“Well, I’ve done a shit job since taking the crown, according to my people,” he admitted before his jaw clenched tightly. “I’m nowhere close to understanding the curse or how to break it, and here we are, twenty-seven years later, still stuck. The patience I’ve asked them to have has all but dried up, and they’ve begun to take matters into their own hands—hence them snatching humans from your lands in a desperate attempt to find a mate.”
I scoffed, “Yeah, because that’s smart. Terrify the women before hoping they’ll pledge their life to you as a mate.”
Snagging my drink, I gulped the bourbon down as the cold began to settle back into my bones, much quicker than I anticipated. Thankfully, the liquor warmed my chest and heat spread across my cheeks.
“You don’t understand, Siyana.”
Every time he used my full name, it felt wrong, as if I was a stranger he was being formal with. But I supposed that’s exactly what I was. Here he was, baring his life story to me, yet he didn’t know me at all.
I lowered my glass to my side and met his eyes. What I saw had my knees trembling. There was a deep hunger in those navy depths that made me want to shrink away, once again feeling like prey.
He pushed to his feet and stalked toward me, and all I could manage was to not step back and show the fear building tightly within my chest. Suddenly, he was crowding my space like he had in the dining hall, forcing me to tilt my head back in order to maintain eye contact.
“Dragons mate for life,” he whispered, causing the skin on my arms to pebble as a chill went down my spine. “It begins to drive us crazy. Knowing our mate is out there, yet being unable to claim them, it drives us into a frenzy eventually. The older weget, the less time we feel we have to satisfy what the beast within needs.”
My lips were suddenly dry as I croaked out, “And what’s that?”
His head tilted as his dragon’s eye sparked and zeroed in on my lips. “To claim our mate. To breed them. To worship them. To not understand where one soul stops and the other begins once the bond is complete.”
My breaths grew shallow and rapid as my heart rate spiked. I swore my heart had drifted into my ears at the way the steady beat whooshed within them. His closeness was doing things to me, or maybe it was the alcohol finally kicking in. Things that shouldn’t be possible were rising within me, considering I despised his kind. Yet his scent and warmth wrapped around me in a comforting embrace that I was beginning to get used to, and I found my own eyes tracing his lips in return.
The words were falling from my lips before I could even stop myself.
“And why are you so sure that I couldn’t be yours?”
Chapter Thirteen
THEO
Those few wordsfrom her lips were testing my restraint in a way it had never been tested before. My dragon wanted out, and he wanted her.
My fists clenched before forcing themselves open as my talons slid out on their own accord. I was quickly losing control over my shift, as the overwhelming need to put her words to the test roared to life within me.
Her wide eyes looked hopeful, and confusion warred within me. Already, my feelings for this human were something I was trying to actively sort through. I’d come to the conclusion that she’d be safer and happier away from me once this curse was broken and the alliance between our people was restored.
Was I wrong?
Did she not hate me?
A growl rumbled through my chest as I resisted the urge to run my nose along the soft skin of her neck, breathing in her tantalizing scent. Already, she was beginning to smell like me. Like she was mine.
Could the elementals be laughing as they watched us in this moment, knowing we entered this marriage for political reasons, but were somehow two halves of each other’s soul?
My jaw ticked as she raised onto the tips of her toes, eyes completely focused on my lips. Every single part of my body became rigid as she approached, her intention clear as day.
It was like time came to standstill as mere inches stood between our lips, my body somehow acting of its own accord, lowering to meet her halfway. I felt the warmth of her body radiating toward me as her chest brushed against mine and her hands came up to wrap around my neck.
My hands glided over the small of her waist and down the swell of her hips before my fingertips pressed in.
Fuck, I wanted to let my beast out and test her. She had shown she was strong and stubbornly fearless. Could she withstand the weight of the curse and not run away as she looked into the eyes of my dragon?
Could she want me…for me? All of me?
Just as her breath fanned across my lips and her eyes closed, I recalled her words. That my kind disgusts her. That she felt the same when I said I’d never touch her. The way her hatred had burned so brightly in her eyes the entire journey from her castle to mine.
It couldn’t be her.
Grabbing her hips tightly, I veered my head to the side of her face, resting my lips next to her ear. We couldn’t do this. I couldn’t let my restless desire to find a mate put her in harm's way. Not when this wasn’t how she truly felt. No one could change that quickly.
