@ArneBab @switch Ah, okay. So no shapeshifting dragon or the knight suggesting to the dragon to drink a potion to turn into human form?

I guess I was just thinking too complicated.

@ArneBab @switch Oh okay, I think now you gave me the last piece of info I was missing. That the queen/dragon expected the child to have no dragon features.
Otherwise, why would she be surprised?

At first I read the whole thing like this: A king and queen enter the nursery and see a human-dragon baby. Both are surprised. The two never had sex so the king assumes the queen didn't want to have sex with humans, only dragons and that's why she suggested years ago that the king gets a harem.

The queen on the other hand assumes that one of the kings mistresses is a shape shifting dragon, who wanted to become queen and convinced the king to have his wife, the current queen, killed. The knight, sent to kill her, instead told the queen that plan ("he suggested as much").

But then the last 3 lines didn't make sense to me. And the replies suggesting that once you get it, it's obvious, didn't make sense either.

Now that I thought about it more: The knight could have followed the queen to kill her. She went to the dragons lair, because she already suspected the king cheated on her with a dragon. She killed the dragon and the knight got scared and didn't think he could win against someone who killed a dragon. So he told the king and he too changed his mind about having the queen killed.

So the queen says "I'm sorry I'll go [find you another shape shifting dragon mistress.]"

But the king realizes, he'd now rather be with a strong woman who can kill dragons anyway.

Or something like that.

@PaulaToThePeople that does sound a bit overcomplicated, yes, but a nice story, too.

(though it isn’t a story of assumed betrayal that actually has a beautiful background)
@switch @MicroSFF