Page 36 of Dark Fae's Desires
“It is not about whatIwant, young Dragon. The fair lady will decide her own mind, but I am not going anywhere. She wants to keep me around, that much is clear. I tell her what sheneedsto hear, not what shewants,to make herself better and to improve her self-confidence. She is a strong woman, no doubt, but she lacks conviction in herself, and the more all of you men pander to her, try to protect her, you will only assure that she will fail as a Queen to this brutish race.”
“How dare you,” I hiss. “We love her. You don’t even know her.”
“But I will in time,” he says. “She will come to me.”
“Stay away from her,” I snarl, jabbing my finger into his hard chest. I’m playing with fire. He may look like a hot young stud, but he is about six thousand years old, if my calculations are correct. That makes him older than Drake, and definitely older than me. Not to mention he seems to have a set of fully functioning Dragon powers at his disposal. The stronger he gets, the harder it will be to take him down.
“Only if she wants me to. I don’t answer to you,” he says.
I growl, but he returns it with a smile.
“We can get along; all you have to do is try,” he says with so much sincerity that I actually believe him.
Our conversation is then cut short by an enormous crash and a banshee-like shriek that resounds around the palace. Hauling the door open, I rush up the stairs to Savvie’s room to see four Guards in a tussle with Ambrosia while she screams insults at my wife-to-be.
“Ah, the pretty peacock,” Rath’Na says, turning to me with a laugh. Seems he beat me to the room by Astralling here. Asshole. “What fun.” He turns back to Savannah, who is gaping at the spectacle at her feet with a horrified expression.
“Unborn baby?” she splutters, her eyes finding mine in panic.
The implications of that hit me in the chest.
Ambrosia is pregnant with a half-Dark, half-Light child.
This is bad.
Very, very bad.
Chapter 17
Rook
I’m trying to stay away from Savvie to give her time on her own. She has been through so much in the last couple of days; the onslaught of four men ravaging her body for their own ends, punishing her for her actions with Anders, will have taken its toll. I hate that we made her feel guilty. It wasn’t her fault. We should be celebrating her for her strength and courage to do what she needed to, not make her feel dirty and mortified. She killed a man in cold blood. The lives she took during the battle, that’s different. She will need to process that on its own, but this…thisis something that will eat her alive if she doesn’t receive the support she needs from us.
I let the raven fly off from my arm across the grounds and watch her fly. The flock are swooping all around the dark sky, playing and teasing each other. As I smile up at them, something goes wrong. As one, they all zone straight in on Savvie’s bedroom window, and panic rears up in me.
Puffporting off to her bedroom, I hope that I don’t land next to her grandfather again, but what I find surprises me.
Jerrick and three other Guards are manhandling ashrieking Ambrosia while Savvie and her mother exchange a worried look. Trey and Rath’Na are also watching this scene quietly.
What did I miss?
Did Ambrosia come here to kill Savvie?
Savvie looks at me, and her expression softens slightly, but her eyes are still pinched. “Hey,” she croaks out. “Are you okay?”
I nod, pleased that she asked about me over her own situation. “Fine. Puffporting I can do. Shifting, a whole other thing.”
She purses her lips and takes my hand as Drake storms into the room with a face of absolute thunder. He is raging, and when he sees me and Savvie hand-in-hand, he becomes even more menacing.
He turns that icy gaze on his daughter, hisyoungestdaughter, and she stops screaming, adopting a haughty expression.
He reaches out and grabs her roughly by her upper arm. “You are coming with me,” he snarls and Puffports out with her without another word.
Jerrick waves his hand at the Guards, sending them on their way.
“Mom, will you give us a minute, please? I need to talk with my men,” Savvie says, which further increases my worry.
Aefre nods, and with an encouraging smile, she exits the room, taking Rath’Na firmly by the arm to escort him away with her.
