oversees the tearful departure of the human ex-slaves back to Earth, including Eucabeth, who initially refuses memory wiping to keep her memories of Vitai but ultimately relents to avoid a grim fate. After ensuring the others pass safely through the queen's portal, Elsie and Aruan step through themselves and arrive in her childhood living room, where they reunite with her parents—visibly aged by worry—who initially mistake her for a ghost. After Aruan demonstrates Alit matter-shifting and Elsie commands a sparrow to prove her abilities, the family shares an emotional lunch bound by secrecy. As sunset approaches, they share a heartbreaking goodbye with promises to return, but as they re-enter the portal to Zerra, a hostile Phaelix materializes within the vortex, and Aruan seizes the creature, dragging it back to Zerra as an unexpected stowaway.

21. Chapter 21

    Aruan arrives at the palace with Elsie and a captured Phaelix, interrupting his parents' evening. Under brutal interrogation, the creature reveals a conspiracy: he was sent to Earth to kidnap a human for a slave market on a lake island, where captives are sold for opals to fund a war against Lona. The shocking revelation that the portal was created by 'Arix' leads the court to realize their trusted cousin Tarix has hidden his portal powers and betrayed them. Now vanished, Tarix's treachery sends Aruan into a frantic hunt through the sacred site and villages, while Elsie prepares an aerial search with Betty at dawn. The chapter ends on Aruan's icy fury and resolve to capture the traitor before daylight.

22. Chapter 22

    Elsie paces anxiously through Aruan's quarters until the Queen arrives with word that Elsie's mother lies critical after a car accident on Earth. When they portal to the house, the Queen transforms into Tarix, revealing he orchestrated the Phaelix slave raids to overthrow Lona. Trapped in a sealed cabin with no way to summon Aruan across worlds, Elsie faces Tarix's chilling plan to sacrifice her and break her mate's spirit to fulfill a prophecy. After he leaves to fetch her requested last meal, Elsie confronts her impending death and finally admits she has loved Aruan since he rescued her, mourning that he may never know her heart before Tarix returns to kill her.

23. Chapter 23

    Aruan’s mate bond with Elsie shatters, convincing him she is dead. Consumed by grief-rage, he unleashes catastrophic power across the Great Hall—collapsing bridges, shattering windows, and triggering earthquakes—before Gaia grounds him with the fragile hope that Elsie might be on Earth, hidden by the elusive Tarix. With his parents eager to exile him to contain future outbursts, Aruan steps through a one-way portal to the human world, arriving at Elsie’s family home. There, a surge of dragon-sense confirms she lives, and their bond snaps back into place, flooding him with her terror and her heartbeat. Now whole again but terrified he is too late, Aruan races toward the path where she waits, the chapter closing on the desperate question of whether rescue will arrive in time.

24. Chapter 24

    Elsie fights for survival in a remote cabin where the shapeshifter Tarix has imprisoned her. After a brutal struggle involving boiling water and desperate hand-to-hand combat, she senses the completion of her mate bond with Aruan—a surge of clarity that signals he is near. When Tarix returns through a portal, Elsie ambushes him, pinning him until Aruan arrives to rescue her. Together they drag the captor back through the portal to Zerra's palace, where Tarix is exposed before the royal court and sentenced to trial for his crimes against the crown. In the aftermath, Elsie and Aruan finally acknowledge the depth of their bond, declaring their love aloud and cementing their connection as mates. The chapter closes with Aruan carrying his beloved to their quarters, vowing that nothing will ever separate them again.

25. Chapter 25

    Elsie wakes at dawn beside her mate Aruan in their sealed quarters, sharing an intimate morning of passion and profound emotional connection before their six-year-old daughter Zinnia interrupts with her exuberant energy. The family prepares for a sunrise picnic at the lake, crossing the Sky Bridge where Zinnia’s playful levitation abilities and love of dinosaurs shine through. Through Elsie’s reflections, the lingering threat of the escaped Tarix—now slain by a quetzalcoatlus—contrasts with the safety of their domestic bliss, while the impossibility of visiting her parents on Earth until Zinnia adulthood adds bittersweet depth. With their dragons Betty and Pip accompanying them, Elsie and Aruan watch a pink comet streak across the sky, sealing their epic love story with promises of forever and a new day dawning on both Zerra and Earth.

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