by Eva Chase
Good. That was exactly what I wanted. A tingling grew between my legs as I slicked my lips up and down him. His cock twitched again. His breath stuttered. Then his hips jerked up as his release hit the back of my mouth.
“Serenity,” he muttered. “Serenity.” His hand stroked over my head. And just for that moment, nothing else mattered—not betrayals or lies or scheming rogues and fae. There wasn’t a single thing in the world that could hold me down.
Chapter 18
Marco
It was hard to say what the most terrible moment in my life had been, but it had definitely happened in the last twenty-four hours. Maybe at the top of the list I’d put hearing the pain and anger in my princess’s voice when she’d accused me of treating her like a cat toy yesterday. Maybe these few seconds now, knocking on the door to her rooms at eight in the morning and wondering if she’ll even answer.
Soft footsteps padded over the rugs on the other side. My back tensed. Ren eased open the door.
No, this was the most terrible moment right here. Having to watch my Princess of Flames flinch at the sight of me, the wound I’d dealt her still blazing clear in her eyes. It cut me from heart to gut with a sharp, searing burn that I absolutely deserved.
Why the fuck hadn’t I kept my mouth shut for once in my life? Why had I let those idiot kin of mine rile me up?
Why had I let myself start thinking about my mate like a means to an end, even a little? I knew she deserved better. I could give her better. If she ever gave me another chance.
But I wasn’t going to grovel and moan. The pain I was feeling was my own fault and mine to deal with. I’d be twice as much an ass if I tried to lay that on her too, as if she should comfort me through my epic screw-up.
“Princess,” I said with a dip of my head. “May I come in?”
She hesitated, and that just about killed me. Less than a week ago I’d tasted her most intimate places, and now she wasn’t sure she even wanted me in the same room. It was going to be a long, hard climb back.
But she was worth it. I just had to make her believe I believed that.
I forced a self-deprecating smile. “I can make my apologies here in the hall if you’d rather. But I promise I’m not planning on imposing for very long.”
“No,” she said. “All right. Come in.”
She must already have been up for a while. I could smell the traces of soap mingling with the sweet scent of her freshly washed skin. She’d picked out another dress: dusty rose-pink silk, simpler than the one she’d worn to the formal dinner last night but no less regal. It clung to her slim curves in a way that provoked a flash of desire all through my body.
She hadn’t chosen it for breakfast with her mates, though, I’d guess. That was her armor for meeting the fae monarch.
“You’ll put her fairy highness to shame,” I said, nodding to the dress.
Ren brushed her hands over the flowing fabric, looking briefly awkward. Then she drew her posture straighter again. “I just want her to know she’s dealing with a different kind of monarch,” she said. “What was it you wanted to talk about?”
As if she couldn’t guess. It was hard to hold her gaze while I pulled together the words, but I didn’t want her to think I was shying away from responsibility. “Like I said, I need to apologize,” I said. “You’re right to be angry with me. I should never have talked about you that way, to anyone. I can’t tell you how much I wish I hadn’t. And I hate even more that you had to hear it.”
“So why did you say those things?” she asked, crossing her arms over her chest.
God, how to say it. The words tasted bitter as I formed them. “There’s a certain... air of confidence I’ve found I need to show when talking to my kin. Especially the ones who might have an eye on my position as alpha. If they think nothing much affects me, they don’t find any weaknesses to exploit. But I shouldn’t have let that extend to you. I owe you so much more respect than that.”
Ren’s eyes studied me steadily, giving away nothing. “Do you owe me it?” she said. “So you’re telling me nothing you said to your kin reflected your real feelings, even a little?”
I couldn’t lie faced with her dragon shifter sensibilities. She’d know, and that would only dig me deeper into this hole.
“I meant what I told you in the caves, princess,” I said. “I care about you. I want to spend my life with you. But I can’t pretend I’m not also aware that my position will be more secure once our bond is consummated. I may have pushed too much. I’m even more sorry for that.”
There was so much more I could have said to try to explain, but I could read her too. And with the avian upper class sniping at her and this fae parlay looming, she clearly was in no mood for excuses.
The excuses were beneath me anyway. I’d screwed up. I owned that. What really mattered now wasn’t what had happened in the past, but what I did from here on.
“I understand it’ll take time to get your trust back,” I added. “But I will, however long it takes. I may talk a lot, but I don’t give my word lightly. I promise you I’ll earn that trust back honestly.”
Ren nodded. I couldn’t tell whether she accepted the promise or just wanted me out of her sight. “Thank you for the apology,” she said carefully. “I guess we’ll just have to see how it goes. I’ll need some space, so I can think.”
Of course. When we were close to each other, our mate-bond still pulled her toward me as much as me to her. I could be grateful for that much.
I dipped my head. “Until our field trip into the fairy realm, then.”
She didn’t say another word as she saw me out. The door clicked shut behind me, and I couldn’t say my heart felt any less heavy.
Ren
My head was so full of questions and worries about the upcoming parlay that I barely had room in there to decide how I felt about Marco’s apology. I hardly had room to even pay attention to where I was going.
I followed the smell of eggs and sausage down the hall to the private dining room. My stomach was tight with anxiety, but I was going to need energy for this meeting with the fae monarch. I had no doubt about that.
How was she going to react when I told her what I know her people had done? How was I going to react if she tried to brush it aside or deny it? Aaron’s people would be really unimpressed if I managed to bring the shifters to the brink of a supernatural war less than a month after I’d shown up to take my spot as dragon shifter.
A woman came out of the dining room and headed toward me. I distantly registered her scent (owl), the tray she was holding (must have been bringing or clearing food), and the thin gloves covering her hands (was it colder than usual today?). Then my mind went back to mulling over the day ahead of me.
I wasn’t paying her any attention at all when she dropped the tray at my feet and rammed a carving knife toward my stomach.
My shifter reflexes kicked in before I’d even processed that I was under attack. I leapt to the side, smacking out with my arm at the same moment. The knife only nicked my belly.
The woman gave a little cry and threw herself at me. I grabbed her wrist before she could take another slash. Scales rippled over my body as I started to shift defensively. I loomed over her, my haunches growing, my claws extending, fire rippling in my throat.
“Ren!” Nate’s voice carried from behind me.
Another distraction was not what I needed right now. “Stay back,” I shouted, my voice gone hoarse with the partial transformation. “I’m handling this.”
The woman squirmed in my grasp. She aimed a kick at my hip, but it glanced off the thickly scaled skin that had formed there. She jabbed at my eyes with her free hand. I jerked away, and my grip on her wrist loosened. She broke free and took another stab at me.
With a growl, I knocked her to the floor. The knife sliced across my shoulder. I swiped at it with a taloned hand, sending it flying into the wall. The woman stared up at me, her eyes wide with what now looked like panic. I pinned both her arms to th
e floor, staring at her as I caught my breath.
The gloves suddenly made sense. She had to be hiding her lack of a kin mark.
I had her trapped. I’d stopped her, and now she couldn’t get away. We could finally talk to one of these rogues—whatever good that might do us.
Nate’s footsteps sounded behind me. He’d hung back like I’d asked him to. I shot him a quick, fierce smile over my shoulder. “Thank you. What do you say we find out what she knows?”
“You’ve got this,” he said, coming to stand beside me. “Let me know if you need me.”
But now that I had the rogue, I wasn’t sure what to say. “Why did you attack me?” I asked, fixing my stare on her again. “Are you on your own, or are there other rogues here?”
“I’m not going to tell you anything,” she gasped out, and set her lips in a firm line.
“Are you part of the group that came after my mother before—that murdered my fathers and sisters? How did you even get into the estate?”
She looked back at me without a word. Frustration boiled up inside me. The heat collected in my throat, and my mind leapt back to the words I’d heard as I’d accepted the crystal’s flame in the mountain.
Burn away lies to get at what is real.
The urge to breathe fire tickled in the back of my mouth. I could do it—I could shift all the way, spill my fiery breath over this woman. But I’d never tried to use this new power before. What if I used it wrong, and all I did was burn her alive?
I’d hurt people while fighting them in self-defense before, but this rogue was already subdued. And being set on fire—that wasn’t defense, that was torture. Every bone in my body balked at the thought.
That wasn’t how I wanted to start my reign over the shifters. The rogues were the cruel ones, not me.
“Serenity?” Aaron had come out of the dining room. He stiffened at the scene in the hall. The rasp in his voice thickened. “What happened?”
“She attacked me with a knife—looks like one from the kitchens,” I said. “But she’s refusing to talk.”
How did you make someone talk if you didn’t resort to torture? I peered into her eyes, trying to find an answer there. She blinked, and a strange impression came over me.
The way she was gazing up at me... it wasn’t angry. It wasn’t even entirely afraid anymore.
She was in awe of me. I felt it, like a rush of warm air. And under it, a tight knot of sorrow. The pieces clicked together in my head.
“You didn’t really want to do this, did you?” I said, letting my voice soften.
The woman’s jaw twitched. A shadow of that sadness crossed her face. I’d hit the mark.
The door at the far end of the hall murmured open, but I didn’t look back to see who was joining us. All my awareness stayed focused on the rogue.
“They forced you to help them,” I said gently. “Did they threaten you? Or someone you care about?”
Her composure broke. A little sob fell from her lips. Her eyes had filled with tears.
Aaron knelt down at my other side. “I swear you will not be punished for crimes you were coerced into. By my oath as alpha.” He held up his hand with the oath scar etched in the palm. A pulse of power tingled over me.
The rogue must have felt it too. A few of her tears spilled down the sides of her face. “They have my son. He’s only seventeen. He’s all I have. If they find out I told you...”
“They won’t,” Aaron said firmly.
“And we’ll stop them. We’ll get your son back.” I glanced at Aaron, and he nodded his approval. “Where are the rogues who took him?”
“I don’t know,” the owl shifter said in a thin voice. “Everything is passed through messages. I never see them face-to-face.”
“Are they planning anything else? Do they have anyone else working for them on the estate?”
She shook her head. “I don’t know. They only told me that if I managed to— If I—” She couldn’t seem to spit out the words.
“If you killed me,” I prompted.
“Yes. Then they’d return my son. That’s all I know.”
I bit my lip. I wanted to help her. I wanted to take down every one of the rogues who’d forced someone like her to take the fall for their schemes. But we couldn’t when this was all she knew.
“We’ll do what we can for you,” I said, “but we’ll need you to help us too. Find out more about them, where they are, what else they’re doing. Who’s involved. Anything, so that we can track them down. We won’t reveal that we caught you. You can pretend you’re still waiting for your chance, but that you want to do more for them. Act like you’ve decided you agree with them so they’ll trust you. Can you do that?”
“If it gets my son back, I’ll do anything.” She dragged in a breath. “Thank you for your mercy.”
I pushed off her, watching her as I stood. She sat up, no sudden movements, no sign she meant to try another attack. She might have bruises on her wrists from my grip tomorrow, but I couldn’t help that. From the expression on her face, she wouldn’t blame me for them.
“I’ll make arrangements for you to get word to me, wherever I am, when you have any news,” Aaron said.
“And of course we’ll be keeping our own eyes out for your not-kin,” West said in a brittle voice. Marco stood just behind him. Some relaxing breakfast this was turning out to be.
Aaron helped the owl shifter to her feet and ushered her off to the side to talk with her further. I sighed, leaning my hand against the wall.
The rush of adrenaline was fading, leaving me shaky. The lovely dress I’d picked out in the hopes of impressing the fae monarch at least a little was now torn around my legs from my partial shift. The skin on my belly stung where the carving knife had pricked it. The cut on my shoulder was only seeping a little blood now, but it still ached.
Nate slid his arm around my shoulders. “Let’s go back to your rooms and patch you up.” He shot a glance at his fellow alphas. “Have one of the servers bring a plate for her.”
West glowered as if he resented the order, but Marco accepted it with a quick nod. “Not a problem.” He looked toward the rogue woman, and his lips curled into a grimace. “And might I suggest you keep the door locked until the food gets there?”
Chapter 19
Ren
By the time Nate and I made it to my rooms, my legs were done. I wobbled over to the sofa in the sitting room and sank onto it.
Nate ducked into the bathroom. He came back with a small silver case that turned out to hold pretty normal-looking first aid supplies.
I winced as he dabbed antiseptic cream on my cuts. He smoothed a thin adhesive bandage onto my shoulder and considered my stomach.
“I guess I should take this off,” I said, reaching for the straps of the torn dress. “Being a shifter does seem to be hard on one’s clothing supply.”
Nate chuckled. “We always make sure to have lots of spares on hand.”
I stripped the silky fabric from my body, leaving me in only my bra and panties. It was impossible not to see the heat kindling in Nate’s gaze as he watched. An answering dampness formed between my legs. I swallowed hard and held out my hand for the other bandage.
He stood back while I attached it. I still didn’t feel ready to stand up. I held out my hand to him, and he sat down beside me, collecting me against him—my bare legs across his lap, his arm around my shoulders, loosely so I had room to move away if I wanted to.
What I wanted was closer. I nestled against his solid body, letting the warm and strength in it soothe me. I didn’t know the question was coming until it fell out of my mouth.
“Are they ever going to stop? The rogues—are they ever going to just leave me alone? I never did anything to them... They don’t even know me!”
“I know,” Nate said in his low baritone. He tucked his chin over my head and rubbed the side of my arm. “I don’t even understand what they did sixteen years ago. To carry around that much hate, to want to hurt pe
ople that much... They’re sick. Their minds are twisted. That’s the only thing I can think.”
“Then they won’t stop. They’ll just keep at it until they kill me—or we kill all of them.”
“Maybe they’ll be able to change their minds once they do get to know you.” He pressed a kiss to my forehead. “You’re already becoming a part of our community. Most of the kin are welcoming you—you’ve seen that, haven’t you?”
My mind went to the iciness of the bigwigs last night, but the truth was they were just a small portion of the shifters, even if they were powerful. Most of the kin I’d met—the avians here, the canines in that other village—had thought more of me than I even did.
“Yeah,” I said. “They’ve been wonderful, actually. I’m not sure I deserve it yet.”
“Of course you do. By fighting back against the rogues, which you’ve done more than once already, you’re fighting for all of us. For the security of all kin. And what you did just now, with that owl shifter... You proved you’re trying to do the right thing for all shifters, even the rogues. People will see that. Word will be passed on. And the ones who aren’t so twisted might realize they’re wrong.”
I wasn’t sure whether I believed that was likely, but it was a nice thought all the same.
A knock sounded on the door. I couldn’t help wincing. Nate gave my arm a reassuring squeeze and went up to answer it. He came back with a plate of breakfast foods that set my stomach grumbling.
For a few minutes, my hunger shoved our conversation to the wayside. I dug into the scrambled eggs, sausage, and hash browns as if I hadn’t eaten in days. Shifting sure gave a person an appetite. Or maybe it was the adrenaline. Either way, I polished off the food like my life depended on it.
“Better?” Nate asked with an amused smile.
“Much.” I set the plate aside and snuggled closer to him, wrapping my arm around his brawny chest. We still had a couple hours before we needed to leave for the parlay. And being with him, holding him and being held by him, was the best salve I could think of for my nerves right now.
