Page 33 of The Kraken Bride

Took a moment for me to recover from his kiss. Longer to recover from his words and endearment. Those stayed with me. The forbidden nickname, deployed on purpose. And ash help me, it worked.

Courage washed over me, and I straightened my shoulders. My spine turned to steel. I was the woman chosen by King Sebastian of the Kraken to save his kingdom. A dragon princess with the smokewings to prove it.

Satisfaction pulsed from him as he guided me forward once again.

My confidence only amplified as the guards we passed paled and looked anywhere but at us. The giants were that afraid of Sebastian?

Only then did I realize I’d never seen him fight. What in all the worlds did he do on the battlefield to cause such a reaction in those who might be forced to meet him there?

Hanging industrial lamps lit a vast space, twining beams with long, jagged shadows across the concrete floor. The echo of distant voices and shifting metal reverberated through the area. Dripping water. Echoes. Stacked in towering rows waited crates, some sealed with heavy chains. All stamped with the same warning.

YOU’RE NEXT

Past a wall of shelves, we encountered a cluster of shifters, standing around a crate. One of the men stood out from the others. The tallest person I’d ever faced. He was double Sebastian’s body mass with too much muscle. A brute with a wide brow and a flat nose. Jon?

Aggression tinged the air; the dragon inside me no longer stirring but crouched, ready to pounce.

Brute motioned for everyone else to leave. They did, racing as fast as their feet would carry them, proving his identity.

Jon looked me over and snickered. “Snatched her up fast for a nine-fingered drullusokkur.”

Ugh. I’d known someone would mention the speed of our connection. And had he really just referred to King Sebastian as a nine-fingered toilet plunger? Ash-hole.

“Not that it’s any of your business, but I first saw her at a meeting of royals. From that moment forward, I worked to get her here.” Sebastian shrugged, not the least bit fazed by the admission. “Now she’s here, and she’s mine.” His voice hardened at the end.

That… that had sounded suspiciously true, and the very idea hit like a punch. A delicious punch, yes. But still a punch.

I scrambled for purchase while my dragon preened. But wait. Sebastian had arranged nothing. I’d decided to travel here all on my own.

Hadn’t I?

I mean, I recalled overhearing a conversation between two dragons discussing ways to sneak into other factions to check out their men, and an ambassadorship was one of them.

I thought about the reason I’d fought to come here: the vote. I remembered Sebastian’s pause before delivering his. How he’d stared straight at me while overseeing the vote’s defeat.

I considered the manticore, who hadn’t shown up, though he’d been a certain yes. Sebastian absolutely could have put all this into motion, arranging the manticore’s absence, then voting nei to force me to buy his yes.

And if so, the wily kraken had put in the work.

Maybe he had, maybe he hadn’t. And perhaps I should have felt betrayal at even the thought of his manipulations. But nein. I’d wanted to come, and I’d seized on the vote as an excuse. And whatever he had or hadn’t done, I’d chosen to walk through that traveling stone. But choosing the door he’d built for me wasn’t the same as him leaving the choice alone, and I wasn’t sure what to think about that.

Now get out of your own head.

Keep the beat. “She is done being spoken about as if she isn’t here,” I quipped. “I believe we’ve come for a reason, ja?”

My companion chuckled, as if my politely delivered rebuke delighted him. “Apologies, Brona.” He kissed my cheek and faced Jon, features icing. “Let’s get this done.”

Scorch my tail. Did he have to be so good at this besotted suitor game?

Jon watched our byplay with a toothy grin. “You make me wish I hadn’t killed my wife. But only a little.”

Okay, so, that was an alarming thing to say.

The shifter boomed a laugh at his own joke and motioned to the long crate. “Take a look at Jokull’s most recent gift. He carved a message for you.”

Sebastian’s fingers flexed on my hip, as if he was in the midst of an internal debate over whether to let me go or draw me forward. I wanted to see, needed to, and leaned into him, making the decision. Forward we walked.

Someone had already propped up the lid.