Her Dragon King (Her Dragon King Duet 2)

At my words, the dragons give a great roar. And on pure instinct, I throw my head back and howl right along with them. For the first time since we landed, it truly does feel like I belong in this over-the-top baroque fantasy.

“You honor me with this pledge.”

The words push into my head without any warning.

“What?” I ask.

I look up at Damianos, my heart rising into my throat. Other Him said I honored him all the time.

But this version of Damianos has never said it. Not even once. And I want to hear him say it again. “What did you just say to me?”

“Not I, but them,” Damianos answers, nodding toward the roaring dragons. “That is what they are all saying to you in our language—that you have honored them with your pledge.

I was on top of the world… but now my heart sinks as I follow the direction of his gaze back to the roaring dragons. You know, the ones who are less afraid to tell me how they really feel than my mate.

And suddenly there’s a new emotion radiating from my side of the mate bond.

Not love. Not anger. Not even exasperation. This is something I’ve never felt before. At least not when it comes to him.

Disappointment. Utter and complete.

I look up at him, and I know he can see what I’m feeling in my…what did Other Damianos call it? My flame… sense it over our mate bond.

But his eyes drop away as if he can’t see it. Can’t see me.

And he turns away from me to address the dragons. “Now on to the next part of the ceremony. We will return to the main ballroom where the new queen and I will join in union. In front of her wolves and my drakkon.”

I want what I envisioned for us, a wedding in front of your wolves and my drakkon…

The vow Other Damianos made echoes in my ears as the dragons let out an even louder roar.

Which is probably why they don’t hear my one-word answer to their king’s announcement the first time.

But Damianos does.

It’s now his turn to ask, “What did you just say?” A splinter of rage makes it out before his side of the mate bond goes dangerously cold.

This is why he almost never talks to me over the mate bond, I glean. Because whenever he does, he has to release his mental hold. Let me in, if only just a tiny bit.

That realization makes my answer come out that much stronger.

“No,” I say again, this time loud enough to be heard over all of the dragon clamor. “No, I’m not marrying you.”

Chapter Twenty-Four

DAMIANOS

“No, I’m not marrying you.”

The roars of my drakkon subjects come to an abrupt stop.

They, like me, turn to her, not understanding her words.

Despite my marriage announcement, disappointment continues to radiate inside her chest flame. Even brighter than before. And that fact makes me want to unshell and roar fire into the closest target.

But I am the King of Drakkon. And she is my queen. The queen everyone in this room can clearly see is disappointed with me.

“We will not cause a scene,” I push into her head. Then I take her by the arm and pull her through the throne room’s back door.

The small antechamber I haul her into was designed by the estate’s original architect as a staging area and to house what used to be only my crown before I had hers commissioned. Two large glass display boxes stand on side-by-side marble pedestals.

Her pedestal was just one of the many things I commissioned and ordered others to do to make this night one for the history books. Why? It is hard to say now in the wake of her refusal to complete the fantasy she wove at the gatehouse by marrying me.

It doesn’t matter that I have no intention of continuing on with this delusion after tonight. A furious, resentful feeling burns inside my flame at her rejection…of me… of what she claimed we could be if not for my need to avenge my father’s death.

“I do not think it is arrogance to say that my version of a coronation made the one given to you in North Dakota look like a child’s birthday party,” I tell her. “I presented you to the wolves of Lukos in a way that will surely be written about in their history books. I’ve placed a crown upon your head ten times grander than the one you left behind in North Dakota.”

“I didn’t leave it behind!” she answers, the flame in her eyes blazing with anger. “You destroyed it!”

“And now I am keeping the vow I made to you to marry you in front of your people and mine,” I continue on, refusing to acknowledge that pitiful complaint about her pitiful crown. “What more could you want?”