Page 5 of Fragile Oath

It was an effort not to flinch, even as the wolf’s head charm bit into my skin and every part of me begged to shrink away from his touch.

“Of course not, My Lord,” I said, dipping my chin demurely.

Alexei dropped my wrist; his mouth twisted. “These people have made you impudent.”

He narrowed his gaze on me, searching my face for any sign of reaction, only looking away when I failed to give him one.

It was an even more tense ride after that. By the time we stopped for the night, it felt like years had passed rather than the roughly twenty-four hours since I had agreed to marry Davin.

Just thinking his name sent a pang through me. I pushed it away, taking Alexei’s proffered arm as he led me from the carriage around to the back of an inn. His two Socairan guards trailed behind us, while the Lochlannian driver checked the horses into the stables.

Inside the inn, the serving girl and cook both pointedly peered in the other direction after being handed a few coins.

Had Alexei planned this? Had he known which inns were full of traitors to the crown? Had he threatened these people into compliance, or were they doing it out of some misguided sense of justice?

As though he read my mind, Alexei chuckled under his breath.

“Lochlannians have no loyalty to their own.” He spoke in Socairan as we ascended a narrow staircase. “Here, it is too easy to find those willing to work against their own monarchs.”

His words dripped with disgust, and for once, I could find no argument. Most clan members would die before turning on their duke, but this kingdom seemed to be teeming with those who were willing to betray their own king.

Then I thought about what Jocelyn said. Love versus loyalty. Before Rowan came along with her Unclanned army, the Socairans had served out of fear. The Lochlannians were loyal out of love. It was earning that love to begin with that was the problem.

Something Davin and I were accomplishing together, before…

Those thoughts cut off abruptly when Alexei stopped outside of a door, motioning for his guards to take up position on either side.

My heart dropped into my stomach, icy dread pooling through my veins. Somehow, it hadn’t occurred to me that we would be sharing a room. We never had before. Alexei followed his own demented brand of propriety.

But of course, I should have known he wouldn’t let me out of his sight.

Alexei walked into the room first, doing a quick check around to ensure that it was empty. But I was frozen in the darkened hallway, my limbs like lead as my eyes landed on the single, tiny bed in the corner of the room.

He turned when he realized I wasn’t following him. His narrowed eyes flickered to the soldiers on either side of the door, then back to me. He wouldn’t hurt me in front of them. He was too smart for that, but his other threats still hung in the air between us. After taking a breath, I forced myself inside the room, shutting the door behind me with a trembling hand.

The lock clicking into place echoed through the small space and rattled my bones. I barely turned around before Alexei was crossing the floor to get to me. He moved with the silence and grace of a predator, and I was reminded, once again, of the stories that followed him from the battlefront of his prowess. His bloodlust.

“Is there a problem,Radnaya? Do you not expect me to see to your safety, here in this land where you have so many enemies?”

There was no note of falsehood in his words, only a cold insistence.

“I’m only concerned about the propriety, My Lord.” Immediately, I knew that had been the wrong thing to say, even before he raised an enormous hand to my neck.

Rather than close around my throat, his thumb slid downward, dipping just below the neckline of my dress before looping back up.

“Propriety?” Though his voice was pitched not to carry, there was a deadly undertone.

His thumb traced the same arc. I suppressed a shudder, bile rising in my throat. My skin crawled everywhere he touched it, and I was so focused on fighting back that feeling that it took me entirely too long to realize what he was tracing.

Then he dug his thumb into the gently bruised skin and the blood drained from my face. Abruptly, a memory hit me of Davin’s lips on my skin. Then his tongue. Then his teeth, just there, below my collarbone.

Rage sparked in Alexei’s gaze as he pressed harder along the mark, this time ensuring he would leave his own bruise to cover the one that was there.

“Were you concerned about propriety when you let thatsvolachdisrespect us both by taking you to his bed?”

Deny, deny, deny.The words repeated like an alarm bell in my head.

“It was just a mistake, My Lord, but I didn’t let him take me to his bed. I would never do that to you,” I lied.

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