“Don’t ever say I didn’t offer you assistance in your time of need, wife,” he tossed out, as if hearing my thoughts.
I swallowed down what little pride I had left as I tucked my hands under his coat and encircled my arms around his abdomen in an act of self-preservation.
I guess it turned out that I didn’t want to freeze to death, after all.
“You are truly a chivalrous drackya king,” I muttered with all the faux sweetness I could conjure.
He chuffed, “You can simply say dragon king.”
My brow knitted between my eyes, confused at his claim. “But you are a drackya.”
“I still turn into a dragon and have the scales of one on my being for you to see, do I not?” he retorted, a kernel of anger beginning to unfurl in his voice.
Perhaps I didn’t understand their hierarchy and way of life, like I thought.
Sensing his annoyance, though, I pushed further, unable to help myself. “Still, you aren’t a full-blooded dragon.”
A deep howl echoed through the forest around us.Wolves.
“And you’re insufferable, since we’re pointing out the obvious now. Your presence gives me a headache,” he muttered. “Be quiet, there are predators that will track the scent of your blood easily enoughwithoutyour yapping giving away our location.”
Why was he voicing concern over this when he was clearly the biggest predator here?
Chapter Six
SIYANA
“If I letyou off to ride your own horse, will you be a good little princess and stay in the saddle? We need to move faster, and my horse needs a break from our combined weight.”
He spoke quietly, and it was criminal the way the timber of his voice rumbled at this level.
I may despise him and everything he represented as a drackya, or dragon–whatever he wanted to be called–and he was at least half of the reason I was being forced from my home, but I was still a woman with needs and desires. While sitting behind his very human body in silence for so long as I concentrated on attempting to keep warmth flowing throughout my body, it was easy to forget those things when he spoke out of nowhere.
My silence seemed to perturb him and he goaded me, “Don’t tell me you’ve already lost your bite, wench? That was far too easy. I like my prey to put up a bit longer of a fight.”
It was on the tip of my tongue to tell him I wouldn’t tolerate his condescending tone, but as he pulled the reins to slow his horse to a walk, my tailbone pulsed with pain. I’d give just about anything to be in my own saddle if it meant getting to our destination quicker.
I glanced back to try to see my horse through the small blizzard that had descended the closer we got to the peak of the northern mountains. The few rays of moonlight fighting through the gale glistened off her, confirming she was still with us. I couldn’t help but marvel over how well trained these horses were, considering how she’d continued to trail behind without me leading her through the weather.
“Yeah, sure, whatever,” I grumbled against his back, accepting the offer, but simultaneously soaking up the final moments of being pressed against such warmth. Considering his affinity for ice, I'd, for some reason, assumed he didn't have access to the fire you'd think of a dragon breathing, but the longer I was pressed against him, the more I pictured a literal belly of fire within him, stoking his internal temperature.
I hated to admit it, but being pressed against him had probably been the only thing keeping my body from giving into shock with the snow melting into me. It felt like my feet and nose were going to break off from the frigid wind, and the only thing that had saved my hands was being able to keep them under his coat.
As the horse came to a stop and the wind tossed my hair around, obscuring what little I could see, he had the audacity to laugh. “I thought you’d at least be on your knees thanking me for the chance to be away from me now.”
Once again, I couldn’t find the energy to snap back at him, focused entirely on how it felt like all of my joints had frozen in place. As the rope was released from around us, he glanced over his shoulder at me, the sliver of his dragon eye shone brightly in the dark. “Off you go, wench. I know you know how to do that after your blatant display earlier.”
With a heavy sigh I prepared to swing my leg around the back, bracing my hand on the back of the saddle, but the secondI sat completely straight for the first time since being tied to him, shooting pain ran up my spine and I swore my hips creaked.
“Fuck,” I hissed, completely caught off guard by the pain. I guess at some point on the journey, everything had gone numb, being stuck in that spot for so long. “I might actually need help dismounting.” The words felt like glue in my mouth, a sense of repulsion coming over me for even having to ask him for help.
His head turned forward and he laughed. “I’m not falling for that, wench. Come on, get off.”
My eyes rolled at that, because of course my own bratty plan continued to backfire on me. I attempted once more to move, managing to get my left leg over the horse's hind leg, but as soon as I rotated it over its tail, my back seized up. The ground came rushing up to meet me as I fell from the horse, having just enough time and foresight to bring my arm up to break my heads’ fall.
My breath rushed out of me on impact, and my head swam from the recoil against my hands. The bite of cold from the ground began to seep through my dress in mere seconds.
"Oh, you were being serious," he surmised, still sitting atop his horse, not moving an inch to assist me.
