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Take her in your arms and squeeze that lush body against your hard one.The instinct is almost overwhelming.
“Someonelikeme?” I murmur, moving closer to her. “Or me?”
Isavelle hesitates but stays where she is. She tilts her face up so she can look into my eyes, and she’s close enough to place her palms on my chest if she wanted to. “There aren’t many men over seven feet tall stomping around Maledin. There aren’t any dragons, either.”
“I was always here,sha’len. I haven’t stepped foot out of Maledin in many, many centuries. Neither has Scourge. Neither have any of the other riders or their dragons.”
Her brow wrinkles. “But how is that possible?”
“A long time ago, the rulers of Maledin were killed, and their soldiers and dragons were trapped beneath the Bodan Mountains by a powerful spell cast by a devious wizard.”
“Are you talking about ‘The Mountain Prisoner’? But that’s just a story.”
Relief pours through me. If she knows the story, then my people and I haven’t completely disappeared from the memories of the people of Maledin. “The hag of your village knew me the moment she saw me, but you know how strange hags can be. I wasn’t sure if anyone else would know what happened to me and my riders.”
“Biddy Hawthorne knew you?”
“Is that her name? Yes, Mistress Hawthorne is a canny old witch.” A horrible thought occurs to me. “Wait, do you think that no one else in Maledin knows who I am? I’m just a story to everyone but the witches?”
“I don’t know. Who are you?”
I study Isavelle’s beautiful face with its sweet little nose, adorably curved cheeks, and lush pink mouth. She truly doesn’t know. She’s heard the stories, but they’re so old and implausible that they couldn’t possibly be true.
I’m not real to her.
Hopelessness and exhaustion wash over me. Everything I’ve ever known and loved has vanished from Maledin. Reclaiming this country is going to be a lot harder than winning the war if my people don’t know who I am.
“You only mentioned other dragonriders. Where’s your family, Zabriel?”
I watch steam rising from her bare shoulders and say flatly, “They’re all dead. They died a long time ago.”
I miss my mother terribly, and my sister as well.
The rest? They can rot in hell.
“I’m sorry,” she whispers. “I truly am. I just want to find my family. I think they might still be alive, but they won’t stay that way if this war continues. You’re a commander, so maybe you can do something. Please stop attacking Maledin.”
What she’s asking for is impossible. We won’t stop until we’ve reclaimed every square inch of Maledin.
“We’re here to protect you all. We have no quarrel with the people, human or Maledinni. It’s the Brethren and their guards we’re fighting. Do you have sympathy for the Brethren? Do you wish for things to carry on as they have been? These people were going to throw you on a funeral pyre and burn you to death.”
“But at least before my family was safe in their village,” she cries.
I take a deep breath. “Listen. We’ve taken the capital. In a few days, we will have driven all the Brethren out of Maledin and the people can return to their villages. Your family and everyone else will hear word that it’s safe to come home.”
The moonlight has turned Isavelle’s eyelashes silver and her lips press together. I can feel her wanting to believe me, but she doesn’t know if she can.
“Is that true?”
“I swear it. Everything would have been over by now, but I was distracted by looking for someone.” I give Isavelle a small smile.
She doesn’t return it.
“Life will be better for everyone in Maledin from now on,” I promise.
Isavelle doesn’t jump for joy and throw herself into my arms, but she doesn’t doubt me either. I nearly reach out to her in the water. My mate is naked and right there in front of me, and we should be wrapped around each other, tasting each other with our tongues and stroking each other with our fingers. She should be learning my scent. Feeling her Omega awaken. If the designations have grown dormant in the people of Maledin while they’ve been separated from the dragons, then everyone is going to need to wake up. I’m impatient for it to happen to my mate. I wonder how long it’s going to take. I can smell Isavelle’s Omega, and she responds to me soothing her, so it should happen soon.
Maybe I can find a way to help Isavelle’s Omega wake up.Let Alpha lavish your clit with his tongue. Dig your little talons into my muscles. Wrap your fingers in my hair and pull my face into your sex as you climax.
