Page 105 of Heir of Draga

These males needed her. They desperately needed to care for her even if she didn’t think anyone could heal the pain in her heart. Only time and vengeance could do that.

“We need to warn Asher about the Neprijat snatchers,” she said. Adelina tried not to think about how flat and emotionless her voice sounded. “Then send someone to deliver the message with my acceptance of the Crown and title.”

It wasn’t what he’d expected her to say, but Nash nodded regardless. “I’ll make it happen.”

“Delphine should take the message,” she murmured, taking Nash’s offered hand and following them out of the unfamiliar starship.

“Of course, only someone we can trust,” Varan agreed, walking as close to her as he could.

Kaiden brought up the rear and she heard his wings snap open to block the wind when they walked down the ramp of Nash’s ship. “I will make sure Alpha’s body is preserved until the right time.”

The way the three of them worked together, trying to help her – it was everything she’d wanted only a few hours before. Now…there was a body in the ship of a male she’d loved as fiercely as she did her brothers.

Nothing could change that stark fact.

“Adelina!” Nadyah rushed up, but stopped when Adelina flinched away.

It was difficult to suffer someone touching her at the moment. Adelina already felt so fragile and brittle. Somehow her males knew it, because not one of them tried to touch her despite the fact that she could feel the heat of their bodies from how close they were.

She paused before the bridge, the one that connected the landing pad on Hai Delta to the Royal Eyrie. This was where Drozer had taken her. The snippets of their conversation before he’d sedated her had slowly been returning during the trip back.

“I’m fine, Nadyah,” Adelina told her courtesan. “I need to see a physician for my wrist, but otherwise I am perfectly healthy.” She turned to Nadyah and didn’t bother trying to smile. One couldn’t lie to a courtesan about emotions.

“Then let’s get you to a physician,” Nadyah said with a slight bow of her head.

Adelina could only operate as queen and Nadyah could sense that. Anything else would have her sobbing on the floor again. She yearned to comfort Varan and the others but…Adelina had to catch her breath. In the meantime she would allow them to hover.

She’d disappeared and they’d nearly lost her to the Neprijat. Even in her broken state she wasn’t cruel enough to send them away when they so desperately needed the reassurance that she was there and safe.

Nadyah led her up and into The Jasmine. Her crew and warriors stopped what they were doing to watch. They didn’t know yet, but soon they would. Adelina wondered how they would treat her when they found out she was now queen.

How many people would she lose to rank and protocol? How many more would she lose to save her galaxy and kingdom?

Physicians must have been alerted because two came rushing from the bowels of the ship. Nadyah instructed them to follow, and then she led them all up to Adelina’s personal and private suite on the top floor.

The silence was strange, but she didn’t try to fill it. Her mind was still on the body in Nash’s ship.

Adelina had killed two people.

Never would she forget the way Drozer spoke to her…despite everything he’d done there was something about him that resonated with her. His words…“His name was Drozer,” she said suddenly.

Everyone in the lift jumped at her soft voice.

“As he was dying he said to me, ‘My queen…what our people could be if we had someone to care for us like you care for them.’ What do you think he meant by that?” Adelina asked no one in particular.

The physician looked at her with concern and then dosed her with a painkiller. Instantly the agony in her wrist faded away.

“I don’t know, my love,” Varan said, voice tight. Then he sighed and stepped closer to her. “Perhaps he meant…his fate would have been much different with a different ruler.”

Adelina felt herself collapse and Varan caught her. He looked down at her with so much fear and pain she reached up with her good hand to caress his cheek. “A sedative?” she asked.

“Yes, Princess,” the physician told her. “It is best if you get some rest. You will feel much better when you awake.”

Adelina wasn’t so sure about that, but she closed her eyes and didn’t try to fight it.

* * *

When she awoke the room was dark and she was alone. Adelina rolled over and knew from the feel of the sheets and the lack of smoke on the air that she was in her starship.

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