The Dragon Eye One Shots

Shared Pain (Viggo)

A/N: This was inspired by a soulmate au prompt list I found. This one is an au where you can feel your soulmate's pain.

Viggo awoke with the left side of his neck throbbing. His hand came up and lightly passed over the bandages around his neck. The memory of the Monstrous Nightmare that had tried to tear him apart (and would have succeeded if not for Ryker), came flashing back to him vividly.

Anger, directed at himself, washed over him. It had only happened due to a pathetic miscalculation on his part. A miscalculation that would certainly make his grandfather turn in his grave. Of course, if Ryker had made sure the beast had been secured in that cage in the first place... He huffed and pushed the thought, and anger, away, grimacing as the action caused him pain. There was no point on dwelling on it. It was done and he was still here. Still alive.

He pushed himself up into a sitting position and rested against the headboard of his bed. His movements were rather sluggish, probably due to whatever he had been given for the pain... The pain.

His hand came back up and ghosted over his neck once more. The gears in his mind quickly turned as he thought. Had his soulmate felt it? Could they still feel it?

A memory from his childhood flashed through his mind. He had been six and Ryker had been leading him in his very first tracking lesson. They were on the trail of a Nadder, if he remembered correctly, when his older brother had inhaled sharply and clutched at his ribs. He had of course immediately asked what was wrong and Ryker had explained that he could feel his soulmate's pain. Something that everyone felt at some point in their lives.

How traumatic had that been for his soulmate? To suddenly have an agonising pain shoot through their neck and not know what had caused it, or if their soulmate would live or die. And all because he had made a mistake. Anger flashed through him again and he clenched his fist. Well, it certainly wasn't going to happen again. Viggo would make sure of it.

Unfortunately, his soulmate had made no such promise.

Through the years that followed, and with some of the worst timing in the world, Viggo found himself in a fair bit of pain. The first time it happened, he was in the middle of a meeting with his council.

Once a month, without fail, they called upon him to try and convince him to direct his focus away from the dragon hunting business and focus on finding his soulmate. And after his encounter with that Nightmare they had certainly ramped up their attempts. Clearly afraid he might die before he had an heir. So there he sat, at the head of the table, as they went through all the reasons Viggo had already heard a hundred times before. He fought the urge to roll his eyes.

As interested as he was to know who his soulmate was, Viggo had never seen a good enough reason to abandoned the business (in the hands of his brother no less), and go on a highly futile search. A highly futile search that had no starting point. Besides, they were soulmates. By the definition they were destined to cross paths eventually. Until they did, he was more than content in building up his empire and solidifying his reputation.

"The business is doing well, Viggo," Ivar, a short stout man who had been on his father's council prior to his, began, "Now is the perfect time for you to go and find her."

"And where exactly would you suggest I start looking?" While not quite there yet, he was close to being on the verge of snapping. Something that was made clear to his council by the tone of his voice and the glare he was giving them.

"Anyone?" None of them dared to respond. Not that he had been expecting them to. If the master strategist had no idea where to start, then how could they? "That's what I thought. You're dismissed." Viggo said as he decided the meeting was over.