The Dragon Lord's Unwanted Doctor Wife

Florence POV:

"I should beat you to death, you worthless trash! You think a Dragonless bitch like you is worthy of interfering in my affairs?"

A dragon-hide whip, soaked in salt water, tore across the skin of my back with a sickening crack. The pain was a white-hot explosion that nearly sent me into darkness. That was the ninth lash.

"Spreading your legs for a stable hand in my own domain! You disgust me," Caelus Alvarez spat, his voice dripping with venom.

From a distance, I could hear the choked sobs of my maids, Mrs. Hayes and Poppy. Their cries were quickly muffled by the guards.

My mind splintered. I, Florence Wilkerson, once a top-tier physician, was now here, being publicly flogged and slut-shamed for an accusation of adultery I didn't commit.

Caelus, my husband in name only, stood before me. The dragon lord, with his brilliant gold hair and amber dragon eyes, regarded me with nothing but pure revulsion.

The clothes he wore were embroidered with intricate dragon scales in gold thread, glittering in the sun, while I was dressed in a roughspun, bloodied tunic.

"The tenth lash. Let this whore remember the price of dirtying the Alvarez name," his voice was as cold as ice. He raised the whip, its tip drawing a cruel arc through the air.

I squeezed my eyes shut, bracing for the impact. But the searing pain never landed on my back.

Instead, a small, warm body threw itself over me with a muffled grunt. My eyes flew open. I twisted, my muscles screaming in protest, and saw my five-year-old son, Aethan. He had taken the blow for me.

His small face was pale, his lips trembling from the shock of pain, but his ice-blue eyes were fixed on Caelus with unnerving defiance. "Don't... Don't you hurt my mommy!"

Caelus's expression twisted into a sneer of absolute loathing at the sight of the boy. He hated me, and by extension, he utterly despised the child I bore. "Get out of the way, you little bastard! You are just as vile and worthless as your mother!" he roared.

Aethan's small frame trembled, but he didn't move. He just hugged me tighter.

In that instant. A single thought burned through my mind: protect my child.

Caelus, provoked by the boy's defiance and his own deep-seated hatred, raised the whip again. This time, he aimed directly for Aethan.

"Caelus, my love, he's just a child," a voice as soft as silk drifted from the colonnade. Catharine Craig glided toward him, dressed in a sky-blue silk gown.

She placed a graceful hand on his arm, her blue eyes filled with mock concern. "Losing your temper over a bastard child is beneath a Dragon Lord's dignity."

Her words were a balm to him, but the look she shot toward Aethan and me held a flicker of triumph. She had orchestrated all of this.

Caelus's rage subsided slightly, but his cruel sneer remained. "He's infected with his mother's filthy blood. Drag him off. Continue the punishment."

Two guards moved forward, reaching to pull Aethan away.

"Mommy! Mommy!" Aethan cried, his small hands clutching my tunic.

No. I would not allow it.

The moment a guard's fingers brushed against Aethan, I used every ounce of strength I had left. I pulled Aethan under me, shielding him, and my voice, though hoarse and cold, cut through the air. "Stop."

The authority in that single word made everyone freeze.

Caelus narrowed his dangerous dragon eyes.

I lifted my head, staring directly into his eyes, my own holding a cold, rising fire.

"Caelus Alvarez," I said, each word a chip of ice. "If you dare touch my son again today, I promise you, you will regret it."

A dead silence fell over the courtyard. A Dragonless woman, a scorned wife on the verge of being whipped to death, was threatening a Dragon Lord.

Caelus's shock morphed into a profound, violent fury. He stalked toward me, the oppressive pressure of a dragon's presence radiating from him.

He crouched, his fingers violently seizing my chin. "What did you just say, you filthy bitch?" he ground out. "Say it again, if you have the nerve."

Florence POV:

"I said," I spat, my voice ringing clear and defiant across the silent courtyard, "if you dare touch my son again, you will regret it. Every. Single. Word."

Caelus let out a harsh, grating laugh, releasing my chin to loom over me. "Regret it? You? A magicless whore who can't even protect her own pathetic hide? What will you do, bleed on me?"

Aethan trembled in my arms, but his little voice pierced the tension. "Leave my mommy alone! You're a monster!"

"Shut your mouth, you little bastard!" Caelus snatched the dragon-hide whip from the nearest guard. "It seems ten lashes aren't enough. I'll flay you both alive and see if you still have a tongue to threaten me with!"

Catharine stepped forward, a soft, malicious coo in her voice. "Caelus, darling, please. The woman is clearly delirious from her sins. Don't let this trash ruin your mood. Just let the guards finish them off."

"No. No one will stop me today," Caelus snapped, waving her away. "I will teach this bitch and her spawn exactly who is the master here. Watch closely, Catharine. This is how you discipline rabid dogs!"

He raised the whip high, and it whistled mercilessly through the air.

But I didn't flinch. I shot my hand out with shocking speed and caught the end of the whip mid-air, stopping it less than an inch from Aethan's face.

"I told you," I hissed, ignoring the rough hide tearing the flesh of my palm. I slowly rose to my feet, glaring right into his shocked eyes. "Do. Not. Touch. My. Son."

"Let go! You dare touch my weapon with your filthy hands?!" Caelus roared, his disbelief hardening into raw humiliation as he tried to yank the whip back.

"Caelus Alvarez, I am not your property, and my son is not your punching bag!" I shouted back, using his momentum to hold the whip steady. "You flog me for adultery? Where is your proof? Produce the man! Produce the evidence!"

"Proof? Your very existence is a stain!" he bellowed, his face twisting in rage. "Your low breeding is all the proof I need!"

"Is it?" I laughed coldly, casting a lethal glare at the pale woman beside him. "Or is it just because your precious, scheming concubine whispered a convenient lie into your ear? Is the great Dragon Lord so easily manipulated by a woman's crocodile tears?"

"How dare you! Caelus, I would never..." Catharine cried out, feigning utter devastation. "I only told you what I saw! Why is she slandering me?"

"Silence! If you speak ill of Catharine again, I will tear your throat out!" Caelus roared, jerking hard on the whip with all his might.

I suddenly let go.

Staggering backward, Caelus stumbled several steps, looking utterly undignified as he fought to keep his balance.

I hid my bleeding palm behind my back, my voice dripping with pure disdain. "A Dragon Lord who lacks basic judgment, led around by a concubine like a pet on a leash. How utterly pathetic."

Caelus growled, his golden eyes blazing with murderous intent as his uncontrolled dragon power caused the stone tiles beneath us to vibrate.

"You are asking to die!"

Florence POV:

Caelus's dragon pressure crashed down like an apocalyptic mountain, a horrifying wave of the so-called "Dragon-God bloodline." The air itself solidified.

But kneel? Me? Florence Wilkerson?

I stood ramrod straight, my aura sharp as an unsheathed blade, completely crushing his pathetic attempt at dominance!

"What's the matter?" I sneered, the corners of my mouth curving into a deadly arc. "Brain too small to win an argument, so you resort to throwing a tantrum like a toddler? Is this the absolute 'might' of a Dragon Lord? How utterly laughable."

My mockery slapped him right in his fragile ego. He froze. He wanted to kill me, but executing his unarmed wife just because he lost a debate would make him the laughingstock of the realm.

I seized the absolute initiative. "Caelus Alvarez," my voice was a judge's gavel echoing in the courtyard. "Wash your ears and listen. I did not commit adultery. This is a low-IQ frame-up."

I turned my predatory gaze to the shivering white lotus. "Lady Catharine. You swore to the heavens you saw me with a stable hand, right?"

Catharine flinched like a kicked dog, glancing frantically at Caelus before forcing a nod. "Y-Yes... I didn't mean to... I just happened to pass by..."

"Perfect!" I clapped my hands, the crisp sound making her jump. "Then tell this audience loud and clear: What exact time? Which specific stable? And what was the name of this phantom stable hand? Speak!"

Catharine's brain short-circuited. She was completely, utterly destroyed by a basic cross-examination! Sweat ruined her perfect makeup. "It... yesterday afternoon... in the west stables..." she stammered, digging her own grave.

"Yesterday afternoon?" I burst into a chilling, uproarious laugh. "Yesterday afternoon, I was locked in my room treating Aethan's cold! I didn't take a single step outside! Mrs. Hayes! Poppy! Tell our 'wise' Lord!"

Mrs. Hayes stepped up, her voice ringing out. "It is the absolute truth! The mistress and young master never left their chambers! There are a dozen guards who can verify this!"

Catharine's face drained of all blood, turning the color of a dead fish. Her pathetic, fabricated script was instantly reduced to ashes!

She immediately deployed her ultimate weapon: crocodile tears. She threw herself at Caelus, weeping. "Caelus, I... I must have remembered the time wrong... But I swear I saw it! Why would I, so kind and pure, ever lie?"

And the great Dragon Lord? He swallowed it like a brainwashed simp. "Shut up!" he roared at me. "Catharine is an angel! She would never lie! You are manipulating the truth!"

I looked at him with sheer, unadulterated pity. Logic is useless against a supreme idiot. Time for a dimensional strike on the only thing he truly worshipped: his own face.

"Fine. Let's pretend your precious little concubine is a saint," I took a step forward, my aura completely swallowing his. "But tell me, genius, what do you gain by executing me today?"

Caelus frowned, his limited brain capacity struggling.

"I die, and tomorrow the entire continent will mock the great Alvarez name! They will laugh at the incompetent Lord who was cuckolded, threw a public fit, and murdered his own innocent five-year-old son to cover up a domestic scandal. Your glorious reputation? Flushed down the drain."

I saw the panic flash in his arrogant eyes. Hit the bullseye. He didn't give a damn about me or Aethan, but he would kill for his public image.

"I will give you a way out." I dictated the terms like a queen granting a pardon. "Two days. In two days, I will throw the concrete evidence of this pathetic frame-up right onto your face. If I fail, you can feed me to your dragons. Dare to take the bet?"

Catharine panicked, yanking on his sleeve. "Caelus, no! She's tricking you! Kill her now!"

I shot her a death glare that made her choke on her own breath. "What's wrong, Lady Catharine? Terrified I'll dig up the truth and feed you to the dragons?"

She shrank back, shivering in absolute terror.

Caelus, desperate to salvage his 'merciful' and 'just' image, gritted his teeth. "Fine! You have two days! At sunset, if you have no proof, you and that bastard are dragon food!"

I sneered. Two days was more than enough to turn this entire castle upside down.

But before I could even turn away, the heavy courtyard doors were smashed open. A maid scrambled in, crawling frantically to Catharine's feet.

"Disaster, Lady Catharine! Young Master Aidan... he suddenly spiked a horrifying fever and is completely unconscious!"