Page 13 of The King is Dead
“My angle?”
“Bringing me here, knowing all of this… It’s a very precarious position foryou.I’m trying to figure out what you gain in doing so.”
I frowned. “I believe you’re the closest thing to aperfectexample for a King. And you’re my mate—which means even God agrees with that conclusion. You were about to get yourself killed. Why wouldn’t I bring you here?”
Melek’s upper lip curled back as he glared at his plate. “I don’t buy it.”
I stared at him. “I don’t give a shit if youbuyanything. It’s true.”
Melek dropped his fork to the plate with a clatter, glaring at me. “Then why not tell them all. Why not make me King anyway? Why ask me toagree?!”
“Because I, too, am a ruler, Melek. And I don’t believe in throwing people to the wolves. Even those strong enough to fight them. We should be in this together. Leadingtogether.”
“Ah, so you want me on your side.”
I frowned. “Of course I do. You’re my mate and we’re vowed—what other side would I want you on?”
He leans over the table, eyes piercing. “You want me blind, gelded, and doingyourbidding, so that you actually rule through me.”
I slammed my fork down on the table. “No, Melek. I want a partner. I want my mate. MyPair. I want to thrive, and I want you to thrive. And Gall and Istral and—
“Turo?” Melek snapped. “That’s his name, right? The General?Yourgeneral?”
“Youare my General, you fuckwit,” I growled. “Say the word, Melek. Just one word and I will tell the entire continent. I will claim you so loudly, they’ll hear me all the way in Valgorath City. But when I do, you better be ready. Because there will be no room forhesitation. I will claim you.Theywill claim you. And together we will rule.”
“Claimme?” he growled.
“Yes, Melek,claim you.You are mymate.That is what mates do!”
Somehow, we were both on our feet, both leaning on the tables in front of us, eyes ablaze. The bond sang in my chest and that crackling, sizzling sensation that I’d felt with him before returned. As if there was power in the air, snapping and popping. As if my hair would rise off my head.
My heart raced. Through the bond, I could feel him thrumming too.
“Melek,” I breathed, unable to look away as whatever this was between us sizzled andgrew.
I saw his eyes glaze. Watched his fingers claw into the table, his nails tearing gouges in the soft wood. With that loose shirt on, I couldn’t see his arousal in the flesh, but I felt it. Felt him coming alive. Felt himresponding.
Yilan…
I heard my name in his deep, husky growl—the one that wanted me. But I wasn’t sure if he said the word, or it sang through the bond.
Though his eyes were locked on mine, they were unfocused. As if he watched whatever was in his mind that I couldn’t see because he didn’t know how to share it.
I felt it, though. In the bond and… felthim.My skin prickled and my breath quickened. An ache began between my thighs remembering the way he’d taken me against a tree that time—
Melek exploded, throwing the table aside, so food, platter, cutlery,everythingexploded. “Get out of myfucking head!”
I startled. Heart pumping, yet bodyneeding.“I—I’m not. Melek, I told you, I can’t if you don’t want me—”
“It’s what you do. How you manipulate me—the visions…stop!”
“Melek, I amnot—!”
“I said, get OUT!”
He kicked the flipped table aside as he leaped towards me, and for a blink I forgot there were bars between us.
It was instinct to turn, to walk the shadows into the anteroom. I made it into the stairwell just as the doors flew open behind me and Turo stormed in bellowing orders.
