Chapter 2
Rook
This was a waste of my time. Unrest taking hold in the cities, whispers of a rebellion in the east, and that useless excuse of a burned out snake Uther trying to drag me into the middle of it.
And now I was standing here, next to the self-proclaimed leader of a pack of mangy wolf shifters like I didn’t have anything better to do.
This whole barren scrubland reeked of wasted potential and lesser beings, and the sooner I could get out of here, the better.
Should have just wiped out the whole damn pack a few hundred years back.
It wasn’t like I hadn’t been tempted at the time.
Daring to challenge me came with a death sentence, and it was getting harder by the second to remember why I hadn’t carried it out.
Watching the weathered ‘alpha’ beside me shifting back into his badly fitting human skin and scramble to reclaim his clothing before his pack arrived did nothing to improve my mood.
“They’ll be here shortly,” the alpha—I couldn’t be bothered to recall his name, I doubted I’d be seeing him again—told me. I grunted in response.
“We’re honored that you’ve visited our lands.”
“My lands,” I growled, my eyes snapping to his.
“Yes, of course, your lands. I meant no disrespect.”
“And yet...” I blew out a breath and swept my gaze over the clearing.
From my periphery I saw the wolf shifter stiffen at my dismissive attitude, and felt a cold stab of amusement.
His lands, my ass. Jumped up pup needed reminding who owned these lands and everyone who lived on them, because it sure as fuck wasn’t him.
Let the damn mutts start giving themselves titles like alpha and they started thinking they were equals.
I snorted. Like they could ever be equal to me.
They were only one step up from the humans, and I’d claimed this patch of the country to avoid their kind.
If Uther was half the dragon he thought he was, he’d have wiped the whole lot of them from the planet instead of playing at being their king.
But if that rebellion turned out to be more than whispers and so much as one of the hairless monkeys interrupted my peace, I’d take the matter out of his hands.
The last thing I needed was another fifty years of war and chaos. Fucking animals. Bad enough they’d destroyed their entire civilization without ruining my afternoon as well.
I let myself melt back into the shadows as the wolf shifters started hurrying through the trees and into the clearing. A fucking clearing. The mutts weren’t even civilized enough to have a hall or even a fucking shack to meet in. What the hell did they do when it was raining?
Not that it was any concern of mine. I’d get this done then I wouldn’t have to set eyes on them again for another fifty years. They could have a clearing, a hall, or a damn hole in the ground for all I cared. Just as long as they didn’t disturb my peace.
The wolf shifters were fast to follow orders, I had to grudgingly give them that.
Good. Maybe this wouldn’t be as painful as last time.
I’d had half a mind not to bother: I didn’t need the kind of headache breaking in a new girl brought with it.
I could turn and leave, come back when I was in a better mood in a decade or two.
The last thing I wanted was some whiny little mutt running around, causing trouble or watching me from the shadows. This was a shit idea. Shit timing.
But maybe some of the wolves had finally learned their place.
The underlings, if not the ‘alpha’. They moved in near-silence, no rumblings of irritation or outright resentment.
There were a couple of hundred of them—their numbers had grown—filtering into the clearing, and I watched each of them from the shadows.
A couple of hundred could be a threat. It had been a mistake to let their numbers grow this much, it would be a bigger one to leave now without asserting my authority. Fuck.
Kill the so-called alpha, my dragon rumbled inside my head, and let us leave.
It’s a bit fucking late for that, dragon, I rumbled back, letting nothing more of my irritation than a scowl show on my face.
Starting a fight with all two hundred of the mangy curs was not top of my to-do list right now.
Dragon or not, I wasn’t immortal. Something it wouldn’t hurt the rest of my kind to remember.
Not that it was any business of mine. If they wanted to run around playing at being demon overlords, that was their lookout.
So long as they stopped trying to drag me into their petty battles. I had better things to do with my time.
Like terrorizing the local wolf pack?
Shut up. You’re a fucking dragon. Since when did you give two shits about a bunch of mangy curs?
You know since when.
I let it go. I was in no mood to stand here arguing with myself.
Especially when he had a point. Besides, it didn’t matter how large the pack had grown.
As long as they feared me enough to stay the hell away from me, and keep to our bargain, they could live down here breeding like rabbits for all I cared. Just so long as they did it quietly.
I let out a low rumble of impatience, watching as tension played across the alpha’s shoulders in response. If he didn’t get a fucking move on soon, I was going to eat one of the curs on principle. I wanted to get the hell out of here.