The Dragon King’s Substitute Bride
Chapter 56

MIDAS

She is unconscious, completely out cold by the time they arrive.

He takes her up to her room without a single word to anyone.

Every time...three times now, that he has brought her into the room in his arms, she is once again just barely alive.

He lays her gently on her bed, trying his best to avoid looking at the marks on her neck because if he does, he will lose his mind and by Hades nothing would be able to stop him...stop them until they had rid the realm of every single person related to the man who had done this.

She stirs gently and he pushes her hair back from her forehead sighing as he does so.

So much for staying away from her.

A knock on the door pulls him back to the present and he straightens.

"Enter."

Her maid, a diminutive dragonkin girl with strangely large, brown eyes pushes the door open.

She bows and like all of them, avoids looking directly at him as if his eyes were coals of fire that incinerated people on the spot. That had been the one thing he had first noticed about Hera.

Even afraid and shaken, from the second they had met, she had looked directly into his eyes and turned his whole world on its head.

Yes she annoys him, does stupid things like running off for Hades knows what reason and yes maybe...maybe she does hate him.

But when she looks at him, he does not feel like the dragon king...he feels like Midas...like himself and it is a very addictive way to feel. "You may rise."

"How...how is she my lord?"

Midas is slightly surprised.

The way the maid asks the question, it is immediately obvious how concerned she is about the queen and Midas realizes that however Hera treats her, it must be kind enough that it has endeared her to the handmaiden's heart so quickly. And for some reason knowing this pleases him, immensely.

"She'll live. Is that the elixir?"

"Yes my lord, the steward saw you bring her in and he sent me to the physician immediately."

Midas nods, glancing once more at the woman lying in his bed, eyes firmly closed.

He wants to stay by her side but the longer he sees her unconscious, the angrier he becomes.

Angry at the dead man responsible for it, angry at her for putting herself in danger and angry at himself for not replaceing her faster.

What kind of dragon Ryder is unable to protect his own tether?

"Notify me the second she is awake."

"Yes my lord."

He goes to the room of his self-imposed exile in the west tower.

A quick shower is followed by a change of clothes into a simple cotton shirt without rips in the back and a pair of simple brown pants.

He can feel a shadow of prickly stubble on his chin but he cannot be bothered to do anything about it.

He knots his hair into a bun at the back of his neck, looking around the room for something with which to distract himself.

Finding nothing strong enough to take his mind off worrying about her, he forces himself to go to his study.

To focus on some of the things he should have attended to earlier in the day.

Adarin and Rardath for one.

He has asked Leo to double the number of Ryders and to make sure the borders of the two clans are completely surrounded and not just the shared border.

But he has also chosen to keep his replaceings about the dark elves between himself and his chief Ryder.

At least until he can come up with a way to handle the situation appropriately.

Adarin and Rardath, the leaders of their respective clans, are both brash, hard-weathered men and while he appreciates their bravery and passion, they would react to the news without thinking. Storming the Elder forest with their men and only end up creating even more problems.

But not telling them also means each one still thinks the other clan is to blame for all the trouble.

And now with Adarin's son not getting any better, the situation could escalate at cataclysmic speeds.

He would need to ride out there again.

To sit down with the clan leaders so that together they might come up with a suitable solution before it all gets out of hand.

He also needs to pay the dark Elvin queen a visit.

The only problem is one did not just go looking for Hermani and expect to replace her.

She is like an eel.

Slimy and dark and slippery.

A knock on his study jars him out of his thoughts.

It is Leo.

"The maid says to tell you that she is awake."

And just like that, everything else takes a back seat.

He open the door without knocking, stepping into the chamber that should be 'theirs' and not just hers.

She dives down quickly, covering her head just as he steps in but he sees her.

Her attempts at trying to convince him that she is asleep are quite laughable.

Her breathing, the rise and fall of her chest is not calm or even enough.

"You do know that I can tell you that you are awake?"

She says nothing.

There is a small carved stool beside the bed on which sits the empty glass that had contained the elixir and a plate of fat purple grapes.

Their glistening skin thin and nearly bursting with the swollen, juicy flesh beneath.

He sits beside her, popping one into his mouth and savoring the tangy, sweet flavor that explodes on his tongue.

"Hera."

She does not answer but he can see her stiffen beneath the sheets.

"Hera...what are you ten?"

"I am sleeping."

"No you're not."

"You don't know that. For all you know, I talk in my sleep."

He scoffs, resisting the urge to laugh.

"You are right. I do not know about you talking in your sleep, if however you mean snore like a wild bear then I would have to agree with you there." She gasps, sitting up and glaring at him. "I do not snore!"

"Hate to be the one to break it to you but you do, really loudly."

"Didn't your mother ever teach you that it is bad manners to tell a lady that she snores in her sleep?"

"Didn't yours ever teach you that you it is wrong to avoid your problems by pretending to be asleep...or to be a lady?"

She gasps again and glares at him. "Well now I am just offended."

He scowls. "Wait your turn. You ran away...again"

"Oh Yes, dragon king I am feeling so much better, thank you for asking."

He brushes the back of his hand across at the marks on her neck.

The elixir is beginning to work and the red marks are starting to fade.

Then because he wants to and because he knows it will fluster her he leans in and presses his lips gently against the sensitive skin there.

A soft, barely there kiss.

And like he predicted she hiccups, her eyes growing to twice its size even as she turns beet red all at once.

He gazes up at her. "There, happy?"

"W...what was that for?"

"What, you mean this?" he does it again and is rewarded when her heart rate triples and her eyes momentarily drift close.

"Yes...that."

He backs away from her and the breathlessness in her voice even though it is the last thing he wants to do.

"Why did you run away again?"

She opens her eyes and meets his. "I didn't. I told you, I am done running."

He bristles. Why is she denying it?

"Do not lie to me Hera."

"I am not lying."

"You keep saying that. That you are done running and yet the minute I leave you alone you go and do exactly that and now you won't even admit it?"

"I was going to come back to you Midas."

That grabs his attention, and momentarily knocks the wind out of his anger.

"You expect me to believe that?"

"Believe it or not dragon king, it does not make it any less true."

"If what you say is true, then why did you leave in the first place?"

She sighs and looks away, twisting her fingers nervously. "I...I had to go help her."

"Help who?"

"The girl in the alley. He was...hurting her. He was going to kill her I just...I just could not stand by and let that happen. Not again."

He notices the way she is shaking slightly as she speaks, the way tears threaten to fall.

He wants to pull her into his arms but he is not sure how she would react to that so he watches her in silence.

She sighs, sniffs back her tears, blinking many times so they do not fall.

"He was whipping her, breaking her over and over again and enjoying it. Maybe this makes me a bad person but I am glad you killed him." The way she speaks about it, the venom in her voice.

"Is that how you got them?"

"What?"

"The scars on you back."

She stiffens and her hands ball up in fists and then slowly, she nods.

Her shoulders quake and her lips quiver, the tears she has been trying so hard to hold back rolling in salty trails down her cheeks.

He wants to kill them.

The men who did this to her.

He wants to replace every single one of them and rip them apart.

But instead he pulls her into his arms, holding her against his chest and stroking her hair.

Being the one solid thing she can hold unto until she is ready to forget again.

She finally stills herself and pulls away, not totally but enough to be able to look at him and the wet patch on his shirt.

She sniffs. "I appear to have ruined your shirt."

"So it would seem."

"I am sorry."

He stares at her, tilts his head.

"Make it up to me then."

Her eyes narrow in suspicion.

"How?"

He shrugs, keeping one hand firm around her waist.

"I do not know but I am sure you can come up with something appropria..."

She does not let him finish before pressing her lips against his and for a short moment Midas temporarily forgets everything else, even how to kiss her back.

She pulls away, much too soon in Midas' opinion.

"There, would that suffice my lord?"

He makes a sound in his throat. "Not even close."

And then he kisses her again.

Properly this time, until she is breathless and flustered, her lips red and just the right amount of swollen to send the blood rushing to the other parts of his anatomy.

She smirks. "I thought I was supposed to be the one making it up to you?"

"Well, I guess now you owe me."

She blushes and warmth floods Midas' insides.

"Wait...Hera..."

She glances at him, questioning.

He frowns. "The alley, where I found you...that was many...many streets away from where we were."

She pulls away from him, refusing to meet his eyes.

"So...?"

Then he asks the one question that has been bothering him about the entire situation; the one thing he is yet to understand.

"Hera, if you did not run away...if you left because of them. Then..."

He frowns even harder.

The wheels in his head spinning, turning and grinding to an abrupt halt

"...then how in all the realms did you know what was going on if you were miles away when it was happening?"

The silence that follows is louder than any answer she could have possibly given.