Page 39 of Brutal Dragon King

Getting angrier by the second, a few possibilities rush through my mind of all the things I could do to her in front of my brothers.

But for some reason, I cannot stomach the thought of abusing her in front of them, even if she's just a slave. I can't let her get the wrong idea, either. Neither can I give my brothers the wrong idea that my slave speaks to me in this way.

I curl my hands into fists instead, stifling the urge to get physically dominant, not to taint her self-esteem. I lean close to her ear, making sure everyone present can hear the sternness in my voice.

“I understand you were enjoying your time outside with my brothers…” I grate with a cynical smile. “I wouldn’t mind lending my slaves out…” I say with slow, calculated bitterness. “But my brothers will have reapings of their own. They wouldn't want something used, anyway.”

With that, I straighten up with a self-satisfied smirk, and to my utmost horror, Althea is tight-lipped for the first time without me needing a kiss to keep her quiet. Her eyes lose their usual glow as they widen with blankness, the color seeping from her cheeks as she stares at me bewilderedly. She's shocked to silence by the bitterness of my words, and suddenly, I wish I could take those words back.

But it's too late.

Without throwing any retorts my way like she usually would, Althea turns, her shoulders slumping over as she does the walk of shame down the path toward the palace.

Grimacing, I keep my attention focused on my brothers, trying hard not to glance back in case I decide to give into this strange feeling of tenderness that might lead to me running after Althea to apologize for what I said.

I know that it cut her deeper than anything we've ever bickered about in the past. What's worse is that it was in front of my brothers, but it's too late to take my words back when Kaidën chuckles and slaps my shoulder proudly.

“Slaves, huh?” he chuckles, rolling his eyes as he turns toward the palace. “The sex is gonna be explosive when you punish her later!”

“Yes…” I relent, even though I'm hardly paying attention to what he's saying. My mind remains on Althea, and how terrible I feel for what I told her only because I saw how it stung her.

“King Haidën…”Comes Ryu's voice in my mind.

My daze is cut short when I catch the seriousness in his telepathic voice.

Something is wrong.

I hold up a hand for my brothers to know that something serious has come up, and Kaidën stops his chuckling.

“What is it, General?”I ask with a finger pressed to my temple, and my eyes pierced narrowly at the horizon of the vast forest from where the head of the royal guard emerges alone.

It can't be as serious as I expected, since he isn't followed by the troop of soldiers he'd been leading that morning to the outskirts of the Dynasty perimeters to sweep the borders.

With our planned attack on Khyronia pending, we've been strengthening our border defenses all around the Dynasty of the three kingdoms, covering the villages, the Astral Plateau, and the Wyrmwood Forest next to the Plateau.

But by the looks of it, this has nothing to do with this morning's border patrol.

I step out from under Kaidën's arm, standing at attention as Ryu approaches in a jog. He stops in front of me and quickly bows, appearing out of breath when he lifts his headgear off.

“Your Majesties…” Ryu greets my brothers and bows before turning a worried expression on me.

“What is it, Ryu?” I ask, a sliver of his concern coursing down my spine.

“It's Wyrmwood Forest…” Ryu begins with a nervous sigh. “There's a crack along the site where the Wyrm is buried.”

An eerie silence follows, in which I glance at both my brothers in shock, letting the realization come over me as I process what this means.

This is much worse than anything I could have imagined. Even worse than an attack from King Hestios.

The Wyrm is a cursed dragon who'd been cast to the underground of the forest for trying to take over the entire realm of Nyxoria. The realm is where the Nayara Dynasty exists, along with other dragon kingdoms and the other preternatural creatures and humans in the villages.

As a cursed dragon, legend has it that he almost wreaked havoc in Nyxoria, and almost caused the demise of the entire realm. Kingdoms would have been wiped out, but my mother and the oracle defeated the immortal Wyrm and kept it buried beneath the surface of the forest using an ancient spell.

All of this happened when my brothers and I were little boys, and Mother suspects that the Wyrm was the cause of Father's disappearance.

How he abandoned us…

If the Wyrm is stirring awake, it opens up a can of worms that I do not wish to open. None of us do, and I see it in both my brothers’ eyes when I glance over my shoulders at them.

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