Page 231 of The Wild Prince's Favorite
“We hunt those who hurt you,” he finally hissed.
“Yes,” Alezya nodded, cupping his cheek. “The otherclans, my friends, want to be friends with the DragonClantoo, and hunt together.”
“Together,” Kassein nodded.
“Alezya?” Ekata called her in a whisper, approaching them while her brother was still talking to the other clans. “Let him know our Munsa Clan will be fighting by the Dragon Clan’s side. But the truth is, we cannot guarantee who will be on our side or not. So, what we will do is ask the other clans to attack theDeklaan Clan from different angles. Since we cannot be sure who will switch sides, we will send them out of our way. Either they fight the Deklaan Clan as promised, and we can corner them, or we will have a more significant battle ahead, but at least we won’t be in an ambush. We know which ones we can trust for sure and those we will bring with us to meet the Dragon Clan. Now that we’ve got everything we need, you two should leave, Alezya. We will find the Dragon Clan, but you should go with him and explain to his clan. You’ve done more than your share already; let us handle things from here. We will meet you tomorrow at dawn.”
Chapter 18
Kassein’s eyes were riveted on Alezya, unable to look away.
He feared that if he blinked, he might just lose sight of her again. Did she realize how beautiful she was, with the white scales of their unborn baby covering her skin and that fierce gaze of hers, those dark eyes captivating all the people present?
He didn’t enjoy seeing this crowd staring at her, but even without understanding their language, he could read the respect they had for her. When she spoke, they listened. They were all afraid of him; it was all too obvious, but they listened to Alezya, and whatever she said, those men agreed with it, their expressions changing.
Kassein had understood some of it. Unexpectedly, his moonlight had been far from helpless while he was desperately looking for her.
Somehow, she had found allies, this Munsa Tribe, and now, they were gathering people to fight alongside them. What Alezya had told them to convince them to fight alongside his army rather than against them, he had no idea. She had talked to them about Kein and made his dragon growl like it was her pet. He could tell many had been impressed, and so was he. She’d used his dragon for a demonstration of force or perhaps to earn their trust.
Either way, he didn’t care; she already had his heart, so it wasn’t surprising that she owned his dragon too. It had almost been sheer luck that he and Kein had heard her screams. Hisdragon had been restless since the minute they’d lost her, but even more so that day, and before heading back to the Onyx Castle, he had decided to ride Kein above the mountain once again with little hope.
Now, he was endlessly glad he had. If he had been minutes later, Alezya might not have made it, and he would have never forgiven himself.
Seeing her on the ground, covered in mud and blood, had already been enough to send him into a murderous trance. Now, with the Dragon Blood healing her from inside and the mud drying on her limbs and clothes, she looked as beautiful as ever. She was talking to that other woman, the one who kept glancing in Alezya’s direction while talking to the men.
After a little bit, the two women nodded, but one of those solemn nods had a lot of underlying meaning. Alezya turned to him, and he was curious to know what she was expecting from him next.
“We must go,” she said.
“Go?”
“To Kiera,” she explained, making that adorable pout she made when she was focusing. “With Kein. We go to your men. We wait for the Munsa and our friends.”
“Why?”he asked, wrapping his arms around her waist.
“Danger here,” she said, glancing toward some of the tunnels. “The men who hurt me... They come.”
Kassein nodded. This much, he could understand. Alezya pulled him along toward Kein, clearly making the executive decision for the two of them, and he didn’t resist, pleasantly surprised. There was something irresistible about watching her take charge; weeks ago, she was trembling and shivering in front of him, and now, she merely needed him to help her climb his dragon. As soon as she sat down, she shouted something at the Munsa Tribe before calling Niiru to follow them. Even hisdragon was entirely at her beck and call, but it had been so for a while now. The dragon was too big to turn around, but as soon as it understood Alezya meant for them to leave, it slowly retreated until its body was out of the cave, half-floating in the sea, until it had room to take off.
“Do you want to go see Lumie?” he asked.
Alezya tried to whip her upper body around so fast to look at him that she almost fell off the dragon’s back, and he had to support her with a hand. He loved how her eyes became misty every time he mentioned her child.
“...Lumie?” she whispered.
“She’s at the Onyx Castle. With Lorey.”
“But... The others...”
She pointed at the mountains, her eyes torn with worry, but he gently wrapped her hand in his.
“We can come back in the morning. Before the sun rises,” he emphasized, accentuating his sentence with a finger toward where the sun had set.
He was becoming more and more impressed with how much of his language Alezya could understand and how much Lorey had taught her in such a short time. Yet, to his surprise, Alezya hesitated a few seconds before she nodded. He immediately wrapped his arms tighter around her, holding her in his embrace, and her head leaned into the crook of his neck.
He had missed how perfectly she fit in his embrace. He pressed another kiss to her temple, annoyed that so much of her body was covered in dirty and too-thin clothing; he couldn’t wait to get rid of it all.
They didn’t talk on the flight, and after a while, he realized Alezya had fallen asleep against him. He had noticed she looked exhausted, but he had no idea what had happened to her. So, he had Kein make an extra round above the mountain, tryingto see if he could find any helpful information. There seemed to be tribespeople here and there, appearing on small cliffs or briefly traveling outside, and a couple of them running through the darkness, probably thinking they wouldn’t be seen under the cover of night. It was irritating that he couldn’t tell who was friend or foe to Alezya and slay the latter immediately. Instead, he noted the locations before he finally had Kein fly south toward the Onyx Castle.
