Page 148 of The Dragon Warlord

He doesn’t say anything, but I get it. He doesn’t want to be at The Tower right now. He sniffs, sliding his mask in place. “I should be going. You have a lot to take care of, but one last thing.”

“Yes?”

“The ice dragon has remembered his name.”

“What is it?”’

He smirks. “Come home and ask him yourself.”

* * *

Irush home to find River. No one else is home. It’s just me and him in the common area of our suite. He’s … Gods, is he actually angry at me? “Where were you? You didn’t tell anyone where you’d gone.”

“Omega, I’m always within your reach.”

“I know and I could feel that you were okay, well, as in the alive kind of okay. I didn’t call to you because I assumed you desired privacy and alone time, but I didn’t like it, Warlord.”

Gathering him into my arms, I push his hair off his face. “I worried you. I’m sorry.” Gripping his face under his jaw with one hand I kiss him.

When he inhales my scent, he knows who I’ve been with. “Dragon lord,” he says. “Do we have to go?”

I’m glad he said we. Where I go, he goes.

I nod and take him in. I don’t want to tell him. Tears pour over my lids unbidden. “River, I’m so sorry. I don’t know how to tell you.”

My tears already have tears springing to his eyes.

Taking a breath, I force myself to say it. “Simone is dead.” My stomach clenches in time with his sharp fingernails that dig into my skin. “An attack on The Tower.”

“No. Gods, please, no.”

The sound of pain that comes from him is one I’ve never heard before. It’s the sound of heart-shattering sorrow. It’s gut-wrenching and it sluices through me as if it were my own. His body shakes with sobs, and I follow him down when he collapses to his knees.

“I’m sorry,fuck… I’m so sorry, Riv.” I cry along with him as I ferment. It’s natural for me to want to rush out and kill anything that’s upset him. That’s exactly what I’m going to do. I won’t rest until I’ve dragged the emperor from the pits of hell. I’ll make him pay like I made the Wasteland beasts pay.

River cries as he hangs onto me for dear life until his sobs are silent ones, but the tears don’t stop. I scoop him up and bring him to the room I share with him. When we first moved into this family suite, I considered each room as belonging to one of my men and proclaimed myself as the nomad who moved between them. That changed and now I call each room mine as my men always have.

Laying River on the bed, I undress us and allow the feel of our bare skin to soothe him. He sinks his teeth into my shoulder, leaves them there for some time and then pulls them out again.

“I’ve never wanted to shift so badly as I do now,” he says.

Which is probably a bad idea if even the dragon lord is avoiding it. It’s easier to be the beast.

“Did you … did you get a goodbye?” I don’t know why it matters, but it does. I push his wild hair off his face. It’s damp with sweat.

A watery smile graces his lips. “Know what? I did. He waited for me to come down to the kitchens, knowing I’d asked Pewter to prepare some things for our journey. He told me he was going to miss me and that he loved me and that he was so happy to see me as happy as I am with you. He was really proud, Alpha.”

Thank the Gods.

“And actually, he squeezed me so tightly. It was a really good hug.”

“I’m glad.”

“When I was really little,” he begins. “I followed him around. Mother was too much of a warrior to cart a small child around. She and I became close later even though she was never the nurturing type. She was hard and strict—often more so than the dragon lord whereas Simone had a soft way of being hard, does that make sense?”

“It makes lots of sense to me.” Papa is like that. He was all, “help yourself to fresh muffins, sweet pea” after school, but all it took was for me not to do my chores for one day and he’d break out his wooden spoon. I wish he were here right now. He has a knack for making people feel better.

“He was better at young dragons than they were, so I followed him everywhere. I imprinted on him.” His voice gets watery again.