Page 56 of The Wild Prince’s Favorite (The Dragon Empire Saga #3)
The dragon replied with another deep growl, and even, to her surprise, lowered its head a bit toward her. There was no way... was there?
Alezya took a deep breath. She had genuinely thought this dragon would kill her a few days ago.
What was she doing now...? She raised her trembling hand and, mentally preparing herself to lose her limb, approached the dragon’s head.
Before she finished her movement, Kein suddenly moved forward, and her fingers met the hot scales without warning, making her jump in surprise, and take back her hand.
Kein growled in protest and approached even more, scaring her into taking a step back.
Next to her, Lorey chuckled, and gently came to her aid.
She grabbed Alezya’s wrist, and slowly guided her hand back onto the dragon’s head.
Alezya could barely believe it when her fingers touched the hot orange scales again, and Kein growled in response.
It was incredibly warm under her fingers, like a hot log. ..
Alezya felt a wave of unique, excited sparks in her stomach about this unparalleled moment. She was touching a dragon! She was even petting a dragon! Her father would have been mortified to witness this...
She glanced at Lorey, almost glad there was someone to witness this, and the young woman gave her an amused chuckle as if this was normal for her.
Indeed, Kiki seemed to be literally stuck to her, making little high-pitched growls around her legs to get her attention.
Despite being smaller than Kein and its length against the ground, Kiki was still tall enough to reach their chests and kept dancing in elegant circles around them.
When its body made another circle around them, it bumped Alezya and interrupted her contact with Kein, causing the orange dragon to growl furiously in indignation and snap at its peer.
For a second, Alezya was worried that she was going to be stuck in a fight between them, but soon enough, Kiki took an elegant dive into the crisp white blanket, and Kein was off to chase after the wriggles of snow.
Alezya turned to Lorey for cues, but as the young woman seemed amused and not worried whatsoever, she thought this might be normal.
.. until she looked around at the nearby men’s expressions.
They were all stunned, with wide eyes on the bickering dragons.
No , Alezya realized. This wasn’t normal, even for the Dragon Clan’s people, and she had just had a privileged moment with the orange dragon... which made her feel all the more happy about it.
“Alezya.”
Lorey gently called her before wrapping her arm around hers again and pulling her to resume their walk.
She realized they weren’t just strolling around and taking the paths of shoveled snow, but had a precise direction in mind.
Soon enough, they reached a habitation that was far bigger than the others, even bigger than Kassein’s.
Alezya nervously wondered to whom could a place that was four times larger than Kassein’s belong.
Maybe their Clan Chief? The archenemy of her clan. ..?
Upon entering though, she realized she was wrong; this wasn’t someone’s living space, but a communal area like her clan had in the largest caves of her mountain.
It was large, but crowded, with lots of warriors loudly cheering, and Alezya suddenly felt nervous to be surrounded by so many men.
She would have rather faced Kein again..
. Lorey didn’t seem to mind, however, as she pulled her through the crowd.
Once again to Alezya’s incomprehension, the men were letting them through, only giving them surprised glances when the two women walked past.
Thankfully, they soon breached through the crowd and Alezya could finally see what the fuss was all about; in a large open area, Kassein and his sister were facing each other with weapons.
If she was shocked to see a man and a woman fighting against each other, Alezya’s questions were soon obliterated by the sight of Kassein’s half-naked body.
The blood rushed to her cheeks as she was instantly mesmerized by the warrior’s impressive figure, his superb muscles shining wet with sweat dripping down to his leather pants.
She had caught glimpses of his body before, but now that she was seeing it, exposed in plain sight, it was just impossible to ignore.
Not only that, but he was panting heavily, his dark green eyes shining with excitement, and his black hair stuck to his skin from the heat.
She found it almost impossible not to stare, especially as he hadn’t noticed her arrival, and everyone around was watching the fight.
“Lorey,” a bored male voice called out.
Alezya hadn’t even noticed the presence of Tievin next to them, and she realized Lorey had purposely walked up to him.
He lifted an eyebrow at Alezya and then turned back to Lorey to chat with her.
Even if she’d wanted to understand their words, the clamor around was so loud that Alezya probably wouldn’t have caught much of it.
Not that she minded much; she turned her eyes back to the sibling duo as soon as she could.
It looked like they had arrived while those two were merely catching a short break as they began moving again, throwing themselves at each other, blades first. Alezya was stupefied by the violence of this fight; it was as if they didn’t mind hurting each other, and after a few seconds, she realized they truly didn’t.
With a superb movement, Kiera inflicted a wound on her brother’s arm, lacerating his skin with one of her two blades.
Alezya gasped, worried for Kassein, but then, she witnessed the orange scales that immediately bloomed on his skin to cover the wound.
She took a closer look at his sister, and that’s when she noticed Kiera also had scales on her body; just like her brother, she had taken off her top except for a leather bra, and thus, Alezya could clearly see the ashen gray streaks of scales shining on her dark skin.
She waited for a bit, and sure enough, when Kassein’s blade slashed her shoulder after a wrong move on her part, the dark silver scales formed in a matter of seconds.
Those scales were exactly like Kiki’s...
Did that mean Kiki was Kiera’s dragon? Did the dragons truly have their own owners, allowing this sorcery that healed them?
Alezya was both confused and amazed. She kept watching the match, feeling as excited as the cheering men around, although she kept quiet. She didn’t even want to blink and miss a split second of this. She knew nothing of fights, but she could tell this one was amazing.
The siblings’ moves looked like a mortal, dangerous dance with one another, and they weren’t holding back nor giving the other any chance for a mistake to slip by.
Their movements seemed so brutal and deadly; they wouldn’t actually risk inflicting serious harm upon the other, right?
But then again, with their amazing healing abilities, how far did they have to go for them to inflict any wound that would seriously harm the other… ?
She kept watching in absolute awe, trying to absorb every bit of the incredible match, but every time, Alezya found that her eyes would inevitably drift back to Kassein.
She was mesmerized by each of his movements, and the impressive strength demonstrated by his body.
Her throat went a bit dry, and her stomach a bit funny, thinking that those same hands that carried such a big sword had been the ones to gently caress her just the night before. ..
It was hot in there, but her blushing was getting embarrassing, and Alezya nervously patted her cheeks. She was just remembering her bandaged hands when she caught Lorey’s amused eyes on her. She had been caught staring... Alezya reddened even more and averted her gaze.
“Kiera! Kassein!”
Alezya was not only shocked that Lorey had dared to interrupt the battle, but on top of that, despite the ruckus, both Kassein and Kiera actually heard her, immediately turning their eyes her way and lowering their weapons.
When Kassein’s deep green eyes found her standing next to Lorey amongst the crowd, Alezya could only burn up even more.
She internally cursed Lorey for calling out to him when she wasn’t ready!
Even worse, now both he and his sister were walking in their direction, drawing every single set of eyes to them.
Their arrival had gone relatively unnoticed because the warriors’ eyes were on the fight, but as she, Lorey, and Kiera were the only women there, and with her being the foreign woman, she was especially standing out.
After nervously peeking around, Alezya regretted it immediately and began to feel instinctively scared, having so many curious men’s eyes on her.
Then, Kassein arrived, obliterating everything else.
At least, her fear had drained the blood away from her face for a bit, and she wasn’t blushing like a young maiden anymore. ..
That was until he came close, facing her from mere inches away.
He said something to Tievin, who handed him a piece of fabric to wipe himself with.
But Kassein only quickly wiped the sweat off his hand right before putting it on her cheek.
Alezya’s blushing immediately came back, and now, she was torn between seeking comfort and protection in this hand or pushing it away in a desperate attempt to get the attention away from her. ..