Her Dragon King (Her Dragon King Duet 2)

I mean, I would if it meant getting away from all the people who were currently pissed off at me. Though, no one’s more pissed off with me than me. I’d gambled everything on love and ended up losing just that. Everything…my supposed forever mate…the respect of my family…and now possibly my North Dakota crown.

My heart feels like a ruined punching bag inside my chest. Deflated and no longer strong after taking so many hits.

“We’ve got to take this mind control thing into consideration,” Mom says, doing her best to calm down Rafes and my dads. Since I’m the only one sitting down, it feels like she’s my lawyer, defending me at a trial.

And apparently Uncle Clyde is mom’s co-counsel. “Yeah, that mind control power is a son of a bitch,” her brother says.

“And, the fact is, she is the queen I chose to replace me,” Kyle points out, his voice also full of righteous defense…until he adds, “Also Clyde and I are scheduled to go on an around-the-world wolf cruise in a couple of months, so we’ll no longer be available to govern in her place.”

“You’ll have to make yourself available,” FJ answers his brother-in-law, tone scathing. “Just as our mate and I have had to make ourselves available to rule since our successor, Fensa, was forced to go into hiding from the same mind-altering male Ola forsook her throne for.”

“See, it was mind control! We totally forgive her,” Clyde shoots back, seeming to miss all of FJ’s points accept the one that would allow him and his mate to go on their cruise.

“Obviously!” Kyle adds, co-signing that check.

Still not a crying-ass bitch. I know that for sure now after reading that stone-cold note Damianos left with dry eyes. But watching my uncles band together it cuts me somewhere deep. My uncles are everything I wanted for Damianos and me. Loving, bad-ass, and loyal as fuck to each other.

But now I’m here getting yelled at and Damianos is out there. Most likely planning something awful, now that he knows I know about the real power of Reverence. Shame rushes through me. How could I have been so stupid? I deserve nothing less than this verbal smackdown.

“How do we know she’s not still under his mind control?” Rafes asks my uncles. “Is it even safe to let her rule?”

“I guess we’ll find out when Kyle and me are on our cruise, won’t we, little boy?” Clyde answers, folding his beefy arms. You can retire the beta, I guess, but the beta’s always going to flash teeth when he’s crossed.

Rafes glares at him. “I am not a little boy,” he informs Clyde. “And if necessary, I will issue a travel restriction that will ban you, Ola, or any of your North Dakota subjects from leaving this landlocked state, much less going on a cruise.”

Myrna comes to stand next to Rafes, her eyes blazing. “Also, you should apologize,” she chastises Clyde with an extra dose of Viking in her heavily-accented English. “You owe your fenrir a more respectful tone than that.”

Clyde dips his head, probably sensing he’s gone too far. No, we don’t bother with titles as much as we used to, but there’s still a firm hierarchy. “Sorry, President Nightwolf,” he mutters.

“It’s just that we’re past the point where we can get a refund,” Kyle tells Rafes with an equally apologetic tone.

Papa Olafr steps up to Clyde and Kyle, the look on his face grave. “Our daughter has put you in this position,” he says to his brothers-in-law. “We will use our personal fund to pay you back for this trip.”

Oh, God. Everything is so messed up now. Because of me.

“No, I’ll pay for it,” I tell them all.

They all turn to look at me, like they’d forgotten I was there. Probably because these are the first words I’ve said since they all descended upon the house to yell at me—this time with military back up.

“This is all my fault,” I say from my chair. “It wasn’t mind control. I thought I could change him, convince him to choose us, choose our family, over revenge. I bet on love, and I guess I…”

The words stick in my throat, the conviction that sent me to Greece refusing to die for some reason. But eventually, I force out my new truth. “I bet wrong. And now you’re all in danger because of me.”

I set Bazzi down at my feet and stand up to face Rafes.

But not to fight with him as I have so many times in the past. All my fight is gone. Just like Damianos.

“Please, Rafes, I’m begging you,” I say to my cousin, my voice small and soft. “Don’t take out your anger on them.”

Rafes visibly startles. I don’t blame him for being shocked. Before today, I’d never begged him for anything, or spoken to him in a quiet tone. Not unless I was being sarcastic, or derisive, or most times when it came to him, both.