Page 11 of The Forbidden Dragon King (Shadow Kings #1)

“I don’t care what secret orders my uncle has given you,” I say, drawing back from them.

“We will make our own plan to ensure that King Daire survives. That’s my order.

My uncle may once have been the Regent and still holds control of the Council, but I am now King, and I say that I won’t kill another royal unless I must. It sets a bad precedent. ”

“And that’s all there is to it? Loyalty to the concept of kingship?” Lucius eyes me skeptically.

I glance away.

I admire Daire. I have every battle that I’ve fought the courageous rebel. I see myself in him .

There are only a couple of other people in the entire Shadow Realms who have any understanding what it feels like to have been thrust young and unprepared, an orphan, onto a throne and a battlefield.

One of them betrayed me.

And one of them is King Daire.

Daire may be my enemy, but we have more in common than anyone else in the realms.

How can I say any of that to my friends?

How can I also tell them that the golden threads sparked out and connected me to the Shadow Fae King almost three years ago, the first time that I fought him?

Unlike Lanlin, he didn’t appear to sense the shimmering threads. Yet I know that I share my Omega with two enemy kings.

Nobody knows that truth but me.

The secret is just another one of many in the Shadow Court.

It’s lonely, being the center of this golden web. I wish that I could be open about our fates.

I have no idea what would happen to either Freya or me, if I sever one of those threads by killing Daire. What I haven’t decided, is whether Daire will be worthy or not to be part of Freya’s life.

I don’t want her to be as lonely as I am. She does need an Alpha. I intend to test Daire first, before I’ll let him bond with someone as precious as my Spark, when she’s already been hurt by the wolf prince.

The thought of Freya with another man, however, feels like stabbing myself in the heart. Yet if that’s the right thing for my Omega, then I’ll kill myself a thousand times for her.

“My uncle wants me to become a true Golden Dragon like Emperor Hadrian was but only if he can control me,” I finally reply.

“If he can make me slaughter the entire fae army tonight, even their king, then he thinks that he will tip me over the edge into becoming a true warlord, bringing back a second Golden Empire. But I won’t do that.

Instead, we’ll win the battle, but I’ll save as many prisoners as I can.

I’ll take Daire as a pet, a symbol of his people’s subjugation. ”

“You’re taking him as a hostage king,” Lucius says, slowly. “His remaining people, who are scattered in the north, will have to behave and bend the knee because you’ll have hold of their king.”

“You could even allow him out of the dungeons and put the Unseelie bitch on display.” War laughs, deep and unrestrained. “I hear that the sly rogue is as pretty as an Omega.”

I frown. “I already have an Omega.”

I break away from their circle, agitatedly stalking through the camp. The skies are even more full of ruby dragons and their armed riders.

Anticipation vibrates through me, but instead of battle plans, flame-red hair and emerald eyes flash into my mind.

My cock hardens again.

Fuck.

“Your wolf shifter Omega is a distraction,” War growls, prowling after me .

“And yours isn’t?”

I wave my hand at Lucius, who is humming to himself like he’s on a romantic stroll under the moonlight.

War huffs. “Yeah, there isn’t a name for what Luc is.”

“Thank you.” Lucius preens like his Alpha is praising him.

She isn’t.

“But he’s also my dragon rider,” War continues, “the best strategist you have, and the highest ranking silver dragon in the Shadow Court, aside from Maximinus. Who even is this non-shifter reject who you swooped in and saved from being torn apart?”

“Her name is Freya,” I reply, defensively. “Spark to her friends.”

“Are you her friend?” Lucius asks, carefully. “I’ve never seen you like this about anybody, let alone an Omega. You haven’t left her bedside for days.”

“And I almost drove a rusty dagger through my own tongue just to get out of making up excuses to your uncle about why we had to delay the campaign,” War adds. “So, why is this Omega worth delaying winning a war?”

“Because,” I twirl on my foot smartly, and my crimson cloak flutters behind me, “ this Omega is the key to everything. If her magic hadn’t been suppressed by someone in her fucking kingdom, then I’d have found her sooner. I have been quietly searching for her for three years.”

Lucius’ eyes widen. “She’s the one?”

He glances behind himself, suddenly excited, as if he can somehow see all the way back down Main Street and inside my tent .

War grabs Lucius by the neck and drags him to rest calmly against her chest, attempting to hide that we’re talking about anything important.

My uncle has his own spies.

Lucius splutters in outrage but quickly settles as soon as he smells his Alpha’s powerful, dominant pheromones.

As Alpha and Omega dragon and rider who matched up in the Shadow Military Academy, their bond is powerful. They have a telepathic connection that means I know they’re holding entire conversations that I’m not part of.

Loneliness spears through me.

Will I ever have that same level of connection?

Yearning makes me harsher than I have been before.

“My own brother was assassinated in front of me, leaving my hands soaked in his blood. I can’t wash them clean.

That monster Lanlin didn’t know that he’d be linking our fate, however, when he did that.

He chose his own punishment. Finally, I can get justice for Tarquin. ”

“She’s Lanlin’s Omega,” Lucius licks his lips nervously, “but she’s also yours , right?”

I narrow my eyes. “She is mine.”

“Does she know?”

I shake my head.

“There’s more, Relius.” War flicks my horn in a way that if anyone else had done, I would have burned them to ash on the spot.

“We don’t need to be bonded to be honest with each other.

Good or bad, what the fuck does that even mean?

There’s only what we need. So, don’t overthink the whole fucking time.

Get out of that nightmarish head of yours and tell us what’s wrong.

We can help. We know each other like brothers and sisters. ”

“The Golden Family,” I reply, quietly, using the name that my five friends coined for ourselves.

If no one else would love us, then as War put it, fuck them , we’d love each other.

“You know that golden threads linked Lanlin and me,” I say in a rush, allowing my mask down.

It’s a relief, cathartic. It’s also dangerous, as it always is.

I can only risk it with my Golden Family.

“We share an Omega, Freya. When I saw her, in pain and bleeding on that mountainside, golden threads sparked out and connected us. It was heady, euphoric, and as if every part of my life finally made sense. Every moment that I have spent with her since, caring for her and smelling her intoxicating rose scent, has bound me closer, until I am entangled, painfully and inexplicably.”

For a moment, I allow myself this weakness.

To feel the sensation of the golden threads that bind me to Freya.

My Omega.

I can’t allow her to see how much I am already chained by her.

Freya may have only just woken up, but I have been searching and dreaming about her for three years. I have spent a week tending to her and terrified that she wouldn’t wake up.

I have watched her sleep, stroking her hair back from her face and daring to lean closer and breathe in deeply from her scent glands .

It’s forbidden.

Wrong.

Taboo.

I want her, however, and this is why I mustn’t allow my Little Wolf to discover this truth. My pet already rules me. She could have a king on his knees.

I will never let her find out.

“Relius…” Lucius grabs my hand and squeezes. “I’m sorry. You don’t need to?—”

I wrench my hand from his grasp. “Fate binds us. But fate also forbids us from bonding. I haven’t forgotten the prophecy.”

“If you try to claim her,” War’s eyes are wary, “your uncle will make sure that the Council execute her. The wizened cock suckers will also use it as a way to further undermine your hold on the throne. They’ll say that it’s more evidence you need to be leashed.”

“And we all know who’ll be the one holding that leash,” Lucius mutters.

I shutter my expression, despite my skin crawling.

Secrets lead to torn out throats and sitting in a pool of congealing blood, while holding onto the cooling body of the person who means the most in the world to you, until you feel as dead inside as they are.

Yet secrets are also all that have kept me alive in the Shadow Court after I was thrown alone into it.

How can even my best friends understand what it feels like to be denied ruts? They have each other.

How can they understand what it feels like to finally find your fated Omega, only to know that you can never claim them?

How much my heart is breaking, but I can never show it?

Because this is war, and my heart, soul, mind, and body belong to my kingdom.

Has any part of myself ever belonged to me ?

I straighten my shoulders, dropping my hand to the hilt of my dagger. “The Omega is nothing more than a pawn. I will keep her close to hurt Lanlin, and ultimately, destroy him. But now, let’s burn King Daire’s world around his fucking fae ears.”