Page 21 of The Forbidden Dragon King (Shadow Kings #1)

He looks startled and confused, although he’s starting to shake.

His hair is mussed in a way that he normally only allows me to see, before he’s fully ready for the day.

He’s wearing a leather tunic, which is lined with metallic thread, over tan leather breeches.

The tunic is decorated in the middle with the Golden Dragon, which is the symbol of his rule.

A crimson cloak hangs from his powerful shoulders.

“You’re in heat.” Aurelius chokes, holding his arm over his nose. His gaze drops to my hand, as my fingers slowly circle my clit. His ears redden. “I c-c-can’t…”

He turns and stumbles out of the room, tripping over his own feet .

I chuckle, before biting down harder on my arm again.

What? Have I upset his virgin sensibilities?

That’s a joke.

I haven’t been able to find out whether Aurelius has a promised Omega. He appears to be as cold to everyone else as he is to me, although one Omega does flirt with him and waltz into his bedroom like she owns it and him: a pretty silver winged Omega, Liviana.

I’ve never seen Aurelius’ lips so much as twitch when he’s around Liviana, let alone smile genuinely like he does at me. He only smiles with his Golden Family and me.

With Liviana, he’s like a stiff, wooden doll.

Yet Aurelius is the fucking King. He must rut his way through half the court each month.

Still, fevered as I am, I drag the cover over myself to spare the uptight dragon.

That’ll teach him to knock, rather than barge into his servants’ rooms, even if he does own this entire palace, court, kingdom .

I sink down into the heat.

I’m being burned up from the inside. A fire has been lit in my core, and only an Alpha’s knot can put out the flames. I need Daire’s water magic to rain on me.

Daire…Alpha…

I whine.

When Daire’s clever tongue licks across the bond mark, I imagine that he’s tonguing across my clit instead. I mirror his tongue’s movement with my fingers, driving myself forward toward a sudden, shuddering, earth shattering orgasm .

I howl, biting hard enough on my arm that I come a second time from the pleasurepain .

“Yeah, she’s deep into her heat,” a gruff, female voice says from the doorway. “First heats are like this. Luc’s was so intense that I had to tie him to the bedposts to give myself a break from his biting and scratching. He was a fucking wild thing.”

“You just couldn’t wait for an excuse to see me in bondage,” a male voice drawls.

“There was that.”

Dazed, lost in my heat, I struggle to focus.

My gaze is blurry, but I purr, when I notice that my Alpha — no wait, not my Alpha, but why does Aurelius smell like he should be my Alpha? — is standing stiffly behind another Alpha and their Omega, two of the Golden Family.

The new Alpha is War, a muscled soldier in encrusted ruby golden armor and leathers. She is studying me with fierce hazel eyes. Her arm is slung around a small Omega with honey curls, who is wearing a silk tunic that matches his silver eyes.

Tribune Lucius Atticus.

If Lucius lived in the Fang Kingdom, he is so pretty that he’d have every Alpha fighting battles over him. I’ve learned over the last few weeks, however, that the Omega is smart enough to have won any Alpha he’d wanted, before they’d even taken up arms.

Apparently, Lucius wanted the strongest warrior in the Draca Kingdom, War .

It makes me wonder why he felt the need for her protection.

“This is why I asked Luc to stay here today.” Aurelius sounds strained. “I don’t know…bring your heat toys…medicines…anything that will help an Omega through a heat. Take the best care of her and get her through this.”

Their voices wash over me. I can hardly understand their words.

The pleasure is building inside me again.

I writhe, tearing at the bedding and ripping it with my nails.

“Do you know what Omegas generally find most helpful during a heat, Relius?” Lucius narrows his eyes. “A knot .”

War grips Lucius hard by his curls and yanks his head back to bear his neck; he gasps.

“Luc,” she warns.

“She bonded the fae,” Lucius pants, defiantly.

“An Omega shouldn’t be separated from their bonded Alpha.

Sorry, am I breaking the game that we’ve been playing by saying that out loud?

Kit is your pet now. They both are. Why not put them together in the dungeon?

It could tame that savage pet of yours to knot his Omega.

Maybe then assassinating you won’t be his new hobby. He’ll know what he has to lose if?—”

“Say that again,” Aurelius’ voice is like a blade, “and you’ll find yourself in the dungeon.”

War growls, loosening her hold on Lucius’ hair to drag him protectively against her chest instead. “Threaten my Omega again, and you’ll find yourself in scattered pieces with your cock and balls tied as trophies to my sword. But I forgive you, shithead. You’re in rut. Your mind is fucked.”

“The fae isn’t tamed enough to see her through her heat yet. What if he harms her?” Aurelius leans against the doorway. “I’ll lock myself in my bedroom.”

“You don’t need to suffer like this, Relius.

” War marches closer to me, and I helplessly stare up at her.

“You don’t need to bond her. Just rut the wolf bitch, if she agrees.

Wolves like to be part of a pack. They pine for the sense of belonging it brings them.

What makes you think that she won’t accept you as part of her pack?

If you don’t give in to your nature, continuing to spend your ruts alone… ”

“You’ll go feral,” Lucius says, quietly. “No one can deny one side of their nature forever. Not even a king. Not even you.”

“I won’t risk it,” Aurelius snarls. “Just see her through this heat for me, Luc. You’re the only person who I trust to do this for me. You know that I don’t beg…”

“Please, when would I ever expect you to?” Lucius pats Aurelius on the shoulder. “None of us need to beg the other. I would do anything for you. Remember that I’d kneel and open my veins right now.” War makes a wounded sound. “Be careful with my devotion.”

Aurelius gives Lucius a gentle smile, of which I’d never have guessed him capable. “I have always been careful with it. Thank you, do I say that enough? War, you too.”

“Shut up and go jerk off in your bedroom, imagining that you’re breeding tight, Omega pussy,” War growls at the same time as grinning.

Aurelius arches his brow. “Your war speeches to the troops must be inspiring.”

“They are. Soldiers shed tears.”

Aurelius turns and staggers unsteadily from the room.

Uncomfortable, I try to focus, as Lucius strolls to the bed, joining his Alpha. Then he perches next to me, touching the back of his hand to my forehead to test my temperature.

Lucius’ hand feels cool on my brow.

He smiles but it’s sly. “Don’t worry, pet. I don’t know if you can understand me right now but I’ve been ordered by the King to see you through this heat. I’ll look after you. Is that okay?”

I nod.

“What if we simply kill her?” War studies me, dispassionately.

Terror shoots through me, as the words break through the haze.

I freeze, staring up the towering Legate in fear.

Then I whine, shrinking back on the bed. I’m vulnerable in my heat without a way to protect myself.

Daire was right when he insisted that I should be sleeping with a dagger underneath my pillow.

Now, I have no way to escape.

Lucius blocks me from his Alpha’s view with his body, placing a reassuring hand on my arm at the same time that he soothes me with calming pheromones .

His voice becomes like frozen honey. “And why would we do that? She is under my protection during this heat.”

War crosses her arms. “And Relius is under my protection. This Omega has brought him nothing but an obsessive, crazed misery for three years. She’s a threat to all of us. His life would be less agonizing if it wasn’t driven by revenge, while being bound to his enemies.”

“Ah, but then he’d kill us in turn. And I rather like my pretty head attached to my shoulders.

I adore yours. So, you’ll leave now and let me care for her, hmm?

I can look after her Omega to Omega as it always is when a bonded pair is sadly separated.

Also, fuck off, War.” Lucius peers down at me; his expression softens. “Relius loves her, can’t you tell?”

Aurelius loves me…?

The words ring with truth.

I shiver.

If he loves me, however, why didn’t he ask whether he could spend my heat with me?

Why is he leaving me with only an Omega to help me through this? Doesn’t he want to be part of my pack?

Fevered, flames rage through me.

My back bows, and ecstasy starts to coil higher and higher again. My nipples pebble as I explore them, tweaking at my nubs that have never felt this sensitive before.

“Alpha,” I beg. “Alpha, please…”

The snowflake tingles with phantom kisses.

I wildly throw myself onto my front, writhing as I bite and tear at the bedding.

I’m lost to the heat.