Chapter 21
Mikael
The kiss stole what remained of Mikael’s restraint almost instantly.
One moment he was standing motionless in the snow with Lyra’s hands cupped his face and the cold mountain wind swept around them, and the next he was pulling her closer while something deep inside him surged to attention.
Mine.
The dragon’s possessiveness crashed through him with dangerous intensity now that she had chosen him willingly. Mikael felt the instinct spread like wildfire beneath his skin until every rational thought became tangled with the overwhelming need to keep her close.
Lyra made a soft sound against his mouth when his hand slid into her hair. It was a sound that nearly destroyed him.
Mikael kissed her harder before finally forcing himself to pull back just enough to breathe. His forehead rested against hers while both of them struggled for air beneath the drifting snow.
“You need to understand something,” he said roughly.
Lyra pulled back, her lips flushed from kissing him and her eyes wide and dazed as she stared up at him.
“If you keep doing this,” Mikael murmured, “you’re about to start something you may not actually want to finish.”
Because dragons did not love or protect their mates halfway.
It became more of an obsession and Mikael could already feel the edges of that obsession forming inside him with alarming speed.
Claiming her right there in the frozen forest wasn’t exactly an ideal situation, but it would do for lack of other options.
Lyra stared at him for one breathless moment. “It’s exactly what I want.”
The words shattered the last of his control.
Mikael kissed her again, harder this time.
A bed of snow would be cold, but he was certain they wouldn’t notice with the heat coming off them.
Lyra grabbed the front of his coat as though anchoring herself to him before she suddenly pulled away just enough to catch his hand.
“Come with me,” she whispered. Mikael followed without hesitation.
She led him down a narrow trail behind the cottage toward a small greenhouse that sat in a stand of pines.
Its glass walls reflected the winter sky while snow gathered along the edges of the roof.
Warmth wrapped around them the moment they stepped inside.
Rich earth and winter blooms filled the air with soft sweetness as Lyra hurried breathlessly past rows of plants toward the small supply room tucked into the back corner.
The second the door closed behind them, Mikael had her against him again.
The storm inside his chest had not vanished exactly, because the dragon still paced possessively beneath his skin while Lyra rested against him with flushed cheeks and tangled hair in the dim light.
For the first time in days Mikael no longer felt fractured apart by fear and suspicion.
Only certainty.
As soon as the door was closed, Mikael lifted her off the ground and carried her to the large table against the wall. He swept the various pots to the ground and sat her on the edge. Luckily the table seemed sturdy.
Lyra murmured against his lips. “Looks like I started that something you warned me about.”
Her breasts were crushed to his chest as he kissed her. With a growl, he nuzzled her neck. "I'm pretty sure we could finish that something right here. But you have to be absolutely sure."
Lyra arched into him as she returned his kisses in a silent answer. jackets went flying. Their breath came in mists but neither of them felt the cold.
She raised her arms and he slid her shirt off before he unclasped her bra and nuzzled her bare breasts with his face, her nipples already at taut peaks.
“Are you sure no one will come looking for us?” he asked in a voice heavy with want.
“They’ll never know we’re out here,” was her only response.
Nothing else mattered at that point. It was just the two of them in the most primitive setting they could imagine, with nothing but each other. Everything else just faded away as his tongue flicked her nipples and she gasped in pleasure.
“This isn’t the ideal situation for this,” Mikael groaned.
“It’s ideal enough.” Lyra’s fingers fumbled with his belt. “We just need to be quick so we don’t freeze to death in compromising positions.”
He wiggled his hips enough that she was able to slide his cock out of his pants. She struggled to get her own jeans down, and he cupped her ass to try and keep it off the cold surface of the table. She slid to the edge and spread her legs as much as she could.
“It won’t always be this awkward.” Mikael captured her mouth again with his own.
“Just do me already.”
Mikael was shocked at her own wanton behavior, but his body was on fire with need to be inside her. He needed no further invitation and buried himself deep inside her in a single thrust. He teased and taunted her with each stroke. Despite the cold, he took his time and ignored her urgency.
He pulled a hand free and caught her nipple between his fingers. The sharp tweak of pain made her squeal as desire swamped over her. He could feel her tighten around him as she almost climaxed from the collision of pain and pleasure, but Mikael slowed and caught her lips again.
While she returned his kisses, Lyra couldn’t resist wiggling to make him thrust again. Need completely took over and his body screamed for release.
“We don’t have time to waste,” she managed to gasp. “Finish it.”
This wasn’t about making love. This was primal lust that needed to be sated. There was no romance, no decorum, just plain old sex that needed to fulfill their passion.
Thrust after thrust built to a frenzied pace until he couldn’t hold back any longer. “I can’t hold back.”
She mumbled something and then cried out his name as they climaxed together, an orgasmic explosion of feelings and sensations. She stiffened against him as she rode the passion before she went limp.
His cock gave a final twitch inside her before he was completely spent. His forehead rested on her shoulder as she tried to find the energy just to breathe.
“Next time, we take our time,” he finally gasped.
“Next time we won’t be out in the cold.”
His heart gave a little flipflop that she didn’t object to his insinuation there would be a next time.
He sat on the edge of the table and pulled Lyra gently into an embrace while she lazily traced circles against the front of his shirt.
The intimacy of such a small absent gesture nearly affected him more than anything else had.
“For a king, I certainly didn’t show you the comforts of a castle.”
She giggled. “I think it was just perfect.”
“You know what this means now, right?” Mikael needed her to understand that he had no intentions of abandoning her.
His phone ringing shattered the quiet before she could answer. Mikael swore softly beneath his breath before reaching for his jacket while Lyra struggled back into her jeans.
“Yes?”
The guard captain answered immediately. “Your Majesty. The man we’ve been watching left the village approximately twenty minutes ago.”
Mikael’s expression hardened at once. “Is someone following him?”
“Started out at a discreet distance, Sire, but then he was lost in the storm. He appeared frustrated and headed east away from the village.”
“Maintain all positions,” Mikael ordered quietly. “I want eyes to remain on the village until I say otherwise. No stranger goes unnoticed.”
“Yes, sire.”
Mikael ended the call slowly before exhaling heavily.
Lyra looked up at him immediately. “What happened?”
“Beckett’s father left the village.”
Relief flickered across her face so quickly it hurt to see how frightened she had truly been beneath all her composure.
But now that the danger was gone, at least for the moment, Mikael’s mind had already shifted elsewhere now. Toward his own castle.
He brushed his thumb gently along Lyra’s cheek. “I need to return to the castle.”
Her expression fell immediately despite how quickly she tried hiding it.
“Because of Dag,” she guessed softly.
“Yes.”
The single word settled heavily between them. Mikael hated leaving her now more than he could adequately explain, and the dragon reacted with immediate hostility toward the very idea of separating from her after finally claiming this closeness between them.
Stay.
Protect her.
The instincts battered relentlessly against his control until Mikael had to physically unclench his hands.
“I’ll leave Malaya here with you and Beckett,” he said quietly. “And there are guards stationed throughout the village whether you realize it or not.”
Lyra blinked. “You assigned guards?”
“Without involving Dag.”
Understanding darkened her expression instantly. “You think he’s that dangerous?”
“He could be.” Mikael held her gaze before he sighed. “Yes.”
Neither of them spoke for several seconds after that. Lyra leaned forward and kissed him once softly, and somehow that simple tenderness affected him almost more than the desperate passion earlier had.
When they finally returned to the cottage sometime later, Malaya looked up from the couch where she sat half-watching television while Beckett slept curled beside her beneath blankets. One glance at Mikael and Lyra together made her smirk immediately.
“Oh no,” she muttered dramatically. “That look means feelings.”
Mikael ignored her entirely.
Malaya pointed toward Lyra anyway. “I approve, by the way.”
Lyra nearly choked.
Mikael frowned slightly. “Approve of what?”
“Your choice of mate.”
The word hit Mikael strangely hard.
Mate.
His dragon surged instantly in absolute agreement. Shock flickered briefly through Mikael because instead of objecting to the claim, instead of rejecting how dangerously attached he had become in such a short amount of time, he realized he didn’t disagree, not even a little.
Mikael couldn’t read Lyra’s face at his sister’s words, so he tried to sway the conversation in a different direction. “I’m heading back to the castle to see if I can get to the bottom of whatever is going on. I need you to stay here with Lyra.”
Malaya smoothed Beckett’s hair off his forehead. “I can do that. I’m not used to having this much down time.”
Lyra laughed. “Beckett usually doesn’t get this much television time.”
“Just be sure to stay on alert.”
Malaya rolled her eyes at her brother. “When am I not?”
After a painful goodbye to Lyra and one final kiss, Mikael headed back to find out what awaited him. When he arrived home, the castle felt colder than he had ever experienced.
It wasn’t physically cold, it was something else. There was something tense and wrong lurking beneath the polished stone halls and carefully controlled routines of court life.
Mikael barely paused long enough to change clothes before he demanded that Dag meet him privately in the war room. By the time his commander entered, Mikael’s temper already sat stretched dangerously thin beneath the surface.
Dag closed the door behind him with his usual easy confidence. “Good to see you alive.”
Mikael remained standing near the map table. “Why did you recall the guards from the village?”
Dag barely blinked. “Because the castle required protection.”
“From what?”
“The possibility that whoever poisoned you intended a second attack.”
Mikael stared at him coldly. “A missing child was still being searched for.”
Dag shrugged slightly. “And additional soldiers wandering the mountains during a blizzard would not have changed much.”
The dismissiveness in his tone sharpened something ugly inside Mikael. “You made that decision without my authorization.”
“You were still recovering and I wasn’t sure of your ability to make decisions.”
“And yet somehow you thought it was okay to just make calls knowing they were in complete contradiction of what I had told you, regardless of how weak I was.”
Dag’s jaw tightened faintly at that. For several seconds silence stretched heavily between them before Dag leaned casually against the edge of the table.
“So,” he said lightly, “I assume that you found the boy and you’ve been with Lyra the last couple of days.”
Something about the way he said her name instantly raised Mikael’s hackles. “Yes.”
Dag smirked faintly. “Interesting girl.”
Mikael’s expression hardened. “Be careful.” His anger was so focused on Dag’s instant attack of Lyra that the poisoning incident was momentarily forgotten.
“About what?” Dag asked innocently. “Mentioning the woman who used to trail after us through school like some pathetic stray animal hoping for attention?”
The words hit Mikael strangely. An image flashed suddenly through his mind of laughter in a crowded hallway while Lyra stood frozen beside her locker while Dag loudly mocked the secondhand clothes she wore.
And Mikael watched without saying anything. The memory vanished almost immediately but left something sick twisting in Mikael’s stomach.
“It would seem that you sought her out with the sole intention of being cruel to her. I don’t recall her following us around.”
Dag continued casually, clearly noticing the reaction but choosing to ignore it. “Honestly, I’m surprised she became your latest fixation considering how desperate she used to act around us.”
Another flash of Lyra carrying books against her chest while several students laughed after Dag dumped a drink across her shoes with a silent Mikael beside him again.
Guilt clawed viciously through his chest now as more broken memories surfaced in ugly flashes. He wasn’t certain if it was a lingering side effect of the toxins or simply memories that hadn’t mattered for a long time. But each one was worse than the last because Lyra had been right.
He had watched it happen, over and over again, and done nothing. “We were wrong in the way we treated her.”
Dag snorted softly. “At least she finally learned her place eventually.”
Something inside Mikael snapped. The dragon surged violently upward beneath his skin with enough force to make the air in the room abruptly spike in temperature. Mikael fought to keep it under control. Exposing his dragon would make everything instantly much worse.
Dag’s smirk widened. The nearby guards by the door were visibly panicked as they watched their king and their commander at odds.
“Mikael,” Dag said softly, almost mockingly now, “control yourself.”
Mikael’s skin crawled as the dragon roared inside him, furious and protective of the woman Dag had spent years tearing apart for entertainment.
“You do not speak about her that way again,” Mikael growled.
Dag looked utterly unimpressed. Worse even. He looked contemptuous. Mikael suddenly realized with horrifying clarity exactly what was happening.
Dag wanted this reaction, wanted Mikael angry and appearing unstable and out of control.
The realization cut through the rage just enough for Mikael to force the dragon back beneath the surface with brutal effort. Dag watched him carefully afterward, and for the first time Mikael noticed something deeply unsettling beneath the man’s calm expression.
It wasn’t fear or loyalty. It was resentment.
Mikael could only wonder how long it had been there and he just hadn’t noticed.