Page 84 of The Wild Prince’s Favorite (The Dragon Empire Saga #3)

Much to her disappointment, however, Kassein ended their kiss and sat up, leaving the bed first. Alezya sat up too, staring at his back with a bit of a sullen look.

She could feel he had decided to leave the bed on purpose before it escalated into something else, and she wasn’t happy about it.

She watched him put water on the tiny fire at one end of the habitation, open the flap a bit to air it out some more despite the raging snowstorm outside, and everything he did, he looked like he was trying to avoid looking in her direction.

“Kassein,” she called him, putting some anger in her voice.

This time, he froze and slowly turned to her. Now he had a naughty smile on as if her upset expression amused him, but Alezya wasn’t amused at all. Instead, she was on her knees on the bed, the blanket wrapped around her chest, staring at him with a disappointed expression.

She had gone to bed wearing a very thin piece of clothing that covered her from her chest to mid-thigh, which was perfect when sleeping under thick covers and next to a body as warm as Kassein’s.

Still, there were nothing but two thin straps holding it on her shoulders, and Alezya knew enough about men to know many would have given in to temptation while spending all night next to her wearing this.

“ Water? ” he asked in his language.

“Kassein,” she insisted, frustrated that she hadn’t yet had the words to ask him a more direct question.

He sighed and brought her a cup of warm water. She still didn’t understand how they could drink just warm water, but she drank it anyway because without him by her side, it was getting cold fast.

As he was near her though, she grabbed his thick wrist and pulled him back to the bed with her. Kassein let out another sigh but obeyed. Letting her hold on to his wrist, he leaned and put another kiss on her forehead.

“ Kassein likes me, ” Alezya said.

“ Yes. ”

“ I like Kassein. ”

He smiled. She moved her hand toward his pants, but he grabbed her wrist with his free hand and shook his head.

“ No ,” he said.

“ Why ?”

“ Because Kassein likes Alezya. ”

She frowned.

That didn’t make sense. Was she missing something about their customs that prevented her from touching him? Was it because they weren’t married, perhaps? She hadn’t thought about it before, but maybe the Dragon Clan also refused two people to lay together if they weren’t married...

Alezya found herself stunned at how disappointed she was. Did she want him that badly? Although she knew it hurt? Or was she curious about how Kassein was with a woman...?

“ Teach me, ” he suddenly said.

“ Teach ?”

“ You. Alezya’s words. ”

Her language. He wanted to learn more of her language.

She had been reluctant to teach them, but now she was desperate to understand him, and for him to understand her.

She needed them to be able to communicate if she wanted him to help with her plan.

She wasn’t ready to tell him about Lumie yet.

She had suffered through too much from the last man she trusted and all the horrible things she had heard everyone she once trusted say about her child.

Her trust had been shattered, perhaps beyond repair, and believing in a complete stranger wasn’t easy.

The only thing about Kassein was that he kept exceeding her expectations, and he held none of the beliefs she had grown up with. None of the rules she knew applied to him, and she hoped that would be the same when he eventually met Lumie... because she had decided he was her baby’s best way out.

She still held some hope in her mother’s birth clan, but realistically, she hadn’t seen her mother in a long time, had no idea how far they were, and they were the obvious choice; her father probably would look for her there first. He had sent Alezya like a prize, but he would never have expected a warrior of the Dragon Clan to be willing to accept Lumie.

Her father was a man who didn’t have an ounce of Kassein’s kindness and would never believe that a man so powerful would accept a woman another had rejected and a baby that wasn’t his.

Alezya was ready to take that bet.

“ I teach Kassein, Kassein teach me ,” she said.

He nodded and sat with his legs crossed, facing her.

Unlike Alezya, he clearly didn’t need any blanket to cover his body, but he grabbed another of the fur blankets and wrapped it around her. She felt ridiculously bundled like this, but perhaps it was for the best if they were going to behave while within inches of each other...

So, despite all of her expectations, they spent the next few hours of the morning chatting, teaching each other the same words again and again.

Alezya had already learned quite a bit from Lorey, and while learning some more with Kassein this morning and teaching him her own language in return, she began to realize that the reason she could learn quickly was also that the Dragon Clan’s language was somewhat easier in unexpected ways.

They didn’t have different words to differentiate a female subject from a male one.

Alezya referred to herself with the female version of “I” and used a different version of “you” if she spoke to a man or a woman in her language, but the Dragon Clan’s didn’t bother with that; it made no difference if a man or woman was speaking to a man or woman, the sentence was the same.

It was the same thing when speaking about people who weren’t there; they had the same words for she and her and he and him, although they used names more often.

When she tried to ask if Kein was female or male, Kassein snorted and shook his head.

“ Dragon. Not male or female. Only dragon. ”

“Kiki too?”

“Kiki dragon too.”

They used names more often when referring to people, and Alezya realized they hadn’t been speaking to her by using their names over and over to make it easier for her to understand who they were talking about, but simply because it was their natural way of speaking.

The way they built their sentences also had the subject of the sentence at the beginning, while hers had it at the end. She could tell Kassein was struggling to keep up with the differences when using her language too.

He could remember the vocabulary, but building the sentences was a nightmare for him. He kept misgendering them and instead, reverted to using their names quickly because he was getting frustrated and confused.

It was a lot easier and funnier for Alezya than it was for him, yet Kassein was incredibly stubborn and doing his best either way. She could tell he was desperate to understand her, but they found more common ground using his language.

“ That word you used before ,” he said.

“ What word ?”

“ Ki-... Kisoo .”

Alezya chuckled.

“Kiitso,” she exaggerated the pronunciation.

“Kisto,” he nodded.

“ No . Kii - tso . ”

At least they both struggled equally with pronunciation. His language used a lot more throat, while hers was about putting the accent in the right place and using her tongue more.

“Kiitso . What does that mean? ”

“ Thank you ,” she said, glad she had learned his way of saying it from Lorey.

“ Oh . Kiitso . ”

She smiled.

At least now, they could converse in complete sentences, and she could make herself understood for the most essential things.

She still lacked a lot of vocabulary whenever the subject drifted into anything different and more complex, but she was relieved to have established some solid foundations for learning.

“ I’m hungry ,” she admitted after a while, as they had both skipped breakfast and spent all morning chatting on his bed.

“Do you want meat?”

“There is more meat?”

Kassein smiled and quickly left the shelter, wholly unbothered by the snowstorm. She grimaced as he ventured into the cold, wrapping the blankets tighter around her.

She was curious to know if anyone else from their clan was out there despite the horrid weather.

“You taniyen are built differently,” she told Kein through the fabric, using their word for dragon.

Kein answered with a faint growl that sounded almost like a snort.

Alezya smiled. To think she had been absolutely terrified of the orange dragon only a week ago... Now, she found its presence almost reassuring, just like when those men had harassed her, and she knew they wouldn’t dare do a thing while she was with the dragon.

She got up and, while waiting for Kassein, cleaned herself a bit, changed into one of the outfits that she could find, a large shirt that was probably Kassein’s but was so big for her it covered her down to her knees and elbows, and gave a large opening that showed her shoulders a bit.

When Kassein came back, she was back on the bed, combing her hair, her lap covered by one of the fur blankets.

“ Meat soup ,” he said, raising two bowls.

He might not mind the cold, but his hair and shoulders were funnily covered by half an inch of snow, and all his clothes looked wet.

He put the bowls he had covered with a piece of fabric on the bedside table and went to wipe up the now-melted snow off his shoulders, putting Alezya through some silent torture as she had to watch, from afar, all of his glorious and wet torso.

She had never gone throat-dry because of some male body before, but apparently, Kassein had that power over her. So much so that she had to reach out for some more hot water and avert her gaze, desperate to contain the blushing that threatened to expose her.

She had it mildly under control when he came to sit on the bed, his abs flexing as he sat down and handed her the bowl. It was still hot by some miracle, and she wondered how he’d managed that. Still, Alezya didn’t wait and immediately went for her favorite chunky bits.

They ate in silence, but it didn’t feel awkward at all. Instead, it was almost comfortable, with the both of them bundled in the warmth of this place while the cold blew outside. Alezya guessed the storm had calmed a bit because the wind wasn’t as loud, and she could hear Kein’s snores more often.

“Kassein.”