Dragon Lords Books 1 - 4 Box Set: Anniversary Edition

by Michelle M. Pillow

  Zoran sprang forward with a rage that took Pia completely off guard. His eyes glowed with a fire all their own, as he gripped her shoulders. His nails dug into her flesh and she wheezed in fear despite herself.

  “If you ever say anything like that again, wife, I’ll punish you. So help me, I might get transferred to guard duty in the lowest of underground prisons where I’ll never again see the light of day, but I’ll not put up with your blasphemous tongue.” Zoran shook her before tossing her away from him. With an angry growl, he strode out of the bedroom. Slamming the thin door, he said, “I’m going to work.”

  Pia shivered watching him leave. It didn’t take long before she heard the slide of a heavier door. Her knees weakened in fear. She’d seen the devil in that handsome gaze of his and, so help her, she liked it.

  * * *

  Zoran was torn. He loved his wife’s fire and passion and strength. It was a good complement to his title as a warrior leader. It would serve his honor well to have a fiery woman at his side—so long as he could tame her.

  Had she really threatened to end their marriage? Surely she was just angry with him. Once she cooled all would be well? Right?

  Right?

  His inner voice did not answer him.

  He paced down the hall to get away from her so he had time to collect his temper. Maybe he should let her join the military. Then she would be even more under his command.

  No. Even as he thought it, he knew that would be a mistake. A wife disobeying him in private was bad enough. A wife-soldier refusing to follow orders would be like begging the gods to dishonor him.

  Chapter 11

  Zoran’s home was a splendid exercise in simplicity. The bedroom Pia woke up in was off the front hall. The doors separating the rooms on one level were paper thin and had no locks on them. They slid soundlessly with a single push of the finger.

  The walls were wooden planks of straight lines. A floor of matching wood was placed together in an intricate pattern of long cut strips. In the center of the pattern, in the front hall, was fashioned the impression a giant dragon. The dragon guarded a heavy oak door that Pia couldn’t open.

  From the front hall, a single step down was the only room divider. She came to an open living room with a marble fireplace. There were straight lines carved into the plain surface and another dragon head in the center, above the fireplace. A step back up took her to a dining room, complete with low table and cushioned floor seats. A bowl with a single ball inside it decorated the middle as a centerpiece.

  A tapestry hung on the far wall, just behind the table. It was red with the depiction of a black forest. If she had to venture a guess, she would say it was the forest she’d seen at the festival. In the middle was a noble phoenix.

  “I’m surprised it’s not another dragon,” she mused wryly, moving on.

  The kitchen was much the same—plain and of wood. The cabinets were miniature copies of the doors, sliding to the side instead of swinging open. Pia laughed seeing a dragon inlaid on the countertop.

  As she crossed back into the dining room she noticed that a chandelier hung beneath a giant dome. The crystal shards reflected the light, brightening the room. A thick curtain was affixed to the dome.

  Finding another door, Pia slid it open. It was a bathroom with a natural hot spring bubbling in the side, made from the red stone of the planet’s surface. A wooden sauna was next to it, a pull switch for steam on the side. On the opposite wall was a shower stall, with a wooden half-door and bench seats made of red stone. There was also a vanity, a sink, a toilet, sliding cabinet drawers, and a top dome of smaller proportions.

  Next to the bathroom, Pia was amazed to discover an exercise area. It was a long, flat floor with a higher ceiling. Weapons hung on the wall for ease of use. Arranged on the floor was a punching bag, a wooden pegged contraption, with many arms fashioned into spikes, a post with gouges taken from it with a sword, and a mat rolled into the corner. Pia shivered in excitement.

  “This room alone would be worth staying married for,” she said to herself. Almost reluctantly, she turned around and forced her legs to move away. She still had the dress on and couldn’t possibly exercise in the heavy skirt.

  Getting an idea, she went back to the bedroom and began rummaging through the closet. She smiled, seeing her bags on the floor. She wouldn’t have to steal Zoran’s clothes after all. In no time, she was in a pair of comfortable charcoal pants, a navy shirt and light boots. Going to the fireplace, she tossed the dress on top of the wood and left it. She would’ve started a fire, but she couldn’t figure out how to make it work.

  Dusting her hands, she nodded in satisfaction. Her stomach growled, reminding her she was hungry.

  “First I eat,” she said absently to herself, making her way back to the kitchen. A great big smile came to her face as she thought of aggravating Zoran. “Then I find scissors and do something about this mess of hair.”

  * * *

  Zoran spent the first day of his marriage training the soldiers in swamp warfare. It was a grueling affair as the swamp mud was hard to walk in without shifting into Draig form. Many of the men were stupefied by the surprise workout. Though Prince Zoran was known for springing a training drill at any hour of the day or night, they hadn’t expected him to show up on the first day of his marriage.

  Many of them had celebrated late the night before, believing that on this day of all days, it would be safe to sleep in. They couldn’t have been more wrong. Zoran worked them to the bone, pushing them, yelling them into action until their bodies could take no more, and they literally crawled their way back to the barracks that evening.

  Zoran smiled grimly at the irritable men. His crossed arms were splattered with muck, though not as bad as the soldiers were. “I warned you when you began this training to be prepared for anything.”

  The men grumbled as they stopped in their departure to look at him. There was respect in their tired eyes. They knew Prince Zoran was the greatest warrior amongst them and, after today, his dedication would never be questioned.

  “As a warrior, you can never be caught off guard. You can never slack in your duty. If you do,” Zoran stopped and pointed down the valley where the quiet village lay. Lowering his voice to a deadly growl of warning, he let his eyes shift yellow. “If you do, they die.”

  The men nodded in serious understanding.

  “Now go eat,” he hollered, uncrossing his arms and jumping down from his post. “You did yourselves proud today.”

  With his gruff praise, their exhausted shoulders rode a little higher. Zoran made his way wearily back to the castle’s front gate. The guard saluted him as he passed and Zoran motioned dutifully back.

  His body was covered in drying sweat. He’d worked himself the hardest of all. Every muscle in his back ached. But it had been worth it, if for only a brief moment of peace. Pia never strayed far from his thoughts, though as a trained warrior, he didn’t let her distract him from his obligations to the men he commanded.

  Now that the drills were over, he frowned. The closer he stepped to his home, the more his anger renewed itself inside him. Oh, but she was an aggravating wench. One minute he wanted to kiss her in rough mind-altering passion, the next he wanted to strangle every last breath from her beautifully formed body. He wanted to tie her up and drown her in Crystal Lake. By all that was sacred, he wanted to tie her up and throw her onto his bed to drown her in passion.

  That thought in mind, he quickened his pace. The oak door to his home slid up with a stern voice command. Stepping inside, he felt it shut automatically behind him. Stopping, he sniffed the air, looking around. All was deadly still. He took a step forward.

  “Pia?” he called softly, listening for her to stir. There was no answer. He stepped forward, frowning to see the gown he’d bought her in the barren fireplace.

  “Uh,” he heard her voice groan. “Got it.”

  He frowned. She was in the bathroom. Stepping up to the door, he took a single finger and pushe
d it open. His eyes rounded in a mix of horror and utter disbelief. He had to blink several times to make sure he wasn’t hallucinating.

  Pia jumped at the sound of the door. Lowering her hands from her hair, she pointed the knife at him and darkly asked, “You ever hear of knocking?”

  “What are you doing to your hair?” Zoran demanded, unable to take his eyes away. Half of Pia’s locks were still firmly attached to her head. The other half was sprinkled over the sink and floor in long discarded curls.

  “Do you mind?” she asked. She grinned, lifting the knife to her longer side. “I was in here first and I could use a little privacy. If I mess this up, I’ll have to cut it shorter to get it even.”

  “Why?” he breathed through his shock. Her hair had been the crowning glory to her wonderful features. Any woman in the kingdom would’ve given their freedom for her golden locks and here she was hacking them off. “Why do you disobey me? I told you not to cut it.”

  Pia just laughed and continued to slice and saw at her hair.

  Willfully, and to his dismay, she grabbed a thick chunk and sliced through it, cutting it off at about chin length. Then, lifting her handful of severed tresses, she wiggled the mass insolently through her fingers, sprinkling them before him like falling leaves.

  “Why would you purposefully disfigure yourself?” Zoran asked in despair. “Do you seek to humiliate me?”

  That made Pia mad. She lowered her hands to the countertop. “Humiliate you? My hair has nothing to do with you.”

  “Everything you do has something to do with me. I’m your husband. Our honors are inner-linked. Only women who are shamed cut their hair,” Zoran said. He swallowed, again looking at the floor in disbelief. All that spun gold lay around their feet. He had the strange urge to gather it up and glue it back to her head.

  Pia lifted her hand and defiantly took off the last chunk with a heavy whack of his knife, which she’d taken off the wall in the exercise room. Zoran flinched. Pia made a show of examining the evenness of the new length and continued speaking, unhampered by his darkening features.

  She shrugged. “Well, I would say it’s very fitting then. For I find I’m very ashamed to be married to you. Maybe you should divorce me before I humiliate you any further.” She gripped the last of her hair and tossed it at him. “But if you want it so badly, here. I give it to you.”

  “Argh,” Zoran growled, brushing the soft strands from his arms. He turned to storm away, before suddenly whirling around to face her. Angrily, he held out his hand. “My knife, wife.”

  Pia glanced down at her fingers. Then, slowly, as if it was no big deal and he was overreacting, she turned the hilt and placed it in his hand. Zoran’s fingers gripped around the blade and he jerked it back from her.

  Pia followed him as he stormed out of the bathroom. “Don’t you think you are overreacting just a little bit? Really, Zoran. It’s just hair. It grows back.”

  Zoran again saw his gift to her in the fireplace. He swallowed, too angry to face her.

  “Zoran?”

  “If you wish to insult me and throw my gifts back at me, wife,” Zoran said. “Do it right.”

  He turned to her. Pia stiffened at his hard look. Zoran studied her face. No matter what she did to herself, she would never be able to hide her beauty from him. It was in her hazel eyes, her steady gaze. It was in the fiery way she challenged him with words and her luscious body. He wanted her even more, now that she continued to defy him. It was strange that his passions could be ignited to such scorching depths by her disobedience and blatant insubordination.

  He shouted, “Fire!”

  * * *

  Pia jerked at the sudden sound, gasping. She wished she hadn’t tossed the dress aside like she had. She almost went to retrieve it when his command for fire stopped her. The fireplace lit and the beautiful gown went up in flames.

  His eyes roamed over her short hair in what she took as a look of disgust. It would seem her hair was the only thing he had found pleasing about her. If she hadn’t been sure about her new haircut before, she was now. Still amazed, and unsure how it happened, she thought of how handsome her husband was. The sooner he agreed to let her out of their marriage, the better it would be for the both of them.

  Zoran turned his back on her, as he headed toward the bedroom. “I’m taking a bath and going to bed. I have to get up early tomorrow to go to work.”

  “But, you just got off a work shift.”

  Zoran glanced over his shoulder. “I should think you would be pleased to be rid of me.”

  He disappeared into the bedroom.

  “I am,” she yelled belatedly.

  Zoran came back out holding a robe in one hand and a blanket and pillow in the other. Pushing the blanket and pillow at her with barely a glance, he said, “If you have no wish to share my bed, then you will find somewhere else to sleep. Might I suggest the couch? The fire seems to be burning quite brightly as of now.”

  He went into the bathroom and shut the door. Seconds later, she was still standing there as she heard him step into the natural hot spring. A loud moan escaped him and she would’ve sworn he did it just to irritate her.

  Looking at the couch before the marble fireplace, she threw the pillow angrily onto its cushioned red depths. She wrapped the blanket around her shoulders and sat down. A pout formed on her face without her realizing it, as she stared at the burning gown, watching the last of the red dragon disappear into ash.

  Her little, naughty, naughty gremlin nodded its head in approval. She had done the right thing in irritating him.

  Then why did she not feel good about it?

  Chapter 12

  Zoran was up with the dawn. His wife had spent the entire night on the couch. Although he wasn’t surprised, he was disappointed, as was his body that dreamed of her defiantly naked form in a myriad of different, lecherous ways.

  “Faster!” Zoran yelled, ordering the men through the waist deep swamp mud. He’d decided that one day of grueling exercise wasn’t enough to purge him. Lifting his sword arm high into the air, he motioned to the side. Instantly, the men ducked down and began crawling through the muck. It was slow going in this part of the swamplands. The mud weighed their human forms down and kept them from moving with precise speed.

  “Attack position!” Zoran commanded.

  The men hollered, shooting up from the swamp. Muck flew everywhere as their dirty swords lifted high in the air.

  “Attack!” he shouted with a growl.

  Zoran watched as the warriors plunged forward as fast as they could. The target, a battalion Zoran had ordered to remain hidden within the trees, suddenly emerged to fight the muddy swarm. Metal clanged against metal as the heavily muddied hoard fought the outnumbered men.

  Zoran hung back, watching the outcome of the fight. He crossed his arms over his chest, picking out the victors of the battle. The victors would be released early. The losers would have to spend three extra hours with him doing swamp drills.

  Zoran thought of Pia and frowned. Maybe he’d better make it five extra hours.

  * * *

  “Ugh!” Pia gasped, eyeing Zoran as he came in. He was covered in a grayish-brown muck and stunk worse than a trolloch. She wrinkled her nose.

  Zoran said nothing as he slipped out of his boots and left them by the door.

  “What do they have you guarding anyway? A sewer?” she asked, waving her hand in his general direction as if it could keep the smell at bay.

  “I spent the day in the swamps,” Zoran said, rolling his neck.

  “Oh.” Pia wished he would elaborate. She’d just spent the entire day trapped in his house with nothing to do. She’d done a freestyle workout, taken a bath, and ate some leftover tiny pellet looking stuff from the refrigerator. That had used up about three of the twelve hours since she woke up.

  Zoran eyed her. She’d pulled her hair back into a small ponytail at the nape of her neck and the sides fell forward to frame her face. As he studied her, she self-co
nsciously tucked the sides behind her ears.

  “I ate the grainy stuff in the refrigerator,” she said at last, when he didn’t look away.

  “Fine,” he grunted, heading barefoot toward the bathroom to clean up.

  Pia gasped, seeing his arm. It was bleeding. Looking for any kind of adventure, even a second hand one, she jumped over the back of the couch and went to him. “Did something happen? Was there an attack?”

  “Just an accident,” Zoran said, as if wondering at her sudden concern. He couldn’t miss the light of excitement in her gaze when she asked it. She eyed his blood with almost a longing.

  “What happened? Was anyone hurt?”

  “No,” he answered.

  “Oh.” Pia bit her lip. Suddenly, she realized she was standing close to him and he really did reek like putrid swamp. She took a step back. “Maybe you should take a shower.”

  “I had planned on it,” Zoran chuckled, despite his obvious mood. As if he couldn’t help teasing, he added, “Is your inquisition over then, my bloodthirsty wife?”

  Pia frowned. “Well, what do you expect? You trapped me in this house all day with nothing to do. That,” she pointed at the front door, “contraption won’t let me pass no matter how many different languages I yell at it.”

  “That’s because it’s not programmed to your voice,” Zoran answered.

  “Obviously,” she said, crossing her hands over her chest.

  The motion pushed up her breasts and Zoran, being a healthy man of recently denied passions, looked unabashedly at them. Seeing his heated gaze, she screamed and automatically moved to slap him.

  Zoran caught her hand in his muddied grip. Her wrist slid along his palm. His eyes lit with promise.