Page 12 of Captured By the Dragon Warlord (Fated Mates of the Sarkarnii Warlords #2)

T he sound of the door opening wakes me. Dexx stalks past, around the edge of the pit and into the bathroom. I scramble out, following him.

He leans against the wall with his eyes closed, covered in dirt from head to the tip of his tail. I don’t quite know what to do. I’m not sure if I’ve ever seen an exhausted Sarkarnii before. They’re usually so full of life. Being still is almost impossible.

“Two dead,” Dexx says, his eyes still closed. “Five injured but they’ll survive.”

“I’m sorry.”

“You did not cause the cave-in. You have nothing to be sorry for,” Dexx says with a long stream of smoke.

“I’m sorry you lost warriors. I’m sorry some were injured too.”

“It is my burden to bear,” Dexx says, opening his eyes, the good one almost as dull as his sightless one.

He walks across the room and slides into the bath without bothering to remove his pants and boots. His tail and wings shift, the latter folding out over the edges of the aquium pool.

I follow him and perch on the side. I’m used to growly Dexx, but this is different. This Dexx is anything but.

“What happened?” I ask quietly.

“Someone hadn’t set the props correctly. When they started blasting, the whole tunnel came down,” he says, sliding further into the water. “I will find the culprit and deal with him.” He growls, and it reverberates around the bathroom.

It’s clear Dexx has been affected by the accident, but he’s defaulting to his usual position. Growling and threatening. Possibly this is a default position for all Sarkarnii warlords.

“I presume you have told the other females what has happened?” Dexx glares at me with his good eye.

“No,” I respond, doing my best not to bristle. “I haven’t said anything. It’s not their business. It’s ours, and it’s up to you what you tell anyone, not me.”

The eye softens slightly, although only slightly, before he closes it again.

“Good,” he murmurs. “You should get some rest, little ember.”

“What about you?”

“I have to go back to the mines. I need to…work…for the next twelve nova-hours,” Dexx says.

“I think you’ve done enough. You can get someone else to cover for you.”

“No,” Dexx snarls, suddenly animated. “I will work.”

He heaves himself out of the bath, water sluicing from his scales, running off his pants which cling to his muscular body like a second skin.

His wings stay resolutely shifted, meaning he has to clamp them against his body as he stomps out of the bathroom, a trail of water in his wake.

I follow, but I don’t say anything more. If this is how he deals with things, then it’s how he deals with things. I don’t want to admit to myself I’m out of my depth here. So, I stay silent.

As Dexx reaches the door, he grasps the edge of the frame with his huge claws and looks over his shoulder. His strong, serious face gazes at me.

“You looked beautiful for the celebration,” he says. “If we hadn’t already lost so much, I’d be ripping warriors apart just for looking at you.”

The doors snap shut and Dexx is gone.

I genuinely don’t know what to do with what he just tossed at me. The most un-warlord-like compliment, yet the most Sarkarnii thing he could have said.

I pick up my comm device.

Any advice on how to handle a growly Sarkarnii warrior?

Rosalie

Food

Maggie

Show him your tits

Lydia

Run away

Literally none of that is helpful. You know that, don’t you?

Kerra opens up a private chat with me.

You okay?

Yes

I contemplate what to say next. I told Dexx I hadn’t said anything to the others, and I wouldn’t, not unless it impacted them, and this is not their concern.

Dexx is like all the Sarkarnii rolled into one. Grumpy, demanding, insisting I’m his mate. But he just paid me a compliment, and I don’t know how I feel.

Kerra

A compliment?

He said he’d have ripped other warriors apart for looking at me.

Kerra

Oh. That sort of compliment.

It’s standard issue then?

Kerra

Has he told you yet you are his mate?

I contemplate what to say, what any of this means.

I wish with all my heart I was with my friends, so we could really talk this out, so I could try to make a decision without the swirl of weird emotions which I don’t think are right, not so early, not when Dexx deliberately stole me away without gaining my agreement to anything.

He did me wrong, I shouldn’t be falling for him.

I don’t know, Kerra. I really don’t know.