Page 121 of Ironling
“Fuck Bayard,” he growled. “What’s he got to do with this? What’s happened,vinya?”
She shook her head, still held between his hands, as tears spilled down her face. To his horror, her lip trembled, then her face crumpled. A sob wracked her, and Hakon hurried her back to her chair at the desk before she could slump to the floor.
He knelt before her, his soul shredded to see her tears. “Please,vinya,” he begged, “please don’t cry.” Hakon could withstand many things, but not her tears.
She shook her head again, burying her face in her hands.
He placed his hands gently in her lap, fingers aching to knead and soothe away her sadness, but he tried to keep still.
Her hands fell on his, damp from her tears, and for a horrible moment, he thought she meant to push him away.
Aislinn slipped forward off her seat into his arms. Hakon rocked back, taking her weight, and wrapped her up in his arms—just where she belonged.
A purr rattled to life in his chest as he tucked her tight to him, the vibration the only thing that kept him from shattering. Tears prickled at his own eyes to see her misery, and he gritted his tusks against his gums to keep in the roar of despair that clamored in his throat.
How dare anything make his mate cry?
Aislinn buried her face against his throat. He murmured soothing sounds into her hair, those tears branding him as they ran down his chest. Fates, he couldn’t bear this.
But he did. For her, he bore her tears and hurts. He held her for a long while, offering his silent support.
When the tears began to slow and the sobs lost their strength, Hakon shifted her in his arms, holding her in one and wiping away her tears with a thumb.
“Ach,vinya,you break my heart,” he said.
“I’m sorry,” she sniffed, “there’s just so much…”
“Will you tell me?”
Her throat bobbed on a swallow, and more tears spilled over her lashes, but she took a long, fortifying breath. Then, in halting words, she told him. Of Bayard’s true reason for staying in Dundúran. Of her father’s plight in the south. How even now she was drafting letters to the king and queen, as well as all her nobles to raise an army.
“I never thought—how has it come to this?”
Hakon couldn’t answer, too consumed with rage.
Bayard was blackmailing her.Threateningher. Trying to claim that which wasn’t his.
His purr deepened into a violent growl.
“Hakon…?”
“Where does he sleep,vinya?I will deal with this now.”
Eyes wide, she clutched at his tunic. “No! You can’t threaten him.”
“I’m not going to threaten him.” He was going to tear Bayard’s head from his neck with his bare hands.
“No,” she said again, more firmly. “I’m trying to solve this without violence. If his men suspect anything, they might…” She shook her head. “I just need time.”
“He threatens you,” Hakon hissed. “This is unacceptable. He should be in your dungeon.”
Aislinn chuckled once without humor. “You sound like Captain Aodhan.”
Good. Someone else had sense.
“Aislinn—”
“No.” She tried to frown up at him, but it quickly dissolved back into watery despair. “Don’t fight me, too.”
