Total pages in book: 130
Estimated words: 117336 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 587(@200wpm)___ 469(@250wpm)___ 391(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 117336 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 587(@200wpm)___ 469(@250wpm)___ 391(@300wpm)
I stare at her, because she keeps asking that. The look in her eyes is both wild and sad, desperate and unhappy. Something's troubling her. Something big. An uneasy feeling flares in my gut. "My love," I say gently. "If someone has told you something awful about me, enlighten me. I've never hidden my past, not from you. I've done bad things to get where I am, but I have told you that before—"
"Do you know the name Zohr?" she asks.
I think for a moment, then shake my head. "No. Why?"
Her lower lip quivers, and it sends a knife through my guts. She's distressed and I hate that. "Are the drakoni slaves?" she asks, her voice wavering. "Are you enslaving them? The ones on the wall?"
I go still. Hot prickles of alarm move up my arms and over my scalp. Breath leaves me and I feel as if I might choke. The secret, the very thing I've been trying to protect her from…someone's told her. Even so, I try to remain calm. Whoever has destroyed the faith she has in me—however misplaced—is going to die. Painfully. "We've talked about this, my mate. I'm helping them."
Melina's nostrils flare and she glares at me. "You're lying to me, aren't you? When Emma said that you hurt Zohr—that you trapped him and tried to use him to fly up to the Rift, I didn't believe her. I thought she was just angry and using you as a target for her rage. But the more you speak, the more I worry that it's the truth. You see, she knew a whole hell of a lot about how you capture dragons, and that's the part I keep coming back to."
Emma. Emma. It gives me no…
Wait. The unruly female who ran away with my captured drakoni before I came to Fort Dallas? Who destroyed my building with me inside and nearly killed me as well? My memories of that time are hazy, but…I remember her. I remember her, and I remember her vague scent…a scent that lingers on my mate's clothes even now. "Who have you been talking to?"
"You know," she hisses. "You know! Tell me the fucking truth, Azar. Tell me the truth so I can decide if you ever, ever get to touch me again." Hot tears pour down her cheeks, and she looks so beautiful in her fury. But those tears…I hate her tears. I hate her sadness. I can't tell her the truth, though. She would never love me after that.
I can lose everything but Melina. This fort, my powers, anything…just…not her.
Please.
I don't know who I'm pleading with. "Melina," I say gently. "Just…listen…"
"What kind of monster are you?" she whispers.
She knows. "Your monster," I say in a ragged voice. "Yours. Please, Melina, let me explain—"
"My lord!" One of the militia knocks frantically at the office door. "A drakoni with a rider has been spotted and they're heading for the barracks. Your presence is needed!"
"Leave me be," I snap. I turn to my mate, desperate to touch her, to caress her, to make her realize this isn't what I wanted. I need to fix this. Somehow I have to fix this.
"But sir—"
Melina clears her throat. "He'll be right out." She turns toward me, "You should go."
Go? Right now? It feels as if the world is ending around me. The light in Melina's eyes, the joy when she looked at me—all of that has disappeared and I'm helpless to somehow fix it. "I'm not leaving you. Not until we resolve this."
Melina wipes her cheeks, composing herself. "There's nothing to say. I have nothing to say to a slavemaster. You've betrayed me so incredibly deeply that I can't breathe." A fist clenches between her breasts. "I've defended you," she says, voice choked. "I've told so many people that they're wrong about you. That you can be hard, but you're still fair. That you've got the best interests of everyone here in the fort. I've had your back." She shakes her head. "And you've never, ever had mine."
"That's not true," I begin, but my mate sweeps past me, her hand fluttering over her tangled hair. She opens the door, smiles at the guard waiting there, all composure, and heads out into the main room of the clinic. She speaks to one of the men working beside one of the cots, her voice gentle and even, as if she wasn't crying just a few moments ago.
I stare at her, my heart pounding in my throat. It feels as if everything is tumbling away from me, and I'm helpless to change it.
I've been a Salorian all my life. That's what I know how to be. How do I become the male that Melina needs?
Chapter
Twenty-Five
AZAR
I storm out to the courtyard just in front of the barracks. My mood is shit and growing shittier by the moment. I want to turn and look for my mate, to seek out Melina's presence, but I don't want to see hatred in her eyes when I look for her. I don't want to see the judgment in her gaze. I don't have answers that she will like, and that's worse than no answers at all. So I move forward, glaring at everyone that comes close.