There Is No Way You Can Love Me
In the dragon-filled skies of the Dragonfly World, Prince Aiden Dravenheart is a royal paradox. Intelligent, sarcastic, and hopelessly uninterested in his duties, he has just rejected his fiftieth arranged marriage, plunging his parents, the short-tempered King Darius and the dramatic Queen Isolde, into new depths of despair. Fearing for their dynasty and desperate for a grandchild, the royal couple concocts their most insane plan yet: they will hold a kingdom-wide search for five new royal maids, hoping that surrounding their son with "common" girls will melt his frozen heart.
The plan attracts hundreds, but five are chosen, each carrying a secret heavier than any castle stone. There is Rina, the energetic village girl who needs the lifetime salary to save her sick grandmother; Talia, the fierce red-haired dragon rider who infiltrates the castle to expose a royal conspiracy against her kind; Lyra, a sweet but dangerously possessive half-dragon disguised as a human to repay a life debt to Aiden; Eira, the stoic silver-haired elf mage researching a prophecy that centers on the prince; and Seraphine, a pale-skinned vampire noble hiding from hunters in the last place anyone would suspect.
Aiden’s life, once a monotone of aristocratic boredom, erupts into a chaotic symphony of mishaps and misunderstandings. He is scolded by Rina for being lazy, accused of theft by Talia, and stalked by the unnervingly devoted Lyra. He finds an intellectual equal in Eira and a mysterious confidante in Seraphine. Guided by the terrible love advice of his talking dragon, Nimbus, Aiden’s cynical exterior begins to crack, revealing a young man who is, despite himself, starting to care.
The fragile peace shatters when Talia’s investigation uncovers the truth: a faction within the royal court, led by a bitter noble, is illegally hunting dragons for sport and profit, framing the royal family in the process. As accusations fly and the kingdom's stability is threatened, Aiden is forced to take a stand. No longer a passive observer, he rallies his unlikely allies. Using Rina’s unwavering optimism to inspire the staff, Talia’s knowledge of dragons to track the enemy, Lyra’s fierce loyalty for protection, Eira’s strategic mind to outwit the villains, and Seraphine’s shadowy skills to gather intelligence, Aiden leads the charge to clear his family's name and protect the creatures he secretly admires.
In the aftermath of the crisis, Aiden is a changed man. He has found his purpose, not in a political marriage, but in defending his kingdom and the people he has come to cherish. He has proven himself a worthy prince. But his greatest challenge has only just begun. He now stands in the heart of his castle, surrounded by five extraordinary women who each hold a piece of his heart. The cynical boy who once declared, "There is no way you can love me," must now navigate the beautiful, explosive, and complicated reality that perhaps, they already do.