Dragon Lords Books 1 - 4 Box Set: Anniversary Edition (77 page)

The king chuckled and answered in kind. “I will tell him we are pleased with him.”

“The gag wasn’t necessary,” the queen debated. Out of all her boys, Zoran was the most stubborn. But he also had a lot to prove. Being the leader of the soldiers, he couldn’t have his honor or his position called into question—especially not by a woman. When Pia stole his clothing and indicated he was lazy and sleeping in, she’d insulted him. It wasn’t a great insult, but it was enough to demand action be taken.

“Perhaps he didn’t want to give her leave to speak. Wives can be very—” The king stopped talking, and looked guiltily at his wife. Aloud, so all could hear, he said, “You are very beautiful today, my love.”

“And you are very lucky today, my love,” she thought in his direction. Her eyes flashed golden, threatening a shift. She was the only female born Draig on the planet, and as a dragon-shifter, her temper could rise just as fiery as the men of her kind—if not more so. “For today I get daughters and am inclined to pretend you didn’t speak.”

P
ia’s eyes popped open
, her fists automatically balling in outrage. She swung at the air, causing a great laugh to echo over the bedroom. Her chest heaved with her unspent anger, as she pushed herself up on the soft mattress. Her hands were no longer tied and the gag was out of her mouth.

“Where...?” she began, glancing around the bedroom to gauge her surroundings.

There were white, paper thin sliding doors with decorative wooden boxes over the sides. The room looked heavily influenced by the Lintianese style. Light shone through from the other room. The bed was low to the ground, covered in fur. There were potted plants on either side of a long dresser. Through a cracked sliding door to her side, Pia saw a walk-in closet. A large dome overhead let the sunlight in, though it was tinted to give the room a soft, comfortable haze. Two swords hung on the wall as decoration, dragons emblazoned on the hilts.

On the bed was a black dragon-head emblem on a sea of deep red material. Its color was as dark as blood. The fierce creature stared at her for a moment. She shivered. Then, hearing the laughter lessen to a chuckle, she turned.

Her eyes met with a gaze she didn’t readily recognize. The woman’s movements followed her startled ones. It was her reflection staring back at her through a circular mirror atop the dresser. She touched her cheek to remind herself that the image was really her new face.

“You’re in our home,” came the belated answer to her question.

Zoran clearly had been watching her confusion as she awoke. At the sound of his voice, her eyes narrowed in on him and she tried to jump up. The gown tangled her feet and she fell back on the bed, kicking and fighting the long skirt as she tried to be free of it.

“It’s only a dress, Pia,” Zoran said wryly. “It’s not attacking you.”

“As soon...as I get...out...of...this,” she threatened, fighting all the harder. With a huff, she finally managed to work her way off the bed. Her chest heaving, she opened her mouth to finish. He held up his hands to stop her.

“I know, you will behead me, skewer me...yeah, yeah, yeah.” Zoran yawned.

“You keep it up,” she warned, her voice rising.

“So much talk, so little action.” He shook his head.

“Ah,” Pia gasped in open-mouthed outrage. Instantly, she lunged at him. The skirt tangled around her feet and she tripped. Zoran caught her up in his embrace, subduing her easily.

“Sweet Pia, you didn’t need an excuse to fall into my arms. I’ll open them willingly for you,” Zoran murmured annoyingly in her hair. He received the response he expected. She tried to punch him. He dodged her shaky blow.

“I’d tear your arms from you before I’d fall into them,” Pia said, trying to kick. To her satisfaction, she hit his shin and he frowned, letting her go. She stumbled away from him, out of breath. “I want to call the royal council. It’s my right to do so.”

Zoran froze. His jaw tightened, as he inquired, “On what grounds?”

“On the grounds that you forced me to marry you,” she said, a smile spreading over her face. She swiped at her nose, regaining some of her composure as she sniffed. “I did my research before coming here. You can’t force a bride to choose you. It has to be her free will. It wasn’t my free will. I told you no and you forced me to take off your mask. When I told you to put it back on, you burned it.”

His face turned red. He said nothing.

“And then, this morning,” she lied. “I was going to go tell the council that I didn’t choose you, but then you kidnapped me...”

His brow rose on his forehead in warning.

“Fine, you apprehended me, tied me up, and forced me to stomp on the crystal. I would say I have a pretty strong case and plenty of witnesses. I want to speak to the royal council.
Now
.”

A bitter look lined Zoran’s face as he took a menacing step toward her. “Did you happen to research, wife, that the royal council is particularly busy this time of year with important matters of this kingdom? Did you also happen to discover that marriage disputes can only be claimed after a full year of marriage has been achieved, and when the bride can prove that nothing of a sexual nature happened between the married couple for that full year? Furthermore, a decision usually takes another year to be reached, considering the royal council will not always agree, and the dissolution of a marriage is a very serious matter to the Draig people. So I would say, you have at least two years as my wife, and that’s only if I don’t contest the divorce. And I’ll contest. Believe me, wife, you’re stuck whether you like it or not.”

“I don’t care if it takes five years. I’m not staying married to you.”

“I felt how you melted in my arms, Pia,” Zoran said in a tone that sent chills over her spine. He came closer. His brown eyes held hers. His knuckles stroked her face. “Do you think you could resist me every night for five years and never succumb?”

Pia shivered. To her shame, she didn’t move away from him. Already a fire blazed from his touch and she knew she couldn’t—not if he looked at her like that. She’d relent in less than a week.

“I’ll get my own place. I’ll find a job and support myself. I won’t even see you.”

“What job?” Zoran asked with an amused smile. She didn’t trust the look. His eyes were hard and angry.

“I’ll join your military,” Pia announced, pleased with herself until she saw his expression. He stayed his hand on her cheek, not moving and yet not leaving her soft skin. “Soldiers usually get free room and board.”

Zoran grinned and his eyes lightened. However, he didn’t let her in on the joke, as he said, “Women are rarely allowed to fight in the military—especially wives. Only widows can join.”

Her eyes rounded, as if to say, that could be arranged.

“Don’t even think it,” he said, his hand fisting next to her cheek. “I would snap your neck in an instant if you so much as tried.”

Pia backed down, finally managing to get the strength to pull away from his disarmingly gentle fingers. She scowled. “Then I’ll pray to every one of your gods for your death in battle.”

Zoran sprang forward with a rage that took Pia completely off guard. His eyes glowed with a fire all their own, as he gripped her shoulders. His nails dug into her flesh and she wheezed in fear despite herself.

“If you ever say anything like that again, wife, I’ll punish you. So help me, I might get transferred to guard duty in the lowest of underground prisons where I’ll never again see the light of day, but I’ll not put up with your blasphemous tongue.” Zoran shook her before tossing her away from him. With an angry growl, he strode out of the bedroom. Slamming the thin door, he said, “I’m going to work.”

Pia shivered watching him leave. It didn’t take long before she heard the slide of a heavier door. Her knees weakened in fear. She’d seen the devil in that handsome gaze of his and, so help her, she liked it.

Z
oran was torn
. He loved his wife’s fire and passion and strength. It was a good complement to his title as a warrior leader. It would serve his honor well to have a fiery woman at his side—so long as he could tame her.

Had she really threatened to end their marriage? Surely she was just angry with him. Once she cooled all would be well? Right?

Right?

His inner voice did not answer him.

He paced down the hall to get away from her so he had time to collect his temper. Maybe he should let her join the military. Then she would be even more under his command.

No. Even as he thought it, he knew that would be a mistake. A wife disobeying him in private was bad enough. A wife-soldier refusing to follow orders would be like begging the gods to dishonor him.

Z
oran’s home
was a splendid exercise in simplicity. The bedroom Pia woke up in was off the front hall. The doors separating the rooms on one level were paper thin and had no locks on them. They slid soundlessly with a single push of the finger.

The walls were wooden planks of straight lines. A floor of matching wood was placed together in an intricate pattern of long cut strips. In the center of the pattern, in the front hall, was fashioned the impression a giant dragon. The dragon guarded a heavy oak door that Pia couldn’t open.

From the front hall, a single step down was the only room divider. She came to an open living room with a marble fireplace. There were straight lines carved into the plain surface and another dragon head in the center, above the fireplace. A step back up took her to a dining room, complete with low table and cushioned floor seats. A bowl with a single ball inside it decorated the middle as a centerpiece.

A tapestry hung on the far wall, just behind the table. It was red with the depiction of a black forest. If she had to venture a guess, she would say it was the forest she’d seen at the festival. In the middle was a noble phoenix.

“I’m surprised it’s not another dragon,” she mused wryly, moving on.

The kitchen was much the same—plain and of wood. The cabinets were miniature copies of the doors, sliding to the side instead of swinging open. Pia laughed seeing a dragon inlaid on the countertop.

As she crossed back into the dining room she noticed that a chandelier hung beneath a giant dome. The crystal shards reflected the light, brightening the room. A thick curtain was affixed to the dome.

Finding another door, Pia slid it open. It was a bathroom with a natural hot spring bubbling in the side, made from the red stone of the planet’s surface. A wooden sauna was next to it, a pull switch for steam on the side. On the opposite wall was a shower stall, with a wooden half-door and bench seats made of red stone. There was also a vanity, a sink, a toilet, sliding cabinet drawers, and a top dome of smaller proportions.

Next to the bathroom, Pia was amazed to discover an exercise area. It was a long, flat floor with a higher ceiling. Weapons hung on the wall for ease of use. Arranged on the floor was a punching bag, a wooden pegged contraption, with many arms fashioned into spikes, a post with gouges taken from it with a sword, and a mat rolled into the corner. Pia shivered in excitement.

“This room alone would be worth staying married for,” she said to herself. Almost reluctantly, she turned around and forced her legs to move away. She still had the dress on and couldn’t possibly exercise in the heavy skirt.

Getting an idea, she went back to the bedroom and began rummaging through the closet. She smiled, seeing her bags on the floor. She wouldn’t have to steal Zoran’s clothes after all. In no time, she was in a pair of comfortable charcoal pants, a navy shirt and light boots. Going to the fireplace, she tossed the dress on top of the wood and left it. She would’ve started a fire, but she couldn’t figure out how to make it work.

Dusting her hands, she nodded in satisfaction. Her stomach growled, reminding her she was hungry.

“First I eat,” she said absently to herself, making her way back to the kitchen. A great big smile came to her face as she thought of aggravating Zoran. “Then I find scissors and do something about this mess of hair.”

Z
oran spent
the first day of his marriage training the soldiers in swamp warfare. It was a grueling affair as the swamp mud was hard to walk in without shifting into Draig form. Many of the men were stupefied by the surprise workout. Though Prince Zoran was known for springing a training drill at any hour of the day or night, they hadn’t expected him to show up on the first day of his marriage.

Many of them had celebrated late the night before, believing that on this day of all days, it would be safe to sleep in. They couldn’t have been more wrong. Zoran worked them to the bone, pushing them, yelling them into action until their bodies could take no more, and they literally crawled their way back to the barracks that evening.

Zoran smiled grimly at the irritable men. His crossed arms were splattered with muck, though not as bad as the soldiers were. “I warned you when you began this training to be prepared for anything.”

The men grumbled as they stopped in their departure to look at him. There was respect in their tired eyes. They knew Prince Zoran was the greatest warrior amongst them and, after today, his dedication would never be questioned.

“As a warrior, you can never be caught off guard. You can never slack in your duty. If you do,” Zoran stopped and pointed down the valley where the quiet village lay. Lowering his voice to a deadly growl of warning, he let his eyes shift yellow. “If you do, they die.”

The men nodded in serious understanding.

“Now go eat,” he hollered, uncrossing his arms and jumping down from his post. “You did yourselves proud today.”

With his gruff praise, their exhausted shoulders rode a little higher. Zoran made his way wearily back to the castle’s front gate. The guard saluted him as he passed and Zoran motioned dutifully back.

His body was covered in drying sweat. He’d worked himself the hardest of all. Every muscle in his back ached. But it had been worth it, if for only a brief moment of peace. Pia never strayed far from his thoughts, though as a trained warrior, he didn’t let her distract him from his obligations to the men he commanded.

Now that the drills were over, he frowned. The closer he stepped to his home, the more his anger renewed itself inside him. Oh, but she was an aggravating wench. One minute he wanted to kiss her in rough mind-altering passion, the next he wanted to strangle every last breath from her beautifully formed body. He wanted to tie her up and drown her in Crystal Lake. By all that was sacred, he wanted to tie her up and throw her onto his bed to drown her in passion.

That thought in mind, he quickened his pace. The oak door to his home slid up with a stern voice command. Stepping inside, he felt it shut automatically behind him. Stopping, he sniffed the air, looking around. All was deadly still. He took a step forward.

“Pia?” he called softly, listening for her to stir. There was no answer. He stepped forward, frowning to see the gown he’d bought her in the barren fireplace.

“Uh,” he heard her voice groan. “Got it.”

He frowned. She was in the bathroom. Stepping up to the door, he took a single finger and pushed it open. His eyes rounded in a mix of horror and utter disbelief. He had to blink several times to make sure he wasn’t hallucinating.

Pia jumped at the sound of the door. Lowering her hands from her hair, she pointed the knife at him and darkly asked, “You ever hear of knocking?”

“What are you doing to your hair?” Zoran demanded, unable to take his eyes away. Half of Pia’s locks were still firmly attached to her head. The other half was sprinkled over the sink and floor in long discarded curls.

“Do you mind?” she asked. She grinned, lifting the knife to her longer side. “I was in here first and I could use a little privacy. If I mess this up, I’ll have to cut it shorter to get it even.”

“Why?” he breathed through his shock. Her hair had been the crowning glory to her wonderful features. Any woman in the kingdom would’ve given their freedom for her golden locks and here she was hacking them off. “Why do you disobey me? I told you not to cut it.”

Pia just laughed and continued to slice and saw at her hair.

Willfully, and to his dismay, she grabbed a thick chunk and sliced through it, cutting it off at about chin length. Then, lifting her handful of severed tresses, she wiggled the mass insolently through her fingers, sprinkling them before him like falling leaves.

“Why would you purposefully disfigure yourself?” Zoran asked in despair. “Do you seek to humiliate me?”

That made Pia mad. She lowered her hands to the countertop. “Humiliate you? My hair has nothing to do with you.”

“Everything you do has something to do with me. I’m your husband. Our honors are inner-linked. Only women who are shamed cut their hair,” Zoran said. He swallowed, again looking at the floor in disbelief. All that spun gold lay around their feet. He had the strange urge to gather it up and glue it back to her head.

Pia lifted her hand and defiantly took off the last chunk with a heavy whack of his knife, which she’d taken off the wall in the exercise room. Zoran flinched. Pia made a show of examining the evenness of the new length and continued speaking, unhampered by his darkening features.

She shrugged. “Well, I would say it’s very fitting then. For I find I’m very ashamed to be married to you. Maybe you should divorce me before I humiliate you any further.” She gripped the last of her hair and tossed it at him. “But if you want it so badly, here. I give it to you.”

“Argh,” Zoran growled, brushing the soft strands from his arms. He turned to storm away, before suddenly whirling around to face her. Angrily, he held out his hand. “My knife, wife.”

Pia glanced down at her fingers. Then, slowly, as if it was no big deal and he was overreacting, she turned the hilt and placed it in his hand. Zoran’s fingers gripped around the blade and he jerked it back from her.

Pia followed him as he stormed out of the bathroom. “Don’t you think you are overreacting just a little bit? Really, Zoran. It’s just hair. It grows back.”

Zoran again saw his gift to her in the fireplace. He swallowed, too angry to face her.

“Zoran?”

“If you wish to insult me and throw my gifts back at me, wife,” Zoran said. “Do it right.”

He turned to her. Pia stiffened at his hard look. Zoran studied her face. No matter what she did to herself, she would never be able to hide her beauty from him. It was in her hazel eyes, her steady gaze. It was in the fiery way she challenged him with words and her luscious body. He wanted her even more, now that she continued to defy him. It was strange that his passions could be ignited to such scorching depths by her disobedience and blatant insubordination.

He shouted, “Fire!”

P
ia jerked
at the sudden sound, gasping. She wished she hadn’t tossed the dress aside like she had. She almost went to retrieve it when his command for fire stopped her. The fireplace lit and the beautiful gown went up in flames.

His eyes roamed over her short hair in what she took as a look of disgust. It would seem her hair was the only thing he had found pleasing about her. If she hadn’t been sure about her new haircut before, she was now. Still amazed, and unsure how it happened, she thought of how handsome her husband was. The sooner he agreed to let her out of their marriage, the better it would be for the both of them.

Zoran turned his back on her, as he headed toward the bedroom. “I’m taking a bath and going to bed. I have to get up early tomorrow to go to work.”

“But, you just got off a work shift.”

Zoran glanced over his shoulder. “I should think you would be pleased to be rid of me.”

He disappeared into the bedroom.

“I am,” she yelled belatedly.

Zoran came back out holding a robe in one hand and a blanket and pillow in the other. Pushing the blanket and pillow at her with barely a glance, he said, “If you have no wish to share my bed, then you will find somewhere else to sleep. Might I suggest the couch? The fire seems to be burning quite brightly as of now.”

He went into the bathroom and shut the door. Seconds later, she was still standing there as she heard him step into the natural hot spring. A loud moan escaped him and she would’ve sworn he did it just to irritate her.

Looking at the couch before the marble fireplace, she threw the pillow angrily onto its cushioned red depths. She wrapped the blanket around her shoulders and sat down. A pout formed on her face without her realizing it, as she stared at the burning gown, watching the last of the red dragon disappear into ash.

Her little, naughty, naughty gremlin nodded its head in approval. She had done the right thing in irritating him.

Then why did she not feel good about it?