Page 15 of Consort of the Dragon King

“Good, because I’m yours,” Auslin said with a touching sense of determination. “I’m never leaving you again.”

“Are you not intending to return to live at the temple with your brother?” Kitsuki held his breath as he waited for Auslin’s answer.

The light dimmed in the mage’s violet eyes. “Am I not allowed to stay here with you?”

Easily able to smell Auslin’s fear of being sent away, Kitsuki quickly reassured him. “I want nothing more than for you to live here at the castle with me, but I do not wish you to feel beholden to me to do so. You are free to live with your brother at the temple if you wish.”

“I want to stay here with you,” Auslin emphatically insisted, giving the shifter monarch a rare sense of joy. “Of course I want to see Sephen, but I want to live here with you and the rest of your clan. My place is by your side, not at the temple.”

It was everything Kitsuki had wanted to hear. Hearing it stated so clearly was a balm to his battered soul. “I am pleased you feel that way.”

Auslin pulled him down for a passionate kiss that Kitsuki gladly gave himself over to. The human’s stomach growling interrupted them. “Sorry,” Auslin automatically apologized.

“There is no need to be,” Kitsuki told him before stealing another kiss. “I will summon food here while you use the bathroom. We can visit your brother as soon as you are feeling up to it.”

“Thank you for always taking such good care of me.” Auslin got out of bed.

Kitsuki chuckled at Auslin’s shocked exclamation over the expanded bathroom before the door slid closed behind him. Satisfied Auslin had recovered enough to not require further assistance, Kitsuki summoned a servant to bring them both breakfast.

Chapter 11

Auslin

After Auslin rested a little after breakfast and changed into more comfortable clothes, he was ready to visit the Fate’s Gate Temple with Kitsuki. But a rude surprise awaited them after exiting the castle gates. “Where the fuck have you been?” Kio yelled.

The last thing Auslin wanted was a confrontation, but it was unavoidable when Kio was in such a quarrelsome mood. “I was recovering,” Auslin answered in a neutral tone, despite his heart pounding from running into Kio so suddenly.

“From being his fuck toy?” Kio pointed at Kitsuki for emphasis.

Before Auslin could blink, Kitsuki grabbed Kio by his throat with his newly restored arm to haul his younger brother off the ground. “You will hold your tongue, or I shall remove it from your filthy mouth.” Kitsuki threw Kio aside with a disgusted expression.

Kio got up with a groan. He stared at Kitsuki for a long moment before narrowing his eyes at his older brother. “What forbidden necromancy did you use to get a new arm, asshole?”

“I did it,” Auslin answered for Kitsuki.

“Youdid that? What are you talking about? You don’t know shit about necromancy. Plus, it’s been illegal since the Necromancer War, which was millennia before either of us was born.”

“I used my healing powers to restore his arm,” Auslin explained.

“Bullshit,” Kio immediately denied. “Even if that were true, why would you heal that bastard?”

“Because I love him,” Auslin said, knowing Kitsuki needed to hear those words.

The statement incensed Kio. “You can’t love that pathetic icicle-dick virgin—you’re mine!”

Before Kitsuki could protest, Auslin responded. “I haven’t been yours for a long time—if ever. This shouldn’t surprise you. My brother told you we were through.”

“Pfft, like I’d believe his bullshit? He was lying to drive us apart.”

Auslin shook his head. “He wasn’t lying. I’ve moved on, and you should, too.”

“If you weren’t mine, I wouldn’t have wasted so much time looking for you while you were gone!” Kio’s growl was so fierce Auslin instinctively stepped back, bumping into Kitsuki. “I went all the way to Kunushi trying to find you!”

Auslin started to ask why Kio would search up there for him until he remembered a critical detail. “You didn’t go there for me. You went there for Maseo.” Auslin knew the half-wolf shifter was from Kunushi and had a terrible relationship with his father, but the mage hadn’t been aware of any other details. For the firsttime ever, it didn’t hurt to hear Kio had pursued Maseo. “And that’s fine. You’re free to pursue him.”

“I don’t want that pathetic loser.”

Auslin’s temper flared. “Don’t call him that!” Despite Maseo’s role in the downfall of Auslin’s relationship with Kio, he hated hearing Kio disrespect the half-wolf shifter.

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