Dragon Lords Books 1 - 4 Box Set: Anniversary Edition

by Michelle M. Pillow

  “Father,” Yusef interrupted. “I know all this. What is your point?”

  “I fear the Var have spies within our walls. We need to keep up the appearances of being a united family. I need the noble marriages to settle and produce children. I need the people to believe that the system with Galaxy Brides still works.”

  “My bride is stubborn,” Yusef said. “I do not know if a week is enough time to make her behave. You saw how defiant she can be, and she hates royalty with a readily voiced passion. Bringing her out in public might do our reputation more harm than good.”

  “I understand,” the king said thoughtfully. “As long as your other brothers can get their brides to come around, yours can be excused. All saw how she bled on the morning of your wedding. I’ll have your mother make something up and spread the rumor through the maids. At least those gossiping girls are good for something. Give me a manservant anytime over a bunch of chattering women. With all the headaches they cause, I can see why our genetics weeded them out.”

  Yusef chuckled. It was an old joke, but still extremely fitting.

  “Are you staying in your wing tonight?” the king asked.

  “No.” He felt somewhat better after speaking to his father. “I’ll go back to the outpost. I have Olena tied to a bed. She may be a bit angry right now and I don’t want her screaming and waking the neighbors.”

  The king gave a small laugh. “Fair enough. I know you’ll deal with it fairly. You’ve always had a level head son. It works fairly well with your hot temper.”

  * * *

  Yusef was exhausted when he arrived home. He listened to the bedroom through the door. All was quiet. He hesitated, wondering if he should just leave it alone for the night. Then, unable to stop himself from checking on her to make sure she was unharmed, he went to the door.

  Knocking lightly, he called, “Olena?”

  He was answered by silence.

  “Olena?” He pushed open the door and looked at the bed, expecting her to be there. She was gone. His heart skidded to a stop. Her restraints looked as if they had been chewed through.

  Seeing dots of blood on the floor, he frowned. He instantly went forward and dipped his fingers into the drying spots. Rubbing his fingers, he sniffed. It was hers.

  Fear gripped him and he shifted, running with all his supernatural speed out the back patio. He picked up her scent faintly on the wind. She had been gone for some time. Dashing into the forest, he ran down the red earthen path, flying past the east pond. His bare feet sped over the crushed leaves of the forest floor. His eyes, enhanced in the form of Draig, scanned through the trees, searching her out.

  She was nowhere to be found.

  Chapter 15

  Olena crouched low against the tree trunk, rubbing dirt on her skin to mask her scent. The dusky colored night provided little light to see in the dense forest, and she wasn’t sure how far she could travel before Yusef arrived home from wherever he’d gone. It was possible she ran toward him even now.

  She stood again and ran down the path. Each time her lungs filled, a sharp pain twinged her side. Her weakened body wouldn’t be able to run much further before she collapsed. It hadn’t helped that she’d stepped on the carving knife in her haste to get out of the bedroom, cutting her foot. She’d tried to grind dirt into the wound to stop the smell of blood.

  A dark growl resounded behind her on the path, sounding suspiciously like her name. Yusef hunted her. The same traits in him that aroused her now were working against her. Shifter eyes and ears were unfairly tuned to the environment. He knew this terrain. She didn’t.

  Olena looked around wildly before diving into the brush and crawling behind a large tree. He came up the path. She gripped the rough bark, hiding from view. She held her breath, trying not to move lest he hear her. Closing her eyes tightly, she swore she’d never be a man’s slave again.

  * * *

  Olena waited a long time, pressed against the tree, hugging it because she was too afraid to move. Only when her arms ached to the point she could no longer lift them, did she collapse on the ground. Though her body was weary, she couldn’t stay this close to the path. She couldn’t risk Yusef making another pass by her.

  Desperate, she clutched handfuls of mud and rubbed it into her already covered skin. Hopefully it would mask her scent long enough until she could figure out what to do. She’d never expected Yusef to turn like he did—from caring husband to slave master. When he didn’t get his way, his nature had shifted as easily as his body. But she should have expected it. Hadn’t Jack always said men only wanted one thing from her—her complete and utter submission?

  Seeing a low branch, she went for it and climbed, working her way higher into a tree. She ignored her sore body and tired mind. Finding a particularly large perch, she rested on the branch against the trunk, high off the ground. She closed her eyes, taking what little rest she could. Her plan would be to wait out the dusk. Then, when her body was stronger from sleep, she would move on.

  * * *

  Yusef ran nearly ten miles knowing there was no way she could have gotten any further than that with the time she had been afforded, especially since she was bleeding. To his relief, he didn’t detect any Var cat-shifters within the trees as he had first suspected and feared.

  It was nearly morning and he knew the village would be waking in a few hours. Turning back, he took his time backtracking. He sniffed the air, trying to get even the faintest hint of where she’d gone. He’d lost her scent completely about three miles in, only to pick it up and lose it once more.

  Jogging, barely out of breath, he shifted back to human form. His eyes looked through the darkness for her, scanning the endless trunks of trees. He hated to do it, but he needed to get help. There was too much forest for him to search alone. Picking up his pace, he made the trek home.

  * * *

  Olena was trapped. It was dark, so dark in the tight cargo port. Suddenly, little fingers came through her cage’s grating. They were so tiny, those hands, just like hers. Her body was cramped and hurt so badly. They only let them out once a day to relieve themselves or else the cargo would smell too bad. It was impossible to stand in the little cage. They had been there for months, crunched in those little containers, stacked on top of each other.

  Twisting around, she heard crying. The tears were nothing new in this hellish place. She always heard crying. There were so many children trapped in the crates. Soon the man with the needle would come to poke them with it, shutting them up when he could take their tears no more.

  “Olena,” came a faint call, followed by a sniff and a whimper. “Olena?”

  Olena continued to twist, trying to touch the little hand. When she managed to get around, she felt for the fingers. They were as cold as ice.

  “Sage?” Olena squinted into the darkness to find her sister. A face pressed into the grate. It was an exact replica of her face staring back at her as if from a mirror.

  “Olena,” Sage whimpered. “I’m scared.”

  Olena nodded, too afraid to speak. She couldn’t remember very well what happened next, not even in her dreams. She had only been five. Sage must have started to cry because the man came with his needle.

  “Quiet!” he’d yelled in his stiff voice, slamming her sister’s cage.

  Sage cried louder, screeching in exhaustion and fear.

  “I said quiet!” the man bellowed.

  He must have been drinking, because Olena remember the smell of him. It was the smell of ale coming from an unclean body, stale liquor curling from his pores. When he moved to hit the cage, he missed and tripped over his feet.

  Sage screamed louder in fright. Suddenly, all the children started screaming at the top of their lungs. Sage’s cold fingers dug desperately at the grate, trying to get to her sister through the unforgiving metal.

  Olena held quiet, clutching desperately to her sister’s hand, whispering to Sage to be quiet, not to yell. The man in the black coat hollered for silence but the ot
her children wouldn’t stop. Their voices rose like a chorus of horror—echoing for an eternity in her memory.

  “Olena,” Sage whined fearfully.

  Sage’s cage opened and she was torn from Olena’s five year old hands. A loud crash sounded and then deadly silence. The children stopped screaming. All she heard was her heart beating in her ears.

  The man stumbled off. Someone sniffed to her right. Slowly, Olena edged around.

  “Sage,” she had called weakly when the man was gone. Her sister never answered, would never answer her call again. When Olena finally crawled to the front of the gate, she saw Sage’s lifeless eyes staring back at her. She’d been thrown into the sharp hook on the metal wall, dying instantly.

  Olena’s eyes jerked open with a cry. Her body flailed, as she forgot where she was. The nightmares hadn’t felt that real for a long time. Screaming, she realized she was falling from the tree limb. Her arms and legs flailed in the air. It did no good. She landed on the ground with a heavy thud.

  * * *

  Yusef heard the bloodcurdling scream and his heart nearly stopped. Turning, he shifted once more and ran full tilt into forest, following the direction of the sound. It didn’t take him long to discover Olena on the ground. Her eyes rolled but she did look at him.

  He was surprised when she recognized him in his Draig form, as she said softly, “Knight.”

  She was covered in dried mud from head to toe. That was why he could only get faint traces of her scent. She had masked herself with the forest. Even as he cursed her, he bowed to her cunning mind. Stepping over crushed leaves and yellow ferns, he kneeled by her side. Her arm was broken, the bone jutting out from her skin.

  She stiffened when he pushed her hair from her face. The red flames were muted by the red mud of the earth. Yusef shifted to human form and lifted her up. “You foolish woman.”

  He swore he heard her chuckle in response.

  “You won this round, dragon, but I’ll escape you.” Her voice was strained. She fought against the pain in her arm as he slowed to step over a fallen log in his way. Gritting her teeth, she said, “I’ll be no man’s slave.”

  “No, Olena,” he swore, as he carried her to the path. She grunted in pain, blacking out. “You will never be my slave, but you will never escape me. You are mine.”

  * * *

  Tal placed his hands on his hips, eyeing the mud caked woman. He’d given her something to help her sleep while he set her bone. Her arm was fixed and the bleeding stopped. With little else to do, he put it into a sling and said she would recover.

  Setting his medic kit on the dresser, he turned to Yusef and said, “I’m leaving this here for emergencies. There is a spare kit at the palace. With your accident-prone wife, I suspect you’ll need it.”

  Yusef nodded his thanks.

  “As you to, Prince Yusef, you must get some rest,” Tal said. “This exhaustion won’t do you any good.”

  Yusef glanced at his wife to see if she heard the title. She was asleep and realizing she couldn’t speak their language anyway, he relaxed. “I will, just as soon as I get her cleaned up.”

  “Fine,” the medic said. “I, myself, am going back to bed. Do you want me to report this for you?”

  “No,” Yusef said. “My parents have enough to do right now. I’ll tell them of it later and I would appreciate it if you didn’t say anything to anyone else.”

  “Can’t. I will not share my patient’s private information. Besides, I am loyal to your family, Draea Anwealda.”

  “Draea Anw…?” Olena mumbled, blinking tired eyes. Caught in the haze of pill induced sleep, she asked. “What is that?”

  “Dragon Lord,” Tal answered, matter-of-factly. “It’s what we call him and his brothers.”

  Olena blinked, looking at Tal and then to Yusef. She yawned, her eyes drifting, “I didn’t know you had brothers.”

  She was again out.

  Tal frowned at Yusef.

  “She must be out of it,” he lied, urging the man politely to the door.

  “That’s understandable,” Tal said. “With as much as she’s been through lately, a bit of bed rest won’t hurt her one bit.”

  Yusef let Tal out of the house, thanking him for his loyalty and for the medic unit. It would undoubtedly come in handy.

  When he went back to the bedroom, Olena was asleep. He was too tired from his night of searching and worrying to bathe her. So, instead, he crawled into the bed next to her. He pulled the covers over their bodies and wrapped his arms around her. Holding her was the only way he could guarantee she wouldn’t try to leave him again.

  Closing his eyes, he kissed her dirty temple. She jerked and mumbled incoherently. He sighed, not opening his eyes, as he whispered, “Whatever am I going to do with you, firebird?”

  Chapter 16

  When Yusef awoke late that afternoon, Olena was still sleeping in his arms. He crawled out of bed to check her with the handheld medical unit. For a moment, he considered carrying her to the palace to use the medical booth. In reality there probably wasn’t much the medical booth could do that the handheld hadn’t already done. Her blood levels were fine considering her state. He sighed in relief.

  She awakened him from napping a few times during the day as she tossed in her nightmares. He frowned to think of it. Calling up to the palace on the intercom, he asked his mother to send a maid down to clean the house and cook dinner. Mede inquired after his marriage. By her tone, Yusef guessed his father had told her what had happened. He lied and said everything was going well. She seemed relieved to hear it.

  Then, crossing the hall to his bathroom, he ignored the waterfall style shower in the corner as he began filling the porcelain bath with warm water. It was a large tub, not as pleasant as a natural hot spring, but it had fixtures that jetted hot streams of water and was big enough to fit both him and Olena.

  As the water ran, he went back to the bedroom. Olena hadn’t moved. Gently, he lifted her up and stripped her of her dirty clothes. Then, as she lay there naked, he gathered the clothing and put it in a pile by the door. Next, he stripped his own clothes and set them atop her dirty ones. He grabbed fresh clothes for both of them, put them in the bathroom, shut off the water and went back to gather his wife.

  As he carried her in his arms, she stirred. Blinking in confusion, she tried to look around. Her movements were still weak.

  “Shh,” he whispered when she would speak. “We’re just going to take a bath, nothing else.”

  She must have believed him because she settled into his arms and closed her eyes. Yusef carried her to the tub, shaking her gently so she’d wake up.

  “Try to stand for a moment,” he urged, setting her on her feet in the water. Steadying her, he was careful of her arm, which he had taken out of the sling. He stepped in behind her and slowly lowered her with him into the water.

  Dazed, she looked at him, her lashes fluttering lightly. Her mind would be numbed by the medicine the medic had given her. She didn’t fight him, as he settled back and pulled her to sit between his legs. Though she was beautiful, there was nothing passionate about the way he held her. Even he wasn’t such a monster to think about sex at such a time. Marriage wasn’t only about slaking desires. Although, that was a benefit he would like to have someday.

  “Olena, can you wake up?” he asked. She murmured contentedly and opened her tired eyes. “I’m just going to help you wash your hair. I’m not going to hurt you.”

  “I know.” Her eyes closed once more.

  Yusef’s heart sang at the gentle admission. It was something at least.

  He gently washed the dirt from her hair and then his. Rinsing was awkward, but he managed. Next he rubbed her skin clean and leaned to pull the drain plug with his toes.

  Looking at him, with big emerald eyes, she said, “Not yet. Can’t we sit in here awhile longer?”

  How could he not comply with such a simple request? He drained the dirty water and slowly refilled the bath with fresh, adding bubbl
es to it in an attempt to please her. She smiled, not opening her eyes. When he leaned to turn off the water, he felt her snuggle into him.

  “Olena,” he whispered against her wet hair.

  “Mm?”

  “Who’s Sage?” She’d been saying the name over and over in her sleep.

  “My twin,” Olena answered, for once appearing not to have an internal debate as to whether she should do so. Her legs absently stirred against his as she burrowed deeper into his protective embrace. “She’s dead.”

  He stiffened, unable to imagine losing one of his brothers. He stroked her temple and she seemed to enjoy it, because she nestled and turned into his chest to lay her cheek by his heart. She held onto his neck, absently stroking the raven locks with her fingers. Her other hand skimmed close to his waist. His body stirred at the caress, but he forced his passion to behave.

  “What happened to her?” he asked softly, desperate to know anything about her. He rubbed his hand over her back, rubbing her wet skin beneath his palm as he tried to relax her tired muscles. She moaned in contentment as he glided his fingers over a hip.

  “My father traded us for a cheap drug and to pay off a gambling debt about a month after our fifth birthday. We were sold into slavery.” She stirred, laughing bitterly. “Damned drug couldn’t have gotten him very high. It was a cheap knockoff of the good stuff. I tried it some years later. It didn’t do a blasted thing.”

  “And that’s how Sage died, as a slave?” Yusef stiffened at the admission. He could feel her pain, but he couldn’t keep from asking. He might never get another opportunity to have her open up like this.