Wolf Princess Sold to the Dragon King novel Chapter 160

Chapter 160: He Opened Every Bottle, Smelled None

Somewhere between unconsciousness and the smell of whatever the hell he’d put in that bath, Guinevere Drakencrest rejoined the living.

The first thing she registered was cold. An icepack against her neck. Wonderful.

The second thing that registered was Maddox.

"There she is." His thumb traced her cheekbone. "Morning, baby."

Her face went hot immediately. The blush arrived before a single coherent thought did, her body’s priorities apparently being: step one, turn scarlet in front of the Dragon King, step two, figure out where she was, step three, maybe remember her own name at some point if there was time.

She blinked at the ceiling. Wrong ceiling. Wrong walls. Wrong light. This was not their chambers. But there were more pillows and she appreciated that.

"We’re across the hall," Maddox said, reading the confusion on her face before she finished having it. "Our quarters are getting scrubbed. Long story. Boring really. Something about my wife getting attacked by dark magic. I’ll tell you later."

Guinevere had started keeping track: "later" was Maddox’s favorite dumping ground for anything he wanted to forget for a little. Usually it aligned with what she wanted to also remove from her memory, so there were no complaints on her side. Just a growing pile getting taller by the day.

His lips found hers. She jolted at the sensation. Gods she missed that.

He lifted the ice from her neck and set it aside. Then he offered her his hand. She took it, and the warmth of his grip against her cold fingers sent something rolling through her chest that she chose to ignore because she was already blushing and adding a second layer of feelings to the blush was going to turn her into a medical event.

"Bath’s ready," he said, pulling her to standing. "You’ve got thirty minutes before the Luminari healer arrives."

She blinked. "Luminari healer."

"Landon’s man. Coming at dawn. He’s going to look at you." He said Landon casually, like they’d known each other for years and with enough confidence that she almost believed the situation was normal.

He walked her to the bathing chamber. The smell hit her three steps before the doorway did.

It was strong. Aggressively strong. The scent of something floral mixed with something herbal mixed with something that might have been pine if pine had ambitions of becoming a weapon. The bath was full, steaming, and a deep, alarming shade of green that suggested either healing properties or a terrible mistake.

She looked at the water. She looked at him. She looked at the water again.

He had done this himself. She could tell because the bottles on the ledge were arranged with the chaotic confidence of a man who had opened every single one, smelled none of them, and poured generously on the theory that more was better. One bottle was on its side. Another was uncapped. A third appeared to have been used entirely.

It was the most adorable thing she had ever seen in her life.

"Thank you, Maddox." She kept her voice soft and her observations about the smell to herself.

She stepped in. The water was perfect, which made the smell more forgivable, and she sank down until the heat covered her shoulders and the green swallowed her collarbone.

Maddox climbed in behind her without a word, without asking, without making it a thing, settling against the back of the tub and pulling her against his chest like this was something they had always done.

She leaned into him. His arms came around her, loose, warm, and she let herself relax into him.

"Thirty minutes," he repeated against her hair. "Then they look at you, and I’ll be in the room the whole time. Landon’s healer is seeing Kael after you."

She remembered last night.

It came in flashes, out of order, a broken reel of images that played too fast to hold.

Then the reel stopped.

Kael.

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