Chapter 10
“So the elders just came here to watch you have sex with me and now they’re going to leave the whole ‘massive dragon’ thing to you?
” Kate asked the question with no shortage of irritated attitude.
They were back in Vilka’s quarters, far from the elders by the time the erotic haze that had made her temporarily malleable had faded.
And it was just as well, because Kate was not happy.
After all she had sacrificed, she had expected more and better.
She had pulled out all the curse words she knew, and developed a few more just to describe what she insisted was their betrayal.
“Settle down,” Vilka said. “There are still some elders yet to arrive. I suspect they will be of more use.”
“Oh? Will you be stripping and fucking me again, then?”
“Not quite,” Vilka smirked as if she had said something particularly funny.
“Why not? They missed the show. That’s not fair, is it?”
If anything, Kate was more mouthy than she had ever been, making up time for all the abject obedience she had displayed before the gathered elders and Vilka’s legion. She had a lot of making up to do, and she was not wasting any time doing it.
“The elders in question are my parents. My father is a veteran of the first war, as is my mother.”
“Oh. Well,” Kate said. “So I guess that would be weird if we had sex in front of them, huh. Good to know you have some boundaries.”
“I wish to present you to them,” Vilka said. “And not solely because you are the cause of this crisis, but also because you are my mate.”
“So you want me to meet your parents,” Kate said, stunned. “And will I have to do that naked too?”
“No,” Vilka snorted. “This will be a clothed event. And though it will not be formal, I would appreciate it if you could at least try to be polite.”
Kate watched him as he dressed, fussing over his leather armor. He had adjusted it several times and still did not seem entirely comfortable in it.
“Why are you so nervous?” She tilted her head at him curiously. “You were less worried about the world eater, and losing all your men and the elders coming.”
Vilka hesitated for a moment before answering her. “My father is a demanding man, and I have been less than a perfect son.”
“How?” Kate frowned. She couldn’t comprehend how Vilka could be considered anything other than perfect. He was handsome, intelligent, commanding… “You have your own fortress and everything. What kind of high expectations does he have that you’re not meeting?”
“I was once on track for much more than command of a fortress this far from civilization,” Vilka admitted.
“You understand, Kate, there was never any indication that Avastias would wake in my lifetime. This is not a post of honor. This is a place where those who are too much trouble for other places end up.”
“Oh, so the perfect place for me, I guess,” she said with a little grin.
“Yes,” Vilka agreed. “I believe so. Though you seem determined as ever to go back and wreak havoc…”
“Aren’t you?” Kate cocked her head to the side and fiddled with the length of her hair, braiding a few strands loosely with her fingers. “I mean, before I came here, were you content to look at a mountain all day?”
“No,” Vilka admitted. “But I had already brought enough shame to my family name.”
Kate’s curiosity spiked. “What did you do?”
Vilka hesitated for a moment. “I am sure I will regret telling you this, but as all highborn men do, I joined the winged guard when I was of age. I did well, but I was not promoted as often as I should have been because they did not care for me. My father’s choice of mate was, and still is, controversial among many.
I paid the price for that controversy many times over, being passed over for promotions, spoken to in a condescending and often cruel fashion…
it became clear that they would not respect me, no matter how many times I proved myself to my command.
So I did something which made it impossible for them to ignore me any longer. ”
“What did you do?”
“I really should not tell you,” Vilka repeated. “It will only make you even more difficult to deal with.”
“Are you kidding me? This is the most likeable you’ve ever been,” Kate exclaimed. “You’re always so stiff and perfect. I want to know what you did.”
“There is a king of dragons,” Vilka said.
“Becoming one of his personal guard is the highest honor. It is given to the fastest, fiercest, and most adept warriors. I proved myself in the seven trials and was among the top three initiates in the final counting, but when the time came for the king’s guard to be chosen, I was not among their number. ”
“Okay…”
“You must understand, my father was of the king’s guard.
And his father before him, and his father before him.
As long as we have existed, my line has guarded the king’s riches—a vast trove which lies buried deep in the king’s castle.
To not be chosen was not just a slight against me; it was a denial of my entire lineage. ”
“Mhmm…” Kate nodded along. He was going to get to the point soon, she was sure. The way he kept avoiding telling her precisely what he had done made her certain it was something he did not want her to know. “So what did you actually do?”
A dark, attractive smirk settled itself on Vilka’s features.
“The greatest treasure of all is the dragon crown. It weighs half a ton, and is worn by the king when he takes his dragon form. It is studded with all manner of jewels, laden with gold and silver and many more valuables besides. It is guarded at all times by four of the royal guard who rotate around the chamber, and there are many other layers of protection… I was so angry, so desperate to prove my worth and ability, that I decided the best way to do it would be to steal the crown.”
“Oh, god,” Kate half-groaned.
“I was successful,” Vilka said, his smile broadening.
“But the result was not what I’d thought it would be.
I was young and foolish and I thought it would earn me admiration and respect.
Instead I was denounced as everything from a thief, to a traitor—even though I did not take it for myself, but instead left it on display on the tallest spire of the king’s castle.
There was talk of banishing me from the realm, but my father spoke on my behalf and instead I was sent here, to the farthest reaches.
I have been here ten long years, and in that time I have not seen or spoken to my father.
I had hoped to redeem myself somehow, but all I have to present him with now is a crisis. ”
“Well, this is more my fault than yours,” Kate said. “I’ll tell your dad that when I see him.”
“Oh, is it? You have spent so much time denying your role, I am surprised to hear you say that.”
“Well, of course I have,” Kate sighed. “I’m not going to go around taking the blame and just… admitting I was wrong. Where would that leave me?”
“In less trouble than you are currently?”
She gave a little shrug. “I don’t think it matters really anymore, degrees of trouble. There’s a giant beast somewhere on the East Coast of the United States and I’m stuck here as the sex prisoner of a fallen dragon.”
Vilka’s eyes gleamed with good humor as he leaned in and kissed her. “I love you,” he said. “You may be my prisoner, I may have to whip your bottom frequently, and perhaps you would give anything to be free of me, but I do love you anyway.”
“Okay, seeing as you’re being so sweet, before I escape, I’ll tell your dad not to be disappointed in you,” she said with a wink. “I promise.”
“You’re such an intractable brat!” Vilka took her by the hand and twisted her over onto her stomach, his palm catching her bottom hard enough to sting, but not nearly hard enough to punish.
Kate squealed with laughter as he mock-spanked her, taking out his frustrations on the rounds of her bottom.
“You are never going to escape, so you can forget about it.”
“I will always escape, so you can never forget about it,” she countered at the top of her lungs. “I’m going to be freeeeeeeeee!” Her squeal reached new pitches as his hand delved between her thighs and found her wet lower lips.
“You enjoy being a terrible minx, don’t you,” he lectured, toying with her sex.
She always got wet when he spanked her, some effect of her animal brain that made her body well with willingness for the one who could dominate her completely.
“I think you would be disappointed if you did somehow manage to escape now. You would probably come back and put yourself in chains so you could escape all over again.”
Kate’s response was lost in the moan of her arousal as they once more fell to making love in the face of almost certain doom.