Page 131 of The Dragon Warlord
The fire has burned its way to embers when Phari wakes me for our watch. River’s so peaceful and I recall the weariness in his expression from earlier. I can’t bring myself to wake him. He’ll be irked, but dammit, I’m allowed to make this kind of decision as his alpha. I kiss his cheek and even that doesn’t wake him.
“Oooooh, ho, ho,” Phari says when we’re outside of the tent. “You sure you want to do that?”
Leave River to sleep, he means. “He’s my omega and I know what’s best for him.” Everyone wants my inner dragon to stomp around and dominate situations, here he is. “He’ll understand that.”
“Mhm, but if you were going to take that route, maybe you shouldn’t have told him to tell you when you’re being foolish. You’re a bit,whoo-cha,” he says, imitating the sound a whip makes, implying that I’m omega whipped.
So, what if I am omega whipped?
“I’m not being foolish. He can barely stand upright.”
“Things have changed between you two. You haven’t experienced his Kanes temper yet.”
River doesn’t get mad at me. Annoyed maybe, but even that’s rare. I’m sure he’ll love that I’m being Mr. Dominant Alpha Guy. Sheathing my sword into the scabbard on my back, I level him with a look. “I’m leaving him to sleep.”
“Okay, but don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
* * *
My eyes snap open and immediately I know something is wrong. For one thing, I wasn’t supposed to be asleep in the first place. It’s as if my limbs have been filled with sand and the heavy drowsiness has to be shaken from my body. My eyes want to snap closed again as if something is pulling me under. Instinctively, I reach for the dragon magic that isn’t there and it’s like falling on my face. Right. Not accessible. I access the Elven side of my gift and there’s the sensation of clearing like cloud cover blowing off and my eyes snap open for good this time.
The rain has gone as if it was never here, and the sun beats hot against my neck. I don’t remember falling asleep and judging from where the sun is in the sky it's noon. Fuck. I’ve missed half the day. I’m not the only one. The two warriors I was on watch with are asleep near me on the hard ground that has no trace of the downpour we experienced for the past two days.
There’s an eerie quiet over the whole camp. I shake both warriors, and neither responds. Checking their pulse, I detect strong heartbeats. They’re alive, just out cold. That’s enough to set off a panic. I’m up and running toward the camp, reaching out for River.
I don’t like what I find. He feels far away. Rushing into the tent where I left him when I went on watch, I see what I expect; our bedroll is empty. More troubling, his sword, boots, and jacket are still here. He might race off without boots and his jacket, but never his sword.
Yep. He’s far away. I’ve never had to feel what it was like to have him far away. I hate it. It’s like my insides are breaking off into pieces. Clutching my heart, I look around for some trace of him, to see if there was a struggle.
All I see are more sleeping dragons.
Phari runs into the tent. “Magically drugged,” he says breathlessly, having run across the camp. “Whatever was done affected me too, but I woke up on my own as you did. The spell must bind to dragon magic more potently. We’ll have to wake them all up with magic.”
I’m already lost to him, allowing my dragon to tear free, allowing the animal side of my nature to take the helm. Someone has taken my omega. I’m going to find them and take them apart. First, I’ll start with their flesh and then I’ll rip apart their skeleton bone by bone.
There’s a scent I catch in the air. It’s no longer fresh, but the stench … It was covered by the rain yesterday, but I’d still managed to catch a whiff of it.
I growl at my complacency.
“Wasteland beasts,” I say. I don’t know how it’s possible. “Five of them.”
I must have missed a few, but that’s fine. Last time I didn’t have time to do more than end their miserable lives. This time I’m going to have fun with what’s left of them.
Hang on, Omega. I’m coming for you.
23
River
They smell worse than I remember. The really big one is carrying a bone that looks like it came from someone’s arm. All of them have bottom canines that are too long to fit inside their mouths, so they sit on the outside, pressing against their top lips. Their eyes are bulging and yellow. Their claws are crusted with dried blood. Some of it’s mine.
They did a number on my face, for fun, I guess? It’s not like I’m going anywhere. My hands are manacled together and attached to a length of chain. I trip and stumble behind them as they tug me along at a pace I’m failing to keep up with on little sleep, no water, and bootless. The rocks cut into my bare soles. We trudge over damp and uneven terrain, but at least we’re in the open, which will make it easier for our warriors to spot us.
We’ve travelled by foot since some time just after midmorning. From where the sun is in the sky, that says it’s been a few hours. To keep myself from panicking, I do the calculations. Tristan could make it on a horse so long as they don’t kill me.
So long as they wake up. Fuck.
When I was hauled away, I was already in chains, which means they had to have done something to me so I’d stay asleep through being manacled. They woke me and for the briefest of moments, I thought it was Tristan waking me for our night watch.
