The Dragon King’s Substitute Bride
Chapter 7

HERA

Everyone had heard the tales.

Some knew them by heart.

They were bed time stories for little ones in the villages of Averia. They were drunken tales for tired workers holed up in taverns littered across the cities.

When the night fell and the moon shone bright to guide weary shepherds leading their flock home, they were tales told in hushed voices and in a cautionary tone. Stories of witches and curses and the Ryders in a far off realm.

Beings with the ability to turn into fearsome fire breathing creatures with burning eyes the color of precious gems, amber and jade pools that turned you to stone when you gazed into them and fiery balls that razed down cities, reducing them to ash in a single breath.

I had heard them all and loved every single one.

I didn't see it as a curse like the rest of them did. Surely possessing the power to change at will into such imposing creatures was a gift bestowed by the gods themselves only to the strongest of men. And when my father managed to drag himself from the gambling houses that saw him more often than we did, I would beg and beg till he told me the stories I wanted to hear.

But when the dragon realm descended on Averia, bringing their monsters and their Ryders with them and gradually wiping out my people, the awe with which I had once held them morphed into fear.

In my mind's eye, they became blood thirsty, mindless creatures with a singular purpose; kill and destroy.

And yet when I failed to set my eyes on even one of them, the curiosity in me would not be satiated.

That day, when I had run into the burning, smoke filled ruins of what was left of my village with tears streaming down my soot stained cheeks, voice hoarse from screaming names and getting only silence in return, I had found among the glowing embers the first proof of their existence; a single dark grey scale that remained untouched by the flames around it.

It was the size of my palm, with a smooth, strangely warm surface and when it caught the light, it gleamed with an unearthly sheen.

It was the only evidence of the monsters who had taken everything from us.

And I kept it.

But even then I still hadn't understood the magnificence and sheer terror of being in the presence of a dragon.

Until today.

It was an experience beyond words. My words anyway.

And now, as the enormous reptile sits on its hunches before him, wagging its tail like a tame pup and nudging his chest with its large bony head so that he could scratch it between the ears or in this case, between its horns, I realize a startling truth. While dragons might be fierce, vicious beasts that strike fear in the hearts of all who see them and those who possessed the ability to become them even more so, there was one who sat above the rest.

With the power to control both dragons and weredragons alike.

A monster above monsters.

He ran one gloved hand down the head and snout of the dragon, gazing at the animal with a look I did not think he was capable of.

It's a look of familiarity and comfort so gentle it's almost...warm.

He takes my hand loosely in his.

Long slender fingers wrapping themselves around mine and I look up at him in confusion that lasts barely a fraction of a second.

When I realize what he's trying to do, my eyes become the size of saucers. "My Lord...I don't think..."

But before I can even fully form the sentence, he places my palm on the head of the beast, keeping his hand on mine so I do not jerk it away.

"You have nothing to fear slave, not while I am here."

I wish he would stop calling me that.

I shrink away in fear, or at least that is what I know I should do but with his palm callused and large, resting on my hand, sending delicious sparks of warmth down the length of my arm, it's hard to and even when the beast moves its head against my palm, I replace myself strangely unable to pull away.

As I tentatively run my hand between its horns, the jade green eyes flutter briefly, a sound of satisfaction coming from it.

A startled laugh, unexpected even to me escapes my lips.

This fire breathing monster was nothing short of a colossal puppy and for a second, I forget everything else.

"Does it have a name?" I raise my head to look at Midas with surprise and wonder only to I replace him already staring at me.

He clears his throat and looks away. "Meirsul, Lord of the red. He's a herding dragon."

"Meirsul..." I say quietly, replaceing it strange and difficult to pronounce with the hilting, rolling consonants of the dragon realm.

It reacts to its name, nudging me with its large snout and pushing me against Midas who instantly wraps one big muscled arm around my waist to steady me.

The way my body reacts whenever I come in contact with any part of him, this acute awareness of exactly where I stop and he begins is something I need to fix, fast.

I force myself to remember.

The dragon's scales smooth and warm beneath my palm are the catalyst. Reminding me instantly of the day I lost them and I snatch my hand back as shame and guilt floods me.

My entire village had been wiped out in a single day and here I was, petting and caressing the very reason for their deaths.

He lets me go, frowning slightly at my sudden withdrawal and stiffness but says nothing.

The wind from Meirsul's wings had extinguished the torch and he lights it again, sparking flames out of nothingness with simple a flick of his finger.

And with a whispered command in the dragon's ear, he guides us past it and the beast takes off again heading further into the passage behind us.

Apart from a single scream a few seconds later, our footsteps are the only sound echoing in the tunnel. The air is getting lighter, the smell of blood and sweat no longer hanging thick over my head.

I don't even remember it being this far to the outside but I had been dragged in, kicking and screaming, slung over the shoulder of the guard, I doubt I could a reliable judge.

I watch his tall, imposing form ahead of me, a latent leonine command in his strides, each silent step taken with the commanding confidence of one used to power.

The manly way his broad shoulders stretch out the shirt across his back and outlines the contours of his thick muscled arms, has my cheeks flushing with heat and I force myself to look anywhere else but at him. Skies, what is wrong with me?

It was just a single kiss...one blood stirring, sinfully decadent kiss.

Granted, it had been my first and only but even then.

It had come from the man who I hated more than anything in the world.

Why couldn't I stop thinking about it?

I press my lips together in an effort to stay silent but my curiosity soon gets the better of me and I welcome the words because they take my mind off...other things.

"What did you mean by a herding dragon...my lord?"

He replies without turning. "He herds the prisoners, making sure they go back into confinement at the fifth bell just before the sun rises."

"So those screams we heard?"

"Fool hardly criminals who would not return to their cells."

"Why do you even let them out in the first place?"

He is silent for so long, I don't think he's going to answer but he does, his voice betraying no emotion.

"What better way to punish traitors to the throne than to set them against one another."

Of course.

I can see the light from the entrance and my knees buckle with barely contained relief.

The giant guards are both staring through the bars and somehow I can tell from their faces, they've been on the lookout for quite a while.

The grates rise slowly open and when I finally step out of the cellar, it's all I can do not to crumble to the floor.

The Chief Ryder is outside too, leaning against the hard packed wall.

He stands up straight before bowing low when he sees Midas walk out and if he feels anything at my sorry but alive state, he hides it well. "I came as fast as I could."

The king tosses his swords at the feet of one of the guards. "You need not have bothered Leo."

"The guards in the palace saw you running through the halls and alerted me."

He ran...to save me?

Midas scowls and looks away. "I was hardly running. It was more of a brisk walk."

"Of course your majesty."

Their voices are becoming somewhat blurry.

Now that I am out of that horrid place, all the events of the day just past come crashing down on me in a wave of nausea and weakness.

Everything had happened so fast, it seemed my brain was just now catching up and she did not like what she saw.

My leg is bleeding from stumbling around in the dark barefooted and I have had nothing to eat or drink for over a full day.

His arms catch me before I can collapse to the floor in sheer exhaustion. He says something to Leo that I don't quite grab and the Chief Ryder rushes on ahead.

"Can you walk?"

I nodded vaguely but when he notices my bleeding feet, he silently sweeps me off them, cradling me against his chest and begins to walk out of the tunnel and back to the palace.

My stomach squeezes with hunger and I whimper slightly. His arms tighten imperceptibly around me.

"It's okay, I've got you."

My heart skips a beat at the words as I wrap my arms around his neck, too tired to fight how safe I feel with my head resting against his shoulders.

My eyes open halfway and I stare up at his chin, covered in prickly dark stubble and I have to fold my hand in fists to stop from reaching out and gently brushing my fingers across the chiseled jaw line. Even if I cannot remember wanting to do something so badly in my entire life.

"Careful dragon King, one would think you were actually concerned about me." And I can swear he rolls his eyes.