Claimed by the Dragon King (High House Draconis Book 5)

by Riley Storm

  Kyla’s eyes automatically glanced down the passageway that the woman had come from.

  “It’s…complicated,” she said with a tight smile.

  “It can get like that sometimes,” the woman said with a knowing chuckle.

  “Pardon?” Kyla shook her head, not following along. Who was this?

  As if sensing her curiosity, the woman stuck out her hand. “I’m Cheryl. Victor’s mate.”

  “Oh. Right. That explains…” Kyla gestured at the very obvious pregnant belly.

  “Yeah,” Cheryl said, smiling wide. “Stuck in here, there wasn’t much else to do. Things happen.” She laughed, as if Kyla was supposed to understand it all.

  “So, what can I do for you, Cheryl?” she asked, wanting to be on her way back home. Back to where she belonged.

  Cheryl’s eyebrows knitted together over her eyes as she looked at Kyla. “You already knew about Galen being in a bad mood, didn’t you?”

  “Yes. Like I said. It’s…complicated.”

  “Do you not want to go to him? To help him out? If the others see him like this…” Cheryl shifted uncomfortably.

  “Galen isn’t my responsibility,” Kyla said. “Why would I go help him? He’s the one who’s doing this all to himself anyway.”

  “Well, because you’re…” Cheryl trailed off. “Oh. Oh I thought…”

  Kyla laughed in sudden understanding. “That we were mates? Sorry, I’m not laughing at you. But no. No we’re not. Galen made that very clear just now.” Her smile grew grim. “I should be going though.”

  “You’re not?” Cheryl said, looking down at the ground, lost in thought. “Are you sure?”

  “It’s not my place to explain,” Kyla said cautiously.

  Despite everything that had just occurred between her and Galen, she wasn’t about to talk about his private life. If Cheryl thought that the two of them were mates, then it seemed logical she wasn’t aware of Galen’s previous mate. That wasn’t something she was going to divulge. It wasn’t her place.

  “Are you sure you want to go?” Cheryl asked, trying in vain.

  “Yes,” Kyla said. “I should never have…have let myself be involved, with him. With a shifter. The animosity between us, between our kinds. It’s still very prevalent. Lots of people would be furious at me if they knew what had happened tonight. Or that I tried to help you out yesterday. I’ve done enough rule-breaking. It’s time for me to go. To let Galen be in peace with himself.”

  Maybe that way, he’ll get his mind sorted out straight.

  Just admitting to Cheryl the possible repercussions that she would face if word got out about her liaison with the dragon king made Kyla nervous about the idea of going home. She didn’t want to face the Archmage and have to lie to him.

  “I should never have come here,” she said suddenly, hurriedly moving past Cheryl and heading down the hallway. “Goodbye.”

  She heard Cheryl call out her name, one last-ditch attempt to convince her to stay, but Kyla had made up her mind, and she wasn’t about to be swayed.

  Galen had created the problem with himself. Galen could fix it.

  She was going home.

  21

  The door opened easily under her push and Kyla stepped out into the evening air. Her skin prickled and tightened as she left the relative warmth of the keep.

  “Ahhh,” she sighed, taking a deep breath of the unexpected cooler air outside.

  The milder temperature washed over her like a cleansing breath. She stood straighter, felt more awake, at last feeling secure in her decision to leave the Keep, and Galen, behind. The things that had happened, the events she’d experienced. They were better left in her past. Perhaps even forgotten about entirely. A momentary weakness to which she’d succumbed, nothing more.

  So why are you still standing here with the door held open in one hand, reluctant to take another step forward then? If things were that easy, shouldn’t you be on your way to the south wall, and beyond that, home?

  Turning slowly on the balls of her feet, Kyla found herself looking back into the Keep. Her eyes ran over the tapestries that lined the main hallway, and the various statues and other artifacts that sat on the tables and shelves beneath.

  Overhead, the arched ceiling rose high into the air, easily twenty feet or more above her head. It truly was one of the more impressive places she’d visited in her time as a mage. It was hard to put into words just what spoke to her the most. Perhaps it was the old world feel, that subtle shift that, upon entering Drakon Keep she was somehow transported back to a different era.

  The dragons were certainly modern enough, but there was something older about them, something more mature, sophisticated even. Kyla liked that, and it had made her time among them easier than she would have ever believed possible until she’d actually experienced it.

  It’s at an end, though. It’s time for you to go home. To where you belong.

  Her fingers slipped free of the door, and she watched it swing closed. For some reason, Kyla needed to see this happen. The door signified a milestone, the closing chapter of her adventure to Drakon Keep. Once it shut, it was closed forever.

  A sudden racing of her heart distracted her for a moment.

  You’re not seriously hoping that he’s going to come bursting through the door at the last minute, are you?

  She snorted to herself as the door closed with a dull thud. Of course not. That wasn’t Galen’s style at all.

  “Going somewhere?”

  Kyla yelped and spun around, staff lurching up protectively.

  “Whoa! Hey, hey, whoa, hold on there!” a figure at the bottom of the steps cried out, shielding themselves with their arms.

  “Francis?” she cried, relaxing almost immediately at the sight of the Keep’s steward. “What the hell are you doing?”

  “Recovering from a heart attack I think,” he muttered, slowly composing himself.

  “No I mean, out here,” she said, feeling guilty for scaring the poor man.

  “Working. You don’t think the dragons actually do any of the work themselves, do you?” he asked. “It’s a lot of working, fixing the lawns every time one of them lands and digs those big ugly talons of theirs into it. Don’t get me started about the damage they cause from fighting one another either.”

  “Sorry I asked,” she said, shaking her head. “Anyway, take care, Francis.”

  “Somebody has to.”

  She snorted.

  “Wait,” the steward called after her.

  Kyla sighed. “Why do people keep saying that to me?” she moaned. “Are you part of the ‘convince Kyla to stay’ train too or something?”

  “What? No, of course not. You think I want to deal with another hormonal body around here?” Francis retorted. “But, it wasn’t my choice.”

  “What wasn’t your choice?” she asked, confused by the nonsense.

  “To tell you to stay.”

  “So you want me to go?”

  “No, I want you to stay,” Francis said, crossing his arms.

  “But you just said…” Kyla rubbed her temple with one hand. “I’m going now, Francis. Before you give me another headache.”

  “You’d at least understand my pain if that were the case,” Francis said. “It was so much easier when there were just two.”

  “Two what? What are you talking about? Goodbye, Francis,” she said, pushing past the steward, trying to get the confusing conversation out of her head.

  “You should stay,” Francis said, shifting slightly to block her path.

  “You just said you don’t want me to,” she pointed out, growing cross.

  “Oh, I don’t want you to. But I was told to do this.” The steward shrugged helplessly.

  “By whom? Who hates me so much that they’d make me put up with you?” she cried.

  “Nobody,” a third voice said from behind her.

  Francis was already turning to go, but not before she heard him mumble something under his breath that sou
nded suspiciously like, “The same people that told me working for them would be fun.”

  She couldn’t help but snicker at the sarcastic remark directed the dragon’s way, but it came and went as she turned to face the newcomer.

  “Aaric,” she said in a dull monotone. “Let me guess. You’ve come to gloat over me leaving? Finally got rid of that mage you dislike?”

  She glared at the fire dragon, wanting him to know that she was aware of how little he liked her. That he had been the biggest proponent of sending her packing the moment she’d appeared at the keep.

  “No.”

  “So then you want me to stay?” she asked. “Seems to be the theme of the evening. Why wouldn’t you have suddenly reversed your position on me, right? That would make complete sense?”

  Aaric frowned. “If you wanted to leave, you would have left already. You wouldn’t be listening to us try to convince you to stay. So quit acting irate about it.”

  The harsh words reached out and verbally slapped Kyla on the cheek. She blinked in astonishment as they sank home and she realized that Aaric was right. All the delaying, all the standing still, it was her choice.

  Nothing had been stopping her from walking and talking to Cheryl, or Francis. Even now, she could continue to walk, and if Aaric wanted to talk to her, it would be up to him to keep up. If she really wanted to leave.

  “That’s what I thought,” Aaric said with quiet confidence. No bragging, no sarcasm. He was simply stating the truth.

  “Even if I wanted to stay,” she said, not quite ready to accept the truth of her feelings. “He doesn’t want me to be here. He wants to be alone. Remote. Distance. I can’t get through to him.”

  Aaric sighed. “Galen has convinced himself that the best leader we need is someone cold and distant. No emotions, nothing. He thinks that what a King should be like.”

  “Why would he do that?” she asked, disliking how curious she was to know more about Galen. She was supposed to be over him. Moved on.

  “That’s a damn good question,” Aaric said with a helpless shrug. “He was like this before. Emotionally unavailable, closed off. Now it’s translated into his leadership.”

  She nodded. “Yes. I’ve seen bits of that.”

  “He’s been better since you came along,” Aaric said. “More lively.”

  “Well I’m sorry that he’s going to return to the old Galen once I’m gone,” she said, trying to act like nothing within her had changed.

  “Galen needs you,” Aaric said.

  “No,” she growled, holding both hands up. “Don’t you put that on me. He is not my responsibility.”

  “No, he’s not,” Aaric agreed. “But you need him too. Even if you can’t admit it to me, I can see it on your face. You know the truth of it.”

  “I’m leaving,” she stated, not appreciative of how Aaric’s words were cutting through her, making her feel things she was trying to keep buried. She didn’t want to care for Galen, she told herself. He was a dragon shifter, her mortal enemy. She wasn’t supposed to like him. To want to be with him.

  It wasn’t fair.

  “You need to go to him. Get him to talk. You’re the only one who can get him to open up, Kyla. Please.”

  She shook her head stubbornly. “No.”

  “I can’t let you leave,” Aaric said quietly, and his hands began to glow. “You two need each other. I’m going to make you see that, even if I have to beat the sense into you myself. Then I’ll go to Galen and do the same damn thing if I must.” His voice became a growl. “The two of you have to be the most stubborn people I’ve ever met since—”

  “Since yourself?” Francis asked, popping out of seemingly nowhere and darting up the steps just out of Aaric’s grasp before disappearing inside. “You like him!” echoed out through the closing door.

  “One day,” Aaric muttered angrily at the door, shaking a fiery fist at it. “One day.”

  Kyla noted that, and called her own magic forth. The ruins on her staff burst into light, and green magic coalesced in her left hand.

  “You don’t want to do this,” she warned the fire dragon.

  “You’re right,” he said tiredly, advancing a step toward her. “I don’t. But my King needs me to.”

  Kyla raised her hand warningly, but the dragon took another step toward her, his fire glowing brighter, the heatwaves starting to wash over her face and skin.

  Why is he doing this? Why is it so important that I go talk to Galen some more?

  She bared her teeth as Aaric came another step closer. Her magic burst forth, a curved green shield interposing itself between the two of them.

  “Let’s see if you really mean it, dragon,” she challenged.

  Aaric didn’t stop.

  22

  Galen gazed out over the Keep.

  Up this high on the balcony, a cool breeze whipped at him, ruffling his hair, pulling the black strands into a wild unkempt mess. Distracted by his thoughts, he ran a hand across his head, but it didn’t make any difference. In seconds, his efforts had been undone.

  After leaving Kyla, his most pressing need had been to find a quiet place to think. Diving down into the bowels of Drakon Keep had never been a thing for Galen, like it was for some of his brothers. They loved wandering the old, original hallways of the Keep, finding new passages and rooms that had once been important, but were now all but forgotten about.

  Not him. Galen needed heights, he needed freedom, and fresh air, when he had something he needed to think deeply on. If he’d been free to change, he would have taken to the skies in his dragon form, or headed westward to the small range of mountains that ran north to south on this side of the continent.

  The vampires had taken all that freedom away from him, however, and so he was left with one of the tall spires that dotted the sprawling Keep. There he could taste a hint of the wind as it spoke to him, but only a hint. He could not truly embrace its nature, let himself be carried away in a storm, all but merging with the winds themselves.

  Like his brothers, he felt trapped. Caged. Confined.

  Part of him just wished that the vampires would attack already, so that they could get things over with. The realist in him, however, knew that every day that passed without the attack gave the dragons one more chance to find a way to defeat them.

  The other shifters waited patiently for his call, slowly assembling their might to come to the aid of the dragons. The vampires would be in for a rude awakening, but even with the strength of all five shifter Houses united, Galen wasn’t sure that there was a hope for victory.

  Not without more of his kin.

  The wind picked up, sensing his dark thoughts and swirling around him and whistling across the roof of the Keep. Angry that he’d let his emotions boil over, he flicked a hand at the growing windstorm, dissipating it before it could take on a life of its own.

  “Get yourself together, Galen. The others expect better of you. They need better of you. Keep yourself controlled.”

  “You seem so sure of what the others need.”

  He lifted his head in surprise. “Kyla,” he said, tensing. “I thought you were leaving?”

  The mage came out onto the balcony. Apparently, he was so deep in his thoughts that she’d made the entire climb up to his level without him hearing a sound.

  She’s as bad as Francis for sneaking up on us.

  “So did I,” she said, coming up next to him, leaning on the ledge. “I really thought I was.”

  “What happened?” he asked, worried that perhaps the vampires had attacked. Was she hurt?

  “Things.”

  Galen’s nostrils scented something on her. “Aaric,” he said dryly, recognizing the brand of fire and ash.

  “I’m here,” she said, ignoring his half-stated question. “If you will talk with me. Openly,” she emphasized.

  “Is that not what we’re doing?” he asked.

  Kyla scowled and flicked a hand in his direction. A little ball of red energy smacked into
his face, inflicting little pain but leaving a tingle in its place. A magic slap.

  “No,” she told him emphatically. “Talk to me, Galen.”

  Rubbing his face where it continued to tingle from the sting of her attack, Galen sobered, looking away, unable to meet the mage’s gaze.

  “I don’t know if I can do that,” he said softly. “Not the way you want to.”

  “Why not?” Kyla pleaded. “Just speak to me. Open up to me.”

  Galen sighed, bending at the waist to slump over the railing, looking out over the Keep once more. “I don’t know if I know how,” he said, fighting back the pain threatening to blossom in his chest. “It hurts.”

  “Sometimes, those are the things we need to talk about most,” she said. “Here. Let me ask you a question. Why do you want me to go?”

  Hanging his head, Galen composed his thoughts. He considered her question. Why did he want her to go? What was it that made having her around so unbearable?

  “You…you make me…” he trailed off, growling at himself in frustration, unable to find the words he wanted to use. “I think I’m interested in you,” he said, forcing it out before his brain could catch up to wherever the words were coming from.

  There was a long silence.

  “You want me to leave. Because you’re interested in me. Have I got that right?” Kyla finally asked.

  He sighed, burying his face in his hands. “Yes,” he said, the answer practically a moan, hating himself for having even admitted that much to her.

  I’m sorry, Katherine, my love. I have tried so hard to remain faithful to you. To honor you. But I have failed. Failed in my duties as your mate, as your lover.

  “Why is that such a bad thing that you’re interested in me?” Kyla asked softly.

  “You wouldn’t understand. Not truly,” he said, the guilt that had subsided from earlier coming roaring back to fill his mind.

  “It goes back to your belief that dragons only mate once,” she said quietly. “Right?”

  “It’s not a belief,” he said with a hollow laugh. “It’s the truth. It means I can’t do this. I can’t give you what you want from me.”