Page 50 of Dragon King’s Bullied Mate

They moved into the kitchen while Beckett and Malaya argued faintly about television settings. Lyra busied herself preparing coffee with visible nervousness while Mikael leaned silently against the counter watching her.

Finally she spoke without turning around. “When you were unconscious…” She hesitated carefully. “I saw things.”

Mikael’s brow raised. “What things?”

“The heat, at first,” she admitted softly. “Your skin would become impossibly warm whenever you had nightmares.” She swallowed slightly before continuing. “Then one night I saw scales along your ribs.”

Shock rooted Mikael motionless. Lyra had witnessed it all and still stayed beside him long enough to keep him alive.

“You know what I am,” Mikael said quietly.

Her eyes held his steady now. “I think I do.”

Mikael should have felt threatened by that knowledge. Instead, something far more dangerous unfurled slowly inside his chest.

Trust.

And his dragon reacted to it immediately with fierce, possessive satisfaction.

Chapter 20

Lyra

Lyra stood very still in the kitchen after Mikael’s quiet admission settled between them. The coffee pot hissed softly behind her, and for several long seconds she could do nothing except stare at him.

Not merely a king or the boy who had once watched Dag torment her through years of school hallways while saying nothing at all. He was a dragon, or at least something close enough to the old legends that her mind still struggled to fully accept it.

Mikael’s eyes remained fixed on her carefully now, the intensity in them quieter than before but somehow more dangerous because she could feel how much rested on her next words that would determine whether he trusted her or regretted her learning his secret.

Lyra swallowed softly and wrapped both hands around the warm coffee mug mostly to steady herself.

“I haven’t told anyone,” she said quietly.

Mikael didn’t move.

“I never will either.”

Something subtle shifted in his expression then, not relief exactly but something deeper and more vulnerable than she had ever expected to see from him.

“I grew up hearing stories about the royal bloodlines. The old legends about dragons protecting the kingdom and bonding themselves to kings.” A faint nervous laugh escaped her. “I always thought they were just stories parents told children.”

Mikael’s mouth curved slightly at that. “Most people do.”

Lyra glanced toward him again, unable to stop herself from remembering the impossible heat beneath her hands while she fought to keep him alive or the scales that had surfaced across his skin. None of it felt like fantasy anymore.

It felt terrifyingly real, but somehow she wasn’t afraid of him. That realization startled her almost as much as the dragon itself.

From the living room came Beckett’s loud groan of frustration followed immediately by Malaya laughing.

“This remote is broke.”

“It’s just smarter than you,” Malaya teased.

“That’s rude.”

Lyra smiled before she could stop herself, and Beckett suddenly appeared around the corner clutching a battered picture book against his chest.

“Did you give up the remote?”