Wolf Princess Sold to the Dragon King novel Chapter 33

Chapter 33: Drop Her? How About Kiss My Ass.

"Where is the girl?" Aldric set a tray of vials on the war chamber table. "She has missed both of her healing tonics today."

Sterling did not look up from the map he was annotating. "Since when did she require healing tonics?"

"Since the dark magic, Sterling. Blair too. Tissue damage from the dark magic extraction."

Sterling continued writing.

Blair entered next, her boots sharp on the stone. "Where is Gwen? I have been looking for her since this morning. Her chambers are empty. The training field is empty. Ryker’s quarters are empty, which I checked out of sheer desperation, and I am now standing in the war chamber asking the Third of Drakencrest where my brother’s wife is, which should concern everyone in this room."

Sterling set his pen down. He looked at Aldric. Then at Blair.

"She is merging with Maddox’s flame today." He delivered the information with the emotional weight of a weather report.

The silence that followed had texture.

Aldric’s hand opened. The glass vial of Gwen’s tonic slipped from his fingers and shattered on the stone floor. Green liquid pooled around his boots. He did not look down.

"She is what."

"You heard me."

Aldric’s voice dropped to a register Sterling had never heard from him. "You do realize that there is no surviving female in forty years."

Sterling considered that. Then shrugged. One shoulder. Minimal effort. "She carries more than dragon blood."

"How long has she been gone?" Aldric’s voice was climbing.

"Since yesterday."

Blair’s hand went to the bridge of her nose. She pressed hard enough to leave a mark. Her gold eyes, identical to her brother’s, burned with a fury that was half terror.

"Sterling. I swear to every god we have. If she is dead." Blair’s voice was low and even and carried more threat per syllable than Ryker at his worst. "When Maddox comes back, every ounce of blame lands on you."

Sterling stood, and rolled his eyes. He rolled the map unhurried.

"I will go check on her." He tucked the map under his arm. "Everyone in this room needs to relax."

✦✦✦

On the mountain, the dark mage materialized beside Kael in a whisper of black smoke.

He reached for the girl.

Kael’s hand caught his wrist before the fingers made contact. The grip was fast enough to blur. The dark mage froze. His hooded face turned toward Kael slowly.

"No." One word. Quiet. Final.

The dark mage withdrew his hand. Kael released the wrist without looking at him.

He bent and picked Gwen up off the snow. One arm under her knees, the other behind her back, forehead in the crook of his neck. The motion carried a familiarity that should not have existed between a man and a woman who had met twice under violent circumstances.

More heat poured into him through the contact, and his body absorbed it with effortless recognition. The same that had shattered his composure sixty seconds ago.

Her breathing steadied and muscles unclenched by degrees.

Even barely conscious, her wolf bristled at the wrongness of it, at the fact that relief was coming from hands that had choked her in a forest. She tried to pull away, a small, weak motion that moved nothing.

"Really? You want me to put you down," Kael said flatly.

Her eyes were too heavy. The relief was too total. The tipping point between consciousness and unconsciousness had been the burning, and now the burning was leaving, and her body surrendered to the absence of pain with the gratitude of a system that had been pushed past every limit it had.

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