Page 19 of Court of Rivals (Their Dragon Rider #1)

L ucien

The door to my father’s chambers closes behind us, and we three brothers stride away as an angry trio.

It’s strange. I don’t remember any time in my life where my brothers and I were on the same side.

Even my vague memories of us as toddlers always involved fighting, screaming, and avoiding one another.

But I guess the appearance of this beautiful Harper changes all of that.

This Harper who seems to have no interest in me in any way.

Yes, it’s true I’ve been a bit of an ass, but I’ve sprinkled in my usual charm as well, and that’s had no effect on her.

I don’t know what’s wrong with her, but she troubles me deeply.

I’m a good looking prince. She should be bowing at my feet.

I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone like her in my life.

“He’s wrong,” Gareth says, followed by some colorful swearing.

“He’s not seeing the larger picture,” Alaric says, and I know before he starts speaking that it’s going to be all about the rules and honor and what’s right and wrong, because that’s just how the stick-in-the-mud is.

“Dragon riders are supposed to be nobles. They’re supposed to have been trained from birth.

And they sure as hell are not supposed to be women.

Harper breaks every rule that’s ever been set into place.

She’s disrupting our training and our bonding with our dragons.

She needs to go. How can he not see that? ”

“Besides,” I say, “she’s a beautiful woman who he’s thrown in with a bunch of horny men. Don’t tell me you haven’t seen the looks the guys are giving her. It’s going to cause problems when she starts being passed around. Understandably, the men are not going to want to share her.”

I certainly wouldn’t want to. Not that I wouldn’t sleep with other women, of course, but I wouldn’t want her with other men. It’s a territorial thing that only a man would understand.

“You’re assuming she’ll allow herself to be passed around,” Alaric says, frowning.

I laugh. Is he serious? “A woman like that. A peasant. Surrounded by the perfect male specimens… of course it won’t be much longer before she starts spreading her legs.”

Alaric looks at me funny. “Do you intend to sleep with her?”

A very delicious image forms in my mind, but I say, “No. Of course not.”

Even though I might be lying. As irritating as I find her, as ridiculous as I find her presence here, if she showed up in my bed, I wouldn’t turn her away. I’ve already imagined countless things I could do to the little spitfire.

Gareth punches the wall. “If she was just some fuck toy for the men, I wouldn’t mind, but she has that powerful male dragon at her back. A dragon who seems to only want her as his rider. We need to disrupt their connection. We need to show Ebron that we’d make for better riders.”

“How do we do that?” Alaric asks.

Gareth opens his mouth, then shuts it, and I know why.

Harper is a completely untrained and inexperienced rider who has somehow managed to remain seated on her dragon with no saddle on one of the most difficult rides we’ve ever been on.

Three men were unseated from their dragons in the water and had to be retrieved by their dragons.

Another fell as we were darting between mountains and had to be caught by another rider.

Harper is a good rider. Maybe one of the better ones we’ve ever seen. And it makes all three of us angry as hell. We needed her to be bad. We needed her to see that she wasn’t cut out for this.

“If we can’t show her she’s a bad rider,” I say, “maybe we can make her life so unbearable, well, more unbearable, that she quits on her own.”

Gareth turns and looks at me funny. “That’s a surprisingly good idea.”

“I’m not as stupid as you think I am,” I tell him.

We all have ideas about each other that may or may not be true.

Both my brothers think I’m an idiot who only thinks with my dick.

Yes, I often think with my dick, but it doesn’t mean my other brain doesn’t work.

Alaric and I think Gareth is an angry man hell-bent on being miserable.

Ever since the day his mom died and there was no royal mourning time for her, he changed from a regular little boy into something prickly and sharp.

And Alaric? He’s a stick in the mud. No, not a stick in the mud, he has a stick up his ass, all the time.

Everything is about honor, representing the kingdom well, and honoring our father. All very boring things.

“Do you really think breaking her will be that easy?” Alaric asks.

I shrug, thoughts turning. “I think between the three of us, we could break anyone, but definitely some peasant girl.”

My brothers move closer, but Gareth says, “So, it’s agreed, we make that girl so miserable that she simply leaves on her own. Then, father won’t be able to speak up against us, and her dragon will be left with no other choice but to choose one of us.”

“Which one of us?” Alaric asks.

I almost laugh. It definitely won’t be him. “Let’s decide that once she’s gone.”

The bell tolls for lunch and we hurry toward the dining hall. Everyone knows you want to be early to get the best food and the best seats, although we’re further away than the rest of dragon riders.

I push open the heavy doors and let my eyes adjust to the darkness. My gaze instantly scans for the woman in question and lands on her at the end of the table. She has a smile on her face as she speaks quietly to someone sitting next to her. Roland. My father’s little lap dog.

“This won’t do,” I say, tisking under my breath.

She smiles at him again, and my gut clenches.

I’ve only ever seen her smirking or with a strained smile.

This one is real. It reaches those beautiful hazel eyes of hers and lights up her whole face, even from a distance she radiates with it.

This must be a joke by one of the gods because the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen is also the woman I have to chase away.

“Why’s she smiling at Roland? He’s a roach,” Gareth mutters beside me.

That tight feeling increases in my stomach. Does she like him? Are they sleeping together?

“Let’s break up their little party,” I say.

The three of us head over to the end of their table and stop. The guys seem to notice us immediately, tensing and growing quiet, but Harper just continues to eat her food like nothing has changed.

“Get up,” Gareth orders.

All faces snap to him.

“You heard him,” Alaric says, “get up.”

The men sitting directly around Harper scatter as she finally turns to face us.

I expect her to get that look most women get on their faces when they see one of the three of us.

Some cross between dreamy and excited, but she just looks bored.

With us. I’ve never been one to flatter my brothers, but we’re God’s gift to women. No man compares to the three of us.

When Roland doesn’t move, I take a step closer, “Up, Roach.”

His eyes widen, and he leaves his plate full of food before heading right out.

We take our seats, surrounding Harper, and servants drop fresh plates off in front of us.

Harper doesn’t look at us, just focuses on her food which makes me uncharacteristically angry.

So she can joke around and laugh with fucking Roland, but not us?

“So,” I say, spearing a piece of roast beef. “We don’t know much about you, Harper.”

She casts me a suspicious glance. “What do you want to know?”

I rack my brain. “Where did you grow up?”

“Pennyvale.” She says it in such a way that I imagine she loves her hometown for whatever little dirt patch it is.

Gareth snorts. “Is that some tiny little town in the middle of bumfuck nowhere?”

“It’s a small town, yes.”

“And what did you do there?” I ask, fishing for more information.

“I lived with my parents and four brothers.”

“ Four brothers?” Alaric asks, seeming surprised. “Is that why you seem so fine with all the dragon riders being men?”

She eats slowly. “Yes, I’m pretty comfortable surrounded by men.”

“And I bet all of the men in town had a turn with you,” I say, hoping my jab lands.

Her gaze snaps to me, and she eats a piece of meat, which is strangely hot. “You know what’s funny? I bet you’ve taken that tiny dick of yours all over town, leaving women unsatisfied left and right, but no one ever implies you’re a slut. Funny how that works, huh?”

I shrug. “Well, I’m a man.”

“Hardly.”

“Want to come back to my room and find out?”

She humphs . “In your dreams.”

I hate it, but she’s right. I did dream about her last night, and it was plenty damn explicit. I blamed it on my dragon’s arousal though, sensing it through our connection, who knows who I’ll blame it on tonight.

“How come you’re so athletic? Whores are usually good at a few tricks, but they’re not exactly dragon rider material.”

I expect her to get mad. At any of this. All the name calling. All the unkindness, but she seems unfazed, which ticks me off. Ticks us all off. How mean are we going to have to be to this woman before she leaves the academy?

“I’ve always kept in shape. Being active is just part of my life.” Then, she glances at me again beneath her lashes. “Now, can I ask the royal highnesses a few questions?” She says “royal highnesses” in a way that borders on sarcasm.

“By all means,” I say, continuing to eat.

“What exactly happened to you to be so disrespectful to women?”

I open my mouth, then close it.

“Usually it’s something in your youth. A lack of respect for your mothers, or the women in your lives.”

“Don’t talk about our mothers,” Gareth growls.

She lifts a brow. “Mothers are a touchy subject. Got it.”

And I see it in his face, he hates that she knows that about him. Here we are trying to figure out all her weaknesses, and she’s finding ours instead. How can a fucking commoner be this smart?

“To answer your question,” Alaric begins in that stiff voice of his. “Each of us respects our mothers very much.”

“Interesting,” she says, eating a sauteed carrot. “So is it a tiny dick thing? The three of you all inherited baby carrots, so now you’re always overcompensating for it.”

“You really have a thing about our dicks,” I say. “Curious?” I ask, lifting a brow.

“Just trying to figure out why you’re so insecure,” she tells us simply.

“We’re not insecure,” Alaric tells her, puffing his chest out. “We just know you don’t belong here.”

“I don’t get the sense that the three of you know very much at all.” Her casual drawl is infuriating.

We keep eating in silence, but I’m in a worse mood than before.

It’s not my habit to be unkind to women.

I’m a lover of women. Every type of woman.

I like them on their backs. I like them pleased beyond words.

The last thing I want to do with this beautiful thing is to fight with her, but she’s leaving us no other choice.

“How many times have you fought the Hollowborn?” she asks.

We stiffen. Why does she want to know that?

“Many,” I answer. “Every experienced dragon rider here has taken his turn in the front lines, patrolling the border, which has inevitably ended in battles. Mainly over Gore Rock Island. The Hollowborn have to stop there on their way to Elarwyn because of the long distance between them and us. It’s the only place they can rest and recharge. ”

“And how many of you have fought a bone wyrm alone?”

We’re silent, because none of us has. Fighting a bone wyrm alone should be a quick way to die. I’ve never heard of anyone doing it. At least, until her, but I don’t know that any of us quite believe her story.

“That would be suicide,” I tell her when my brothers don’t answer.

“Interesting,” she says, but her word holds so much more than that. It’s interesting that we can’t do it but she could. It’s interesting that she survived it when we all don’t think she’s worthy of being a rider.

Gareth lets his fork drop noisily onto his plate. “Never forget, girl, that we’re princes, and you’re nothing but a queen of the peasants, Peasant Queen.”

She grins. “Queen sounds a hell of a lot better ranking than prince.”

I grit my teeth together so hard they hurt. Why isn’t this working? Why doesn’t anything we say bother her? We’re being cruel. We’re being assholes. This should bother her.

She puts her fork down. “Well, boys, thanks for the lovely chat.”

As she goes to stand, Gareth pushes her plate into her lap, sending the food sliding down her top and into her lap. She stares at the mess in shock. We all stare in shock.

Gareth recovers the quickest. “Thought that’s where the trash goes.”

The guys at the table seem to have noticed. They’re trying to look like they haven’t, but their gazes keep snapping to her, and they’re eating their food a little too slowly, the hum of conversation dying.

She picks the plate off her lap, stands, letting the food fall. “It seems I need to clean up before the next task. I’ll see you boys later.”

And the way she says boys makes me think she’s implying we’re not men. How the hell is she there covered in food, and we’re still the ones looking like fools?

I’m pretty sure I hate this woman.

She strides away confident as ever, and I can’t help but think that getting her to leave the academy is going to be harder than we thought. And that we might not like who we become before this is all done.