Page 28 of Brutal Dragon King

Or, perhaps I’ve become sober now, my senses no longer amplified by the effects of the liquor.

My hands curl into fists at my sides as I growl down at Althea.

“Bow, Althea…” I order with a grim expression, eyes now glowering at her.

“Why should I?” she scoffs. “I’m not afraid of you, Haidën.”

“KingHaidën,” I correct her, taking another threatening step forward.

“Yeah, yeah… I know…” she sneers uninterestedly. “You’re the king, and you want validation from me.”

Angered when she rolls her eyes at me, I take one final step forward, entering the vortex of her radiating aura and noticing the shift I feel within myself. A stir in my core wakes my carnal desire for the human, even despite her insolence once again.

No matter how much she defies me and disrespects me when I am her king, I can’t see beyond the intense sexual magnetization I feel for her. Her very being is my undoing, andI have to consciously hang onto my anger so I don’t forget who I am, or become distracted by her.

There’s no denying it—Althea Waters is my weakness. And no distinguished, revered king should have a weakness lest he wishes to lose his kingdom.

Tomorrow evening cannot come fast enough. Perhaps I’ll quell this desire and put it to rest when I discover that the human is a measly human. Maybe then I won't be so consumed with the fantasy of ripping off her clothes right here, right now, and taking her body against the wall.

“You still choose to speak to me disrespectfully?” I ask, raising a brow.

Althea shrugs nonchalantly. “I told you already, I'm not afraid of you. There's nothing you can possibly do to scare me,King Haidën,” she says my name with deliberate smoothness, probably to point out that she does, in fact, recognize that I am her king.

The only trouble is that she doesn't seem to care, her expression blank when she suddenly spins on her heel, her voluptuously wavy hair flicking over her shoulder. The gust of air carries with it the floral fragrance of the shampoo she used, and my eyes close involuntarily as I drink in the scent, a bout of fervent hunger gripping my being as it seeps to my core and makes me ragingly hard.

The wave of crazed arousal turns my inner dragon rabid, bringing with it the impulse to grab her by the neck and crush my lips to hers. But my eyes are snapped open when a loud bang erupts and echoes through the corridor.

Althea Waters, my human child-bearer, just slammed the guest room door in my face.

How dare she?!

Huffing through fiery nostrils, I'm ready to unleash my wrath on her for disrespecting me again.

But it's so much more than that. Her ever-consuming presence has left me with a raging hard-on, and I can't stand that I want the human so badly that it pains my being.

Curling my hands into fists, I grunt as I'm left glaring at the door, at war with myself for finding the human beautiful.

No amount of beauty should warrant this kind of frenzy I'm in. Narrowing my eyes at the door, I decide on the spot that I will not be considered a weak king, or a weak dragon who cannot control himself.

Tomorrow, I will simply use the human as a means to an end, and discard her. That's how things are meant to be in The Spine.

What was thinking, placing her in the palace, right beside my own bedroom?

No human is deserving of this.

Least of all, Althea Waters, the only human who dares to defy me.

Chapter 9 - Althea

I stare at the white robe, anger fueling my breath as my chest heaves uncontrollably and my fists curl at my sides.

That's all I'm supposed to wear? I think disdainfully, wondering how I'm meant to cover up with the sheer robe when I'm not meant to wear anything else underneath.

Those were the strict instructions I received from the palace servant, who'd come by this afternoon to lay out my robe for the evening's mating ritual with the king. She warned me that this was customary for the child-bearers who enter into mating bonds with the dragon shifters of The Spine.

It seems objectifying to a human slave, but then again, we don't have any real purpose here other than breeding slaves for the dragon shifters’ pleasure of reproduction. It's a simple process; perhaps the sheer robe is meant to appeal to the dragons.

Then why do I feel anxious about the upcoming ritual?

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