Page 37 of Brutal Dragon King

He just opened the door that leads from his bedroom to mine for the first time, and now he’s not moving, forcing me to do my best to remain unmoving so he doesn’t figure out that I’m pretending to be asleep.

Time ticks by slowly, and the only thing furthering its pace is my heart, until finally, the king heaves a heavy sigh, and I hear his footsteps faintly before the door closes with a gentle thud.

What was that about?

I can’t make any sense of the king’s strange behavior, but I don’t want to. I squeeze my eyes tightly, deciding that the only escape from this rollercoaster of emotions is by getting what I’ve been determined to get all along.

Revenge.

The dagger I found in his secret weapon room is the key to that revenge. I just have to figure out a way to put it to good use.

Chapter 12 - Haidën

I stare at the wall, absentmindedly toying with my spoon, while my mind drifts off into an empty abyss where only thoughts about the human and our time at the crystal shrine exist.

It’s been four days, yet I still can’t get her out of my mind.

Greatly despising how I’ve become, weakened by the human presence in the palace grounds, I grunt reproachfully at myself, returning my attention to the breakfast I’ve barely touched.

“Your Majesty…” the serving servant comes rushing over, ready to do whatever bidding I need.

Instead, I dismiss her with a flick of my wrist, not wanting anything from her.

Except…

“Wait!” I call out, and the servant, Nyra, stops and quickly turns, her head hanging low in a permanent bow. “Where is Al—” I stop to clear my throat. “Where is the palace’s child-bearer?” I ask. I’ve settled to calling her the palace’s child-bearer, instead of the possessive “mine” that keeps me in a loop of intense desire for her.

She might be a slave in the kingdom, and treated as such, but she is no prized possession of mine that will lead me to being attached to a weakness.

That is what Althea is to me—a weakness this kingdom cannot afford for its king to have.

I will lose everything I built in the madness of needing her. I’ve fulfilled my quest of conceiving a child byconsummating the mating ritual. Nothing more is required of me, or us.

I don’t need to see her again, and that’s why I’ve been steering clear of her ever since I fled the scene that night. In a moment of weakness, I unlocked the door that kept our bedrooms separated and walked in, only to find her asleep.

What was I going to do if I found her awake? I’m not really sure. I’m glad I didn’t stick around to find out if she’d wake up, or see her in the palace ever since that day.

My question comes only to ensure that I don’t run into her while I’m out doing the tasks required of The Spine’s king. I need to keep my head in the game, leveled and clear-thinking, so I’m not weakened.

“She’s out in the gardens today, Your Majesty,” Nyra informs me.

I grunt, dismissing the servant again and glaring into my bowl. The last time I caught Althea frolicking in the gardens without a care in the world, I’d become so consumed by possessiveness that I’d picked her up and flown her to the hockey arena and commanded her to remain seated, only to notice that she was watching me play as if I was the only dragon shifter in the air.

She drove me wild. The fantasies I had about her were crazed, and I'd become a lunatic driven by the intensity of my cravings. An addiction that I had unfortunately tasted and still can't seem to get enough of. That's how addictions work, and I've had to go cold turkey on the human by staying away from her.

I could have easily thrown her into the dungeon with the rest of the slaves and child-bearers who'd come before her for the other males. Ryu's mate had been picked in last year's annualdraw, and she's locked with the other slaves in the underground bunker.

That's where they belong, these slaves. That's why I made the rule in the first place, and why we'd been sticking to ancient rulings that saw humans as inferior beings who had no value thanks to the absence of any true power.

Reminding myself that Althea is merely a human, I huff and throw my spoon down, deciding on the spot that wallowing in these endless thoughts won't do.

I have a kingdom to rule, and another to conquer with my brothers. I was, after all, the one who called Jaidën and Kaidën to The Spine, to round up the final plans to attack Khyronia and overthrow Hestios. I can't sit around here and be a coward as if I'm afraid of a measly human.

“Pfft!” I blow out an angry, fiery breath at my bowl, deciding that this will not do and that the only way I can prove to myself that I am still the respected, revered dragon king of The Spine of Nayara, King Haidën Nayara, is by going out there and facing Althea Waters.

A human shouldn’t have this much pull on my being, as if pulling the strings while I’m just a puppet when I’m a powerful, majestic dragon shifter.

Duty awaits me, and I can’t seem to keep my head in the game.

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