Ailean took a deep breath, let it out, and said, “I’m sorry.”
Shalin shook her head. “I don’t need you to be. I’m completely aware of how enticing she is. Of how much others desire—”
“No,” he said softly, cutting her off. “I wish I could tell you I wanted her because I had to have her. Because I desired her so much. But it was really because I couldn’t believe a princess could want me, the low-born.”
“I hate that term. It’s cruel.”
“But how we’re viewed. I went to her bed that night for every wrong reason there is and as soon as I got there I regretted it more than I thought possible. I always felt like these past years with her obsessing over me was some sort of punishment for not doing what I normally do.”
“Which is?”
“Fuck the ones I want.” He laughed, but it was bitter. “I didn’t even fuck her. I brought her pleasure but that night I found none myself. I pushed her until she passed out, and then I ran like some startled kitten.”
“You wouldn’t be the first who ran,” Shalin said. “Although you may be the only one who didn’t come back out of fear. I do think you may finally be free, though. I’d heard a bit before the North dragons arrived that the queen has chosen a mate for Adienna. And Adienna is none too happy about it.”
“I feel sorry for the poor dragon sharing his life with her for the next six hundred years. I’d rather swallow glass.”
Before Shalin could respond to that, Ailean gripped her shoulders and pulled her up until they were face to face. “I’m sorry, Shalin.”
“Stop it. There’s nothing to—”
“I should have done what I’d planned to do that night, but I was stupid.” His hands went from her shoulders until they cupped her face. “It was you I was going to see that night. You I was walking toward. Then someone stopped me, I don’t remember who, and asked me some questions. When I turned back around, you were gone.”
Shalin stared at Ailean as that night came back to her with stunning clarity. Finally, she gave a soft laugh and shook her head. “That bitch.” She stroked his chest with the tips of her fingers. “She came to me that night, telling me to track down one of her personal guards. I searched everywhere. Every cavern, every chamber. After more than an hour I returned and found her guard already there. But the two of you were long gone. That explains why her friends were snickering at me the rest of the night, but I didn’t pay it much mind. They did that a lot, anyway.”
Ailean pulled her head down a bit and kissed her forehead. “I should never have listened to her. She told me you ran from me. That me, my reputation, scared you. And, like a fool, I believed her.”
“She’s very good at making a body believe whatever she tells them. Trust me when I say I won’t hold it against you. However,” she kissed his jaw, his throat, “that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t make it up to me.”
Ailean roughly grabbed her rear and pushed her up his body until her breast hung over his face. His tongue flicked against the nipple, making Shalin gasp until he took it into his mouth and she groaned.
He sucked and teased until Shalin gripped his head and held him tightly to her. That’s when he flipped her onto her back, him on top.
“I promise, Shalin,” he said, his mouth already moving to the other breast. “I’ll make it up to you all night long.”
Ailean looked down at Shalin again. Asleep, she had her head resting against his chest, one arm around his waist, the other fisted against his shoulder. Her legs were intertwined with his and she slept peacefully, positive she was safe in his arms. She trusted him when she trusted no one else but her own blood kin.
How did he let this happen? How did he let her dig her way into his heart and became mistress of it all? But she had, hadn’t she? His little dragoness.
Yet, what now? Once this all got straightened out—and he was sure the queen would do what was right—Shalin had her life to return to. Her school. Her future as an Elder. Although it didn’t seem like she truly wanted any of that. Did she really want to sit through painful, dead boring council meetings over fights for territory between dragons? Did she want to live her life in Devenallt Mountain? As an Elder, she’d be required to live there at least part of the year.
Yet after spending all this time with her, it looked to Ailean as though Shalin wanted nothing more than to be left alone to read.
If she promised her nights to him, he could give her that time alone and so much more. Gods, there was so much he wanted to give her if only she’d let him.
The little dragoness brought him so much joy. And not merely in his bed. While he knew he made her feel physically safe, she had yet to realize that she made him feel safe too. Safe talking to her, being with her. She made him laugh one minute and lust for her the next. And sometimes she broke his heart because she felt so alone. He could see it on her face, the way she watched his family. Her expression torn between envy and annoyance.
Yet Shalin still hadn’t realized what had become so clear to Ailean. She fit into his life, among his kin, perfectly.
She was the one he’d been waiting for all this time and neither of them had known it.
Ailean stroked her hair and smiled when she growled softly in her sleep.
“Who knew?” he asked the puppy staring at him from the end of the bed, the giant bone Shalin had given him slobbered over but uneaten and resting by his tiny paws. “Who knew I’d fall in love with Shalin the Innocent?”
11
“How long are you going to pretend we don’t already know?” Kyna demanded, dropping into a chair next to him.
Ailean didn’t bother looking up from the hot porridge and bread he shoveled into his mouth. Shalin had already gone out to the stables and he wanted to meet her out there before he got in some training later that day.
“Already know what?”
“About you and Shalin. We guessed it before, but the party last night only confirmed it.”
“It’s no one’s business until we decide it is. Stay out of it.” He reached for another loaf of warm bread, tore it in half and gave a piece to each sister. Kennis thanked him with a grunt as she dived into her own porridge, but Kyna wasn’t so easily distracted.
“Come, Ailean. Really. Do you think it’s fair to toy with her?”
“I’m not toying with her.”
Kyna snorted. “Then what are you doing? Planning to have hatchlings with her?”
Ailean finished his porridge, grabbed another loaf of bread, and stood. He smiled down at his cousin. “That’s exactly what I’m planning.”
Enjoying the way the twins froze in shock, Ailean went out to the stables.
Shalin ran the brush through Nightmare’s mane again and stepped back. “How about some braids today?”
“Because you’re a big mare of a stallion, aren’t you?”
Glaring at Ailean over the stall door, she corrected, “Warrior braids.”
“For him? He’s never been in battle.”
“How do you know? You only found him a few months ago.” She stalked up to Ailean and shook the brush at him. “And if I want to give my horse warrior braids, I’ll damn well do it. Understand?”
Turning away from him before she got an answer—because she knew she wouldn’t get an answer she’d like—she still heard the sudden grunt of pain and spun back around.
Ailean rubbed his head—and the lovely hoof print in the middle of it—and glared daggers at Nightmare.
“Oh, Ailean.” But even as she went to him to comfort him, she still couldn’t stop the laughter. “Are you all right?”
“As if you care.”
“I care.” She placed her feet on the slats of the gate and stood until they were eye to eye. She kissed his forehead and did her best not to laugh in his face. “I’m sorry. He’s very sensitive.”
“He’s mad, Shalin.”
“He’s mine,” she reminded him. “You promised him to me, did you not?”
“Yes. But I might be willing
to temporarily change my rule on eating horse in Kerezik.”
Nightmare moved forward but Shalin held up her hand. She knew she was the only thing standing between these two beasts getting into an ugly fight.
“Stop it. Both of you. Honestly, it’s like dealing with two young ones.”
“He started it.”
Disagreeing, Nightmare slammed his front hoof down.
“I said stop this.” She motioned to the partially eaten loaf of bread in Ailean’s hand. “Give me some of that, would you? I’m taking Nightmare for a ride.”
“Alone?”
“Yes. Alone.”
“I’ll go—”
“You said you have training and I’m only going to the lake. Besides, Nightmare will take care of me.”
“That does not bring me ease.”
“Bread,” she ordered, holding out her hand. He tore what remained in half and gave it to her. “Thank you.” Shalin kissed him, her tongue slipping between his lips to tangle with his own. They both groaned and Shalin realized she’d have to pull away or Ailean would take her right here in the stables. Not that she would have minded, but still—it seemed a tad inappropriate.
“We won’t be long.”
“Meet me in your library later.”
Shalin blinked. Her library? “Yes. All…all right,” she stammered, stepping down from the gate and unlocking it. She walked out and Nightmare followed.
“Be careful, Shalin.”
“I will.” She smiled before she took Nightmare out the less used exit at the back of the stables. She took him that way since he had a tendency to bite and kick anyone he passed.
“You like that horse better than me, don’t you?” Ailean called after her.
“Sometimes…yes!” she replied and got a little nuzzle for her trouble. “And take care of the puppy!” Although her puppy seemed more than happy to spend his time during the day with the pack of dogs who had free rein of the castle grounds and surrounding forests, only to appear suddenly at her feet during mealtimes, clearly expecting to spend that time in her lap with food at his disposal.
Once she’d awkwardly mounted Nightmare—she really would have to learn to do that a bit better—he immediately took off at a full gallop. She didn’t mind; she liked how it felt. Together they made a quick turn around the grounds right outside the castle before heading out to the lake. Once there, Shalin dismounted just as awkwardly and fed him apples from the leather pouch she’d tied around her waist. While she did, she chatted with him and petted his head and neck.
Eventually she held up the last apple and said, “I’ll give you this apple…if you promise to stop hitting Ailean in the head with your hooves.”
The horse snorted and turned his head away.
“Oh, come on!” she laughed, until he startled her by charging back a few feet before turning around.
Standing in front of her, Nightmare rose up on his hind legs and Shalin prepared herself to shift.
She stepped beside Nightmare and the twin males examined her from head to toe. They were fire dragons, but she didn’t recognize them.
“He’s protective,” said one.
“Aye. That’s good,” said the other.
She placed her hand on Nightmare’s neck to calm him. “Who—”
“Is Ailean about?” one of them asked abruptly.
“Castle.”
They nodded and walked off. One decided to push the other, so the other pushed him back. Then there were headlocks and fists thrown—all while they kept walking.
“They’re like that—constantly.”
Shalin turned at the new voice and grinned.
“Daddy!”
Ailean dived for his blade, but Kennis slammed her lance down in front of it and raised an eyebrow. “You’ll need to be faster than that, cousin.”
He hated training with the twins. They were brutal and fierce and bloody mean. But he and his brothers knew—if they could hold their own with the twins, they could defeat anyone else. Kennis and Kyna were, by far, the greatest warriors of their clan and the most deadly of the Battle Dragons of Dark Plains.
Still, training with them was never fun.
He sensed but never heard Kyna as she moved up behind him and brought her lance toward his head. Kennis went for the legs.
Before the twins could even fly, they’d taught themselves how to fight in tandem. With fourteen older brothers, they really had no choice. They could use almost any weapon, but favored the lances they’d designed and helped forge themselves, which could adjust to their smaller human size or extend when they were in dragon form.
Ailean maneuvered back, reaching for the lances but below the always-sharpened steel tips. Yet, like him, they sensed it and quickly adjusted, Kennis now going for his head and Kyna going for the legs.
He ducked the blow aimed for his head, but Kyna took him out at the legs, dumping him on his back.
Each slammed a foot against his chest and grinned down at him. “Sloppy, sloppy,” Kennis chastised.
“Perhaps he has something—”
“Or someone.”
“—on his mind, eh, sister?”
“I say we put him out of his misery.”
“Good idea.”
Together they raised their battle lances and Ailean cringed. They’d never kill him, but one never knew what damage they would decide to do.
“Oiy! Female!”
Kennis lowered her weapon and turned. When she saw her mate, she squealed, dropped her lance, and charged toward him, throwing herself in his arms.
“Don’t make me come get you,” Kyna’s mate warned.
She snorted at Ailean. “Lucky for you.” Then, like her sister, she dropped her weapon and charged her mate, landing in his arms.
Ailean raised himself on his elbows and stared at the quartet. How Kyna and Kennis had found their true mates with another set of twins, he had no answer. Especially when sets of twins were as rare among his people as white dragons.
“Oiy,” he said to the males. “What are you two doing here? You’re supposed to be watching old Baudwin.”
“We did and we are. We left him by the lake with his daughter.”
Ailean stood, and Arranz, still bleeding from the head wound Kennis gave him, and Bideven, still limping from one of Kyna’s blows, walked over to him. “What about that?”
“What about what?”
“Her father. Here.” Arranz gave a little smirk. “You going to tell him what you’ve been doing with his daughter the last few nights?”
“I find it amusing you didn’t think we’d know,” Bideven sardonically sneered.
“That old dragon may be weak, but a father is a father. He won’t like what you and Shalin have been up to.”
“I’m not too worried.” Ailean wiped blood from the wound over his eye.
Arranz snorted. “Oh. You’re not?”
“No. Once he finds out I love her and we’re going to be together forever, he’ll be fine.”
Ignoring the shocked expressions on his brothers’ faces, Ailean headed over to the well for fresh water.
“Ailean,” Bideven rushed up behind him and asked, “have you actually mentioned any of this to Shalin?”
“No.” He shrugged. “Why should I?”
Shalin hugged her father again before stepping back. She really saw his age when he was in human form and it hurt her heart. She knew she only had another hundred years with her father. Maybe two, if lucky, but no more. Her parents had waited until very late in their lives to have Shalin and although it never really bothered her, she also knew it made her different from all the other dragons who grew up with parents young enough to take them on long flights and teach them the proper way of hunting and fighting.
But Baudwin the Wise only hunted up that which stood right outside his cave. And although he could give detailed histories on every war that had taken place among the dragons and humans, he was a worthless fighter himself.
None of that mattered to
Shalin, though. Her father meant everything to her. Always had.
“I’m so glad you’re all right, Father.”
“And I you.” He pulled back, examining her carefully. “You don’t look any the worse for wear.”
She smiled. “No. I’m just fine.”
And that’s when her father’s sharp brown eyes narrowed. “Are you?”
Clearing her throat, she said, “Oh. Yes. Just fine. We should go.” She walked around him to get to the clearing.
“Go where, Shalin?” he asked in that calm way of his. “Do what? And shouldn’t we have those two oversized beasts with us?”
Turning around, Shalin chewed on her lip. “I guess.” She nodded. “You’re right, of course.”
“And aren’t you interested in what the queen has to say?”
It took Shalin a moment to remember she hadn’t been on Ailean’s territory merely for sexual satisfaction. And if she hoped to conceal what happened between her and Ailean from her father, she’d better act more like she cared.
“Oh! Of course. Yes. What was the decision?”
“No decision. Not until the council meeting.”
“A…a council meeting?”
“Calm yourself, Shalin. I see the panic in your eyes.” He rubbed a soothing hand against Shalin’s back. “The queen and Elders wish to have the case presented in front of all the court. And to everyone’s surprise, the Northern dragons have put in a demand for the deal struck with Princess Adienna to go through as planned.”
Shalin crossed her arms in front of her chest. “To everyone’s surprise because who would want me?”
Her father shook his head in confusion. “What are you talking about? I mean surprising because we all assumed the Northerners would simply try to take you rather than follow the usual rules of etiquette. That’s usually how they do things.” Baudwin sniffed. “Barbarians. The lot of them.” He nodded at his daughter. “That oldest one seemed much more civilized than his brethren. I assume it was his decision to put in the claim. I believe he truly likes you.”
“Well, I can read,” she said on a chuckle.
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