Page 106 of Wings of Shadow
His face drains of color, then flushes with heat. “What kind of threats? Predators like you?” he growls, venom lacing his words.
I bare my teeth in a dangerous grin. “Every alpha in this city, sniffing at her heels while her ’fearless’ brother played hero abroad.” My claws threaten to breach the skin of my fingers, and I fight to keep the dragon contained. “You want to talk about danger? Try walking in late with a target on your back and no backup. That was her reality. You think that crown you chase makes you a king? You’re not even a shield.”
Nikolaas sneers, but the tremor in his jaw betrays him. “You expect me to thank you? For crawling into her life like a parasite and feeding on her weakness?”
I don’t flinch. I’ve heard worse from men who now lie in unmarked graves. “She’s not weak,” I say dangerously. “But you are if you believe love makes someone fragile.”
“She doesn’t love you,” he spits. “She doesn’t even know who you are.”
I meet his glare, unblinking, and close the distance between us until our breaths mingle. “She knows exactly who I am. And she chose me. That’s what keeps you up at night, isn’t it, Draken? That she saw everything I am—and still opened the door.”
He bristles, hands clutching the desk’s edge. “You manipulated her,” he accuses, eyes filled with fury. “You’ve used her?—”
“I’ve bled for her!” My roar shakes the air. “I’ve gone to war in her name, risked everything for her safety. I’d set the world on fire if it meant keeping her warm. Can you say the same?”
A muscle twitches along his jaw. “You don’t get to talk about sacrifice.”
“Don’t I?” I tilt my head, my cruel smile returning. “Tell me, Nikolaas, where were you when she woke up screaming? Who held her when the cruelty of our world came crashing in?” I lean in, venom lacing my voice. “Not you.”
“Enough!” Samara gasps, her hand gently brushing Nikolaas’s arm, trying to keep the beast at bay.
But it’s too late.
“You’re poison,” Nikolaas hisses. “Everything you touch turns to ash.” A fine shimmer of golden scales flashes at his jawline before vanishing.
“I warned her,” I say, the words soft now—lethal. “I told her I would ruin her. She looked me in the eye… and asked me to do it anyway.”
With a fierce growl, Nikolaas lunges at me. But Samara steps in, arms stretched wide. “Don’t!”
I don’t flinch. Let him see the monster he’s always feared I’d become.
Because I am.
But I’m also the one Clarissa chose.
The tension hangs in the air like smoke from a smoldering battlefield—thick, bitter, and undeniable.
Nikolaas doesn’t reply. His jaw ticks. His glare is a loaded gun with no safe. But he doesn’t pull the trigger—he’s smarter than that.
I lower my voice, rough and steady. “You don’t have to like it. You just have to accept it.”
Before he can fire back, my phone rings, sharp and insistent. I ignore it, eyes locked on him.
Samara’s stare flicks between us—one a storm, the other a wildfire—and settles in the uneasy middle. “Let’s keep this civil, remember? For Clarissa.” Her voice comes tight. “Where is Clarissa, anyway?”
I exhale slowly. “She’s safe.”
“That wasn’t the question,” Nikolaas growls from behind her.
“She’s at my estate,” I say evenly. “Under guard. No one touches her unless they go through me first.”
“She shouldn’t have to be guarded,” he snaps.
I look him in the eye, hard. “Whatever you think of me, Nikolaas, understand this—Clarissa made her choice. You can hate me all you want, but you will respect her.”
Silence stretches between us like a drawn blade, humming with the promise of blood.
Nikolaas watches me, still simmering. Samara says nothing, but her demeanor is calculating, wary.
