The Dragon King’s Substitute Bride
Chapter 109

HERA

The funny thing about pain is, when it is at its worst, that is when you stop to feel it.

And as I stand there, in the dark, cold room of the west tower, rug beneath my feet and stone walls all around me...

Watching the dragonkin man I love, holding a very naked woman pressed to the bed, I realize I am done feeling.

"No..."

The words tumble out of my mouth; a choked, strangled sound that carries surprisingly well in the vast wideness of the King's chambers. "Hera..."

He lets her go immediately and starts to move towards me but I barely even notice.

All I can see is her smile.

He had been holding her down, his back to me and so she had seen me first.

And the look on her face.

The stupid beautiful smile that pulled her mouth at the corners and did not quite reach her glassy green eyes.

It made me want to charge at her and rip out her hair and break every single bone in her evil, miserable body.

Even when he turns around and lets go of her, she makes no attempt to cover up.

Instead she leans back on her arms and tilts her chin up at me.

She does not care that she is naked in the King's bed while his wife stands barely a foot away.

No.

All she cares about...is.letting me know that she has won.

And that I am nothing but the stupid, silly human girl who let herself fall in love with the dragon king.

The one foolish enough to believe that the ruler of the 5th realm could perhaps feel for her, as strongly as she did for him.

The one who had let her heart get broken and revived and broken again. All by the same man.

There is a tingling sensation spreading through my body.

Like the flowing smoothness of liquid heat.

It takes me a moment to realize it for what it is.

Blinding rage.

But before I can act on my impulse and rush the smirking b***h, Midas is in front of me.

"You are awake."

Relief seeps out through every pore of his body and his eyes when they take me in are wide and uninhibitedly happy. But I am too angry to see it.

Too angry to care.

He reaches eagerly for me, but I step out of reach.

If he touches me with the same hands he just used to touch her, Hades help me someone would die today.

And it would not be me.

He frowns slightly. "When did you wake up...why was not anyone with you, you should not be running around just yet."

"My apologies your grace, if I had known what it is you were up to, I would have awoken at a later date or even better not at all."

A look of utter confusin passes across his face "Whatever do you mean..."

I see it the moment realization comes into his eyes.

I see him falter, the shining brightness of his excitement dimming.

I watch him glance back at Minth and the way he looks at her has her scrambling to put on her clothes.

The evil glint in her eyes and the smirk she had on when she looked at me is gone.

In its place is a tiny sweet smile. One that would have fooled even the hardest of hearts.

She blinks up at him and bites her lip even as she pulls up a sleeve.

Shy and submissive.

It makes me want to spit.

"Your highness I..."

He does not even let her speak. "Get out."

"But...

"Minth I have half a mind to kill you where you stand. Do not test my patience any further. Get out."

I scoff.

"Oh no. Please do not send her away on my account. I will gladly leave you two be."

"No stay, it is not..."

"Oh it most definitely is"

He whirls on her. "By all the gods Minth if you do not leave right this instant."

I want to laugh and cry and throw something.

Instead a bitter sound between a croak and a sneer replaces it way to my lips as I stare up at him.

"If I did not know better I would have thought you looked disgusted and angry but that cannot be given how only but a few minutes ago you were all too eagerly pinning her down beneath you" "Hera, this situation is not as it appears."

I am uncertain what serves to send my anger to the near feverish pitch that it is dangerously close to approaching.

The smug look on the mistress I so desperately desire to slap into the next moon harvest,

Or the utter calm with which he utters the words.

I stare at him, eyes wide, mouth open even as I start to shake.

"It is not as it appears? It is not...as it appears?! Were you or were you not holding down some naked who....woman on your bed while I lay a few towers away, trapped in my dreams?!"

A crease appears in his brows and he reaches for me again.

"You are upset. Let me explain."

"I neither want nor need any explanation from you Midas. I know what it is that I saw"

"Be that as it may Hera if you would just let me..."

"No!" My voice cracks, the pain beginning to slip out from beneath the fissures of my anger.

"In the Fairy realm you made it seem like I was the one who was going to hurt you, that I was going betray your trust...and now..."

I close my eyes and press my lips together as hard as I can to stop the tears that threaten to fall because the last thing I want to do is cry in front of either one of them.

I had thought I was past feeling.

It would appear that I am not.

I need to leave here. Before I completely break down or attack her.

Whichever one happens first.

I turn around to leave but he reaches out and grabs my hand.

Firm enough to keep me in place.

Soft enough to make my heart ache.

"You do not understand."

I have never heard him sound this way. This worried and desperate, all the calm of the dragon king gone from his voice.

But I am finished with trying to listen.

"You owe me no explaining Midas. After all she is your Mistress and I am nothing but the human girl you were forced to marry and who is now destined to betray you. So do as you please but do not insult my intelligence by telling me I do not understand." "Why won't you let me explain?"

"Because it hurts Midas! It f*****g hurts and I want to cry and shout and hate you and I cannot do that if I have to keep looking at you and listening to you..."

The tears are falling now.

Even without my permission and I angrily sniff them away before turning around to glare up at him.

"I chose you. I had a chance to have the life I thought lost to me forever and yet I chose to come back to you...to us. Gods I have been stupid haven't I?"

I snatch my hand out of his grip.

"Hera... please."

"I regret a lot of things in my life Midas. Many thanks your grace for adding one more thing to the list."

And with that I walk out of the room.

"Hera..."

"Do not follow me."

"Hera..."

"Midas... please "

Maybe it is the way my heart shatters on the last word making it come out in a breathless, strangled whisper, maybe it is because the tears are flowing freely, wet streams racing down my cheeks. Maybe it is both.

He stops. "Hera...I love..."

But I am done listening. So I walk away and then I run.

No one asked why I had run breathless to the King's room.

No one asks why I am running back, soaked in tears.

But somehow it feels like they all know.

As I race through the winding corridors and across arching doorways back to my tower, I am almost certain I can hear them laughing.

Laughing and shaking their heads in pity.

I push past Henette at the door to my room and then I lock it behind me before she can enter.

She knocks and pleads for me to let her in but I refuse.

I hear Leo come up. I hear Henette in tears telling him that I have locked myself in and have refused to tell her what is wrong or open up to her.

A knock, firm yet gentle rattles the door behind me.

"Your grace...open the door."

"No."

"Your Majesty..."

"I wish to be alone."

"Very well. If that is what you need, we shall leave you be. Come Henette."

I wait until I hear their retreating footsteps before I finally allow myself breakdown.

Silly...silly...silly...

How could I have been so blind and stupid?

I am not sure how long I remain in that position.

Crouched down with my back against the door, crying my eyes out but it feels like an eternity.

If loving him hurt this much then I was better off hating him.

He did not deserve my tears.

None of them did.

And that Minth...that two faced, green eyed snake...how dare she?

She must think me weak and pathetic simply because I am human.

Perhaps they all did.

The dragonkin who raided and plundered my realm.

How they must all look down on me.

Then get even...

What?

Get back at all of them...

I could help you.

"Who..."

"Your highness please open up. I just wish to make sure you are fine."

I turn my ear towards the knocking on the door and away from the strange dark voice that I could have sworn had been whispering in my mind.

Leo is back.

He knocks again. "Hera please."

"No! And as your queen I order you to leave me alone."

"You are hysterical and distraught. It is my sworn duty to make sure you are safe and not attempting to harm yourself. As Chief Ryder...and as your friend."

I stare at the floor for what feels like an eternity.

I do not wish to talk to anyone

But I must be tired of crying to myself because I start to get up, one hand on the door knob for support.

Turning my back when he walks in because I do not want him to see how swollen and red my face must be, helps me maintain some semblance of dignity.

"As you can see I am not hysterical or distraught or about to hurt myself. So thank you for checking and you may leave."

The door closes softly behind me.

"You can lie all you want Hera. I am not going anywhere."

I whirl around. "Leo I said... skies above what happened to you eye?"

He winces when I stand on my toes and brush the tip of my fingers against it.

"The dragon king."

"He hit you?!"

"In all fairness. I hit him first."

"You did what?!"

"I am quite lucky all I got was one measley black eye."

"Have you gone insane?"

I walk up to my armorie and rummage among the vials and glasses until I replace some soothing balm.

He reaches to take the jar from me but I slap his hand away.

The balm is a light green color and feels cool against my fingers when I dip it into the jar.

Once more I have to stretch to the tip of my toes to reach his face.

"You did not have to hit him."

"He hurt you. I do not care what his reasons are. One does not hurt their tether the number of times and the number of ways he has done so."

"So no excuses for him this time?"

"No."

"He could have killed you."

"I know."

"So why did you do it?"

His eyes replace mine. "You know why."

Everything seems to slow down.

Perhaps I was wrong.

Maybe I fell in love with the wrong person.

"Hera..."

And maybe... maybe it is not too late to change it.

A tiny voice is telling me that is not how love works but I shut my ears to it.

I am done listening.

Leo cups my cheek in his hand.

"Your highness...are you okay, what are you..."

He stiffens at first but when I do not step away he gives in.

And soon his arms slide around my waist, his mouth slants over mine and the jar of green balm lays discarded on the chamber floors.