Dragon Actually (Dragon Kin #1)(93)

While she finished off the few who’d targeted her, Bercelak destroyed the others. The broadsword still protruded from his back, but he no longer seemed to notice or care.

Yanking the rope off her throat, Rhiannon finished off the few soldiers running from her with a blast of her flame. Showing off for Bercelak, she let it whip out and around trees. Circling around until it leaped out in front of them, enveloping them in fire.

She looked at Bercelak and smiled. “Not bad, eh?”

“I thought I told you to go back to the castle? Was I not clear?”

He was angry, which made her defensive. “I did what I had to do. I’d do it again. And I don’t owe you, Low Born, an explanation for anything I do!”

“So,” he barked while struggling to reach the broadsword sticking out of his back, “I cannot rely on you to follow simple instructions? That’s what you’re telling me.”

“What I’m telling you . . . oh!” She stormed around him and, without an ounce of mercy, yanked the steel from his back.

His pained roar rang out over the valley.

She tossed the weapon down. “What I’m telling you is I did what I thought was right. I’ll always do what I think is right. Including protecting you if I deem it necessary!”

“I don’t need your protection!”

“And I don’t need you!”

She went to walk around him and out of the valley, but his tail caught hold of hers, yanking her back.

“Rhiannon, wait.”

“No!” But with their tails locked together, she couldn’t leave. And Bercelak wouldn’t let her go. “Release me, Low Born!”

“Stop calling me that!”

“Then stop acting like it!”

Both crouching down now, their tails locked, they circled each other. Both ready to attack at a second’s notice.

“You make everything so difficult, Princess.”

“No. I don’t. I don’t need you to baby me, Bercelak. To always protect me. I can’t be queen if you’re constantly stepping in and telling me what to do.”

He stopped moving. “I was only trying to protect you. It’s my job to keep you safe.”

“No. It’s not. If I’m ever queen, I’ll have guards for that. They will protect me from enemies. But I’ll not bed them.”

His black eyes focused on her face. “You better not.”

She finally chuckled. “I hadn’t planned on it.”

“Good,” he grumbled while he took several steps toward her. “I’d hate to kill all those guards for no reason.”

Rhiannon grinned and moved around him, their bodies getting closer and closer. “I will always listen to your counsel, Bercelak. But you must trust me to make the best decisions I deem necessary.”

He stared at her body, but didn’t respond.

“Bercelak?”

“What?”

“I’d actually like an answer on that one.”

He turned back to her face. “An answer on what?”

“Your attention seems to be waning.”

“Not really.” His eyes again roamed over her dragonform. “You’re dragon, Rhiannon.”

“Aye, Bercelak. I am.”

“Then come to me. I plan to take you as dragon.”

She knew how this game was played, although she’d never found anyone worthy. Until now.

With a shake of her head, her white hair falling around her, “You’ll have to catch me first, Low Born.”

Then she took to the darkening skies, her lover hot on her tail.

It was her screaming that woke him the next morning. Bercelak scrambled up and searched the area for more soldiers. But all he saw was a screeching Rhiannon.

A screeching human Rhiannon.

“Look at me! What happened?”

He had no idea. When they’d finally worn themselves out after finding many more uses for their tails, they’d nearly passed out more than fallen asleep, exhaustion of the day and night finally catching up with them.

But when they’d slept, Rhiannon the dragon lay curled against his side, her light sleep-growls making him feel more content then he ever had before.

Yet here she was before him in the harsh light of the two suns. As human. It didn’t matter to him whether Rhiannon was human or dragon. As long as she was his. But he knew it bothered her, which meant he had to fix this.

“Rhiannon—”

“Look at these spindly things!” Her arms flailed wildly over her head. “And all this soft, useless flesh!”

If she were trying to get him hard and lusty, she was succeeding quite nicely.

She turned and pointed at her ass. “And I could be wrong, but I think this thing is even bigger than is normal for a human my size. How is that acceptable?”

Quickly, Bercelak shifted. “Rhiannon, calm—”

“Don’t tell me to calm down! That bitch did this to me, and I’ll make her pay for it!”

She stormed off and Bercelak had a hell of a time keeping up with her. Anyone else, he’d assume they were merely spouting centaur shit about challenging the queen. But he would put nothing past Rhiannon, especially when she was this angry. Yet she could not face her mother now. Forget the guards who never left the queen’s side. Rhiannon was still human—and clearly would remain that way as long as the spell remained unbroken—her powers not nearly as strong as when she was dragon. And since he’d never seen the queen shift to human in all the decades he’d been at her court, he somehow doubted she’d do it now if her daughter issued a challenge. In fact, he felt relatively certain nothing could get the queen to shift to human while Rhiannon still breathed.