Page 70 of The Wild Prince’s Favorite (The Dragon Empire Saga #3)

Not all men could be as unbelievably kind as Kassein, she knew that.

Had she been foolish to wander away from him?

Only Dajan seemed completely oblivious to his peers’ gazes, walking ahead of them proudly.

Kein, on the other hand, began to growl in warning a couple of times when it noticed a pair of eyes lingering too long on Alezya.

Never had she thought she’d one day feel so grateful to a dragon for making her feel safe. ..

When she first heard a sound like a whistle, she jumped in surprise, making the men laugh, and immediately regretted it. They were toying with her, and her reaction had encouraged them more. There was another strange sound of mouth, which irked her all the more.

Kein turned its head, but too late to identify who had done it, or perhaps the dragon couldn’t associate the sound with any degrading meaning, because it didn’t growl in warning.

Alezya wished it had, for they continued.

Someone else whistled, and there was another strange sound.

It came from all around now as they had to go through what seemed to be a busy part of this territory, and the men were coming from all sides, emerging from habitations or on their way to somewhere else.

Dajan shouted angrily at the other men around them, having lost his smile, but his authority wasn’t respected, for they kept going.

Alezya was trying to ignore them, keep her composure, and walk while looking straight ahead, for Kassein’s habitation was finally in sight, but it was hard not to let it show on her face.

She was scared and angry. Those men were worse than animals, feeding off her fear and enjoying it. ..

Suddenly, they stopped, and there was a strange strangled sound.

She turned back and saw Kassein, absolutely furious, holding one of those men at arm’s length, his feet wiggling inches away from the ground.

All of the others had suddenly become mute and paralyzed with terror at the sight of their leader, lifting an entire man with one arm and crushing his neck in the process.

As if it had gotten a silent order from its master, Kein also started growling furiously, retreating its body closer to Alezya while its head was angrily turning around, the big silver eyes looking for prey.

It was like those men were torn between running for their lives and witnessing what was to happen to their peer for his impertinence.

Kassein hissed something in their language, his dark green eyes going around as if he were trying to remember the faces of all the men present.

Alezya saw quite a few of them go extremely pale, and then, there was the sound of bones crushing.

She turned her head back to Kassein right as he released his grip, the body falling heavily in the snow. That man was dead...?

She shivered. Kassein had just killed someone with a single hand.

.. and crushed human bones with his mere grip.

Even if she didn’t want to, Alezya couldn’t help but be struck at how dangerous the same hands he used to care for her were.

And right now, this same man was holding a dozen men here, planted on their feet and paralyzed by fear with his mere presence.

Or perhaps what he had said was keeping them from running away.

One of them suddenly made a strange yelp and began to run anyway. Alezya wondered why he was the only one and no others followed, but she got her answer straight away: Kein jumped and landed right on the man, its fangs finding the man’s head immediately to rip it off.

She turned her eyes away a second before the bloodshed, but she saw it in the other men’s eyes; it was awful to watch.

All the men had gone dead silent, lowering their heads and very likely praying for their survival.

Kassein hadn’t even looked at her yet; his eyes were going around like a deadly snake picking its next prey.

He had a murderous look in his eyes Alezya had never seen before, and it was. .. scary.

For the first time, it truly hit her how dangerous that man and his dragon were.

She’d seen him fight before, but this was different.

He was strong enough to hold a dozen men in their place to await their death or his mercy with his mere words.

If they fled, his dragon would kill them.

If they stayed, one of his hands was enough to crush their spines like twigs.

Alezya lost her breath for a second, as she finally took in the full measure of the man she’d slept next to.

Kassein was strong, and he could be merciless, even to his own men.

It was clear now: he was this clan’s Chief, and everyone else was at his mercy. He was free to continue to kill those warriors until he felt like stopping.

“K-Kassein...”

He darted his eyes at her, and Alezya involuntarily took a half-step back. She’d never seen such anger in his eyes, and her instincts were screaming at her to get away from this dangerous beast. She hadn’t meant to, but it was hard to stay still while looking death right in the eye.

She heard Kein growl, somewhere behind her, but was smart to keep herself from looking at what ought to be a horrible scene of death. She could hear the dragon still chewing and more bones being crushed, and she did not want to risk taking a peek at that.

Instead, she was focused on Kassein. He had definitely seen her recoil, and now he’d turned away, his eyes back on his men. Was he thinking she feared him now?

It took Alezya a moment to realize that she did.

But it wasn’t something she could fight.

It was primal, like prey recognizing that a predator could end them at any moment.

She was weak, untrained, and wouldn’t last long if it came to a fight against any man.

He had just killed someone with his bare hands, and he could command a dragon like it was nothing.

She couldn’t fight that truth no more than she could deny that she should have been horrified.

But she could choose not to flee. Because she didn’t want that fear to grow into something that would make him stay away.

Because Kassein was the one man she refused to fear more than she had to.

She didn’t want him to protect her from himself.

She wanted to be held by those hands and trust they’d never turn against her.

She wanted to feel safe. Not because there was no danger, but because it was him.

It was madness, maybe, to want that kind of safety from someone like him.

From the strongest predator of all. But she did.

And it wasn’t part of any plan to ensure her survival.

It came from a desire stronger than the fear he inspired.

It came from somewhere deeper, somewhere honest. She didn’t want to fight it.

She feared a lot of things. She feared most men, the men Kassein could crush like they were nothing. And yet, a part of her wanted to be his. She still trusted that he was the one man who would never hurt her. Even if he was the last man she ever trusted again, her heart had already chosen him.

Right now, he was avoiding her gaze. Once again, she could read him easily, the way his forest-green eyes were looking away, a bit ashamed and a bit nervous of her gaze. How could she, a mere, weak woman, have this much power to make a man who terrified all others so cautious of her?

He slightly turned his back to her in an attempt to erect a wall of his own flesh between them, but it was no use. Alezya swallowed her fear and moved forward, stepping closer to him.

She refused to let Kassein think she was scared.

He probably felt or heard her move, because his back stiffened; he had gone out without a cloak, his bare torso exposed to the cold without so much as a shiver.

Had he been looking for her? Kassein said something, not addressed to her but most likely an order for all the men to scram, because they did.

Dajan, with a man braver than the others, came to grab the body at Kassein’s feet and take it away.

Neither Alezya nor Kassein watched any of the men leave; his stubborn gaze was on the snow ahead of him, and hers was riveted on his back.

“Kassein,” she called him again when they were finally alone.

He kept his back turned to her, and for a second, she felt her stomach twist into a scared knot. Was he mad at her, perhaps? Was he going to be upset if she insisted?

Once again, Alezya reminded herself of her own promise: she wasn’t going to be scared of him.

Thus, she kept walking bravely until she could lift her fingers and touch his back.

His warm skin which hadn’t shivered under the ice-cold wind shuddered at her touch.

Feeling bolder than ever, Alezya caressed it slowly, moving her fingertip between the scars.

Then, while he remained stiff as a wall, she took a step to the side to appear in his field of vision.

His eyes immediately went to her, his brows furrowed with anger and confusion.

He probably wondered if she was mad. Alezya thought the same; how else could she have been so bold to approach him in this situation?

To get close to a killer, a predator still this angry?

Yet there she stood, close to him like ignorant, foolish prey, looking up at him with her big dark eyes.

.. She could read all of Kassein’s confusion.

Why wasn’t she scared? Why was she approaching him when he’d clearly just killed someone right in front of her eyes?

Alezya wished she could tell him she didn’t fear him, not nearly as much as she did those other men.

She wasn’t going to be afraid, no matter how many he killed; she’d seen more cruel things.

Kassein was like a predator defending its territory, asserting his dominance; those men were the real monsters, who toyed with their prey for the fun of it.

“Kassein,” she whispered his name again, standing even closer.