The Blood King

by Abigail Owen

  “Don’t you think I’ve already shown that?”

  The dragon gave a warning rumble that should’ve had her backing up, but instead drew her closer.

  “I want to be inside you so bad I ache,” Ladon’s voice scraped against her. “I want to explore and claim every inch of your body. I want to fill you up with my seed and see your belly grow with my heirs. I want you to trust me and work beside me as an equal partner.”

  Holy hellfire. Even as her heart squeezed tight at everything he said, fear froze her in place at his words, every part of her paralyzed.

  “I want you, Skylar.”

  Part of her leaned into that declaration, wanted to believe. A pang of hope rang through her, true and deep.

  She closed her eyes and wondered, just for a moment, if she could go down this path he wanted her to take.

  Except… Despite the trust that had grown faster than she’d ever thought possible, she couldn’t see beyond the ultimate goal of taking down Pytheios so that she and her sisters could be safe. Until that happened, she couldn’t be sure every decision she made wasn’t made only to further that end. Including admitting she wanted him back in the way he’d described.

  He deserved more. So did she.

  She needed to be sure.

  Skylar swallowed, then shook her head. “I can’t give you that, yet.”

  From the way his scales rippled with the muscles underneath, she could tell how Ladon took her words. He blinked at her for a long moment, then lowered his belly to the ground. “We’d better get going.” His voice had flattened out. “I’d like to fly through the night. Staying in one place isn’t safe.”

  While irritation was a familiar sensation in Skylar’s life, having that combined with sexual frustration, along with an emotional quagmire she wasn’t willing to acknowledge, was new.

  This sucks hairy balls.

  Except that unfortunate choice of phrases, even if just in her head, got her thinking about sucking certain things, and that only upped her frustration levels. Holding back her own growl, she deliberately tried to arrange her expression to one of indifference, thrown even more off-center by Ladon’s suddenly distant, business-only demeanor. In silence, she climbed up on his back and strapped back in. Exhaustion still lined her limbs with lead and dragged at her steps. Better safe than sorry.

  They didn’t speak again as they flew toward Norway, other than quick comments about the trip in between Skylar’s catnaps.

  “Several of my personal guard will be joining us.”

  Skylar blinked out of a half sleep at Ladon’s words and readjusted her fur-lined coat for the umpteenth time. Her ass might be warm, but her face was not.

  A glance around didn’t tell her much about how far they’d come.

  Minutes later, a group of five dragons suddenly appeared around them—above, below, behind, and to either side. Despite being on her guard, she hadn’t seen them coming.

  Having always wished she could join a precision flying group, like the Blue Angels, but held back by the restrictions of her life, Skylar watched in fascination at how the dragons flew together. Close enough that wings almost brushed. If she undid her ropes and stood on Ladon’s back, she could touch the navy underbelly of the dragon overhead with the tips of her fingers. Asher at a guess, given how dark his scales were, except that most of them were dark in the moonless sky.

  Almost as one mind, the shifters rode the currents. Over a fathomless void of water, they tipped their wings in a uniform move, like watching a flock of birds, to turn north and east toward where the rest of their forces awaited.

  After drifting off several more times, Skylar jerked awake as Ladon angled downward in a steep drop, the dragons around them working as a unit. She could still discern only water below them but had to trust that their heightened sight allowed them to know where they were going. While the frigid temperatures of the Norwegian air warmed slightly as they descended, she clenched her teeth to keep them from chattering as the wind pierced her skin even through her thick jacket, all the way to the bone, making her muscles clench and ache.

  She kept quiet.

  None of the dragons had made a sound, likely communicating telepathically, but also to conceal their location from any enemies lurking in the shadows. They’d dive like this only if they were about to land, so she held her tongue and waited.

  Sure enough, the darkness still impenetrable to her eyes, Ladon reared back, flaring his wings wide and bringing an abrupt deceleration. He beat his wings twice more, seeming to hover in the air, before rocking as he touched down.

  Out of the inky black, figures emerged. I hope those are our people.

  Immediately, Skylar uncoiled herself from the ropes with fumbling frozen fingers that didn’t want to do the work for her. She climbed down, arms wrapped about herself as she waited for Ladon to shift. Then she followed behind him on stiff legs.

  “Káthor.” Each man nodded, respect reflecting in their eyes. No doubts about their king whatsoever, despite his absence at a crucial time.

  Finally, they made their way to where Asher waited with Duncan and Wyot beside him. No doubt Reid and Arden were close by as well. Exhaustion had her tuning out Ladon’s gravelly voice as he talked to his men in low rumbling tones. She was too damn freezing and tired to care what was being discussed or the fact that he wasn’t including her.

  I’ll ask him later. When every part of her, including her mind, thawed enough to function properly.

  Turning back to her, apparently done, Ladon approached. “We’re staying in a system of caves hidden within these coastal rocks. Brand’s father brought him here as a child. My men have already determined they are abandoned. I’ll have to fly you there.”

  Dammit. “Let’s go.”

  A quick shift from her mate and she was back up between those damn spikes. Centuries of fleeing during the night meant these weren’t the most unpleasant conditions she’d experienced before. That didn’t make it suck any less.

  In seconds, Ladon flew out over what she guessed was the water, then, following another dragon whose tail she could barely make out ahead of them, they went straight at a wall of cliff only to tip sideways at the last minute, entering a narrow, tall cavern only barely big enough to accommodate a dragon of Brand’s size. If that. Could Brand even get in here?

  After a few seconds, Ladon leveled out, then flared his wings. Again, he rocked as he landed, and she climbed down.

  After shifting back to human, he approached. Asher, who must’ve led them down, turned on two flashlights, handing one to his king. “This way,” he said.

  Ladon took her by the hand, coming into contact with the skin between her glove and jacket sleeve, and immediately jerked to a halt with a hiss. “You’re fucking freezing.”

  Still clenching her teeth against the chatter, her jaw aching with the effort, Skylar glared at him. “No shit.”

  “Why didn’t you say?”

  “Could you have done more than you were?”

  “I could’ve flown lower,” he pointed out, his thick brows practically meeting in the middle with his glower.

  Skylar shook her head. “We’re safer up high. Even I know that. And it wouldn’t have made much of a difference.”

  “So, you risked hypothermia instead?”

  “I’m f-f-f-fine.”

  She moved past him to Asher, who’d waited in silence, only to be jerked around by a rough hand on her arm.

  “There’s stubborn, and then there’s stupid,” Ladon said in a clipped tone.

  His eyes, glittering with blue fire, cast his face in an otherworldly glow in the darkness of the cavern. Only this time, the flames were caused by anger, not lust.

  Normally she’d pop off at him about now. But somehow his anger, which deep down she could tell came from a sort of caring, slowed her own.

  Skylar stepped clo
ser, though she didn’t touch him. “If I thought you could do anything, or I could do anything, I would’ve spoken up,” she said. “This wasn’t about me being stubborn, but practical.”

  His jaw worked for a moment as he absorbed her words, then he gave a jerky nod. “I’d still rather know.”

  She blew out a long breath. “Why?”

  “Would you have told your mother? Or your sisters?” he asked, softer now.

  Skylar scrunched up her nose. “I hate it when you have a legitimate point.”

  Flat lips twitched, but he held his hard stare.

  “Fine,” she acceded, though her words held no ire. “Brutal honesty in the form of constant communication. But expect it to take some practice. Got it?”

  “Not too much practice. We don’t have time.”

  Asher led them to a single room crudely dug into the rock, round opening and with no door leading out into the cavern, it sported a single mattress on the floor with…

  “Blankets!” Skylar couldn’t hold back the exclamation.

  Asher glanced down when she cast a questioning glance in his direction. “We felt you and your sister would be more comfortable. Kasia’s said that your fire isn’t as hot as ours and doesn’t keep you quite as warm.”

  True. But she wouldn’t have expected a bunch of dragon shifters to think of that. “Thank you,” she murmured softly. “Maybe I need to take back the Grumpy nickname.”

  She received a slow nod in return. “Maybe so.”

  Asher melted into the darkness, his flashlight showing his progress farther into the system of caves until the light blinked out, leaving her alone with her mate.

  He waved a hand at their bed and, with a mental shrug, she climbed in. A rustle of sound behind her and the flashlight turned off, plunging them into oppressive darkness. “Thank the gods I didn’t mate a bat shifter is all I can say,” Skylar said.

  His low voice feathered over her skin. “Don’t like the dark?”

  “Not like this.”

  Another rustle and the mattress moved as Ladon joined her.

  “Let’s warm you up,” he rumbled behind her.

  She gasped as a big arm circled her waist, pulling her in tight against him. No missing the thick, hard rod of his erection, only he didn’t touch her with anything other than the need to help her stop shivering.

  Despite the instant tension inside her, the need to turn in his arms and fuck him to warm herself up with more than a platonic touch—a need she forced herself to ignore—she still relaxed against him as his warmth penetrated her clothing and seeped into her body.

  Kasia was right that her own fire only did so much, at least when she wasn’t using it. She could’ve warmed herself by lighting that fire but using it while on the back of a dragon, especially at night, would’ve been like a beacon to every creature hunting them. Which meant not an option.

  After a moment, she sighed, closing her eyes, ready to let sleep that had been dragging at her finally take her into a peaceful oblivion.

  Except Ladon tightened his grip, pulling her even closer into him, his lips at her ear. “I can smell your need,” he whispered.

  Skylar’s eyes shot open, and her heart took off like she’d been running a sprint.

  Ladon chuckled, and she mentally damned his senses to the darkest realms of hell.

  “Sleep,” he whispered, then seemed to relax into her, supposedly doing just that.

  …

  Ladon watched Skylar as she talked quietly with Kasia.

  Their forces had settled into the dilapidated caverns that clearly hadn’t seen use in centuries, the secret of their existence temporarily dying with Brand’s father. They’d had to go the old-fashioned way and use torches and fires to light the space sufficiently as they hadn’t brought enough flashlights. Hopefully they wouldn’t be here long.

  His warriors had been here a day before his arrival, and they’d remained here for two days. Not hiding, but not entirely in plain sight, either. A deliberate move to draw out their enemy who was hopefully wondering where they were.

  Skylar glanced up and caught his stare. Did she blush? Or smile? Or any other normal response for a mate? Nope.

  Sky scowled at him. “Quit that,” she mouthed, swatting her hand indicating he should stop his staring and turn away.

  He crossed his arms and held her gaze.

  Quiet contentment lined with something else that clenched in his gut settled over him every time he looked at his mate. A fact that should have him scared witless or pissed at himself for the weakness. She was supposed to strengthen him, not make him more vulnerable, dammit. For better, worse, or indifferent, Skylar Amon was his mate, chosen by the fates themselves.

  He hadn’t expected to feel anything other than a mild annoyance at being shackled when he mated. Perhaps this wasn’t the adoration that he sometimes caught Brand and Kasia basking in. Yet. And maybe that wouldn’t come with the same intensity they showed. But he knew, through and through, that in this woman he’d found a mirror of himself.

  Dedicated, determined, obstinate, self-sacrificing. A crusader.

  Not afraid to get her hands bloody if it saved the people she fought for. Add in a physical need the likes of which he’d never experienced before, and here he was.

  Fucked.

  Because the damn woman seemed determined to ignore instinct, fate, and need. She was going to leave him when this was over and Pytheios gone. He’d never been more sure of anything.

  And he had not one bloody clue how to fix it.

  Hell, he couldn’t even get her to admit to wanting him. Two nights in a row he’d touched her, bringing them both to an aching precipice, then denied tumbling them over. Waiting for her submission. And two nights she’d refused to admit it, despite how her body chased his touch, leaving them both in an agony of deprived desire.

  He wasn’t asking for love, just an acknowledgment that there was more between them than sex or politics.

  Appealing to her body, which was clearly on board, wasn’t working.

  Now, as he watched her studiously ignore him, it galled him to admit he needed advice. “How did you win Kasia?” he asked the man standing at his side.

  Brand turned those hard gold eyes his way, eyebrows raised. “Problems with your mate?”

  He’d known this man since they were boys. Known each other as young men. And Brand had been working for him in secret for decades. Still, the guy owed him his life. “I could’ve let you fend for yourself,” Ladon grumbled.

  Brand grunted, his only acknowledgment. “You don’t want advice from me,” he said after a lingering silence.

  “But you won Kasia.” Seemed obvious. Ladon hadn’t even seen it coming, in the middle of wooing the red-haired phoenix himself.

  “I came this close to fucking it up.” Brand held up a finger and thumb with no space between them. “First, I tried to give her to another man. You.”

  Ladon huffed a dry chuckle. “I hadn’t thought of that, but yeah. Dick move.”

  Brand hitched a shoulder. “But the real dick move was not telling Kasia about who I was, the heir to the Gold Throne, before we mated. She found out from a vision and decided I’d tricked her into mating to get my clan back.”

  Ladon gave a low whistle. “How’d you fix that?” he asked, though he suspected he already knew.

  “I almost gave my life to protect her, letting Uther go when I could’ve killed him.”

  Total self-sacrifice, though Brand had still killed the gold king in the end. Except I’m already a king. I have people depending on me. Besides, he and Sky weren’t Brand and Kasia. “Guess I’ll figure out my own way,” he muttered.

  Brand snorted a laugh. “Good luck with that. You landed the crazy one.”

  A low growl cut through the still morning air, one Ladon couldn’t have controlled even if he wan
ted to, and loud enough that Sky and Kasia looked up from across the room.

  “What’s wrong?” Sky mouthed at him.

  He shook his head at her and, with a quick frown, she turned back to Kasia.

  “Like that already?” The amusement in Brand’s voice only added to Ladon’s irritation, like talons on a chalkboard.

  “She’s my mate. No one gets to call her crazy except me. Not even Skylar.”

  That sentiment didn’t faze his friend. “Won’t happen again.”

  “Good.”

  “My king.” Reid approached, stopping to give a quick dip of his head, the closest the captain of his guard came to a bow, since Ladon didn’t allow his guard to bow to him. They were his friends and had supported his coup long before he’d become the leader of their clan.

  “Yes?”

  “We’ve gathered those you asked for.”

  Tension immediately strung tight through him, like animal skin being stretched over a drum. He glanced at Brand. “You ready for this?”

  Brand’s eyes glittered gold in his scowling face. No doubt Ladon’s own eyes had set to glowing blue. The risk was worth it. Without allies he was fucked. They needed Brand on the throne.

  One move.

  One move to assure himself of an ally with a clan behind him.

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  Brock stood in front of a wall of screens in a dark room that served as the main communications center within the mountain. On the center screen, Pytheios’s sickening visage took up most of the view. The king swallowed in a reflexive action that reminded Brock of Komodo dragons.

  After I take care of this gold usurper, it’s time to take out our High King.

  No creature decaying like Pytheios deserved to rule anything. His skin was falling off his bones, thin enough that it might tear at any second. He had to be half blind with those milky eyes. Hell, even the insignias on his hand and the back of his neck were faded.

  How did they know if he had the full use of his faculties?

  “You mean to tell me, you lost an entire army of dragon shifters?” Pytheios snarled, his jowls shaking with anger.