Last Dragon Standing (Dragon Kin #4)(101)

Definitely a whore.

The Ruiner grabbed hold of the barmaid, dragging her in front of him to use as a shield.

“Protect me, Dana!” Gwenvael begged, and Ragnar could only hope he was joking. “Before this merchant of evil and her dim-witted henchman destroy us both!”

Ragnar went ahead and assumed that he was the dim-witted henchman.

“You whore,” Keita said again. “What about your mate? What will she say when she finds out?”

“You can’t tell her!” Gwenvael wailed. “She’ll kill us all! ”

“How can I not tell her the truth?” Keita argued. “How can I betray womankind everywhere?”

The woman pointed at Keita. “She’s the one who threw me out the window.”

Gwenvael stared down at his sister, his wailing and crying stopping instantly. Both brother and sister were performers, but Keita was much better at it. “You threw her out a window?” Gwenvael asked.

“I was saving the ungrateful goat’s life. Remind me next time not to bother. Honestly, if I’d known she was just one of your whores…” She certainly did toss that word around.

The woman stepped closer to Keita. “I am no whore, slag. And I knew I should have killed you when I had the chance.”

“Perhaps, but you were too busy wiping that old man’s come off the inside of your thighs to have the time.”

Gwenvael snorted, and both he and his sister burst out laughing.

“Ignore us, Dana.” Gwenvael, wiping tears from his eyes with one hand, gave the confused human a coin pouch with the other. “As promised.”

“Thank you, my lord.” Eyeing Keita coldly, clearly seeing her as the bigger danger, the woman backed away until she got to a side door and slipped outside.

“I’m doubting she’ll be back,” Ragnar said.

“She works for me, and I pay her well,” another voice said from the shadows. “She’ll be back.”

Dagmar Reinholdt’s dog, Canute, stepped into the light, and Keita backed into Ragnar. “Good gods! The dog speaks.” Ragnar only had a moment to cross his eyes before Dagmar stepped in behind her dog. Keita let out a breath. “Thank the gods that was you, sister. What a relief. Can you think of anything stranger than a dog being able to speak?” Dagmar’s eyes studied the three dragons in human form standing before her and, eventually, shook her head. “No, Princess Keita. I can’t think of anything remotely stranger than that.” Keita grinned. “There’s that sarcasm again.”

“Me? Sarcastic? Never.” And the words couldn’t have been spoken with a flatter inflection if the woman had been dead. With her pale hands clasped together and resting against the skirt of her gown, the warlord’s daughter appeared almost…virginal. A young spinster who’d joined one of those nunneries. But for her eyes. For Keita, those cold, missed-nothing eyes were the giveaway.

Which added up to one thing for Keita the Viper—she was truly beginning to enjoy her brother’s choice of mate! Dagmar Reinholdt was so blatantly ruthless and mean, so direct with it that once Keita bothered to look past all that grey…Honestly, how could she not adore the human female?

“Why are you here, princess?” Dagmar asked.

“I live here,” Keita explained. “These are the lands of my people.”

“Is that the game we’re going to play?”

“I do love games.”

“Keita,” her brother chastised.

“Oh, fine. I recognized the girl and wanted to see who she was working for. Imagine my surprise to find out it was you two….” She let her grin grow wider, her gaze bouncing back and forth between the warlord’s daughter and Gwenvael. “I had no idea you two enjoyed those kinds of games. Very nice choice, brother.”

“Isn’t Dagmar wild? You should see her when she’s training her dogs!”

“Stop it. Both of you.”

Keita placed her hand on Dagmar’s arm. “There’s no shame in hiring a whore to satisfy your needs, Lady Dagmar. I’d do the same if I couldn’t decide which I preferred more, a c**k or a puss—”

“You and I both know Dana is no whore.”

“Perhaps murderess is more apt a title?”

“What does that make you then?” Ragnar asked Keita.

“Loyal to my people. Now shut up.”

“Was it your loyalty that led you to Lord Bampour’s room that morning?” Dagmar asked.

“I was merely concerned for poor Lord Bampour’s health. He wasn’t well at all at our dinner.”

Dagmar’s lips twitched into what could almost be called a smile.

“She’s a much better liar than you, Defiler.” Gasping in practiced horror, Keita pressed her hands against her chest.

“Are you suggesting I’m lying, Lady Dagmar?”

“I’m suggesting you wouldn’t bother using truth if it promised to erect a temple in your honor.”

Keita held up one finger, waved it. “I beg to differ on that.” She shrugged at Ragnar. “I’ve always wanted a temple.”

“Where males from all across the land could come and worship you!” Gwenvael cheered.

“Yes! And they’d have to bring me gifts because I would be a god.” She sighed. “I love gifts.”