Coal didn’t care if there was merit to what Blaze had just said. “Brother…” he kept his voice even. “I think that you have this backwards. It is you who needs to take a mate and to reproduce as a matter of urgency. Scarlet and I have discussed this at great length and—”

“And nothing.” Blaze sounded almost bored. It infuriated him.

“I wish to take her as a mate.” He clenched his jaw.

“Scarlet is infertile. There are no fertile dragon females left and it puts us in a precarious position. The earth and water princes have the last fertile shifter females and will, as we speak, be trying for offspring. It is a given that they will bear royal dragons.”

“Yeah, but their offspring will not be heirs to the throne. The kings from each tribe will take part in the hunt and we have no idea if human females can bear royal dragons.”

“Exactly,” he growled. “No royal dragon has ever mated a human.” He shook his head and suddenly looked much older. “It isn’t right but what choice do we have?”

“I am sure that a royal mating with a human will be successful,” Coal said. “We won’t know though until you take one and try.”

Blaze shook his head. “I’m considering taking a vampire female.”

“What?” Coal could hear the disbelief etched in his voice. “You can’t. A half breed would never be accepted as king.” Although, according to the lores, mating humans would result in diluted blood. Offspring from humans always had all of the dominant features of the non-humans. This was the main reason why human women were being considered instead other species.

“I know that but I might not have a choice. Ruby birthed a royal child. Her daughter is a fire breather.”

“We don’t know if the little one will be capable of shifting. She might breathe fire but she also drinks blood.” He wanted to call his niece an abomination but couldn’t bring himself to do it. She was a gorgeous little thing. “A child like Tinder would never be accepted. Not by our fire tribe and certainly not by the other kingdoms. It’s madness.”

“That it is.” Blaze nodded his head. “It might be the only way though. If humans are not capable of bearing us royal young, we might need to consider that route. Not all of the royals will end up with a human after the first hunt and those that don’t might just be in favor of trying this alternative. Especially if humans can not bear royal young. You will see how quickly a half breed will be accepted then. I need you to win one of the humans.” His brother wanted him to play guinea pig. Wanted him to take a human so that they could find out if the resulting child of the union would have golden markings.