Chapter 10
Ten
Casimir
I tried to sleep, but it never came. So I paced endlessly for an hour until Anna poked her head out of the room and told me to either go find my own room or settle down. She didn’t understand it was impossible.
Everything about this was impossible. She was one of the grounded, and I was … me. It shouldn’t be possible.
Poor girl. She deserves better than this. Better than me.
My dragon snarled its disagreement with bone-chilling vehemence, thinking I was insulting her. I wasn’t.
She was perfect. I was only just beginning to realize how perfect, but I already knew it.
She’s the one who deserved a better life than what I could give her.
Someone as precious as Anna was far too good for life here in the citadel.
The games the elites played would grind down everything wonderful and lovely about her, leaving little behind.
It’s what they did to everyone.
I was trying to change that, but it was hard. And slow. No way could I keep her safe and hidden while I did so.
Voices in the hallway pulled me away from musing about the ramifications of announcing Anna as my mate. The cascading list grew longer with each second I thought about it. She wasn’t ready to deal with that weight.
Hell. Was I? The Ice Kingdom had never known such change before. Who was I to be so arrogant to think I could do it?
Outside the door, the voices grew louder. My dragon rumbled its discontent. Anna had finally settled into a sleep that sounded peaceful. I clenched my hands, digging my fingernails deep into my palm at the reminder of the horrid, horrid sounds that had come from her room.
A nightmare that I could do nothing about.
I had sworn to her, given her my word, my vow, that I would not cross the threshold into the bedroom.
If I had known what was to transpire, I would never have given it.
My dragon had howled and lost its mind with need to go to her, to protect her.
Wrap her up in our arms and banish the bad dreams. She would sleep safely curled up against us.
But my word was my word. I would not break it. Anna’s reticence about the situation between us was not hard to understand, nor did she try to hide it. The gap between our worlds could not be bigger. For her to trust me, I had to live up to it.
That trust had become incalculably important to me. After a lifetime among cutthroat elites who would break their word if it would get them an inch ahead, I was not going to throw it away lightly.
So I stood at the door, listening to her moan and thrash, and every muscle in my body trembled, begging me to go in.
I resisted. Once, I lifted a fist to smash the door down, to wake her, but she subsided not long after, finally giving in to deep, peaceful sleep.
That sleep was now being threatened by those outside.
Teeth bared, I crept across the room without making a sound.
I looked into every corner and tested the air, ensuring to myself it was indeed still empty.
I wasn’t going far from my post, but I wasn’t risking anything.
The slightest problem and Anna would reject me as her mate completely and permanently.
I had to be perfect.
The voices approached, and I stepped into the hallway in front of them, alpha power building in my throat.
“Silence.”
Two jaws slammed shut as the command hit them, locking up muscles and preventing them from speaking.
“Anna is sleeping,” I continued, still not having raised my voice. Every word was spoken in a low, even tone. The only thing that betrayed my anger was the alpha command dripping from each word. “You would be wise not to raise her. Understood?”
I released the command.
Florian sagged forward. I saw a spark of indignation in his eyes at my treatment of my number two, but I didn’t care. I met it immediately, and without hesitation. This was my mate we were talking about.
Nothing came before her well-being.
“Sorry, bro,” the other shifter grunted, only coughing.
The alpha power hadn’t affected him as much. Nothing ever did. Younger brothers could be irritating that way.
I eyed Dirk. He was looking rough for wear. His uniform was ripped and stained, and he had huge bags under his normally bright blue eyes, but they were from more than a lack of sleep. Something had happened. Something bad.
“The market?” I asked, looking right at Florian questioningly.
Dirk might be my brother, but Florian was my second-in-command. He headed up my enforcers. Dirk was his right-hand man, but I would not disrespect Florian by cutting him out of the loop.
“No.” Ri shook his head, any anger at my use of alpha power on him for the second time in a day already faded. “Another push from the Red King.”
“I was out on patrol along the northeastern border,” Dirk said, jumping in now. “We had just finished our meeting with the fae lord, Duke Elissen, and were headed home when we saw smoke. I swung us north to check it out, and we were jumped by a squad of reds.”
I bared my teeth. “Damn them. I don’t want another war.”
“Seems like the Red King doesn’t feel the same,” Florian muttered.
“Why didn’t I hear of this earlier? You should have been back by now,” I asked, looking from Florian to Dirk.
Dirk grimaced, unhappy. “We crossed paths with Florian on our return. I … was angry at being ambushed. Two of my men didn’t make it. Killing the reds wasn’t enough. I needed to do something more.”
I inhaled slow and deep. Anna was asleep. She needed me. I had to stay under control. I couldn’t lose my temper. Not right now.
“Make them pay.” My eyes bore into Florian with the command. “But don’t get suckered into another ambush.”
Florian nodded. Dirk flinched, very unusual for him.
“There’s more. Isn’t there?” I asked, suspicions rising.
Silence.
“I’m not going to like it. Am I?”
They shook their heads in such unison they could have been one.
“Well,” I said, sighing heavily and wondering if I would get to sleep anytime soon. Everything seemed to be happening at once. “Out with it.”
“We screwed up the raid on the market,” Florian said.
“Screwed up?”
“I took three squads,” he said. “Plus the four that came back with Dirk needing to let off steam. Over two score of us.”
“It wasn’t enough,” Dirk said analytically, the voice of someone reviewing their mistake. “That place was a maze. We went from room to room, Caz. Rounded up everyone we could. But there were so damn many rooms. We missed a lot.”
“Many of the hunters left their, uh, wares behind,” Florian said, stumbling over the term to use for the living slaves. “More focused on fleeing and protecting themselves than anything else.”
“But not all.” I understood now their meaning and their apologies.
“We got as many as we could. We focused on those trying to take prisoners, slaves, with them,” Florian said, his eyes cold and hard. “Chased some of them down.”
“Where are they now?”
“In the old dungeons,” Dirk said. “The ones in the east wing. We brought blankets and some bedding, food, etc. They’re well taken care of for tonight at least. Except for the ferals. I know you were looking for dragons but I couldn’t leave them there. Not with those bastards.”
If anything, Dirk hated the hunters more than I did. Not that I could blame him either.
“What did you do with them?”
“They’re in one of the old storage rooms down there,” Dirk said, rubbing at his arm. “They didn’t want to come peacefully.”
I noted the long, red welt on his right arm, a clear indication of a cut that was healing.
“Any sign of her friends?” I could have asked Dirk how he let a feral wolf cut him up.
I also could have gotten upset that so many escaped their grasp.
But there was no use in that. The fault lay in me at the end of it all.
The operation was hasty and very basic in its planning.
I’d been to the market. I knew it was a rat’s maze of tunnels and rooms.
If anyone should have known that more men were needed, it was me. I was the Ice Tyrant, and there was no one to pass the buck to. Chewing out my men wouldn’t help.
“Nobody spoke up who would identify as a Milly or Ella,” Florian said, but he shrugged in frustration. “None of them really were overly talkative. They could just as easily be in the bunch and not want to identify themselves.”
I grunted agreement, glancing back at the closed door. My dragon was beginning to get antsy at being so far away from Anna. We were supposed to be in front of her door. Protecting her. Not out talking in the halls.
“Anna will go down with me when she wakes,” I said. “Hopefully, they’ll see us together and realize they aren’t in any danger.”
“What do we do with the rest of them?” Florian asked quietly.
“Knock out the ferals and dump them in the wilds,” I said, taking care of the easy part first. “That can happen anytime. Her friends are dragons, so we won’t be risking missing them. Give anyone else the option of the wilds, staying in the dungeons for the time being, or being set free in Kylma.”
“I’ll handle the ferals,” Florian said, immediately volunteering to set out for the wilds.
Dirk and I didn’t bat an eye. Florian spent as much time out there as he could when his duties didn’t require him to be in the Ice Citadel.
“See to it all,” I told Florian, who nodded deeply.
“Of course, Alpha. It will be done.”
I bid them a good night, and returned to the room. Stealing silently across the floor, I paused outside the door, taking a deep breath in through my nose.
There, under the smells I was most accustomed to, was that hint of vanilla and cinnamon that called to me with its delicate nature.
I leaned against the wall and prepared to spend all night breathing her in. The hours would fly by.
My dragon purred contentedly right alongside me.