Dragon Lords Books 1 - 4 Box Set: Anniversary Edition (10 page)

“If it were to be done, they would be the ones to do it.” He realized that might be the only way to get her to come along with him. A crowd had gathered to watch the presentation and some had even started to turn to look at him and his bride. Already they were late and his people would wonder at their hesitance.

This pacified her some and she let him lead her forward. “So do I just ask them, then?”

“No,” he answered. “This is not the place. I must introduce you first.”

Morrigan lifted her eyes to the platform and whispered, “Royalty.”

Ualan glanced at her and then his parents. The king and queen were seated in the center of the standing councilmen. They had changed their clothes. His mother was in a very regal purple gown. His father was next to her in the same shade.

“I thought royalty didn’t wear crowns here.” Morrigan nodded at the king and queen.

“Not always, but usually for special ceremonies.” He smiled at her, well aware that they were being watched. It was an automatic expression, one he’d learned early as a prince.

“Oh,” was all Morrigan said as he led her to the platform to stand before the gathered.

“
Q
ueen Mede
, King Llyr, may I present Lady Morrigan Blake of the New Earth people,” Ualan introduced, giving a bow. Morrigan, a quick study, curtsied. The royal couple looked her over carefully. Morrigan wondered if it was the atmosphere that made everyone’s eyes look so liquid.

“You’re late,” the king said, studying Ualan. A worried frown creased between his eyes. “Is all well?”

“That was my fault, majesty,” Morrigan broke in, not wanting to start off her stay on a bad note. She needed them to like her if she was to get a ride home. She gave another curtsy for good measure.

Ualan glanced at her, his eyebrow rising. He leaned over and whispered almost too softly for her to hear, “This is a public ceremony. You have to wait to be addressed.”

The king looked confused. Glancing at his wife, he questioned, “What did she call me?”

Morrigan noticed everyone was staring at her in confusion, even Ualan. Weakly, she explained, “Majesty is what we call royalty on New Earth.”

“Ah,” the queen said. She spoke in her Qurilixian tongue to her husband. It was a soft, smooth language. When she finished, the king smiled in understanding. The queen looked at her, the woman’s eyes carrying the same genetic liquid gold that the men’s had. Suddenly, Morrigan realized that Queen Mede was a rare Qurilixian woman. She had to get a picture of this. She pushed on her emerald finger. Finishing her discourse with the king, the queen instructed, “Proceed.”

Ualan bowed again, taking the crystal from his neck. He handed it to Morrigan, who took it in confusion. The crystal felt warm and tingling against her fingers. She thought of Ualan’s touch and how it made her feel the same way—hot and aching. When she just looked at him, holding the hard stone in her fingers, he instructed, “Smash it.”

“Then that’s it?” she asked quietly, thinking that was a perfectly symbolic way to end their “relationship”. She watched him warily. “We’ll be done with this?”

Ualan smiled at her, a truly breathtaking look that did not help the feelings the crystal stirred. He nodded in agreement. “Yes, smash it and it will all be over.”

“All right then.” Witnessing his handsome grin, Morrigan was almost sorry she was going to end it with him. Lifting up the crystal, she shrugged and dropped it to the red earth. It landed but did not break. Then, Morrigan stomped on it with her slippered foot. It broke with the ease of glass, much easier than it should have. The gathered cheered.

Morrigan jerked in surprise at the sound. Her head and eyes became clear as a mist left her mind. Staring at Ualan was like watching a man emerge from a dream. Her body became sore, throbbing all over like she’d just run a mile at full speed. Her head buzzed and she pressed her fingers to her temple. She did indeed have a hangover. A bad one. She now felt the full effects of it. She blinked heavily and began to look around, as if seeing everything for the first time.

Before she could ask Ualan what was happening, the queen said, “Welcome to the family of Draig, Lady Morrigan. I hope you will enjoy your new home.”

“Oh, I’m not staying,” Morrigan said, in distraction. Even her voice sounded more real to her ears. She blinked several more times, trying to get her bearings. “I have a flight to catch.”

Ualan’s features turned red. The crowd started to titter with laughter at her words. The councilmen’s eyes narrowed. The queen and king shared puzzled looks, but it was clear they were not amused.

Standing, the king strode over to Ualan. Looking down at her, he motioned, before speaking in his native tongue.

Ualan answered in the same language, his fists gripped into tight balls.

The king placed a hand on his arm. Both men looked at her expectantly.

Morrigan understood the word “Earth” and nothing more. It gave her hope. But seeing Ualan’s irritated expression, took that hope away.

Ualan turned to her. She stiffened in surprise as he suddenly grabbed her into his arms. His lips pressed forward, scorching her senses in an all-claiming kiss that left no doubt to the crowd that he had indeed claimed a woman.

Morrigan was stunned by the public onslaught. Her heart raced to feel his lips move so savagely, tearing at her sensitive mouth. It wasn’t the dreamy kisses of last night. Those kisses had been a sweet foggy paradise. This kiss conquered her from her dizzying head to her curling toes. When he let her go, she looked dazedly on the crowd, their shouting ringing in her brain.

Ualan bowed to the king, before dragging his stunned bride from the stage like an insolent child. Morrigan stumbled behind him, her lips tingling full of sensations. Without the haze of the crystal, she was confused. Her logic told her to yell, her body told her to leap into his arms and demand he do it again. Thankfully for Morrigan’s self-respect, her logic won.

She was led into the shelter of the nearby forest, glad to be away from the crowd. Well,
led
was maybe too light of a word. Ualan practically dragged her stumbling behind him.

Strange yellow ferns passed under her trampling feet as Ualan followed what could only roughly be referred to as a forest path. Various woodland critters shuffled away in fright, bizarre creatures that Morrigan was forced to ignore in their haste. A purple bird flew past her head, and she automatically tried to jump back out of its way.

Ualan, misunderstanding her movements, clearly thought she tried to escape him. He gripped her tighter.

“Ow,” she yelled at him. He only walked faster. She tripped on something she couldn’t see. It might look like nothing but ferns up to her ankles, but there was debris underneath the thick groundcover.

Coming to a clearing by a narrow stream, he finally released her hand. He spun around to glare at her. “What do you think you were doing?”

“Me?” Morrigan gasped. She pulled her injured wrist to her waist. The beauty of their surroundings was lost on her. She only saw red.

“If you ever try to humiliate me in public again, wife, I will break your neck, do you understand?” Ualan growled.

“I am
not
your wife. You drugged me, you accursed cave dweller, with that wine and the crystal. Admit it!”

Fury raged in his eyes. Oh, he was livid.

Well, so was she.

“Don’t you dare try to deny it!” Poking him in his very unmoving chest, she shouted, “I felt it as soon as I broke that crystal. What kind of sick people are you, slipping drugs on unsuspecting women?” Lowering her tone like a simpleton, she mocked, “Oh, here, take this drink, you’ll like it,” before finishing in a furious rush, “You’ll only wake up nine months pregnant and married to a serving boy. But hey, he needed a wife and couldn’t be bothered with finding one the way most normal aliens do.”

Ualan didn’t move.

Not satisfied with poking, she slapped the dragon on his chest hard. “No thank you, cavemen. Not this girl. I am on the first flight back to New Earth and you can’t stop me. You tricked me and—”

“You chose,” he growled angrily, grabbing her by the arm and shaking her. His eyes swirled with golden lava. “Your will was free. I did not trick you. The crystal showed me to you and you chose to be my wife.”

“I chose to go. I told you that. You said you understood!” Morrigan screamed, trying to tear away from him and failing. Angry tears threatened to spill from her eyes. She did not want to be stuck here on this backward planet, forced to live in a damned tent.

“You chose to be my wife,” Ualan stated. “You cannot take it back.”

“Wife?” Morrigan repeated. He was like talking to a stone. Despite their anger, he was devilishly handsome when he looked at her all fiery like he did. Her heart skipped a little in her chest. The whole planet must be insane. Who really got married after one night and less than a hundred words?

“Yes, wife,” he insisted. “We have been chosen—”

“If I hear one more time that I was chosen, so help me…” Morrigan’s words cut into him. She shook her fist at him in warning. Taking a deep breath, she tried to be calm. “We are not married. Stop saying that we are. We aren’t going to live together. I am not going to bear your children. I am not going to cook for you, or rub your feet, or do any other mundane housewife tasks, you overbearing—”

“What was last night, then, if we are not married?” His words were soft, but the hard razor-edge was unmistakable. He glanced around the small clearing and frowned. “Come. I don’t want to be overheard.”

Morrigan looked but didn’t see anyone. He pulled her further into the trees, heading away from the stream. When they were deeper in the confines of the forest, he leaned over her and kissed her.

It was a searing, probing, claiming kiss that shot all the way to her toes. Morrigan struggled, not daring to let him end the fight like that. Not again. This Morrigan wasn’t drunk or drugged. Just as abruptly as he took her mouth with his he let it go.

“Last night was,” Morrigan hesitated, finally managing to break free of his hands. His taste stung her lips. “It was…nice. But it didn’t mean I was signing on to be Mrs. Caveman. I have a job. I have a life. It’s a good life and it doesn’t include you. I’m sorry, Ualan, but your crystal was wrong. Go dig yourself up a new one and next year you’ll have better luck.”

“Nice?” Ualan questioned in disbelief. He rolled his eyes to the tree branches, spouting out a lot of words she couldn’t understand. By his tone, Morrigan guessed it was better her implanted translator wasn’t able to decipher them.

She watched his stalking movements, momentarily distracted by the strength in his form. Suddenly he turned to her, pouncing forward to trap her against a tree. The bark poked her back sharply, but it was more forgiving than the hard male chest pressing against her delicate breasts.

“Tell me you didn’t feel it. And be warned, Rigan, I will know your lie.” Ualan’s hand became bold on the front of her gown, rubbing at her in indecent strokes. “Tell me you weren’t begging my name with your lips.”

“I was drug—”

“Tell me you don’t want me inside of you even now. I can feel your heat burning into my hand even through your clothing.” To prove his point, he stroked her between the legs and she shivered. “Tell me you don’t want me to take you right here, to end the torment I put into you last night. I saw your passion, Rigan. I saw how you liked to watch. How you longed for me to take you the same way. I smelled you as you nearly came by my whip.”

“This is not happening,” Morrigan said in exasperation. Trying to sound reasonable in an unreasonable situation, she laid a shaking hand on his arm and pushed. Breaking up had never been so hard. Ualan let her go. Through gulping breaths, she managed, “I don’t want to fight with you about this. You will find someone, Ualan. Someone perfect who can stay here with you and bear your children, and cook and clean, and do everything your little barbaric heart desires. Someone who will know how to be a wife to you. I am not that girl.”

“You chose me. The gods chose you for me.”

“No, you came to me,” she said with logic. How could she fight cultural superstition? It was so frustratingly unreasonable. “All the rest is superstition.”

“It was willed by the gods. The crystal found you for me. You belong here. I will hear no more of this. Come, we go home.”

“Ualan, don’t. I will not be forced.”

“When you took off my mask and allowed me to speak freely, you chose,” he said. “You chose to be my wife and you chose to come to my tent. You were not forced to be with me. Insult my honor again, and I will not be lenient with you, wife.”

Now he was just calling her that to annoy her. Morrigan sighed heavily, her patience almost completely gone. He was forcing her to feel too much at once—anger, desire, frustration.

“Your mask?” she repeated, her voice growing weary.

He nodded once, hard.

His words from the night echoed in her brain. Quietly, she said in sudden understanding, “Choose. You meant choose you, not choose a corner of the tent to play…”

She turned red and couldn’t finish the sentence. As she hit her fist absently along her thigh, her eye camera sent a spark through her and she saw the image of him standing gloriously naked in front of her. She turned the emerald on her hand several times to get the private image review to stop. It was too late. The virile image of his naked body was renewed in her mind.

Ualan smiled, knowingly. She might be fighting him, but she wasn’t immune. Without the aid of liquor to fuel her inhibitions, she stepped away from him in embarrassment.

“It’s a mistake,” Morrigan whispered, unable to look at him without picturing him naked. Her cheeks flamed and she hoped he thought it was her anger. “I didn’t know what I was choosing. Surely there are grounds for divorce if I didn’t know, or maybe an annulment of some sort? We didn’t do anything together—not really.”

Ualan let loose a sound of torment, but then lifted his chin proudly. “If you will not obey your new law, then obey your old one. You signed a contract. That is why your people left you here. Now speak no more of it, I will not start an intergalactic incident over your misunderstanding. We are married, resign yourself to it.”

“I am not going to be ordered about by you.” Why was he being so pigheaded? “Who are you to talk to me like that?”

“I am your master.” He growled low in his throat and stopped to sniff the air. “Quiet yourself. We’re not alone in the forest.”

“Stop telling me what to do!”

“You will obey me.”

“I will never have you as my master.”

Ualan leaned over, not listening to her continued tirade as he brushed aside a yellow fern to snatch a low-lying green plant with a yellow center from the ground. He was at her side in two seconds.

“If you were my master, than I would be a servant and this girl doesn’t do clean. Find yourself a new m-maid—” Morrigan stuttered to a stop and gasped at his swift approach.

He took her arm in his large hand and shook her. When her head snapped to him, a scream of fear and outrage forming readily on her lips, he rubbed his fingers beneath her nose, crushing the little plant. Instantly, she passed out, falling helplessly to his chest.