Page 92 of The Dragon Warlord
“How is this your fault, hmm?”
“I don’t know, but it sure feels like my fault.” He reaches a hand out from where he lies beside me and grips my wrist. We took the opportunity to laze under the sun. The ground is cold, but our blood runs hot enough to make up for it.
Turning to face my melancholy Warlord brings a smile to my lips despite the gloominess of the day. There’s an apple by his head. The meadow is littered with them. I think about the day he won me a honeydragon apple from General Sharpe and the smile catches to my eyes.
“What’cha thinkin’ ‘bout, Riv?”
“Do you think Ikara missed us?” She complains about us all the time to our faces. “I’m not looking forward to her visions.”
She had an especially cryptic one for me not long before we left The Tower.
If you make it back here that’s when you should tell him. It’ll be the right time.
Tell him what? What secret do I have from Tristan? If there is one, it’s a secret from me too.
Tristan pounces, pinning me to the ground with a knee to each side of my hips and a stare that has his dominant alpha energy bleeding into it. “Not today, Omega. I won’t let you evade me by answering my question with a question. Now what was it that had you smiling like that?”
Ah, he’s jealous.
All that does is inspire the same head-in-the-clouds smile from me.
“You’re doing it again. I’ll not have it. All of you is mine,” he says in Elvish, a low and dangerous growl rumbles in his chest.
Doesn’t he know that I am for him?
I am for him.
My heart beats with that. He doesn’t. He knows that I’m his because I bear his bite, but he doesn’t know that I am for him. Is Ikara right or was she speaking nonsense again? If I tell him, will he finally get it?
“All of me is yours, Alpha,” I return in elegant Elvish. “I was thinking about how much I love honeydragon apples.”
He sits up and I follow suit, watching him pluck a shiny green apple from the ground. “These are pretty, but they’re fucking sour. Better for pies. I’ll get you a whole bushel of honeydragons when we’re back.” He tosses it. “Thank the Gods. I thought …” He doesn’t finish that sentence.
“What did you think?”
“I think that I don’t know how to stay away from you, River.” He tugs me to him, and we fall on the ground together with me atop his chest. There’s something in his voice I don’t like. Despair.
Ikara is right. I’ve got to tell him. We’re strong and we might be able to continue for centuries as we are. If that’s what he wants, I’ll find a way. But that road will wear us down. That road leads to the end of us.
PART THREE: WARLORD
17
Back at The Tower a.k.a Dragon Land
Tristan
Ishould never have suggested it, but now that I have, I can’t stop thinking about it. In a last-ditch effort to push River away—total fool’s errand—I suggested that we focus our efforts into finding River a lover.
I know. Tristan Kanes you are a thickheaded nitwit.
River and I have a rare break and we’ve hidden ourselves away in my war room. It didn’t take long for me to forget how much work we do around here. My muscles won’t stop burning and I haven’t bathed in three days. I’m not sure how River can stand the smell of me.
“Warlord? Are you missing the family again?” River asks to be polite. He already knows that I am.
“I miss them so much my heart is broken.”
“I miss them too.”
