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I inhaled deeply to regain some control, then released my breath slowly. “I’d just come to terms with the fact that I wasn’t going to have a fated mate. That the sorceress, Marienne, had been wrong about my future. After all, she’d been so sure it was Nadia. She’s the—”
“The other woman we rescued from the human hell hole.” King Stavrok shuddered. “I remember.”
“I thought Marienne’s vision had been wrong, and I’d prepared myself for not finding my true mate. I’d made peace with it.”
Stavrok grinned at me as though he knew what I was about to say. “Marienne hasn’t been wrong about our fated mates. Not yet, anyway. She was the reason I found Lucy.”
“Oh, I didn’t know that.” And I hadn’t. So, Marienne had been the royal matchmaker from the beginning? Somehow that made this story even more credible now.
“I didn’t mean to interrupt,” Stavrok said, pouring us both some more wine. “Go on.”
I blew out a breath. “Well, it turns out Sarah has another sister and the moment I saw her... everything fell into place. I wanted her. I still want her. And the only thing I could do to keep myself from taking her on the spot was flee.” I paused, the shame of my lack of self-control washing over me. “I felt like a monster, getting lost in that lust.”
The king’s expression softened. “You’re a better man than me. I kidnapped Lucy from her home. I had no control.”
My jaw dropped. “You...”
He nodded. “Yes. I kidnapped her. Literally picked her up and flew her home.”
I didn’t know Stavrok well, but I knew men. And he was serious.
“Did she forgive you?” I couldn’t imagine Katerina letting me pick her up and carry her to my bedroom.
Stavrok cackled out a laugh. “Of course. Eventually. But tell me more about your mate. Why don’t you believe she’d forgive you for letting your dragon have his head? After all, it’s the most natural instinct we have.”
I reached for some fruit, picking apart the grapes and orange. “Katerina might not want me at all. I’m not exactly the easiest to love.”
A fact that had gotten drilled into me at an early age. I’d spent so much of my young life being told I wasn’t worthy. Why would that change? What would she see that everyone else missed?
The answer was nothing. Once she got to know me, she’d come to the same conclusion. Having her and then losing her might kill me.
Stavrok sighed then motioned for a butler who had been patiently waiting nearby to come closer. “A bottle of whiskey, I think.”
“Yes, my king.” The butler bowed and left in a hurry.
“Here’s what you’re going to do,” King Stavrok said. “You’re going to calm down and get out of this spiral of doom you’ve placed yourself in. Then you’ll remember this woman is your fated mate. She was made specifically for you. Her soul is the other half of yours. She is what will complete you, and she is going to love all sides of you. Even the ones that are difficult.”
“How do you—”
He gave me a sharp look that shut me up. “Because we all go through those thoughts, and we all have difficult pieces to love. No one is perfect.”
I pressed my lips together tightly, wanting to argue. Stavrok didn’t know me, and he couldn’t imagine what my life had been like.
But I kept my thoughts to myself. He was a king, and I was a bastard son. Even though he was allowing me to sit at his table, and drink his wine, we weren’t on the same level.
The butler returned with a bottle of golden whiskey. Stavrok poured me a glass and placed it right in front of me. “Once you’ve collected yourself, go back to the wedding and be with your mate. Show her the depth of your feelings for her.”
“She’s human. What if she doesn’t understand? They don’t feel the pull the same way we do.” Or so I’d heard.
Stavrok laughed. “I guarantee you, she will. It might not be the exact same sensation, as she doesn’t have the dragon inside of her. Her heart will know, though. It will beat faster when you’re around. Her gut will twist whenever you’re near. Her body will have the pull of desire, and her heart will war with her head until she gives in. Sound familiar?”
“Yes.” So similar. Perhaps humans weren’t as strange as I’d originally thought.
“She is going to love you.” He sounded so confident. “But it will take a lot longer if you keep running from her every time she makes you a bit uncomfortable.”
A bit uncomfortable is an understatement.
The moment I’d laid eyes on her, my cock was at full attention and every part of me had been eager to explore every inch of her curvy figure. No other woman compared. I’d never been set ablaze in such a way before in my life. If I couldn’t do something about that...discomfort soon, I might explode.
