AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“You may always say something,sha’len,” I say in a tight voice, but still focused on the traitor.
“Are you thinking clearly at this moment?”
Stesha can call meMa’lena thousand times but it won’t change what Zenevieve did. “Sorry, what did you ask? Thinking clearly?”
Her beautiful eyes search mine. There’s a glimmer of turquoise in their depths. Her dark blonde hair gleams a little more golden. In a quiet voice that doesn’t carry, she says, “You told me that Alpha and Omega relationships are built on trust. That we need each other the most during our heats and our ruts. Your scent has changed, and your brow is covered in sweat. Would it be wise to delay any decision you make for a few days?”
“There is no reason for any delay. This traitor nearly got you killed. Probably worse than killed,” I say around the anger that has tightened my throat.
“This is an opportunity to be merciful.”
I want to quietly ask her what she means, but instead find myself bursting out with, “Why in all the fires of fucking hell should I be merciful?”
Isavelle takes my face between her hands. “Because my mate is a merciful man, and I know he wishes to be a merciful king.” Her beautiful eyes are entreating me.
The Alpha instincts raging in my heart are telling me to obliterate my enemies, but the wordmercysuddenly rings in my ears. My father wasn’t a merciful man, and I hated how he ruled. None of the Brethren showed my mate any mercy.
So I should kill them all, my Alpha rages.
I take a deep breath. Isavelle has recognized the signs. I should have recognized the signs. I felt them a few days ago, but the hunt for Zenevieve drove them from my mind. I’m falling into a rut.
This is my first test as king, and how I react will set the tone for my rule.
So kill the traitor and be done with her. Kill Stesha as well. He covets my mate.
“She can’t be allowed to go free,” I growl through my teeth.
Isavelle glances at Stesha. “Ask your dragonmaster what he wants.”
I turn to the Alpha who is standing protectively over Zenevieve and gazing desperately between me and Isavelle as we talk.
So he does care for someone after all.
I can feel him wanting to beg for her freedom, but if he does so again, my anger will burst forth afresh. “Well, dragonmaster?” I growl.
Stesha is gazing at Zenevieve with a wretched expression. She doesn’t even seem to know he’s there.
In a desolated voice, Stesha says, “Zenevieve should be placed somewhere until we are able—”
Imprisoning her sounds like an excellent first step. I’ll deal with her after my rut. I want my mate, and everything else be damned.
“Lock Zenevieve in the dungeon,” I say to Captain Ashton. The wingrunners are the best people to oversee the imprisonment of a former dragonrider. “The Temple Crone may examine her, but no one else may come near her. Including you, dragonmaster.” I turn back to Stesha with narrowed eyes. “Stay away from the girl, or so help me, I will kill you both. Flee with her, and I will hunt you down and kill you both.”
The white-haired Alpha’s eyes are bleak as he watches several wingrunners grasp Zenevieve under her arms and drag her from the room. A moment later, she disappears from sight.
After several painful, panting breaths, Stesha strides from the room in the other direction, his hair and pale cloak streaming behind him.
Isavelle is still standing by my side, and I curl my fingers around her hand.
“I’m proud of you, Alpha,” she whispers to me.
Alpha. I need to appease my Alpha or I will lose my grip on my sanity. I survey the Great Hall. “Everybody but my mate. Get. Out.”
It takes less than a minute for the room to clear.
Isavelle steps between my legs, puts one knee up on my thigh and then the other until she’s hugging my hips. My mate’s heavenly scent washes over me, sweet and fragrant. She’s not in heat or even a false heat, but she’s still more delicious than anything I’ve ever smelled before. In my breeches, my cock stiffens painfully fast and my knot throbs. My whole jaw is aching.
My hands clench the armrests. “Fuck, I can’t hold it back. I want you, but you should leave or you’re going to push me over the edge into a rut right this second. Run to your bodyguards. Don’t leave their sides.”
