Page 29 of Beasts of Bond

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“What about the riders in their care? What will happen to them?” I asked.

“We’ll find their mates for them and place them together accordingly, of course,” he said as if that were the only solution. I thought about Klevin and Aylia, about the others who were perfectly happy without having a dragon. And the horror stories of those who weren’t so lucky to have a nice dragon mate.

“And if they don’t want that?”

“Why the fuck wouldn’t they want that?” One of the dragons growled out, trying to intimidate me, but it wasn’t going to work on me. Not anymore.

“The Fae aren’t all bad, and the riders they have in their care don’t necessarily want to have a dragon mate.”

“That is preposterous,” an older female dragon said, crossing her arms over her chest. Her blonde hair was French braided away from her face, making her cheekbones look sharper and her narrowed eyes harsher. “What rider wouldn’t want to find their other half?”

“The ones who want to be safe,” I said.

“Being with the Fae is the furthest from safe for them,” Captain Corniz said. “We need to save them.”

“But they don’t need saving,” I said.

“So you have been brainwashed too. Poor thing,” one of the dragons said. “Have a healer take a look at her, then maybe we can reverse the effects.”

One of the dragons tried to reach for me. Even my mates stiffened, preparing to fight them off. They stepped away from the table, bringing me with them. More guards slipped into the tent; their weapons readied. They were about to attack.

“There isn’t a point to fighting,” I snapped at them all. “Maybe if you would stop being so bullheaded, we could potentially find a less bloody path to stopping this endless war with the Fae. They have important information to share with you, if you’d just meet with them and listen.”

A loud snort from behind sent fear thrumming through me. I whirled around and watched as King Teodar Laskis the Third walked in. For an old dragon, he moved fluidly, as if he were as young and energetic as someone my age. It completely contradicted the way he looked. He was tall, massive, and had golden wings that would have been beautiful if there weren’t holes in them. People theorized that he was as close to the original dragon as one could get, that he could be as old, although dragons weren’t necessarily long lived. Hard gray eyes looked back at me through a wrinkled face. His graying facial hair nearly covered his mouth.

As usual, he wore red and gold silk robes as he walked in. The tent suddenly became too small with his presence. He screamed power in comparison to Neyil. I could see why these two fought each other for so long and so relentlessly. Two very strong forces, and there was no telling what kind of battle they’d have if they ever went head-to-head.

But that didn’t matter at the moment. Right now, I knew by his harsh gaze that he had something planned, and it involved me. The creepy smile I was all too familiar with stretched across his face, and I had to suppress a shudder as my mates surrounded me, creating a protective barrier that I knew wouldn’t be strong enough against the dragon king.

16

“Rayna, I am so glad you are finally back with us,” he said. “But what is this I hear about you wanting to set up a sit down with the Fae?” Humor laced his voice as he spoke in his gruff way. His words always felt like they were crackling, like they were already charged.

Slowly, a wayward thought about his power came to mind. What made him so powerful without a mate? I shook the question off. I didn’t need even more questions without answers at this point.

I licked my lips, trying to bury my fear as I faced the king.

“Tell me, child, what is it that you think you know when it comes to a war that has been occurring for centuries?”

I had so many responses lined up for that question, but any of them would have had me executed on the spot. The king wanted any excuse he could use to claim me. I could see he still wanted to do it. His eyes were so full of disgusting greed that it made my skin crawl. If I had rejected my mates so furiously during sex, I didn’t want to know how I’d react if he were to trying raping me again.

“The Fae have shown the riders that there is more to our magic than what you’ve been teaching us. That we can do more.”

“You mean the army they’re building. And what do you think they will do once they make them powerful, once they teach them to fight? Who do you think we will have to face later in this war? Neyil is a smart man. He knows how to utilize his people. What do you think will happen to our people’s morale once they realize they have to kill the very riders who could very well be their mates? It’d devastate our men, our morale would drop, and it could very well lead to our demise. It's just the same as training children and sending them off to battle.”

“He’s right, Rayna,” Tanja said. “If we don’t save them now, then they’ll be forced to fight later, and we can’t kill our own people. It’d destroy us.”

“But you do admit there is more we can learn,” I said. “More than what your precious academy was teaching us.”

“You have only been with us for a short time,” King Laskis said. “You had no time to learn more. Eventually, you would have learned what Neyil taught you.”

“Really?” I lifted my hand and let the lightning crackle. By the way the dragons backed off, they hadn’t been expecting that. “Tell me which rider here can do that?”

No one said anything. Even Tanja, an experienced rider, was gaping at me. I thought I saw curiosity in her eyes. She was amazed by what I was doing, and it was simply because she couldn’t do it.

The king’s jaw tightened as his focus switched to my magic. For a moment, I swore I saw excitement in his eyes, but he buried it away just as quickly as it appeared. It was a flash of feeling that told me showing Laskis what I could do had been a bad move, but there was no way of taking it back now. And I needed the riders here to know they could be more than they already were.

I let my magic fizzle out as I asked my next question. “And what about the dragons stealing our magic? They have riders there who are magicless forever now thanks to their former dragons. Those dragons stole from them until they had nothing left to give.”


Tags: Louisa Blake Paranormal