Page 11 of Earth Dragon
“No, indeed,” she said bitterly. “What is it you’d have of me? Spit it out and go.”
He clenched his jaws together, his inner dragon growl soft encouragement for him to heed the lady. He should say his piece and leave.
But was involving her in his trial the right thing to do? He was about to put her at the very center of it. Moreover, doing so meant that he would be providing her with the exact information she would want if she was lying about having had a change of hearts. All evidence pointed to the probability that she was still as deeply involved with the scheme as she ever had been.
But all he could see was how an arrangement between them was a win-win scenario.
For his own sake, if he gave her the information and she used it against him then he would know he was right to mistrust her. If she accepted the arrangement he was about to propose, then he would complete the trial and set his father free. He would also have no reason tohaveto fall in love with anyone.
And he would have first and final say of everything that happened in the kingdom.
It would be a grave responsibility but one he was willing to claim if it meant he could make the changes he knew needed to be made. Especially to the border control.
So, catching Lady Shannon’s gaze and holding it, he said, “The trial set for me is to find love.”
She stared at him.
“I do not love you,” she stated without much hesitation.
He disliked how powerfully those words hit him. He hadn’t expected her to confess her undying devotion to him. He hadn’t even wanted her to fall to her knees and tell him how it was her time with him in Fawha that had changed her attitude about everything she had been taught to think. That he was the reason she now stood on the side of the bloodlines. None of that had even ever crossed his mind.
“Nor I you,” he shot back.
“So, why would you want such an arrangement?” she asked. “You could never love me.”
“No, I could not,” he confirmed. “Nor do I believe I can trust anyone enough to love them. The thought of finding a female—known to me or not—and letting her have the seat next to mine, a space in my bed… It’s unfathomable to me. And even if it could be accomplished, truthfully it would take decades.”
“Won’t your father know this about you?” she asked.
“I doubt it,” he sighed. “Or he would not have set such a trial for me to begin with.”
“How much time did he give you?”
“He did not specify, but he sounded eager,” he admitted. “He’s weary. I can tell that he is. He’s ruled for over half a millennium. He’s ready to hand the crown over. To go do as he pleases.”
“The way you would wish to,” she said. “If only you could.”
“If only,” he said, offering her a trying smile.
She didn’t return it, the crease between her brows lingering.
“What exactly were you thinking?” she asked.
He felt something not too far from a flutter near his hearts.
At least she hadn’t thrown an immediate no in his face.
Now, he just needed to convince her.
Chapter 4 - Shannon
She should say no and throw him out of her rooms. Or ask him to please, leave. She should definitely not listen to any further explanation of how this plan had formed and why he wanted her in on it.
Surely, she was the last person he should form a mating bond with.
But then he began to speak. “Not much would change. You would stay in these rooms, if they please you. You would remain tightly beholden to the generosity shown to you. There would be no traveling alone, no private meetings with visitors, no roaming the castle or the grounds by yourself.”
“I would be chaperoned?”
