Chapter 14
Fourteen
Casimir
My dragon went berserk when she tilted her head. Whether she realized it or not, she was presenting more than just her mouth to me for a potential first kiss.
She was giving me her neck. Exposing the soft, unmarked flesh to me in a gesture not just of submission but of permission. I could just—
Both our stomachs gurgled. In the utter silence between us, it was impossible to miss the sound.
We glanced down in shock and then laughed. She laughed—the sound golden, light, and utterly perfect.
“I guess we don’t need to be fully mate bonded to read one another’s stomach signals.” I smiled to let her know I was being lighthearted about it.
I wasn’t. The fight was on to stop my fangs from descending and biting her, leaving our mark for every other dragon to see. My dragon was roaring and bellowing to be set free, to come forth and sink our fangs into that perfect, smooth skin of Anna’s.
Maybe it wasn’t her neck she would want. Perhaps her thigh, or her breast. Somewhere. Anywhere. I had to have her. To make her mine and claim her. Mate with her. Ride out her first heat together until her flat belly swelled with child.
With my child.
A vision of Anna pregnant and rounded came to me. She was smiling, beaming ear to ear, glowing with that metaphysical energy of being with child. One hand stroked her belly, her full breasts visible over the rounding, the curves of them exposed to my vision.
Her eyes popped open and she snatched my hand, putting it to her stomach. “Daddy’s here. Say hello,” she whispered, looking at me with happy, lazy contentment.
And then my hand moved as the baby kicked.
Our baby.
I pulled away from the real Anna with a gasp.
“Caz? Are you okay?”
“Fine,” I said, sucking in a huge lungful of stale dungeon air.
What the fuck was that? I wasn’t a seer, so I wasn’t prone to visions. In the back of my mind, my dragon was also momentarily stunned.
I looked at Anna and smiled at her. “Sorry. I’m good. Let’s go get some food. Shall we?”
“Yes, please,” she said, her face lighting up with a matching smile.
For a split second, I compared it to the one in my vision, but it wasn’t the same. This smile didn’t glow, and it died before it reached her eyes.
She was putting on an act. Pretending to be okay with everything, with me.
The vision was a lie. The real Anna still didn’t like me.
I tried to shove that thought aside as I led us up from the deep dungeons. It was new. Strange. Unprecedented even, with her being a grounded, and me being an alpha-level dragon.
That bore more contemplation. After all, it should be impossible for us to be mated.
I knew that we were, regardless of what was possible or not, but that still begged the question of how.
How had it happened? And also, why had it not happened more often?
Clippys weren’t new. So why now? Why me and her?
These thoughts accompanied me along with the constant push from my dragon to take her to my room and fuck her until her brains melted. I needed food, energy, to think about it and to keep resisting that increasingly desirable option. To come up with a solution to everything.
“Caz,” Anna said uncomfortably, interrupting my thoughts. “Where are we going?”
“The Grand Hall,” I said. “Get some food. Are you not hungry anymore?”
“I am,” she said, slowing. “But there’s a lot of alpha power coming from that direction.”
I froze, looking around like a swimmer just come up for air as realization hit me.
You idiot.
“You’re right. Come on,” I said, reaching down and taking her hand without thinking. I pulled her back from the entrance just as the double doors swung open outward, and a familiar voice carried through.
I managed to get Anna just around the corner before being seen.
“Casimir!”
“Uncle Mirko,” I said coolly, trying to hide my discomfort.
My father’s twin was the last person I wanted to run into. Under the guise of widening my stance as I faced him, I narrowed the gap between my body and the wall.
Please, Anna, have the good sense to stay hidden back there. Please.
If Mirko saw her, there would be trouble. He didn’t even need to know she was a grounded for that to happen. Seeing her would be bad enough.
“Is the cloak a new fashion choice I was unaware of?” Mirko smiled harshly at his joke.
The motion wrinkled his face, twisting the ugly black mark on his left cheek into something grotesque. I often wondered if he had learned to affect this smile simply to make others more uncomfortable at the sight of his birthmark.
“No,” I said. “I was just out in public. It’s amazing how easily the masses are fooled by simply putting a piece of fabric over your head. Nobody thinks it’s me.”
Mirko snorted with disdainful laughter. “The idiots. Even a braindead clippy should be able to see that you don’t belong among them.”
Anna inhaled sharply. It wasn’t much, but it was enough. Mirko was an alpha too. He had served as Warlord under my father. He was in his fourth century, but that hadn’t begun to dull any of his senses.
Frowning, he moved to the side.
“You. Woman,” he growled. “What are you doing back there?”
Woman? Woman?
The snarl had barely left my lips before I was an inch away from his face, my scales pushing hard against my skin as I bristled at the insult to our mate.
Only the fact that Mirko was of our blood stopped my claws from opening him up. But the sharpened tips pressed into his skin nonetheless, making my point very, very clear.
Which is exactly what I had hoped to avoid doing.
Mirko’s eyes widened, first in surprise and then in shocked realization. Never in intimidation. He was my father’s twin in every way except the mark on his face. Twin to one of the most feared ice tyrants of all time—a man known for his brutality and cruelty.
And Mirko had been his second-in-command. He didn’t fear me.
Maybe it’s time to show him he should. My dragon’s sentiment translated into words as easily as breathing. It wanted out. My eyes were glowing with the power of my monster.
“Submit,” I growled when Mirko didn’t immediately show fealty.
He bared a lip.
“Now,” I snarled, pummeling him with more alpha power.
I heard a wave of groans and whimpers from within the Grand Hall as my power flooded over the others. Chairs squeaked and something wooden shattered.
My eyes never left Mirko’s. He resisted, his teeth bared, and I just poured more power at him. Despite his repeated claims about being the firstborn but shoved out of the spotlight because of his mark, he wasn’t the ice tyrant.
I was, and I wasn’t going to put up with any challenge to my rule. I exerted my power, standing up taller and looming over Mirko until finally, at last, his dragon caved. It wasn’t much, but his head tilted to the side slightly, exposing his throat.
Submitting.
A collective groan came from the occupants of the Grand Hall as I let up on the alpha power.
Mirko’s eyes darted from me to Anna, and I growled as I slid in between them. He didn’t even get to look at her. She was mine.
“Careful, Casimir. If you aren’t, others will find out what she means to you.”
I froze, cold fury moving like ice in my veins. Was he threatening me with the fact that he’d deduced Anna was my mate?
“If you so much as touch a hair on her,” I hissed, “I will kill you. Blood or not. Am I clear?”
“Of course, Alpha,” Mirko said, the title of respect positively coated in sarcasm.
“Father?” a higher-pitched voice called from behind him. “What’s going on out here?”
“Nothing. It is of no matter,” Mirko said.
Andrik appeared at his father’s side, a spitting image of him. Thankfully, I had inherited much of my mother’s looks and did not look like either of them.
“Oh, hello, Casimir,” Andrik said. His eyes moved to where Anna stood just behind me, lighting up with surprise and amusement. “By the orb! You finally found yourself a palace whore that—”
Mirko and I both moved. Him to protect. Me to punish.
I got there first. My fist slammed into Andrik’s nose with beautiful satisfaction. My cousin hit the floor on his ass and fell back, his eyes unfocused as blood poured from his nose.
Mirko eyed the mess of his son’s face and sighed as Andrik stared up at him expectantly. “Don’t look at me. You had that coming.”
I shouldered my way past Mirko and gestured for Anna to follow me down the corridor. I had to get her out of there. Away from any other prying eyes.
Until my bite had sealed our bond, she was not considered to be my equal in the eyes of the law. I would kill anyone who came for her without a second thought, but only when the bond was complete between us would she be truly safe.
I would have to watch Mirko carefully. The last thing he would want was further securing of the throne down my family line.
All of which meant I was going to have to keep Anna out of sight until I could show her that we were truly mated. Something I was sure she would love.
“What the hell was that all about?” she asked now from my side.
“Family drama,” I grunted, making it clear I didn’t want to talk about it any further.
If she started asking questions, she wouldn’t stop until she knew the truth about everything.
Including what I had done.