Chapter 10 #2
He chuffed a few times but then sighed. “You’re right. I didn’t want anyone to overhear us, but I could have handled that better.” He glanced at my arm. “Are you okay? Did I scare you?”
I chilled too. “Everything is going to be too tense for a while.” I snorted when he seemed confused. “A coup was thrown in my own castle when I arrived home, Kole. Yeah, I’m on edge. Rightfully so.”
“Fucking elders,” he grumbled. He rubbed his hand over his head.
“I’ll explain the rest later and—I don’t know who told you what but—nothing happened with Elira.
It’s not even—it was nothing. We were just talking and—I don’t know which maid or guard came to snitch or who they were working for, but—”
“No, you take responsibility for this,” I said firmly, holding up my hand to him. “I don’t care if it was the most innocent thing ever and you didn’t actually touch her.”
His eyes went too wide. “Of course I didn’t. I wasn’t fucking a woman I barely know after your parents’ funeral, Sagan. Who does that?”
Me. I did that with a man and didn’t even know who he was still.
Yeah, that was a hard pill to swallow and took a lot of steam out of my outrage. He would be beyond pissed if he knew what I’d done.
And rightfully so.
Yes, I was in heat and he’d been—it would have been a mess and dragons gave passes for that situation.
But I still would have been devastated.
You wouldn’t have done what he did and given you reason to walk away.
I sighed and rubbed my hand over my face. I repeated the optics to him and how it all looked. “You cannot—you’re not stupid, Kole. You’re the heir of an Alpha. I know you’ve had training that everything you do matters.”
“Look, I shouldn’t have left without checking in with you first, but you were being so—”
“So consumed with grief?” I drawled.
He ignored that and went on. “I want to know who this supposed witness was and talk with them.”
“What? Are you—what will that matter?”
Anger filled his eyes. “I have a right to face my accuser, and I want to know who the rats are in this castle.”
“You are unbelievable,” I whispered, unable to hide my disgust. “There’s no rat when it reached my ears when it’s my castle. That’s being loyal.” I turned to keep moving down that hallway since it would take me outside, but a voice to my left stopped me.
“The staff wasn’t the only witness,” a deep voice said. “I saw too. And you weren’t exactly quiet as you complained that the princess wasn’t—”
“You’re just saying this to try and break us up and so you have a better chance with her,” Kole snapped.
The man’s eyes flashed lighter blue and I had a flashback to that night.
It’s him. This is who fucked me like never before.
I shook off the thought and focused on now. “No, Kole, you’re doing that all on your own. The door was open, but she was touching you.”
The man snorted. “He was touching her bare thigh while she played with his hair. That’s what I saw. I went to get his father to tell him not to be so stupid but got held up.” He snickered when Kole moved like he was going to hit him. “Try it. I’m in a bad enough mood, so I want to fight.”
Kole believed him because he backed off and turned towards me. “You cannot trust Thorn, Sagan.”
“Well, right now I don’t trust you after lying to your father and me,” I seethed. “So just go before I end things right here.” I ignored his shocked expression and focused on the man. “If you have a moment, I’d like to hear the rest. The details I have are—they—if you have a moment?”
There was a flash of surprise on his face, but then it was gone. “Of course, Your Highness.” He shoved past Kole and made sure to put himself between us like he was worried Kole would try something with me.
I appreciated the thought, but honestly I almost hoped Kole did so I could just end it. Or break him.
I was so upset that I kind of wanted that option as well.
I felt him behind me as I moved down the hallway, trying to remember where I was in the castle. I paused and then looked between two doors before trying the left one. Sighing, I closed it and tried the other one.
“Lost in your own castle?” he asked, his tone a bit too amused.
I shot him an unfriendly look over my shoulder. “If you’re smart, you won’t pour salt in that wound.” I was glad when understanding filled his eyes.
And pity.
Anyone with a soul would feel a bit of pity for someone who barely knew her own home because she didn’t grow up there and barely spent time there… At the request of her own parents.
I found a sitting room and let him inside, closing the door behind us. I stared at him for several moments, trying to process any and all of it. Licking my suddenly dry lips, I froze when he watched with too much interest.
It had to be him, right?
“How much did you see that night? Exactly what did you see?”
He narrowed his eyes and studied me like I’d grown another head or something, but then shock bloomed over every inch of his face in an almost amusing way. Like seriously, I might have been able to push the huge dragon over with a feather.
Huge, attractive dragon.
Ignore that for the moment and focus, Sagan!
“You don’t remember,” he breathed after maybe a full minute of silence.
I opened my mouth but then closed it, studying him. “Remember what?”
He shook himself out of whatever he was thinking, but then worry filled his pretty eyes. “Heat doesn’t make you not remember. Were you drugged?”
I went to ask him what he meant, but then I suddenly felt self-conscious. He held all of the cards in this moment, and if I played mine wrong, it could be beyond devastating.
“It’s him,” my dragon told me firmly.
Right, but how did I know that? We couldn’t remember.
I cleared my throat and rubbed my arm. “Heat? Who was in heat? I’m asking what you saw in that hallway that night.”
“Do you really remember nothing?” he asked, his tone making it clear he was scared.
And destroyed.
I cleared my throat again, totally not keeping my cool at all. I glanced away. “I—it was an awful day for me. I remember bits and pieces of that night, but—no one would blame me if things slipped my mind. But I’m not asking about—”
I gasped as he was suddenly in front of me and grabbed my neck to pull me into a kiss. It wasn’t so much the kiss but how he reached for me. It wasn’t simply pulling me to him.
No, it was his large hand on my throat in a possessive and controlling way.
And then he kissed me in a way that I’d only felt once before.
Thorn leaned back and ran his thumb over my bottom lip. “Remember now, Sagan?”
I shivered when he said my name. It echoed in my mind like a fleeting memory I couldn’t quite grab. “It was you.”
“It was me,” he chuffed before brushing his lips over mine again. “You didn’t—you didn’t remember. You weren’t being a spoiled bitch and—”
“What?” I gasped and pulled away from him. “How am I the bad guy in—”
He stepped with me and pulled me back to him. “You brushed me off when I tried to talk to you the next day. You slip out of my bed and I’m still trying to be a good guy and warn you, but you were so ridiculous and cold. Like you’d never seen me or…”
I pushed at his arm until he got the idea and let me go. I took a step back and focused over his shoulder. “I would never have—even if there was a misunderstanding or—I would think I deserved a bit of understanding.”
“For blowing off the man you slept with the night before?” he hedged. “Yeah, it makes sense now that I—”
I met his gaze and didn’t hide my anger, glad when he flinched.
“I buried my parents Wednesday. I’ve faced a fucking coup and trying to be forced to mate preselected men.
Every fucking Alpha pressured me to have this meeting days later to get a member of their family in my fucking bed like I’m a fucking whore.
Not to mention the elders—I get a fucking pass. ”
I went to step around him before I said more than I already had—more than I should have said—but his next words froze me.
“You’re right. I’m sorry.”
I took in a slow breath and let it out, trying to understand if the situation was reversed. I couldn’t calm down though.
Not until he wrapped his arms around me and nuzzled my neck. “I’m sorry, Sagan. You’re not the only one struggling. I did realize I was being—it was why I tried to come talk to you after the meeting.”
“I don’t understand,” I admitted as I moved my hand over his, half hugging his arm to me.
“I thought about how I was in such a blur after my dad died and that I couldn’t handle anything,” he explained, his soft lips kissing under my ear. “Yes, I was younger, but—grief is grief. And given what happened with Kole… Yeah, you got a pass.”
I let out a slow breath. “Thank you.” I turned in his arms and stared up into his pretty eyes. “I don’t know—I have flashes. Your eyes. The way you kissed me.” I flushed lava hot.
A slow, sexy grin spread on his lips. “Clearly, a few other things that you enjoyed.” He ran his fingers down my cheek. “I more than enjoyed it as well.”
It took everything I had not to shiver. “I woke in my bed and wrecked. My heat has never been—”
Worry filled his eyes again and he grabbed my upper arms. “Listen to me. I thought you were poisoned, but you said it was just your heat. If you don’t remember—I’m worried.”
“It could just be the grief and my first time being in like real heat,” I muttered. “I’ve heard of it being a blur for other women.”
He searched my eyes. “I couldn’t tell you about that, but you have to consider it.”
“We are,” I admitted. If he was being so honest and—I couldn’t hide that when he was worried. I cleared my throat and moved my hands to his chest.
He got the hint and let go of my upper arms.
Something he said hit me though, so when he reached to touch my face again, I took a step back. I ignored his frown and focused on his chest. “What were you going to warn me about?” I did a double take and the next step away from him was much bigger.
He swallowed loudly. “I didn’t know about—my uncle was too giddy about the funeral. Not that your parents died but being here and what would happen after. He was acting like a jackass—more than normal. It pissed me off and all the whispers with elders and—I thought…”
“What?” I whispered.
“You were a trap, but then you were upset and scared. You were—I thought you were poisoned and then you begged me to sate your heat and it was—well, you know.”
I chuffed as I put the pieces together. “No, I don’t actually, but I’m getting to see now.”
He reached for me but didn’t push when I smacked his hand away. “Look, the last thing I wanted was to be part of a fucking pressure mating of any kind, much less to the royal family when I had such issues with your father.”
“What?” I whispered, my eyes going too wide.
He growled and scrubbed his hands over his head. “Your father kept denying my requests for a meeting and to speak with him privately. He wouldn’t even meet with me, too scared to rock the boat instead of doing what was right—”
“That doesn’t remotely sound like him,” I snapped.
The pity came back in his eyes. “You didn’t know them as well as you think, Sagan.
I’m sorry you’re going to learn a lot of hard truths like I did after mine died.
Really, I am.” He hurried on when I opened my mouth to blast him.
“But fine, yeah, I didn’t know your father.
That was part of my problem with him. Whatever, my point is I wasn’t looking to get involved here. ”
“We made it part of the rules that no one could be forced,” I told him.
He snorted. “What’s force and what’s just veiled threats and manipulation?”
Yeah, that was fair. I nodded that I heard him, but it was definitely something to bring up with Aunt Maple at least. I wasn’t getting stuck mated to someone—more than one probably—because they were forced to do it.
Over my dead body.
“I needed to make sure you understood that I wasn’t part of what happened or what will happen,” he told me softly.
“What will happen?” I hedged, already understanding he was going to be the candidate from his area.
He swallowed loudly. “You cannot trust my uncle, Sagan. Not in any way. He wants me as your mate and my child to rule next.”
“They all want that,” I grumbled.
“Yeah, but they didn’t all steal their position as Alpha from their nephews. He did me. I’m the rightful Alpha of my area, but I wasn’t quite of age.”
Well, that was fucking awesome.
Seriously, fucking awesome.
I studied him. “That’s normal, but how long have you been of age? If it’s only been—”
“Fifteen years. I’m forty.”
I really and truly hated every aspect of my life. If my father ignored that and didn’t even meet with Thorn… Fuck everything.
“Have any good news for me?” I drawled.
He was kissing me before I could even think of what else to say.
“Yeah, I’m going to make sure we repeat that night when you’re not in heat or drugged.
Now I have every right to touch you instead of the guilt I see in your eyes like you cheated on that piece of shit.
Now you can just enjoy everything I’ll do to your perfect body. ”
I was in serious trouble because every inch of me was on board with that and it wasn’t remotely the smart answer.