Page 224 of The Wild Prince's Favorite
“Damn, now I know how you learned their language that fast,” she teased, her eyes riveted on Kassein’s torso. “I would have tried hard to ridethatdragon too.”
Alezya tried to ignore the violent pang of jealousy that hit her.
After all, she was the one carried in Kassein’s possessive arms, and Kein, still looming above, wasn’t allowing Ekut to move an inch closer to her either; His fierce glares made that perfectly clear.
Therefore, she grabbed Kassein’s hand, exchanging a glance with him, before she addressed Ekata and Ekut.
“This is the Dragon Clan Chief,” she explained, wiping her tears with her free hand. “TheirAqayir.His name is Kassein.”
“Alezya.”
She turned her eyes back to Kassein, who was staring at her intently, his eyes full of questions. She wished she had learned his word for ”sorry,” but right now, that was all she could do.
Kassein stared at her some more, and she took a deep breath, trying to sort her thoughts quickly. Alezya had been so determined to get back to Kassein first that she hadn’t had much time to think about what would come after that. Then, his eyesdrifted to the Munsa men who’d survived the fight and were trying to step closer, turning into something much fiercer, much more dangerous.
Immediately sensing the danger, Alezya put a hand on his cheek.
“No,” she said. “No. They are friends.”
She could almost feel the tension drop as Kassein’s gaze softened and drifted back to her. She smiled to let him know she was alright.
“Where is Kiera? And Lorey?”
“Lorey with Lumie. At Kalat Unshreik,”he said.“Kiera in the mountains. With the men.”
Alezya was shocked Lumie was there and not with his clan.
Was it because he didn’t want to take her baby in the mountains with them? Or to be sure she would be safe and comfortable with Lorey? Either way, she was more grateful than ever.
“With Kiki?” Alezya asked. “And dragons?”
Kassein gave her an affirmative nod. So his sister had been with him attacking the clans... Now that he was finally there, Alezya didn’t even know where to begin. They had only been separated for days, but it felt like so much had happened since she’d left him again.
She took a deep breath and turned to Ekata, Ekut, and the rest of the Munsa Clan, who had their eyes riveted on them.
“Can you ask their clan leader?” Ekut asked. “To... leave us alone?”
“Kein won’t attack you now,” Alezya said.
She turned back to Kassein.
“Kassein, this is Munsa Clan,” she said before pointing at the pair of siblings.“The Aqayir of the Munsa Clan. The man is Ekut, and the woman is Ekata.”
He barely took a second to glance at them before returning his focus to her.
Truthfully, Alezya didn’t need the Munsa Clan’s help anymore, now that Kassein had found her. She could have just flown away with them, back to the Dragon Clan, and this would all be over. She would be safe, free to leave the clans to their infighting.
And yet, the very second the relief hit her with that thought, she knew she couldn’t do that. Not after they had rescued her from the crevice, fed and sheltered her, and after all that time she had spent with those people hiding her from the other clans at their own expense. Not after they had shared concerns about what her father could do, what he had done to the Lumiata, and how he threatened a lot more clans.
She couldn’t just fly away and abandon everything here. Softly, Alezya let out a resigned sigh and tapped Kassein’s shoulder, gesturing for him to let her down. At first, he didn’t want to, giving her a frown, but after a second, he gently let her down, although his arms were still firmly locked to support her. Strangely, standing up didn’t come with the waves of pain that she had expected. She was still in pain, but compared to minutes ago, the pain had strangely subsided.
“Alezya?” Ekata called her with a bewildered expression. “You’re aware you have... some... I mean, what looks like dragon scales appearing on your skin?”
Alezya blinked at her, confused by Ekata’s words for a few seconds.
Then, her eyes followed the woman’s confused gaze, and much to her shock, she indeed found a trail of white scales growing on her wrist, right where she was certain she’d had a large cut just minutes ago.
Her jaw dropped, and she couldn’t suppress the need to touch it with her fingers. It felt like scabs, and she wastempted to scratch to see if they came off, but instead, she was mesmerized as she saw more of her wound turn into snow-white scales. Alezya gasped, and immediately, clocked other parts of her body; a lot was covered by her clothes, which were now dirty, but upon inspecting her other hand and wrist, she found more white scales. She turned to Kassein for an answer, and he didn’t seem surprised at all when she lifted the former wound for him to see; he only grabbed her hand softly.
