Page 117 of The Horde King of Shadow

The horde erupted into cheers when Lygath landed before us, gusting his wings. He kept as far away from the Sarrothian as hecould without going over the cliff edge, Zaridan landing beside him. Still ever mistrustful.

And Klara straightened on his back, looking over the horde that she had just won over. She might always feel the sting of their prior rejection. Sometimes I still remembered it. But she would have to accept it, just as I had.

Never before in our history had a rider tried to claim the same Elthika twice.

But Klara had.

A Vyrin nonetheless.

The noise, the chanting, the cheers were thunderous. Klara sought me out among the crowd, and I stepped forward. Lygath huffed out a sharp breath, and I looked at the Elthika, a torrent of emotions at the sight of him channeling through me. I didn’t know how to feel. But now that he was my wife’s bonded—and Zaridan’s sibling—we would have to learn to get along. It would be hard. Especially since whenever I looked at him…I couldn’t help but remember Haden.

I passed to his side, and his golden eyes kept me pinned. Klara was looking down at me, swinging her leg over, her grip on the tethers loosening. She unclasped them, keeping them in her fist as I held out my arms for her. Lygath still needed to be trained on basic commands. He wouldn’t lower his wing for her yet.

She slid off the side, and I caught her in my arms. My heart still thundering, relief so potent spiraling through me that I went dizzy with it. But I was still trying to get a handle on my fear. My anger.

“I’m sorry,” she breathed into my neck. It was miraculous I heard her over the noise. “I’m sorry.”

I said nothing. Instead, I looked at Zaridan, my displeasure likely rolling off me in waves, and nodded at Lygath. “Thryn’ar.”

The flying command. Zaridan let out a sharp chortle in the back of her throat, which made Lygath’s ear twitch. Then she took off, her brother following shortly after.

Then I left the landing space. The horde was still celebrating, though their exuberance died down as I left with Klara still in my arms, heading toward the forest at the back of the encampment. I needed to be alone with her, but I thought the walls of the tent would feel too suffocating.

Once we were far enough away from the horde, deep in the forest, when we could no longer hear them, I set her down on her feet.

She was biting her lip, looking sheepish and hesitant, when she met my eyes. “Sarkin…”

“I don’t know whether to yell, celebrate, kiss you, punish you, or fuck you,” I growled.

She sucked in a sharp inhale through her nostrils, those dull little teeth still buried into her full bottom pink lip.

“So you tell me,aralye, what you want me to do,” I finished.

“A kiss would be a good start,” she breathed. I saw something black dangling off her wrist. My rider’s cuff. She saw where my gaze had dipped, and her fingers brushed over the metal. “Though I understand if you want to start with the yelling part.”

I strode up to her, sliding my hand into her hair,tight, pulling her head back as she stared up at me in surprise.

My kiss was hard and angry. I poured my fear and frustration into her. My other hand came up to her cheek, and Ifuckinghated that it trembled as it did. A growl wound its way up my throat.

One thing had become apparent to me this morning—I was no longer an impenetrable force. She was my glaring vulnerability, the soft place that could so easily destroy me.

My aunt had succeeded in one thing.

She’d made me like my father. I knew I would do anything for my wife to protect her…and that made fear rise in me like nothing else had before.

Ilovedher. I loved my wife.

I broke the kiss with a rough gasp, feeling her pant against me as I leaned my forehead into hers. I glared at her.

“Next?” I asked.

I saw the desire bloom and heat. This moment felt like when I’d trained her at Tharken. That dizzying adrenaline was still pulsing in her blood, making her wild. She was still on a high of claiming Lygath.

I grinned, but it was sharp. “I know exactly what you want.”

Her chin lifted. “Do you?”

She dropped the tether to the forest floor, winding like a twisting serpent. Her hands drifted to the laces of her riding trews.

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