Chapter 4
Lucien
I don’t know what to do with myself. I don’t know what went wrong. My entire body is begging me to chase Harper down and finish what we started. Every inch of her wanted me, I know it in my gut. But she walked away. Turned me down when I was about to slide into her tight body.
It seems like a cruel trick of the gods.
I grip her underwear, catching a whiff of her sweet scent. I stuff it in my robe pocket, deciding that it belongs to me now. If I can’t have the woman I want, I might as well have a reminder of what I’m dying to have.
Dressed, I leave the kitchen. But instead of heading after Harper, I go the opposite way until I find myself just outside of Gareth’s room.
I’ve never been in his room. Never had a reason to be in there.
We might be brothers, but in blood alone.
Although dealing with Harper has eased some of the constant tension that stands between us, our relationship still is what it is.
Yet, there’s nothing that bonds a man more than a common enemy, right?
Not that hating the Hollowborn has been enough to fix our fucked-up relationship.
Before I can stop myself, I knock lightly on his door.
Gareth opens it a minute later, a drink in his hand, a puzzled look on his face as he stares at me.
Suddenly, I feel like a fool. Like this is the last place that I should be right now when I’m frustrated, horny, confused, and angry, but it’s too late. I have to say something.
“Got another drink handy?”
He blinks slowly, but then steps back, giving me room to enter his room. To my surprise, Alaric is already there, sitting in a leather chair by the fire. His short, brown hair is wet, likely from a recent bath, and there’s food set out in trays on the table between the chairs.
I snag one of the chairs, and Gareth wordlessly brings me a drink.
We eat and drink in silence for a while, staring into the crackling flames of the fire.
After a time, my gaze begins to wander around his room, and I note that he, like me, has very little in his room.
No pictures. No personal items. Just official books, weapons, and lots of leather clothes.
I’m fairly certain that any one of the three of us could walk away from the academy empty-handed and not miss a single thing.
“Are you here for the same reason I am?” Alaric finally asks, glancing at me.
I have a suspicion of what he’s talking about, but I still ask, “And what’s that?”
“Harper,” he says simply, and I’m surprised by how much her name means to all of us. She’s a problem, that woman, a problem none of us know how to solve.
Running my hands through my hair, I resist the urge to tug at the strands. “What are we going to do about her?”
Alaric gets that familiar tone to his voice, the one that says he wants to solve a problem with logic alone.
“We all know Harper shouldn’t be a dragon rider.
The first time she experiences a real battle, not that kissing shit with the Hollowborn, but a real battle, she’s either going to realize that we were right in saying she wasn’t cut out for this, or she’s not going to survive the battle.
Simply put, she shouldn’t be a rider. And if she explained this properly to Ebron, I’m sure he’d be open to the idea of one of us riding him. ”
“Would he be?” Gareth asks, giving me a look.
Alaric answers. “The truth is that we’ve had so few male dragon/female dragon rider combinations that we have to imagine anything is truly possible. With so few data points to analyze, the fact that females have ridden male dragons could simply be a coincidence.”
“He’s got a point,” I say, glad he managed to put into words what I’ve been thinking all along. “Logic says all dragons should have male riders, and that all riders should be nobility.”
“She goes against everything we know to be important about being a dragon rider,” Gareth says softly, thoughtfully. “But,” and his but lingers between us, “she has proven to be a satisfactory rider thus far.”
“Against no real dangers,” I say, “just training.”
“And the Hollowborn,” Gareth adds, making us all quiet for a moment.
“Do you think her pretty face alone did something to the Hollowborn? I mean, according to her, he spoke to her, he kissed her.” Alaric is notably troubled, and I can’t help but feel the same way.
It doesn’t help that a small part of me is also remembering what it was like when I kissed her and wondering if her kiss with the Hollowborn was anything like what we shared.
Did she think about him? Did she compare us? No, I can’t imagine anyone has ever had a kiss that compares with what we shared. I mean, I’ve been with a whole city of women, and Harper knocked me off my feet.
Gareth gives a dry laugh. “She’s beautiful, but that alone didn’t sway the Hollowborn. He must have heard the rumors about a female dragon rider, and sought her out, thinking that she might be the only dragon rider who would hear his message, and deliver it, without trying to kill him.”
“Well, he chose right there,” I say, but there’s no humor in my voice. “She actually thinks peace is a good idea. Can you believe that?”
Alaric shrugs as he takes a sip of his drink.
“Peace is always a good idea. If it’s sincere.
She’s not wrong to be excited about the possibility, she’s just naive to think a Hollowborn ever wants anything but death and destruction.
I mean, didn’t one of the peace agreements with the Hollowborns only last one month? Didn’t that month end in bloodshed?”
“It did. It’s just her inexperience saying this is a good idea.
I know the history books offered to the dragon riders often gloss over the times of peace, since that information isn’t useful to us, but I know enough about the times of war to be confident with what I think,” I say, completely agreeing with my brother.
We’re quiet again for a long moment before Gareth asks, “What have your dragons been like since Ebron arrived?”
Ugh, my dragon, Verdraxa. “She doesn’t communicate with me much, as always, the damn secretive dragons, but when she does, it’s all about Ebron. She wants me to be working hard to build a relationship with Harper, because she says that Ebron will be her mate.”
“Sylvara has been equally stubborn,” Gareth admits. “She’s basically told me that I am not to screw this up for her. That Ebron will not choose her as his mate if Harper hates me, so I will make Harper like me. It’s the most personal she’s ever spoken to me. ”
We glance at Alaric. He sighs. “Nythera is the same. Initially, she was pressing me to do better with Harper, because she wanted to beat out your dragons for Ebron’s affection, but now she seems to have accepted that she’ll be sharing him with your dragons.”
“This is crazy, right?” I ask. “We can’t choose our wife based on our dragons.”
“It’s what will happen, according to father,” Alaric says quietly, then drinks far more of his drink.
Ah, father! The man of the year himself.
He was never once there when his sons scraped a knee or broke a bone, but he seems overly involved in making certain we have no say over who we marry.
In his eyes, the three of us are as good as wed to Harper.
He’s practically giggling like a schoolgirl as he reads various historical accounts from ancient books about how this will change our nation for the better.
“No offense,” Gareth says slowly. “But even though I always knew it might be possible that I’d have to share my bride with other men, since that’s the way it’s always been done, I never planned on it being with you two.
I can’t even imagine the life we’d lead if we have to be that close to each other. ”
“Agreed. I can barely stand the two of you,” I say, getting up and refilling my glass from the canter on his table.
Although, to be fair, I’ve been getting along with them better lately.
Other than the underlying tension between us when it comes to Harper’s attention, there’s been less…
rage beneath our interactions and more… indifference?
I’m not sure. But I haven’t had a dream about beating them in battle and flying a victory flag while I stand on their almost lifeless bodies lately.
Alaric lifts his glass, and I come over and refill both their glasses before setting the bottle down on the table between us, while he stares into the flames of the fire.
“Let’s walk through this carefully. The path we’re on is essentially one where Ebron chooses our dragons as mates, we marry Harper and share her between us, and a peace agreement, that can’t possibly last, is created between us and the Hollowborns.
The only thing we can do to disrupt this process is convince Harper to give up being a dragon rider, take Ebron for ourselves, and in doing so, our father will not accept the Hollowborn’s deal, and the war will grind on, endless as ever. ”
“Correct,” I say.
His gaze flickers to us. “But there’s also the possibility, if a bit unlikely, that the prophecy is right. Harper could bring about peace between the two nations, and the fighting between our people could finally stop.”
“But then we have to just sit around and wait for them to betray us, like they always do,” Alaric says, shaking his head.
“And we have to somehow share Harper between us,” I say.
Gareth frowns. “If I have Harper, I don’t want to share her at all.”
In an instant, we all know he’s spoken something out loud that he shouldn’t have. “You like her,” I accuse.
“No,” he denies, but there’s no passion in the word.
“You want her for yourself.”
He won’t look at me, but he says, “And you don’t?”
“I-I… we’re not talking about me.”
He smirks, and our gazes lock. “You couldn’t possibly be more obvious with the way you feel about her.”
I turn my angry gaze onto him. “You’re no better. Every time a man gets near her, you go nuts.”
He bristles. “I’m protective. She’s the only woman here.”
“How does you protecting her from getting laid do anything to keep her safe?”
He glares.
Alaric draws himself up taller and leans toward us.
“Maybe I do want her. Maybe I wouldn’t be opposed to some situation where it worked out that she was my wife.
” I try to speak, but he pushes on. “Maybe she could be a dragon rider in spirit alone, and I could be the one to ride Ebron. Maybe if she gives permission, her dragon will welcome me as his rider.”
“Fuck no,” I say. “If someone is going to marry Harper and take her dragon, it’s going to be me.”
“I thought you didn’t want her,” he says angrily.
“I thought you didn’t want her,” I counter back.
I watch his jaw working. “If one of us is going to have her, because I sure as fuck am not sharing a woman with you, it should be me.”
“No, it should be me,” Gareth responds simply, rotating his glass, looking like he’s on the edge of starting a fist fight.
“Fuck!” I shout, slamming my drink down and rising. “Let’s stop this. None of us will have her. We will continue to make her life miserable, and she will leave.”
“And if she doesn’t? What if she simply chooses other dragon riders as her husbands? And our dragons lose Ebron, and we have to watch Harper with someone else?” Alaric challenges.
My dragon will not forgive me if I fuck this up for her. But that won’t even be the worst of it.
I begin to pace, energy coursing through me. I really wish he hadn’t said that. I really wish I wasn’t currently picturing Harper like a hog on a spit between two other dragon riders. “We won’t let that happen.”
Memories of her flash through my mind. Of her stroking my cock. Of her lying back and spreading her legs for me. And then the image shatters to her with another man, and I’m enraged.
“How will we have any control over it?” Alaric asks, and I know he’s taunting me. Trying to get a rise out of me.
“We’re still the princes of this great fucking nation. If we don’t want her with other men, she won’t be with other men. One dragon’s wants won’t change that.”
Gareth laughs dryly.
I whirl on him. “What?”
He swirls his drink in his glass, grinning. “I just think it’s funny how bad you have it for her, and how ridiculously in denial you are.”
I leap at him. The glass hits the floor, shattering, and the chair goes flying back, sending us both tumbling to the floor. I lift my hand back, going to punch him, when someone catches my wrist. Fucking Alaric. He shoves me off of Gareth, and Gareth and I both leap to our feet.
“Enough!” Alaric says, stepping between us.
“You guys act like we have so much control here, but we really don’t.
If Harper remains a dragon rider, she’ll either end up with us, or with other men, depending who her dragon chooses.
We can do what we can to discourage her from becoming a dragon rider, but if we can’t, we’re going to have to figure some shit out, because we can’t fight everyone else if we’re fighting each other. ”
“What are you suggesting?” Gareth asks, breathing hard, hands in fists.
“We open ourselves up to the idea of sharing her. Surely, if it’s in the best interest of our great nation, we can learn to get along.”
“Fat chance,” Gareth says, glaring at me.
Rage flows through me. “I can do anything. I’m Prince Lucien Stormvale.”
Gareth drops his fists. “I can do even better than you.”
Alaric sighs loudly. “So, Plan A is to get Harper to leave the dragon riders’ academy without Ebron. Plan B… well, Plan B is for us to learn to play nicely, so we end up with the woman of legend and some other assholes don’t end up with her.”
I can’t help myself. I have to ask. “What if by the time we realize we have to go with Plan B, we’ve ruined things past the point of fixing them with Harper?”
Alaric runs his hand over his hair. “Well, I guess we take that chance.”
He says it, but is that really a chance I’m willing to take? The truth is, I don’t know.