Page 15 of Brutal Dragon King (Nayara Dragon Kings #1)

I swallow the salty-sweet mixture of Haid?n's seed, becoming slightly dizzy as I get to my feet, using his thighs as leverage to guide me upright. His moans and groans fill my eardrums with unwanted sensations as if vibrating there to lull me into changing my mind.

I didn't spend the rest of the day building up the courage to go through with my plan for nothing. My little act of surrender to the king will not go in vain, especially after I was visited by his mother this morning.

Something shifts inside me, perhaps from watching the way he rides out his high as he throws his head back, groans and moans falling from his lips as he writhes in the chair. But it's an electric feeling of being able to overpower the king, and being the one in charge that sets my heart aflame with the courage I need to uncover the dagger from the back of my left thigh where I'd tucked it into the stocking for safekeeping until I found the right moment.

That moment is now, with the cast-iron handle between my fingers. While Haid?n continues to ride the waves of his orgasm with his head thrown back, I glance at the dagger, the silver blade glinting with an invitation that beckons me to muster up all of my courage to press it to his neck in the nick of time when he lifts his head back up.

His eyes widen, and his tanned face loses color when he feels the sharp edge of the weapon pressing into his throat. His Adam's apple bobs with recognition against the blade, and his wide eyes stare at me, perplexed.

The look on his face right now is priceless, and I take a moment to etch it into memory where I'll never forget the king's horrified stare moments before I killed him. That’s what I’ve come all this way for, to exact my revenge for what he did to my parents and inevitably ruined my life in the village.

My thirst for revenge has me peeling my lips back, flashing a contemptuous, sardonic smirk as my eyes fill with glee.

I did it.

I’m about to get exactly what I set out for.

I shouldn’t consider the reaping unlucky. In hindsight, what Delores did to betray me by working in cahoots with the witch to ensure that my token was the one picked in the draw actually worked out in my favor, if this is the result.

This right here—seeing the king squirming in his seat, too afraid to move lest the blade cuts him—is worth everything I’ve been through in my life.

Who would have thought that a measly human would stand up to the king in the most lethal of ways?

Smugness swells my chest, fuelling my resolve to continue the game I was playing. I was good, I must admit, and credit must be given where it’s due. After all, I’d been able to douse the licking flames of my unwarranted sexual attraction toward the king.

His undeniable charm might have worked all this time, but it has no authority over me right now. King Haid?n may rule an entire kingdom of dragon shifters, humans, and everything in between, but his life is in my hands now.

While the dagger is pressed to his throat, he gulps, a bead of sweat trickling from his brow to depict his nervousness.

“This slave of yours will be the end of you…” I drawl seductively as I lean in. His taste remains swirling on my tongue, but it isn’t strong enough to throw me off track and defeat me with its potency.

My body might betray me when I lean in and catch the scent of his masculinity by dropping a new wave of arousal into the crotch of my panties, but my spirit is stronger, and my determination to go through with this won’t allow for his heady scent to hypnotize me.

Not anymore.

How he spoke to me in front of his brothers was the final nail in the coffin, and the Queen Mother read out his eulogy when she visited me this morning.

This is it.

“Althea…”

His warning tone does nothing to falter my intentions or break my will. I lean in even closer, staring at him squarely in the dark eyes of fear.

“Don’t you dare say my name…” I grate through gritted teeth, finally dropping the seductress act to open the floodgates of my anger and wrath.

If the king thought he was the only powerful being in the room, he was wrong. I’m the one wielding the Dragonclaw Dagger and have it pressed to his throat.

“One wrong move, and I’ll slit your throat,” I warn him.

He stares at me challengingly, lifting one careful brow as he doesn’t make a move. Something flickers in his dark eyes—perhaps recognition?

Does he know what he’s done to earn the demise at the hands of a human? Does he regret his cruel ways?

“Althea… Let’s talk…” He says in a controlled tone.

Chuckling sardonically, I straighten up and apply more pressure to the dagger on his throat, watching the way it causes a thin slitted indent in his flesh. He knows he can’t move, he’s at my mercy, and he does not attempt to even breathe the wrong way.

“Talk?” I chuckle hysterically, feeling like I’m turning crazed from the amount of power I wield right now. “Now you want to talk, King Haid?n? After treating me like I wasn’t even worthy of your time?!”

“Is that—”

“No!” I bellow, cutting him off because he doesn’t deserve to speak. “It’s my time to speak now!” I slam my free palm on my chest like a mad animal, noticing his eyes flickering with a glint of something unfamiliar.

“Did you give any of them a chance to speak up for themselves?” I spit angrily, suddenly leaning in so he could feel the venom on my tongue. “All those innocent human lives you took! Their blood is on your hands, King Haid?n, and this is your day of reckoning! I am here to take back everything you’ve taken from them!”

The king’s brows furrow, and it’s the only part of him that moves.

“What—”

“The people you’ve killed, you cruel beast!” I bellow in his face, pressing the dagger further into his throat. “They had no voices when you took their innocent lives! And now I will take your life as compensation for all the crimes you committed!”

I stand back, my nostrils flaring as I tighten my grip on the cast-iron handle, ready to make the slash that will end the king’s life. There’s a long second that passes between us in which we stare into each other’s eyes, and I feel weakened by the vulnerability of the moment that has me pausing to take a deep breath.

Why do I suddenly feel pity for the cruel dragon king? He isn’t worthy of compassion, not when he’d taken so many lives, innocent lives, with voices that weren’t given the space to be heard.

My parents were of those people he’d taken the lives of, and his crime to them and everyone else is unforgivable. I saw what he did to that man in the courtyard on my first night in the palace, and he wasn’t given the chance to repent or beg for mercy before the king’s sword slashed his throat.

I take a deep breath, pushing aside my body’s natural reaction to the king, clinging to my willpower and drive for revenge. I must avenge all those innocent lives, and the responsibility I feel weighs heavy on my shoulders.

With a snide glint twitching in my eyes, I narrow a pointed glare at the king.

“Just because you are a dragon, it does not mean you get to determine whose life is important and whose is not. You don't own anyone, and your life is in my hands now.” My eyes flicker to his throat, where the dagger is pressed into his flesh, and then back to his eyes glossed over with a dark glint of anger and fear all enmeshed into one.

Now is my moment, and with my fingers wound tightly around the handle, I'm about to make the altering slash that will no doubt kill the king. If I did have any doubts about what the Dragonclaw Dagger was meant for, seeing his shock and horror when he realized what was pressed to his neck confirmed that this was a lethal weapon created for his demise.

But as the decision is made consciously in my mind, and I'm about to make the move, I become paralyzed, frozen to the spot, and unable to move my hand. It feels like an invisible force wraps its tendrils around my wrist, binding me and stopping me from slashing the king's neck.

At the same time, a pulsing throb spreads throughout my belly, signaling for my attention and forcing me to peel my eyes off the dragon king and look down. My neck is the only thing I can move, and as soon as my eyes land on my belly, my eardrums fill with an incessant ringing. My vision blurs, and I can hear my own heartbeat, but as I stare hard at my belly, I hear another, quicker heartbeat pattering and racing with my own.

That's when it hit me—the Queen Mother's visit foreshadowed what was happening inside me. A life is growing inside my womb, a child.

The king's child…

I was about to avenge the death of my parents and take the king's life. But he's the father of the life growing inside me. He'd planted the seed that prevents me from taking its father's life.

I knew that conceiving a child was inevitable; I just wasn't counting on the dragon cub to render me immobile and stop me from exacting my revenge. As the ringing in my eardrums escalates and turns into a deafening screech, a torturous scream rips through my throat, and the force knocks the dagger out of my hand. It clatters on the ground like a metallic, dead-weighted chunk, and a frightened gasp leaves me.

Trembling, I turn my eyes back on the dragon king, who stares at me with a frown, feeling the color draining from my cheeks with the realization that just struck me.

I can't kill the father of my child… our child.

I just can't go through with my plan, and now I'm left quivering and shaking uncontrollably in front of the man I almost killed.

Without a word, I grab the robe off the floor and swiftly run to the library door, wanting nothing more than to escape this mess of my own creation. I don't know where I'm going or what I'm doing, but I know that I need to get out of the palace grounds before anyone catches me.

I realize I'm a fugitive on the run as panic starts to set in when I've reached the courtyard. I ignore the fact that I'm practically naked and could be seen fleeing in this condition, in this flurry of mixed emotions. I'm running away with the king's child, the heir to the throne of The Spine of Nayara.

Every time I imagined myself running away, fleeing from the qualms of the Kingdom of The Spine, I always saw myself getting caught. But as I enter the forest on lightning-fast feet, I'm no longer afraid of the outcome.

Somehow, I'm faster than I've ever been, and it's only my intuition that tells me that it's because I'm carrying a dragon cub that I'm able to run at the speed of lightning and leave the palace. It must be that instinct that tells me exactly where to go, which gate to find, and what corners to take to find a secret escape from the palace grounds.

Running in the opposite direction of the village, subconsciously, I know not to go back there. It was never the place for me, and if I go back there, the king will find me.

I don't want to be found. I want to go as far away as possible from King Haid?n. Perhaps I'm driven by embarrassment, shame, and guilt, but at least now I have some unexplainable powers that make me faster on my feet. I could go anywhere, as long as it's far away from the dragon king.