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Fuck my father’s plans. I had my own.
As a soft sigh escaped her, I nearly died with the need to join her under the blankets, wrap my arms around her, bury my face in her chestnut hair and suffocate on her rosy scent. But she’d fallen apart over the truth that had been kept from her, and I couldn’t risk pushing any more until she had time to adjust to her new life.
And she would adjust, because if what she’d been through hadn’t broken her, nothing would. This little spitfire was everything I wanted, needed, and I knew without a shadow of doubt that the Goddess made her for me. She had blown up my whole world the moment I laid eyes on her.
“Ruslan,” hissed Drazen, my lieutenant and closest friend, through the canvas tent. He was half Dragon, half Iron Fae, and technically we were related through our Dragon kin. With one last glance at Izidora, I exited my tent to find him waiting, arms crossed over his chest.
“What?” I snapped, annoyed that on my first real night with my mate, he had torn me away.
“Why did you dump all that information on her? I thought we agreed to wait until we were safely in the Iron Realm to reveal our secrets,” he chided.
“There’s no way they’ll catch us before we get there. Besides, if I see them coming, I’ll just move us away,” I shrugged, notcaring whether he liked my response. I answered to no one but my father, and even that was becoming rare. King Azim knew I could take him down with a single thought.
“Your cockiness is going to get us all killed,” he snarled.
I rose to my full height, baring my teeth as I growled, “I am your alpha, and I make the calls here. I don’t need you to question my judgment.”
“Don’t pull rank on me to get me to shut up. I am calling you out on your bullshit. You can’t think clearly when it comes to her,” he seethed, gesturing to the tent where Izidora lay sleeping.
“Of course not! This is the first day I’ve had with my mate, who I have waited twenty-one years to see. And I find out that she was abused while my father’s soldiers held her captive. What the fuck do you think I should be doing? Because what I think I should be doing is killing every last male who had a rotation in that cave,” I growled.
“You really had no idea that was happening?” he snorted like he didn’t believe me.
I had him by the throat, feet dangling in the air a half second later. “And you did?” My voice was like daggers, and I was ready to snap his neck, kin or not.
“No,” he coughed, his face turning purple as I crushed his windpipe. Releasing my grip, I dropped him roughly, and he fell to his hands and knees, gasping for breath.
Crouching so I was level with him, I purred, “Are you sure about that?” The gleam in my eyes was a warning to be truthful with his next response.
“I swear. I figured you were such a fucking control freak that you’d gotten a daily report on her all these years,” he grunted.
He had a point. I had been tempted to demand to know every detail on more than one occasion, but that was a point on which my father relentlessly stood his ground. He claimed it wasso I could “heroically” save her when she came of age. But I think he owed King Zalan a debt for not speaking of his program and looking the other way when the other realms got involved, trying to stop the “trafficking,” as they so termed it. I’m sure King Zalan was the one who permitted the abuse, simply as a way to maintain control over her even from afar. I was an Angel compared to King Zalan when it came to controlling others. But with him out of the way, thanks to my ferocious mate, nothing could hold me back from making Izidora mine.
She already believed her “father” to be a narcissist capable of such atrocities, so who was to say I couldn’t be her knight in iron armor? There was little light in me, but my darkness had already brought enough females to my bed to satisfy an army. I would lure her with honeyed words and trap her with me. She already had enough of it in her; it was only a matter of bringing it to the surface and showing her how alike we were. Already I had witnessed her kill in cold blood, and she would do it again and again before I was through with her. Maybe I’d even bring her along, let her toy with the males who’d abused her before I finished them off, showing my mate just what I would do for her. The nightmare I painted in my head of us killing together and fucking like wild animals afterward had me hard in seconds.
I held my hand out to Drazen and he grasped it, pulling himself to his feet. “When we return to the Iron Realm, I want you to find every last motherfucker that had a guard shift in Vasvain, and I want you to take them there. Chain them up like they did to her. Their deaths are mine.”
Drazen didn’t even blink at my violent words. “Consider it done.”
My vehemence relented, and I sighed. “Would it make you feel better if I moved us to the Iron Realm tomorrow?”
“Yes, I would feel better, but you’ll burn yourself out. I know your magic isn’t fully recharged from moving everyone toVaenor and then rushing the survivors away. Let’s ride harder instead.” He clasped my arm, reassuring me that no hard feelings lingered between us.
“Wake me before dawn,” I instructed before dismissing him.
Lifting the tent flap with the barest amount of force so as not to wake Izidora, I ducked into the space. Her bright blue eyes cut through the dim light, though she quickly closed them, feigning sleep. I tuned in to my heightened senses and listened to her erratic heartbeat and shallow breath. Her fear covered the awful stench of that male she thought was her mate. Turning my back to her, I stripped my armor away piece by piece.
Her eyes raked my backside as I undressed, and I slowed my pace to allow her to drink in the view. It was a nice one, after all. Tattoos lined every inch of my muscled torso, the stories of my races mixing with one another to form artwork more beautiful than you’d see on any royal residence’s walls. Gradually, I made my way to a chair where I could remove my heavy boots, ducking my head so Izidora could continue her perusal of my form. Her gaze landed on the ridges of my chest, the dips and valleys of my abs that trailed into the pants I unbuckled.
Her scent changed from fearful to aroused with a hint of anger. I smirked, knowing that she liked my body and likely hated herself for it right now. Dragon senses were fucking incredible. As were my wings, talons, and horns, and in time, she’d see those too, ratcheting up her arousal to a dizzying height.
My groin heated under Izidora’s stare, and as I stood to remove my pants, her eyes snapped shut, pretending to be asleep once more. By the time I was ready to crawl into the pallet, she’d evened her breaths, but her heart still pounded as wildly as she had pounded the walls of her cage early this morning.
As promised, I kept my distance, pulling up a blanket tocover my naked lower half, then turned my back to her. I itched to yank her to me, to press my erection into her back, but I had the self-control of a god. She would willingly crawl on her hands and knees to me, begging to be fucked, and soon if I had to judge by her scent. But Drazen was right, and I need to sleep to recharge my magic. So I closed my eyes, ignoring the hardness that threatened to become a kickstand, and forced myself to sink into a restorative slumber.
6
Holy fuck.There was no way I was sleeping anymore.
