“Becoming acquainted with your lands?”
William started from his frantic thoughts and looked around him. Jarnay waved at him from the bottom of the hill. She was talking on one of the hand held devices the aliens used for communication. Perhaps it was she who had called Dragan here.
“I didn’t hear you approach.”
Dragan grinned and sat down on the same boulder William was using as a seat. The moment he did, and their thighs touched, and their arms brushed, William had to take a deep breath. It was ridiculous, he thought, how easily Dragan aroused him. Proximity was all it took, and sometimes not even that.
“I came around the back,” Dragan said slowly. “This is one of my favorite spots to sit and look out on the town from. That’s why this boulder is ice free. I have heating crystals under it.”
“I did wonder.”
“So,” Dragan asked. “What do you think of your lands?” He waved a hand in front of him.
“They are not mine,” William said. “As you have reminded me more than once.”
“No,” Dragan said. “They’re not. But one day they will be again.” He paused. “You must have noticed by now how many humans live on these islands.”
“I have.”
“They are drawn here by tales of our prowess, or because they seek shelter, or maybe they are just curious.” He shrugged. “Either way usually they end up staying.”
“And?”
“Our people are intermixing. That will continue. It is unstoppable.”
William frowned, because he’d started to think along those very lines. It was impossible not to on these islands. Seeing aliens and humans hand in hand, embracing, kissing, or simply just working together, the way forward for their world was obvious. And then too was whatever was developing between him and Dragan. If the two leaders of their people had grown so close… “I have noticed.”
“And do you realize what it will mean?” Dragan asked.
“Tell me.”
“That sooner or later there will be one ruler of this planet,” Dragan surprised him by saying. “And he or she will rule all areas. This is something I have considered before, but now, with the end of the war approaching, with you being here, with the stories we have shared, I see it happening very soon.”
“Do you see yourself in that role?” William asked.
Dragan grinned. “You know that I do not. I never wanted to lead. I have no desire to rule the world.”
“Yet you rule here.”
“I had little choice. It was always what was best. But in the future?” He shrugged. “I am hopeful that someone else will take the lead. What of you? You became king only because your father once was. Is that what you desire?”
“I don’t see that I have a choice.”
“There is always a choice.”
“In matters such as this there rarely is.” William sighed. “You know, Dragan, we are more alike than you realize. Neither of us wished to be in the positions we’re in, and yet we are. We both think there might be an opportunity to escape at some point, but deep down we both know there will not be.” He laughed softly. “We’re both trapped.”
“Perhaps so,” Dragan said. “But your prison is different to mine.”
“How so?
“You are king of this world. If we defeat Maylor you will be king of all.”
King of all… William shuddered. That was both a wondrous and worrying thought. For all of his short reign the world had been split, and the idea of it being whole again was something he could not yet grasp. And yet it would be if they had their way, and then he would have so much work to do to put things right. William swallowed unsteadily. There would be plenty of time to think about that in the future. One obstacle at a time!
“King of all,” he said slowly and then with a soft smile, “but not the islands.”
Dragan took his wrapped hand then. William looked down at their interlinked digits and felt his heart hitch.
“Yes, the islands,” Dragan said after a moment, and his voice was soft, almost accepting in some way. “Because I have thought long and hard about it these past days, and in order for the northern aliens to accept you I will have to do so too. Publically. Visibly. It is the only way they will follow.”
William sucked in a shocked breath because he had not expected this. “You’re willing to do that?” he asked. “Even after what you have said about these being your islands.”
“My islands…” Dragan shook his head. “I stayed out of this war for as long as I could for many reasons, the islands being one of them. They’re home to many and I have cared for them, but they have never really been mine. And now? As the end comes? You have pulled me in, you have shown me something else, and I will do whatever is needed to finish it.”
Pulled me in…
Silence settled between them. William tried to work his mind around what Dragan was saying. About what it all meant. He feared he knew, and he had no idea what to do about that, and so he did the only thing he could think of, tried to lighten the moment.
“Was fucking me worth all of this?” he asked.
“You’re asking if the bargain we made was worth it?” Dragan asked.
“Yes.”
“More than worth it,” Dragan said. “More than.”
Silence again and William took a deep, unsteady breath. The moment had not lightened. There was a clear, heavy tension between them. It was practically swirling in the cold air.
“William,” Dragan said softly. “You realize that things cannot go back to normal once the war is over.”
“Of course” William said. “The world will be different.”
“I do not just mean the world,” Dragan said. “I mean you and I.”
“I don’t—”
“You need a warrior by your side.”
“A warrior?”
“You are smart,” Dragan said. “But you lack strength. You need that strength. I thought to give it to you. That you would leave here with it. But I realize now that it is not as simple as that.”
“I have strength enough,” William said.
“If that were the case your lords would be rallying around you.”
“They are—”
“Taking the easy option.” Dragan sighed. “A warrior would have pushed them into doing what is right.”
And William understood then exactly what Dragan was trying to say. Understood and felt his breath catch in his throat. “You’re saying that you’re that warrior?”
Dragan squeezed his hand. “I suspect so. I have suspected it ever since you arrived. It has simply taken me a little while to accept it.”
“Then why did you resist it?” William asked. “Why the bargain?”
“I resisted it in the same way that you continue resist your attraction to me,” Dragan said. “You do not want to admit to it because by doing so you will have to accept it.”
William sighed, caught in the truth of Dragan’s words and equally as caught in the truth of his world, his position. “It is not as simple as that.”
“Your desire battles with your duties?”
He nodded. Dragan was painfully perceptive. “Precisely. There are things expected of a king. I must marry in the future, beget an heir.”
“To do that you will need to lie with a woman?”
“Yes.”
“Then pick one and do so,” Dragan surprised him by saying.
William almost laughed. “It is not as simple as that. I would need to marry her. To live with her. To love her.”
“To love her?” Dragan said and he was frowning now. “That will not be possible,”
And William knew he shouldn’t ask, knew that by doing so he was opening a box that he was never going to be able to close again, but like everything where Dragan was concerned he couldn’t help himself. “Why?”
“Because,” Dragan said, and his voice was soft now, soft like when they lay in bed together, darkness around them, whispering and touching. “We both know that your love will
be elsewhere. For someone else.”
William closed his eyes. “What are you saying, Dragan?”
“That I do not wish to part from you now.”
He kept his eyes closed. “Our agreement was that I would be with you until we sailed for the capital.”
“I know.”
“That was the terms we agreed on.”
“And I will not renegade on them,” Dragan said. “But I do not want to give you up after that, William. I want you to be mine.”
Such a persuasive thought and for one moment William was caught up in it. He imagined spending every night with Dragan. Waking up with him every morning. Lying in his arms whenever he so desired. But then he thought about the capital, about the court, about his people… “It would never work.”
“Why?”
“Because.”
“Ah, William,” Dragan sighed. “At least come up with a better excuse than that! It would work perfectly and you know it. The two of us together? A melding of both our people? It is the perfect solution for the end of the war.”
“My people…the court…”
Dragan let go of his hand and pulled him into his arms.
He was so warm!
So solid!
How, William thought for the very first time, and with something that felt like panic, was he going to deal with walking away? With never seeing Dragan again?
It will hurt.
The thought slammed into his mind and he almost winced.
There was no denying it now. Leaving Dragan, parting from him, was going to affect the king in a way he had never thought it would. That was fact.
“My people,” he repeated again. “The court…”
“Your people?” Dragan asked. “Your court?” He placed a kiss on William’s head. “In the end, they will do as their king, and their general, do.”
And again, William did not want to ask, feared what the answer might be, but was unable to stop himself. “And what is that?”
“Live together,” Dragan replied softly before placing another kiss on him. “Love together. For in the end, my king, what else is there but that?”
Chapter Fourteen
Dragan was in a curiously excited mood. He had been for the past twenty-four hours ever since he and William had sat on the heated boulder outside of town. That mood had only increased this morning when the intelligence he had been waiting for had finally arrived, and was likely to increase further before the day was through.
Because everything was coming together.
All the hard work of the past weeks reaching fruition.
And Dragan was ready for it…well, most of it at least.
The king on the other hand? He frowned slightly as he hurried across the open space of the town and towards his house. The king was another thing entirely.
Their conversation yesterday had been, Dragan had to admit, a little premature. When he’d thought it through, and Dragan had thought about it constantly, accepting his feelings for William in the same, easy way that he had accepted the desire, he had imagined they would talk after the plan came to its climax, not before.
But William had sat there, looking all pink and flustered, and a hot rush of longing had spread through Dragan to the point where he was unable to keep his thoughts to himself any longer.
He had declared himself before thinking to do otherwise, and now everything was out in the open, and now it was all in the king’s hands.
Dragan had no idea what the king was going to do.
He knew what he wanted to do.
Knew what the king desired.
But whether he was strong enough to admit to that, to fight for it, was another matter entirely. Because Dragan was not so removed from the mainland that he didn’t realize what an outcry their relationship would cause. The everyday people, those who were more interested in living their lives in peace and safety, would probably accept it. Certainly, those on the islands would. But the others? Those in the capital, not to mention those in the north who had lived through the horror of the war? It was entirely possible that they would not be as accepting, and if the king lost their support?
Dragan frowned as he hurried past the shopping area. Considering what might happen if the king’s people were split. A civil war perhaps? Doubtful, not after the pain of the past few years. But William’s position might become vulnerable. He might even lose his throne.
Dragan suspected the king would not entirely be bothered by that, not on a personal level. The king had no real desire to lead, but did so only because he felt he must. But the affect on society? It would be huge. William had no heir and there was no obvious person to take his place. The most charismatic characters, those that might have challenged him, had been lost in the war, or were even now still trying to fight it. And those who were cowering below the capital? No one would accept them. Dragan was sure of that.
And so, what were their options?
To brazen it out. That was what Dragan had decided. They would return to the capital together.
Victorious.
The war finished.
Maylor and his army travelling away from this world never to return.
And the king would announce that. Tell them all that they were safe. That together he and Dragan had rid their world of its greatest enemy. And there was no need to announce his relationship with Dragan. But over time, when people saw them together they would know. And slowly but surely they would accept it, because they would have to.
That was the only option.
Whether the king was going to be willing to do it though. Whether he was going to be strong enough…that was not yet decided.
They had made love last night, not fucked, loved one another, their bodies pressed tightly together, saying with touches and kisses what could not yet be said with words. At the end of it Dragan had held William close and whispered how beautiful he was, how much he loved for him, wanted him. The words fell easily from his lips, because Dragan had accepted that love days past. His feelings for William had developed shockingly quickly, but they were there, and it had never occurred to him to try and deny them. That was no his way.
William had sighed softly, burrowed against Dragan, but he had no whispered words of love back. He was not ready. Dragan accepted that. Would deal with it for now. But at some point…
He sighed and picked up his pace. His house was in view now and Dragan was eager to get home. The knowledge of what was about to happen thrumming though him. Because of that he had been out and about all morning, readying his people for what was to come, making sure all was in place and good to go.
The plan was about to reach climax.
The end was near.
And Dragan grinned slightly as he thought of it now, because the plan had not been his idea. He wished it had been because it was beautiful in its simplicity. It had actually been Ulie who had come up with it, and once he had Dragan had been shocked by how perfect it was. A way to end the war with very little bloodshed. A way to deal with Maylor once and for all.
He reached down and fingered the bracelet on his left wrist. It was hot now, jarring almost against the cold around him. Soon it would begin to glow and then…
“Dragan?”
He looked up, spotted Lei and frowned. “Lei? What are you doing here? You’re not at your post.”
“I know,” Lei said. “But I have news.”
“Speak.”
“It has begun,” Lei said.
Dragan sucked in a tight breath. “You’re sure?”
Lei nodded. “I have already evacuated my people. The docks are completely clear and they are coming.”
“I thought we had a few more hours,” Dragan said.
Lei shook his head. “They had some lead ships that were not obvious. They slipped past the sentries somehow.”
“How long until all arrive?” Dragan asked.
“Any moment now.”
Dragan clamped a hand on Lei’s shoulder. “Your bracelet is active?”
“They all are.”
“Then get to your post,” he said. “And get ready.”
Lei turned and hurried off. Adrenaline began to pump through Dragan and he hurried too, because this was it, this was what he had worked towards for these past weeks. The ship was prepped and ready would be launching any moment now, and the tech… the bracelet seemed to hum against his skin. It was ready too.
“Time for the end, Maylor,” he whispered. “Time for the end at last.”
He picked up his pace and raced towards his home. It was time and then some to tell the king what was about to happen. That the plan did not involve travelling to the mainland for one very simple reason.
In the end it had always been about ego. Maylor believed he was unbeatable. Believed he was right. And so a word here, some false intelligence there, and it as easy enough to make his eyes fall on the islands.
Maylor had stayed away for one reason and one reason only. He believed their stasis units were a threat. Worried that Dragan would find a way to get him, and his people, inside of them.
That was the only thing that kept him on the mainland battling the king’s armies.
Dragan had always known that he would much rather be here, battling Dragan. It burned him that Dragan ruled where he did not. Dragan had no doubt that Maylor would like nothing better than to finish him before going on to finish the William’s armies.
It would make perfect sense in his twisted mind.
And so the traitor…
And so this…
Maylor, and the vast majority of his army, were coming because they thought the stasis units were lost, broken, unusable And because of that, because of the plan, before the day was through they would be leaving.
Back to the stars and away from this world at last.
Chapter Fifteen
Something was happening. William was sure of it. Had been since he had awoken to an empty bed and a whispering house.
He paced in the feasting hall, awaiting Dragan’s return, though in truth William would much rather have been out and about, finding out what was going on, trying to gather some sort of intelligence. Only, he knew, king or not, that if something was happening, if Dragan was up to something, that the people on these islands would not talk to him of it. King he might be, but Dragan ruled here, and so William had no choice but to await Dragan’s return and demand some answers.
The Claiming of a Virgin King Page 10