Page 4 of Claimed By the Dragon King

Unable to stand any longer, I drop to my knees and lay down by the fire. Holding my mate tight to my chest, I close my eyes and fall away into the dark and beckoning void.

CHAPTER3

FREYJA

When I wake, I’m completely surrounded by warmth. I cannot remember the last time I slept so soundly. My eyes snap open and I still when I realize I’m in an unfamiliar room.

Sunlight spills in from two small windows across the way, gilding the cobwebs that cross the ceiling and the corners of the window panes. This looks to be some sort of cottage, but I have no idea where I am. The wooden floor is worn with use but surprisingly clean. A small mound of dirt near the door tells me that someone must have recently swept.

The crackling wood of a fire draws my attention and I turn toward it. Alarm ripples down my spine. Orange firelight casts sinister shadows over a large figure crouched before the hearth—a man. Ice freezes my veins as large, leathery wings extend from his back, and he flicks his long tail behind him.

This is no man. It’s a Dragon.

Myriad images flood my mind as the memory of the Dragon pulling me from the flames returns.

As if sensing my observation, he stills. In one fluid motion he stands, turning to face me. He’s dressed in black pants, leaving his torso completely bare. Instead of skin, he is covered in silver-white scales. Broad shoulders taper to a chiseled, muscular waist. Light and shadow sculpt the hard planes of muscle that line his abdomen and chest. Lethal, black claws tip his hands and feet. The sharp tips of two black horns jut up through shoulder-length silver-white hair on either side of his forehead.

His face is set in a stern expression, accentuating his masculine, square jaw, proud nose, and ridged brow. Emerald eyes study me, their vertically-slit pupils expanding as his nostrils flare.

“Your scent was soft and warm only a moment ago, but it is now soured with fear,” he says in a deep and rumbling voice. “Why?”

I stare at him in shock. Those are the same eyes that haunt my dreams.

His long tail flicks agitatedly behind him. “Are you in pain?”

I open my mouth to speak, but the words die in my throat as he crosses the room in three steps and drops to his knees at my side. “Speak, human,” he demands, flashing two rows of sharp, white fangs. “I am King Aurdyn of the Ice Mountains, and I command you to answer my question, female.”

Indignation fills me, overriding my fear. “I amnotone of your subjects to command, and my name is Princess Freyja.” I keep my eyes locked onto his. “Not ‘human.’ Not ‘female.’ Do you understand?”

When he clenches his jaw, a wisp of black smoke curls out from his nostrils, and I regret my words immediately. I’ve heard enough stories of his kind to know that it is never wise to mouth off to a Dragon. Fire burns in his eyes as he glares at me, and I fight the urge to bolt. Their people respect strength, so I must not show any fear.

I push up to my feet, meaning to stand tall, but stabbing pain shoots through my legs, and I fall forward.

Strong hands wrap around my waist before I hit the ground, and then lift me from the floor as if I weigh nothing. Panic spikes through me, my arms and legs flailing wildly before he pulls me to his chest, holding me still in a vise-like grip. “Do not struggle,” he grinds out. “You will only hurt yourself.”

“Let me go!” I punch at his chest, only to be met with unyielding firm muscle.

“And just where do you think you would go?” he asks, arching a condescending brow. “Your own kind tried to kill you, human. If not for me, you’d have been burned at the stake.”

Anger flares brightly. “I already told you. My name is not—" Pain arcs up my legs, stealing the breath from my lungs. I glance down at them, only now noticing the strips of fabric wrapped from my calves to my feet.

“I made a salve for your burns,Princess Freyja.” He answers my unspoken question, emphasizing my proper name and title. “Your skin should be healed either tomorrow or the next day.”

I blink several times. He saved me from the fire,andhe treated my burns. “Thank you.” The words leave my mouth automatically.

Tipping up his chin, he stares down at me imperiously. “Does this mean you will not try to run away now?”

“I wasnottrying to run away,” I state firmly. I look down at my legs again. “Even if I wanted to, I cannot.”

He narrows his eyes, gauging the truth of my words, and I shiver slightly. Not so much from the chill in the air but from the hard expression on his face. My gaze travels over the room again and I wonder what he plans to do with me.

The Dragon King walks toward the fireplace and sets me down before the hearth. He turns his back to me as he stokes the fire.

I’ve always been one to face the truth head on, no matter how hard. It is common knowledge that Dragons hate humans, and yet, he saved me and treated my wounds, but I know not for what purpose. “What are you going to do with me?”

He flexes his massive wings, tucking them tightly against his back, flicking his tail once again as if in irritation. “I have not decided yet.”

His answer is only mildly reassuring. “You’re not going to… eat me, right?”

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