Page 17 of Brutal Dragon King (Nayara Dragon Kings #1)

I feel light on my feet, lighter than I’ve ever been, considering my size. I’ve always been bigger than everyone around me, and I never imagined I’d feel as lightweight as I do now.

I’d constantly been belittled for my size when I was in the village of The Emberlands. Perhaps that’s why I didn’t go back there and began running in the opposite direction.

The trees on either side of me become a blur with my speed, my ability to run as fast as I can stemming from the child growing inside me.

Haid?n’s child…

The thought crosses my mind and compels me to stop running. Somehow, I’m not even out of breath.

This power is amazing!

But what will I do with it now that I’ve left the kingdom? Left King Haid?n?

Will I keep running for the rest of my life, even when the child growing inside me is born? The question in my mind prompts me to cradle my belly, which is still plumpy from my weight.

It’s as if the child won’t allow me to let my insecurities get the best of me, and serves as a reminder that its father was the only one who ever made me feel beautiful about the way I am, and made me feel wanted, and desired.

Did I just run away from my only chance of living a normal life? After all, the king didn’t throw me into the dungeon with the other slaves and had me stay inside the palace.

It was the closest thing to being accepted that I’ve ever felt, yet I couldn’t look past my resentment for him.

He did kill my parents.

But what if he could redeem himself?

All these thoughts race through my mind while I stand between unfamiliar trees and flowers in a forest I don’t recognize.

I’d been so caught up in the liberating feeling of running freely away from Haid?n’s palace, that I found myself in unfamiliar territory.

A hiss in the distance startles me, a gasp escaping my lips when my heart skips a beat. The darkness of the night casts eerie shadows from the trees all around me, and when I spot some movement out of the corner of my eye, I realize that this place isn’t safe.

Perhaps the king’s child growing inside me strengthens my intuition, signaling alarm bells to ring in my eardrums as goosebumps of fear pebble the flesh of my arms. My head snaps in every direction\, trying to figure out where the hissing comes from.

What did I get myself in?

The hissing continues, something moving on the ground between the sharp blades of grass. I’m frozen on the spot from fear even though my mind is telling me to run. I could run if I wanted to, but by the time I work up the courage to do just that, I feel something slither around my ankle.

I let out a frightened scream, the cold feeling around my ankle feeling like a metal shackle. I find enough momentum to turn and start running, but in my panic, I don’t see the stump of a cut-down tree in time.

I fall over in a pathetic pile, my face connecting with the grassy floor and palms braced on either side of my head. The adrenaline that pulses through me charges up my will to survive, to keep myself and my baby alive, and I’m able to pick myself up to my feet.

What I thought was a snake turns out to be a lively vine that somehow magically slithers across the ground toward me, its root reaching so far behind it that I can’t even see where it begins.

I’ve never seen a planting racing at such high speed, and seeing it now has me gulping from fear, forgetting that I can run faster than it. Panicked, I watch in horror as it slithers closer while the sounds of howling and hooting in the distance serve as the backdrop of my fearful situation. I feel the warmth of the blood trickling down my arm and realize I must have gotten injured when I fell.

But there’s no time to inspect myself when the vine curls around my ankle and stops the blood flow to my foot. I try moving it, but the vine tightens like a noose around my foot with so much force that I can’t believe that it’s just a plant.

Something else that’s unbelievable happens when, through the canopy of trees, a familiar figure emerges in its magnificent dragon form. Gasping in awe and appreciation, knowing that I won’t die at the roots of a vein, I murmur, “Haid?n” in relief as I watch him shift into human form and land on his feet.

He’s about to grab the vein off the floor when I see another one darting through the air behind him.

“Haid?n! Watch out!” I yell, and when he meets my eyes, it’s like he’s seen the reflection of the vine creeping toward him.

Without turning, he grabs the lively vine midair and then knocks it to the ground, crushing the leafy tip under his booted foot. He’s still wearing his shirt with the buttons undone, every exposed muscle flexing as he runs toward the vine that attacked me, reaching down in one swift motion to grab it by the thick stem. He lifts it off the ground and holds it at his chest, then with both hands, he snaps the vine in half and disgustedly throws the two ends on the ground.

Immediately, the piece of the vine around my ankle loosens up when it’s dead, and I can finally catch my breath. But it’s that breath that’s snatched when Haid?n approaches me, appearing very much like my hero instead of the cruel dragon king I hated so much. There’s a glint in his dark eyes that I haven’t seen before, and I can’t place what it is.

Is it concern?

Or am I just riding the adrenaline of my panic that has me seeing something that shouldn’t be there?

With bold, broad shoulders, Haid?n marches toward me, exasperation written all over his face. I see him as my hero, my savior, but he must see me as the human slave who escaped the palace, and he’s about to punish me.

“We have to get out of here,” he says as he holds my gaze, eyes glossed over with moisture. He reaches down and swiftly scoops me up into his arms. A startled gasp escapes me before I quietly press my lips into a firm line, saying nothing because I don’t have the courage, and I have no idea what he’s about to do to me.

He shifts into dragon form then, the transformation slower than what I remembered the first time he grabbed me and lifted me into the air as a dragon; this time, it feels like time has slowed down, and I’m able to witness the shift as his body expands against mine, his arms distending around me into that of a golden dragon. His face morphs into a sharp, scaly snout, bleating a huff through elongated nostrils as he stares into my eyes with the slitted pits of gold and white. My breath catches again, this time because I’m mesmerized by his dragon eyes that seem to read my soul.

He sends us into the air with a powerful flap of his wings before using them to shield us from the trees as we ascend. His wings hug his dragon body and my human one while his slitted eyes remain stuck on me.

The wind that billows through my hair when he parts his wings comes as a breath of fresh air, opening up the view of the entire kingdom from up here. I gasp in awe of the beauty of the realm, and how the many stars light up the greenery and blooms from the sky. Magnified by a gorgeous, dark blue sky, the view is mesmerizing, and I only turn my eyes away when I realize how warm the dragon’s are around me.

The first time he picked me up off my feet and flew me to the hockey arena, all I felt was the coldness of his scales and the hostility of his actions. Now, I feel the warmth radiating off him and feel his dragon heart beating against my chest while he keeps me pressed to his solid armor of reptilian skin.

Despite the beauty of the flight and everything around us, I find myself entranced by the dragon’s eyes of gold and white, seeing the way the crystal gems on his shoulders light up every time he flaps his wings. He’s a stunning, magnificent beast, and as his heart beats, the little heart growing inside me beats in tandem.

My hand slides up the tough outer shell of his chest, suddenly feeling connected to him. It's strange and powerful at the same time, and it probably has to do with the baby growing inside me.

It senses the closeness of its father, which is why I rest my palm on the left side of his chest, gazing deeply into his eyes. Tonight, he saved his child, not me. But credit must be given, even if I mean nothing, to the dragon king.

It's not that I want to mean anything to him. He's the reason my parents were killed, and I didn't want any of this. I didn’t want to be his slave or be pregnant with his baby.

Now, I'm forced to have these warm feelings toward him, seeing him beyond the mantle of the cruel dragon king. Instead, I see him as a valiant knight with the beauty of a marvelous, insanely powerful creature. My moment of being dazed is interrupted by the rapid rushing sound of gushing water, and I tear my eyes from the dragon to see that we're hovering above a waterfall.

Sudden panic skitters down my throat.

Is he going to throw me down from up here so I can fall to my death?

I barely have time to calculate an escape when the dragon king glides down to the rocky surface and gently sets me on my feet, the talons of his dragon resting on my shoulders to steady me before he shifts back into human form, human hands remaining on my shoulders.

“Althea!” he sighs, relief evident in his voice when he leans down and stares into my eyes with concern.

Do I imagine his worry?

It's not like he knows that I'm pregnant yet.

So when he pulls back, and his hands go all over me, a shriek of surprise escapes me.

“What are you—” I begin, cut off when he spins me over with his hands on my hips, then crouches behind me.

He's feeling me all over, and I'm not sure what's going on. Is he checking to make sure that I don't have another dagger hidden in my now-torn stockings?

“Are you alright?” he asks in a panicked, deeply concerned voice that shocks me. “Did you get hurt? Did the Wyrm vines hurt you, Althea? Dammit, answer me!”

His exasperated huff is followed by him spinning me back to face him, dark eyes glowering with so much emotion that I've never seen from the ruthless, cold-hearted dragon king before.

I thought he brought me up here to torture me, or to kill me for my crimes and my attempt on his life. Instead, he sees the wound on my shoulder when his palm meets the blood from his gentle stroking of my arms.

He sucks in a breath, staring down at the wound.

“I—I'm fine,” I whisper timidly, watching the way he dotingly runs a finger below the wound. A twig must have cut through my shoulder when I fell over the tree stump, and there's only a mild ache that's left from the gash.

“No. You're. Not…” Haid?n grates angrily now, grabbing the sleeve of the robe and ripping off a piece. As he tends to tear it into a long strip, he stares into my eyes with a range of different emotions flashing through them.

Haid?n grabs the wrist of my good arm and tugs me forward abruptly, lifting my wounded arm to begin tying the makeshift string below the wound.

“You're hurt, Althea,” he declares, nostrils flaring.

“I'm fine…” I whisper, wincing when he places the last twist around my arm and secures the string with a knot.

“Stop it, will you?!” he grunts, grabbing my arms harshly to pull me close to him as he stares deeply into my eyes.

My head is spinning now, confused by what's going on. The cold mask of armor the dragon king usually wears is nowhere to be found, and there's a softness in his eyes that stops me from putting up a fight against him like I usually would.

I open my mouth to say something, but Haid?n doesn't give me a chance to speak. I wouldn't even know what to say, so confused by his behavior right now that I don't even feel the need to fight him like I usually do.

“Stop this constant back and forth, and just tell me if he's okay!” Haid?n roars, prompting me to frown.

“H-he?” I frown, and Haid?n straightens up and stares down at me.

“You are pregnant, aren't you?”

His question comes crashing into my gut on makes my heart skip a beat, my breath catching in my throat.

“I—I—” I hesitate to reply despite the forcefulness of his hands gripping my arms. I don’t even feel forced, and his presence isn’t as imposing as it usually is. There’s a glimmer of something else in his eyes which lighten to a shade of chocolate brown I’ve never witnessed before. His firm grip on me suddenly feels protective, and I feel safe for the first time in my life.

I feel safe with the dragon king, who I hated until he saved me just now. I probably would have saved myself, like I always do. I’ve been saving myself ever since my parents died, and I became an orphan in the village. But having someone swoop in to save me and protect me as they cared was something else, and I saw him in a different light.

Has my changed perspective of the king made me forget that I should hate him?

Or has the cruel dragon changed because of me?

Still unsure of what will happen when he finds out that I’m pregnant, I know I’m not in the clear just yet. If I lied and told him I wasn’t pregnant, would he throw me off the edge of the cliff and let me die at the bottom of the waterfall while he watched with a cynical smirk?

Perhaps being honest is how I survive the dragon king, who’s probably here to avenge my attempted murder of him.

“Yes, I am pregnant.”

As soon as the words leave my lips, Haid?n wraps his arms around me in a strikingly unfamiliar embrace. It’s warm and protective, his arms turning familiar the longer he holds me.

I’m so confused, my brows knitting into a tight frown as I stand awkwardly between his arms. When he draws back, sliding his hands down to capture mine, he stares with a tilted face at me.

The corners of his eyes are softened, his lips trembling as if hesitating to speak the emotion in his eyes. Even I can’t quite discern what’s going through his mind while he holds my hands loosely.

He takes a deep breath then, and asks, “Then why did you try to kill me?”

I gulp hard, knowing that there’s no escaping the truth about tonight’s attack. Not now that he knows I am pregnant with his child.