Page 52 of Her Tortured Beasts

The celebrant begins the usual speech about love and tradition as the two of us stand there and I pretend to listen. My head pounds a murderous beat along to Spawn’s laboured breathing inside my skull. A bead of sweat runs down Francesca’s spine. My father shifts impatiently behind me. The entire room breathes. Lungs expanding, throats swallowing. The birds in the trees at the edge of the estate chirp a raucous call. I should have taken up Uncle Fabian’s offer of that smoke.

Spawn sniffs.

I want it all to fucking stop.

And then Francesa begins speaking her vows, dragging my attention to her powdered face. “Under the Wild Goddess, I bind myself in holy matrimony to you, Xander Flores Drakos. I vow to honour, serve, and obey you until my last day upon this earth.” She places the gold wedding band on my finger.

Does she mean it?

When it’s my turn, I say, “Under the Wild Goddess, I bind myself in holy matrimony to you, Francesca Nolene Dorothy Hellfire. I vow to love, honour, and cherish you until my last day upon this?—”

It’s right at that moment my dragon decides to awaken with an earth-trembling roar. His mighty jaws open wide, white glowing eyes terrible and raging.

“You have no authority over me!”he roars, low and guttural.

“I have the only authority!”I scream back.

He stares me down, smoke streaming from his nostrils in a dangerous volume, fogging up my brain.“You thought there were no consequences for what you did?”he snarls, making my very skull rattle.“You thought you could violate the most ancient laws of our kind?”He prowls closer to me, putting his massive face in mine, but I clench my jaw and stand my ground.“The only thing more cruel than a curse from the Wild Goddess is a curse writ by a dragon.”

“You will obey me,”I snarl.“I am your master.”

He ignores me completely, eyes flashing red to black, before pressing his mighty forehead against mine.“You will know all the times we have loved her, and may they torment you for the rest of your cursed, miserable days.”

A broken scream fills the air, and it takes me a moment to realise it’s mine.

Chapter 29

Aurelia

Something changes in the air as Xander cuts himself off and promptly collapses onto the ground with a heavy thud.

Lady Drakos cries out, lunging towards her son as Francesca steps back, her mouth dropping open, looking towards her own parents for some explanation.

The dragon king does not move at all, which means that when I reflexively reach out a hand towards his son, I can’t move any further due to my leash. I shouldn’t even try, being bare ass naked and still recovering from near suffocation. I think that entire traumatising episode may have killed more than a few of my brain cells because I’m fluffy-brained as I stare in shock at Xander’s collapsed form.

Lady Drakos and the celebrant shake Xander, and servants rush forward to assist.

“Move over. Let me see him.” Lady Hyena’s voice sounds like a firecracker through the mutter of concerned and affronted dragons. It’s a surprise because I didn’t even realise she was here. We all turn to see her hobbling up to the altar, using her black cane to swat away the human butler trying to roll Xander over. She huffs darkly under her breath, leaning on her cane, both hands propped one on top of the other, and she staresdown at the supine dragon heir as if reading him. “Natural consequence.” A dry sniff. “He’ll be fine.” She looks out at the crowd. “Best to get on with it, eh?”

Flores gives a very dragon-like snort that I’m convinced only I hear before he saunters forward.

Old, dark eyes catch mine on her way out. A hint of knowing. A hint of amusement. I meet her gaze steadily. Just because I’m naked doesn’t mean I can’t give a fucking nasty glare.

But what does she know? Does Xander’s collapsing have something to do with his severed bond to me?

I watch Xander carefully as Flores steps up to the altar, which means I’m the only person except Lady Drakos who sees the king dragon’s whip of fire lash at Xander’s neck. He flinches before his eyes begin to open and crescent moons of white light are shown to me. Xander frowns, and different colours flicker through his eyes until they settle on a deep and terrifying black. Obsidian smoke streams from Xander’s nose as his eyes open all the way. It’s then I notice one of his earphones has dropped out and is lying on the crimson rug.

Without even thinking, I lurch forwards and grab the earphone, shoving it into his ear.

Xander blinks rapidly, the black eyes shifting colours backwards through the spectrum until we reach yellow, then lastly white.

A sigh of relief breezes past my lips before Xander’s eyes widen and he leaps to his feet.

“Apologies,” he says, helping his mother up. I scuttle backwards, away from the eyes and behind Flores. “I suppose that’s what I get for eating too much this morning. Shall we continue?” He holds an expectant hand out to Francesca, who by this time has retreated all the way to the side of her parents, standing with her, clutching each other’s arms.

The dragoness plasters a very fake smile upon her bridal-pink glossy lips and nods. “Of course, Xander.”

I scowl at her doll-like features. A perfect, stunning creature that would have many a beast drooling. She sweeps back up to the altar, taking Xander’s offered hand. The celebrant hands Xander the bride’s massive ruby ring again and he puts it onto her finger without so much as another word.

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