Page 78 of The Wild Prince's Favorite
Instead, the orange dragon was stomping in their direction, its chunky paws dipping in puddles of snow that melted immediately under its steps.
Alezya would have once again taken a few steps back if it wasn’t for Lorey standing completely fearless next to her. The woman then unlocked arms with Alezya and even crouched down to pat the head of the dark gray dragon before it dove back into the snow. It was playing in the layers of snow like one would in shallow water.
“Kiki.”
Lorey had spoken while Alezya’s eyes were still on the incoming Kein, so she’d lost track of what she was possibly talking about. Just then, the dark gray dragon resurfaced, just in time to playfully bite Kein’s leg, making it growl, and then dive again.
Lorey chuckled, pointing at the moving snow.
“Kiki. Kein ay Kiki.”
“Kiki?” Alezya repeated.
Kiki was the name of the dark gray dragon?
She watched as Kein, confused and annoyed, glared at the moving snow before resuming its stampede toward them.
There was something utterly terrifying about seeing a creature twice her height and four times her width rush in her direction, but Alezya summoned every inch of her being into not moving as Lorey did.
Thankfully, Kein stopped right in front of her, its huge silver eyes on her. The dragon looked positively terrifying, and yet, every time she met it, she felt a bit less terrified. In fact, its warm and fire-colored body facing her had something reassuringabout it. It growled, but it wasn’t a warning growl; instead, it was a deeper, smoother sound, almost like a snow leopard’s purr... She could feel hot air puffing out of its nostrils and onto her face, warming her up effortlessly.
She glanced to the side and saw Lorey was petting the other dragon again. The smaller one was acting like a happy dog around her, perfectly submissive and tilting its head excitedly under her hand. Alezya glanced back at Kein. The orange dragon had its eyes riveted on her, looking almost excited, but still. Was it possible that... this terrifying creature was expecting the same of her?
“K-Kein?” she uttered as if trying to confirm.
The dragon replied with another deep growl, and even, to her surprise, lowered its head a bit toward her. There was no way... was there?
Alezya took a deep breath. She had genuinely thought this dragon would kill her a few days ago. What was she doing now...? She raised her trembling hand and, mentally preparing herself to lose her limb, approached the dragon’s head. Before she finished her movement, Kein suddenly moved forward, and her fingers met the hot scales without warning, making her jump in surprise, and take back her hand. Kein growled in protest and approached even more, scaring her into taking a step back.
Next to her, Lorey chuckled, and gently came to her aid. She grabbed Alezya’s wrist, and slowly guided her hand back onto the dragon’s head. Alezya could barely believe it when her fingers touched the hot orange scales again, and Kein growled in response. It was incredibly warm under her fingers, like a hot log...
Alezya felt a wave of unique, excited sparks in her stomach about this unparalleled moment. She was touching a dragon! She was evenpettinga dragon! Her father would have been mortified to witness this...
She glanced at Lorey, almost glad there was someone to witness this, and the young woman gave her an amused chuckle as if this was normal for her. Indeed, Kiki seemed to be literally stuck to her, making little high-pitched growls around her legs to get her attention. Despite being smaller than Kein and its length against the ground, Kiki was still tall enough to reach their chests and kept dancing in elegant circles around them. When its body made another circle around them, it bumped Alezya and interrupted her contact with Kein, causing the orange dragon to growl furiously in indignation and snap at its peer.
For a second, Alezya was worried that she was going to be stuck in a fight between them, but soon enough, Kiki took an elegant dive into the crisp white blanket, and Kein was off to chase after the wriggles of snow. Alezya turned to Lorey for cues, but as the young woman seemed amused and not worried whatsoever, she thought this might be normal... until she looked around at the nearby men’s expressions.
They were all stunned, with wide eyes on the bickering dragons.
No, Alezya realized. This wasn’t normal, even for the Dragon Clan’s people, and she had just had a privileged moment with the orange dragon... which made her feel all the more happy about it.
“Alezya.”
Lorey gently called her before wrapping her arm around hers again and pulling her to resume their walk. She realized they weren’t just strolling around and taking the paths of shoveled snow, but had a precise direction in mind. Soon enough, they reached a habitation that was far bigger than the others, even bigger than Kassein’s. Alezya nervously wondered to whom could a place that was four times larger than Kassein’s belong. Maybe their Clan Chief? The archenemy of her clan...?
Upon entering though, she realized she was wrong; this wasn’t someone’s living space, but a communal area like her clan had in the largest caves of her mountain. It was large, but crowded, with lots of warriors loudly cheering, and Alezya suddenly felt nervous to be surrounded by so many men. She would have rather faced Kein again... Lorey didn’t seem to mind, however, as she pulled her through the crowd. Once again to Alezya’s incomprehension, the men were letting them through, only giving them surprised glances when the two women walked past.
Thankfully, they soon breached through the crowd and Alezya could finally see what the fuss was all about; in a large open area, Kassein and his sister were facing each other with weapons. If she was shocked to see a man and a woman fighting against each other, Alezya’s questions were soon obliterated by the sight of Kassein’s half-naked body.
The blood rushed to her cheeks as she was instantly mesmerized by the warrior’s impressive figure, his superb muscles shining wet with sweat dripping down to his leather pants. She had caught glimpses of his body before, but now that she was seeing it, exposed in plain sight, it was just impossible to ignore. Not only that, but he was panting heavily, his dark green eyes shining with excitement, and his black hair stuck to his skin from the heat. She found it almost impossible not to stare, especially as he hadn’t noticed her arrival, and everyone around was watching the fight.
“Lorey,” a bored male voice called out.
Alezya hadn’t even noticed the presence of Tievin next to them, and she realized Lorey had purposely walked up to him. He lifted an eyebrow at Alezya and then turned back to Lorey to chat with her. Even if she’d wanted to understand their words, the clamor around was so loud that Alezya probably wouldn’thave caught much of it. Not that she minded much; she turned her eyes back to the sibling duo as soon as she could.
It looked like they had arrived while those two were merely catching a short break as they began moving again, throwing themselves at each other, blades first. Alezya was stupefied by the violence of this fight; it was as if they didn’t mind hurting each other, and after a few seconds, she realized they truly didn’t. With a superb movement, Kiera inflicted a wound on her brother’s arm, lacerating his skin with one of her two blades. Alezya gasped, worried for Kassein, but then, she witnessed the orange scales that immediately bloomed on his skin to cover the wound.
She took a closer look at his sister, and that’s when she noticed Kiera also had scales on her body; just like her brother, she had taken off her top except for a leather bra, and thus, Alezya could clearly see the ashen gray streaks of scales shining on her dark skin.
