Page 34 of Consort of the Dragon King

“I did not summon you at all,” Kitsuki growled in irritation. “Yet you persist in remaining here uninvited.”

Nasume’s playful act dropped. “Who the fuck would you choose over me?”

Since Nasume wasn’t taking the hint, Kitsuki went for a low blow to drive the wolf shifter out of his room. “I would rather be with your son than you. Get out.”

Nasume reared back as if Kitsuki had physically slapped him. “How dare you say such a heinous thing! It is beneath your station to tell such lies.”

“It is funny you say I am lying when we both know you can smell I am telling the truth.” Unlike his father, Maseo had always treated Kitsuki with the respect his position owed, despite Kio’s vehement protests. It was sad he felt safer with Maseo than around Nasume.

“I would cut off that insolent whelp’s hands before I ever let him touch you.” The venomous way Nasume spoke about his son bothered Kitsuki more after hearing Auslin’s passionate defense of him. “I will kill him before I let him have you. You aremine. You always have been and always will be. That pathetic waste of life I am forced to call a son does not deserve you.”

Kitsuki shrugged. “He has treated me with more respect than you ever have.”

“Say you would choose my son over me one more time, and I swear to every Power in the Divine Realm, I will lay his corpse at your feet.” It chilled Kitsuki to hear Nasume make such a lethal threat he had no doubt the wolf shifter would carry out. No child deserved a father who would speak of them so cruelly. It was no wonder Auslin wished Maseo happiness when he was surrounded by two of the most toxic people in the Living Realm.

Not wanting to chance it, Kitsuki dismissively waved away the topic. “Do not be so ridiculous. Such jests are beneath you.”

Nasume’s nose flared again as he took a step closer to the bed. “Wait, is it anotherhuman?” Nasume sounded hurt, but it didn’t move Kitsuki’s heart the same way Maseo’s plight did. “I hadheard rumors, but I thought they were surely just that. Have you learned nothing from the last one who abandoned you?”

Rather than dignifying the question with an answer, Kitsuki tried to walk away. But Nasume embraced Kitsuki from behind to stop him from leaving. “You have no reason to choose a human when I’m right here and willing.”

Kitsuki’s attempts at extracting himself from the compromising position failed. “I owe you no explanations. It is not my fault that you are too stupid to understand what centuries of being told, ‘No,’ means.”

Nasume hugged Kitsuki tighter. “The only stupid one is you for not understanding the depths of my love for you.”

“This is not love.” It was an insult to the very notion. “This is nothing more than your misguided obsession.”

Before Nasume could make a counterargument, Auslin entered the bedroom. His eyes went wide as he took in the sight of a partially undressed Nasume clinging to a visibly uncomfortable Kitsuki. “What’s going on?” Auslin demanded, a slight waver in his voice.

Nasume finally released Kitsuki as he took a few steps toward Auslin. “What necromancy did you use to revive Vanra?” Nasume snarled as he turned back to glare at Kitsuki with his ugly hatred on full display. “How can it possibly be him? Humans cannot live six centuries!”

When no one answered his question, Nasume stalked closer to Auslin, cupping his cheek in his palm to get confirmation that what he was seeing was real. “You should be dead and buried. You cannot be here! It is impossible!”

Auslin slapped Nasume’s offending hand away from him. “The only one who shouldn’t be here is you. Neither of us wants you here! We never have.”

“This is not over.” Nasume pointed at Kitsuki. “We will have words later when you come to your senses.”

With a final disbelieving look at Auslin, Nasume stormed out of the room, the door closing behind him.

Auslin looked at Kitsuki expectantly with a trace of hurt in his expression.

Kitsuki started with the obvious. “I did not invite him here. I did not know he was in the castle until he appeared in our room.”

“The better question is, why is he here at all?” Auslin crossed his arms over his chest.

It took a moment for Kitsuki to process what had just happened. “Nasume mentioned he had heard rumors of me taking a human lover. The only logical explanation is Kio informed Maseo of your return, and he passed word to Nasume, who came to see for himself if it was true.”

It was a perfectly reasonable explanation for Nasume’s appearance, but it didn’t appease Auslin. “Even if that was true, what reason does Maseo have to tell his father?”

“Perhaps it was an attempt to curry his favor?” Kitsuki shrugged.

“I could see Kio telling Nasume himself, but I refuse to believe Maseo would do such a dastardly thing.”

It pained Kitsuki to concede the point. “That would make more sense when Kio was threatening to get his revenge on us.”

“What it doesn’t explain is why was Nasume half undressed?”

Kitsuki cursed Nasume for putting him in such an untenable position. “For some inexplicable reason, he persists in the belief that the very sight of his naked body will somehow sway me into desiring him, despite centuries of evidence to the contrary,” Kitsuki irritably answered. “This is further proof you should have let me cut down Kio when I had the chance.”

---