Claimed by the Dragons (Alma Venus Shifter Brides 3)

“I have to… I’m sorry.” Viggo turned around and headed towards the palace at a brisk pace.

Delyse blinked in confusion, then wiped the tears off her face as best as she could. He had just left her there, in the middle of the garden. He had walked away. But what else could he have done?

***

“You did what?!” Astrid yelled so loud that the whole island probably heard her. She realized it wasn’t a good idea to alert everyone about what was happening, so she lowered her voice the second time: “Viggo, you did what? Tell me I heard you wrong.”

Viggo pinched the bridge of his nose. He was sitting in an armchair in his sister’s room, staring at his feet. He couldn’t look her in the eyes, not yet.

“You heard me just right, Astrid.”

The female dragon raised her eyes to the ceiling, paced the room for a bit, then moaned in exasperation and stopped in front of her brother.

“You kissed her. You kissed Eric’s bride. Our Fyrstur’s bride. You’re insane.”

“I know, I know… I screwed up…”

Astrid looked at him for a long moment, then sighed and knelt, her hands on his knees.

“Yes, you screwed up, but not now. Not with this. You screwed up when you bought her for him. When you gave her to him on a silver platter.”

Viggo crossed his arms over his chest and finally met her gaze.

“You’re not helping,” he said.

“I can’t help you, brother. And when I tried to, months ago, you didn’t listen. There’s nothing I can do for you now.”

“You weren’t helping then, either. You just came up with a stupid idea.”

“Making Delyse your bride was a stupid idea? No. It was the only good thing you could have done for her and for yourself.”

“An Annarr can’t take a bride before his Fyrstur, you know that.”

Astrid rolled her eyes. “Fuck the rules! In the past 700 years, you were more of an Alpha than Eric has ever been.” She squeezed his knees. “You deserve to be happy, Viggo. You, more than anyone, and most certainly more than Eric.”

He pushed her hands away and jumped to his feet.

“Don’t talk like that.”

It was Astrid’s turn to cross her arms over her chest and fix him with a death glare.

“Or what? The big bad Alpha dragon will put me in my place? Give me a break! These days, Eric doesn’t know where his head is, which doesn’t affect him, anyway, because he thinks with his dick when he’s around her.”

“Astrid…” It was half a moan and half a warning. He felt uncomfortable every time someone badmouthed Eric. As his Beta, he couldn’t let that happen. Not on his watch. But Astrid was his sister, and he knew she wouldn’t shut up just because he said so.

“He doesn’t deserve her. You do. You should have bought her for yourself, claimed her, and made cute baby dragons. But noooo! You had to spend your days and nights concocting a complicated plan to convince poor, heartbroken Eric to get off his lazy ass and lead the clan, when you are perfectly aware you’ve been leading it for centuries without his help.”

“And how well did that work for us?” Viggo stared at her just as intensely, his brows furrowed. “It doesn’t matter how well I manage Clan Drekinn’s businesses. Our dragons need their leader, they need their Fyrstur awake, amongst them, breathing life into everything they do, giving them hope that they’re actually going somewhere, not running in circles for years and years on end.”

“You’re underestimating yourself…”

“I’m good at what I do. I know I am, Astrid, but I also know I’m not the man our dragons need. If I were, they wouldn’t have all gone into hibernation.”

Astrid didn’t say anything. He was right, unfortunately. To her, Viggo had always been the right Alpha. If he had wanted to take over Eric’s clan, her brother would have succeeded.

“You’re too loyal,” she said softly. “He doesn’t deserve this kind of loyalty.”

Viggo took a deep breath and tried to put his thoughts in order. The problem with having this sort of discussion with Astrid was that, sometimes, she was so damn close to convincing him of her perspective. He had to fight her with all his might, otherwise he risked believing he could actually be a Fyrstur, and it would all go to hell.