Forbidden Honor (Dragon Royals #1)(61)

I wanted a new house, a new life, if we eventually managed to put the Scourge behind us, and I lived long enough to become king. I wasn’t entirely sure I wanted to be king, but at least I could be a better man than my father.

One of my father’s advisors, Rand, greeted me inside the glittering hall. “Your father asked for you to wait for him in the informal dining room, your highness.”

“Thank you.” I made my way through the enormous dining room, where the long table was set for a hundred, to the smaller dining room off the throne room. The table was set for just one in front of the enormous fireplace, where flames danced merrily, and I eyed it warily. My father hadn’t actually invited me for dinner, then.

I was never very fond of his surprises.

Pend kept me waiting there for a while. He was very fond of those power plays. But I stood and waited patiently, knowing better than to disobey.

My brother royals and I sometimes went against our fathers’ wills, but not without good reason. Reckless rebellion didn’t serve anyone. Despite what my brother seemed to think.

When my father finally made his way in, he wasn’t even alone. One of his men, Lugan, shadowed him. Apparently, we weren’t having an intimate father and son chat today.

Pend didn’t have bodyguards. He didn’t need them, but he did have rough men who did his bidding, who went out and did violence on his behalf.

Some poor sap was getting his ass kicked tonight, if he were lucky. If that poor sap were unlucky, he’d end up dead. My father didn’t mind murdering people himself, but he was all about being efficient.

I greeted Lugan, who gave me a curt nod. I had known him all my life. But his loyalty was to my father, not to me.

Pend didn’t move to hug me, but he never had. “How has the academy been treating you?”

“It’s always fun,” I said.

Pend had founded the academy to train shifters, to help us fight the war against the Scourge. I had a wealth of ideas about how we could make the academy work better to give more of our people a good chance of surviving. But he wasn’t particularly interested in my ideas. He made that very clear.

“I heard that you’ve been quite the ladies’ man,” Pend said.

That was not exactly a new part of my reputation. But a chill still ran through me. I didn’t want Pend anywhere near Honor.

I should have stayed away from her. But there was something about her that was so magnetic, my common sense got lost in the fray.

“I need something to do when I’m not training or fighting.”

“Wet your dick all you please with the noble girls,” he said lightly. “More dragon-born can only serve us. But I heard you’ve been toying with one of the maids.”

“Yes,” I admitted grudgingly. There was no point in lying to him. My father had spies everywhere.

As much as I liked Damyn, sometimes I worried that he answered to my father too well. I wouldn’t blame Damyn for choosing the king over the prince. But I still hated the thought. I’d looked up to Damyn all my life in a way I could never look up to my father.

“It’s one thing to plow the fields amongst your peers. We’ve already had one shame in the family. Can you imagine if you impregnated this maid, if you have a child of your own who was a squirrel or chipmunk?”

“I know, Father. I’m being careful.”

“The only way for you to be careful is to stay the fuck away from this girl.”

I nodded. “Understood.”

“So you’ll stay away from her?”

Everything in me wanted to resist him, but I didn’t want to risk him hurting Honor. “I will stay away from her. It only happened once—it was nothing.”

“I want to remind you not to let it happen again,” he said.

A ball of ice formed in my stomach. Was one of Lugan’s friends on his way to visit Honor right now?

“You don’t need to remind me. I’m standing right here. I’m going to remember.”

“See that you do,” he said, his voice cold.

Lugan moved toward me.

And that was when I understood. I was the one that was getting my ass kicked today.

I didn’t dare ask him to leave the girl alone. He would’ve known then that she mattered to me.

I’d been so stupid to let Honor close.

I didn’t care what Lugan did to me. I deserved it—just not for the reasons my father thought.

My father sat down to his meal, spreading his napkin across his lap, as Lugan stalked toward the fire for the brand. The door opened, and two more of my father’s men moved into the room.

Apparently, my beating was going to be the dinner entertainment.

I’d survived dozens of beatings over the course of my life. I turned toward Lugan, not giving a damn, even before those two men tackled me against the wall.

My father sipped his wine as Lugan carried the red-hot brand toward me. An enchantment to keep me from easily healing—as this was my reminder.

Yet when I closed my eyes, it was still Honor I saw.





Honor



As I listened intently for the predator, my heart pounding in my ears, some part of my brain still managed to muse, I should never have had sex with Jaik.

Of course Jaik and Talisyn were loyal to Branok and Lynx, not Lucien.