Sold

“The king agreed to help you? Why?”

“The king owes us a favor,” Silver says, his gray gaze stormy.

“You know him?” I am confused. Perhaps the new king is one of their patrons. Perhaps they may be able to get their money. Maybe...

“We do. As do you,” Silver says. “You’re cuddling with him right now.”

“What?” I am so dull-witted that for a moment I don’t understand what he is saying. I’m not cuddling the king. I’m hugging... Mattias...

I stare up at Mattias. “You’re the king?”

“It would seem so,” Mattias says, looking down at me, those handsome stern features composed in spite of the fact I can see the slightest twinge of humor around his lips. “And you’re in trouble.”

I look around at the four men in front of me, and that statement rings entirely, utterly true. Not one of them is pleased with me. Mattias is pleased to see me, but that is not the same as being happy about what I’ve done.

“Uhm...”

“If you wouldn’t mind, gentlemen,” Mattias says, his eyes never leaving mine. “Get comfortable. Find your new quarters and let the outfitters know what you need. I have missed this little girl, and I’d like to handle her.”

Little girl. The word makes me quiver to my very core.

I called him Daddy once. He feels more like a daddy than ever. There is something stern but caring about him, even in this new form. I have not known him like this, unleashed in his full masculinity. He is truly incredibly handsome.

“Good luck,” Silver waves as he leaves. Alexios and Pharaoh don’t say goodbye. I am certain I will see them very soon, and I am just as certain that I will be in pain when I do.

“Uhm...” I repeat myself nervously.

“Come here,” Mattias says, taking me by the hand.

He leads me into what has become his palace. What was once a great building of industry is now his realm. It is the same building the sheriff once occupied, but it is transformed in ways big and small, mostly by his presence. He was always elegant in his bearing. Now he is regal.

We move through the place, and the atmosphere is even more noticeably changed in here than it was in the city outside. The oppression that hung in every hall is gone. The guards are at attention and proud to be there, they are not cowering and simpering and vicious-eyed as they were before.

“How did this happen? There was war...”

“Don’t worry about that,” Mattias says. “Worry about you.”

It is impossible to be worried about me. With him, I am safe. I have always felt it, and now I see the protection I felt when I was with him extended to the city as a whole. I have been sensing his presence since I entered the city, I just didn’t realize it.

He brings me to a room with a balcony, a view over the old city. It is reclaimed in large part by the wilds now, and we see trees and vines and bird life making the most of the wreckage of the old world. It has a melancholy beauty to it, new life rising from ruins.

Mattias wraps an arm around me and together we stand in the silence of the reunited.

“I missed you.” He rumbles the words. His voice was always nice, but it is deeper and richer now. It holds more command.

Those three words bring a flush of tears to my eyes. “I missed you too. I thought you were...” I take a deep breath.

“I know. I am sorry.”

“You tried to warn me. You tried to show me. In that field. But I didn’t listen, and...” Hot tears are running down my face. He was right all along. He must be so furious at me.

“You did what your instinct told you to do. You were wild and untamed. Nobody bears you any ill will. It was what it was. You changed the course of our fates and the world is better for it.”

“It’s not better for Tore, or Keanau, or Zen, or Cowboy, or Elias. So many dead...”

“They chose to be near you. They knew the danger. We all saw the blood spill from the sheriff’s neck and we knew what that would lead to. They chose their fate, Trissa.”

I sniff. “So... none of the others survived?”