Page 42 of The Forbidden Dragon King (Shadow Kings #1)

I whimper into his kiss, as pleasure courses through me. I hump my own hips.

Except, I know that War may call down the corridor for me at any moment and I have important things to tell Daire.

I can’t risk delaying, no matter how delicious his lips are.

Reluctantly, I pull back, dropping my hands away from Daire’s wings. “How about we talk over breakfast?”

Daire folds his wings away, turning to drop in a ludicrously seductive sprawl on the stone floor, as if it’s a silk bed. “Whatever you want, love.”

I hurry to snatch the tray from outside the door and present it to Daire. I settle in front of him, cross-legged.

Daire leans over the tray, sniffing the food almost as if he’s working out what’s on it by smell alone.

Then his face lights up. “The bloody dragon kept his promise. Bread, cheese, and dates, as well as porridge. I’m eating like a king again.”

I puff out my chest, happy that I can feed my Alpha properly at last. “You don’t know how right you are.”

I slip a handful of squashed fruit from my pocket: raspberries, blackberries, and cherries.

Then I drop them into the porridge.

Daire scrunches up his nose, then arches his brow. “I smell stolen fruit. ”

“Foraged, okay stolen, from the royal gardens.” I smirk.

“Stealing food for me is becoming a habit.”

“A hobby.”

“Obsession.” Daire swipes his elegant finger through the berries in the porridge, before sucking it with a moan. “Why does anything forbidden taste so much sweeter?”

When he swipes his finger through the porridge a second time, I grab it and then suck his finger into my mouth.

Daire’s pupils dilate, as I suck off the sweet mixture, then clean his finger with kitten licks.

“If you wanted to be handfed, my Omega, you only needed to ask.” Daire’s voice is low and delighted.

He strokes my hair back gently, before scooping more sweet porridge up for me.

At the same time, he grabs a cherry. “Oh, look. Aurelius’ cherry…”

He curls his tongue around it, suggestively, before biting into it with his sharp canines.

I laugh around his finger, nibbling it with my own fangs. Then I let his finger go with a kiss.

I watch Daire, satisfied, as he munches on a hunk of bread. He’s trying not to show me how hungry he is.

But I know.

I’ve been hungry myself enough to recognize it in someone else.

“In the Moon Court, if I disobeyed or made mistakes as an orphan kid, I would be punished by having meals taken away,” I say, quietly.

Daire has gone very still. “It became a dream of mine to own a farm on the other side of the forests with a vegetable patch, chickens for eggs and a cow for milk. Then I would be able to be peaceful and quiet, but most importantly, I’d be in control.

Safe. I’d always have enough food and drink.

And it’d be mine. Nobody could take it away because I’d been bad. ”

“Your farm sounds perfect,” Daire replies.

“I’d do anything to be able to give you that in the forests of the Unseelie Kingdom.

I wish that I could show you the beauty of the Winter Court.

The mountains, lakes, and forests in the winter.

One day, maybe both our dreams will come true.

For now, it’s special that we have someone we can tell about them, aye? ”

I nod.

My stomach swirls with nerves, however, because I can’t dwell in dreams. I still need to talk to Daire about what’s been happening between Aurelius and me.

Daire and I have talked about Aurelius and his possible feelings for me, as well as mine for Aurelius.

What happened between Aurelius and me is different than I expected, however, and how to explain that?

“Whatever’s making you feel as scared as if Shadow Devils are about to drag you down to hell,” Daire says, “just tell me.”

“You can sense that through the bond…?”

“Aye.”

“Aurelius has been alone through every rut,” I explain in a rush. “He’s not merely forbidden to bond but to even have a rut mate. It’s torture. He’s not only touch starved. It’s turning him feral. ”

Daire’s expression darkens. “Maximinus, damn his soul.”

“Aurelius collapsed. He was vulnerable, and fuck knows what could have happened if another Omega had found him in that state. My pheromones were the only thing that helped him. Daire, I’m his Omega.”

“He loves you,” Dare says, quietly.

“Are you upset?”

Daire looks surprised. “Why would I be? Fae only have one soulmate, but that doesn’t mean that we own each other. You’re free to love or fuck whoever you wish.”

“So, you should be as well then.”

Daire’s lips quirk. “You’re the only Omega who blossoms in my heart, and that’ll never change, love.

” I flush, smiling. “Look, it’s cruel for anyone to be touch starved.

The bloody idiot probably deserves it, but a feral dragon in charge of this kingdom would be a disaster for every realm.

I hate to praise the Alphahole, but Aurelius has brilliant self-control that he hasn’t snapped before now. He’s your Alpha, but so am I.”

He holds out his arms to me, and I crawl around the tray to settle on his lap. I nuzzle against his throat, breathing in his strong pheromones and his magical scent.

I purr, licking his neck.

Daire holds me tightly, breathing in my scent.

He rests his chin on the top of my head, covering me in the waterfall of his hair. “Okay, love?”

My purring cuts off abruptly.

“He’s not only my Alpha, even if he can’t bond me,” I force myself to continue. “He also claims that he can see fate like golden threads.”

Daire’s eyes glitter with excitement. “On the sacred ash, he isn’t only a pretty face.”

“He says,” I add, more sharply, “that he can see the threads join the three of us together.”

Daire looks stunned, before he whistles.

“Well, that explains a lot.” Then he looks smug. “I am god-like. And you are my beautiful Omega. Why wouldn’t fate link us to the most powerful king in the realms?”

“A king who is Hadrian reincarnated.”

Daire shrugs. “Have you even met Aurelius? He’s a frightened, second prince, grieving his older brother. A cadet drilled with rules, who has spent most of his life inside this palace. He was never even meant to rule. He’s not a true bloody king. He’s definitely not a bloody emperor.”

“Don’t talk about him like that.”

For the first time, Daire’s expression cools. “I see. I thought that this didn’t change things between us. But does it?”

“It changes things with Aurelius.”

“Do you think that a life-time pursuing revenge for your family, friends, and kingdom should be set aside for love?”

“Mine or yours?”

He flinches.

Bullseye.

“Aren’t we still two pet conspirators working together to survive in this enemy kingdom? Have these golden threads changed everything?”

“There’s a prophecy attached to them,” I burst out, as if the words that have been coiling in my mind since I saw them have just been waiting to be birthed. “ Golden fated mates, an Omega and her Alpha Kings, destined to bleed.”

Daire stills. “And what do you believe that means, love?”

I don’t like the wary way that he’s studying me. He’s withdrawn from me; I can sense it through the bond.

It’s unlike him.

“Maximinus believes that the prophecy means that one of us will die if we bond,” I say in a small voice. “War thinks it implies that we will kill each other.”

Daire has become ashen.

He avoids my gaze. “I wouldn’t worry about it. Everybody dies, eventually. I expected it before each battle. It’s a miracle that I’ve lived so long. You know how impulsive I am. It’s probably about me.”

I slap his chest, and he winces. “Don’t say shit like that. It doesn’t make me feel better.”

“Maybe it is a good thing that the dragon shifter and you do love each other,” he says, as if to himself.

I grab Daire’s cheeks, forcing him to look at me. “You’re not going to die.”

For a long moment, his eyes are unfocused, as if he can’t see me. He blinks hard, before he uses his wing to caress down my back.

“Sweet Omega, would you fight death for me? How brave. You should forget this bloody prophecy. Fae know that all prophecies are greater tricksters than we are. You can’t trust them.

They make you think that they mean one thing, so that you try to outrun them.

But then, they bite you in the arse because they actually mean something entirely different.

By the time that you work it out, it’s too late. ”

“I suppose.” I thumb along a bruise on his cheekbone.

“Haven’t we all bled, one way or another, already?” He continues. “Who knows if the prophecy isn’t already fulfilled.”

“Hmm,” I say, unconvinced.

I caress down his neck. When I reach his collarbone, however, his torn tunic falls open, and I gasp.

His chest is revealed through the ripped tunic, along with the silver lines of scars crisscrossing his pale skin.

I trace across one in horror, and Daire sucks in a breath.

“See? I’ve already bled,” he says.

My eyes burn with tears. “Why didn’t these heal?”

“A fae’s magic isn’t fully developed at the age that I started to fight. Iron weapons burn their poison deeply into us, as well as slash wounds. None of us rebels are fully healed. I’m proud to wear my scars alongside my brothers and sisters.”

I glance up at Daire, as my eyes well with tears, thinking of the scar beneath my golden bracelet.

But that’s only a single scar. Daire’s body is covered with them.

“When was the first one?” I ask.

Daire grabs my hand and guides it further under his tunic to a jagged scar across his heart. “War’s sword. I was thirteen, and it was my first battle. It should have been a killing blow. I would have died that day, if not for my best friend, Ciara, who saved me.”

I trace over the edges of the scar, as if even now I can share his pain. “Can I meet her? Thank her for saving my Alpha?”

Daire’s gaze becomes distant, haunted. “She’s dead. She died trying to save me again in Rune Forest.”

His eyes are red-rimmed but dry. Mine aren’t.

I clasp Daire’s hand tightly, as it lays over his scar. “How did you take this much pain?”