by Loki Renard
Strangely, she had never felt so freakish as she did there, wearing a dress that was far too gorgeous for her, and that clung to curves she had never fully acknowledged before. In this dress, she did not look like a pet, she looked like a lady. And that was about as strange as she had ever looked.
The door opened, startling her out of her thoughts. She looked up to see Valkimer beckoning her with a crooked finger. He reached out and took her by the arm and led her into King Casimer’s chamber, but not before his brows rose at her and an approving, admiring smile spread over his lips. She could not help but smile back at his obvious appreciation of her fine appearance. It impishly occurred to her that if he was truly impressed, perhaps he would allow her to wear clothing more often in the future instead of wandering about naked all the time.
Her first impression of King Casimer was of a very large man wearing white leather armor, dominating the room simply with his presence. She lowered her eyes away from him, afraid to look at him directly as she walked, until curiosity got the better of her and she looked up under her lashes.
He had a certain gravitas, a deep age and power that made her nervous to her core. Not in the way she was with Valkimer and Chak either. It was not a sexual response. It was one of pure biological awe, like being at the zoo and suddenly finding that there was nothing between herself and the largest predatory animal of all time.
There was a certain likeness between Casimer and Valkimer, almost as if Casimer were some ancient ancestor of the dragon who stood by her side. Brianna was so overwhelmed that it took a moment to realize that Mika was there too, sitting in a smaller version of the king’s carved throne. She looked older than she had in the room, more serious and composed. They made a stunning couple together. Even in her beautiful gown, Brianna felt out of place before them.
“Curtsey,” Valkimer murmured under his breath.
“Uhh…” Brianna stuck her left leg out and wrapped her right one around behind it, ducking her head and sending her body into a spin from which Chak and Valkimer only just managed to save her by catching her arms.
“She’s not practiced in courtly manners, sire, I apologize,” Valkimer uttered to the king, while shooting a sharp glance toward Brianna.
“Her manners are the very least of things you have to apologize for, Valkimer.”
Casimer spoke with a deep, majestic voice that made the tremors in Brianna’s knees even worse. She felt so small, so utterly human between these three great dragons and the princess who was part dragon herself. She wished she could curl up on herself and hide, but it was impossible.
“Sire.” Valkimer bowed his head. “This is Brianna. Our pet.”
“Brianna,” the king repeated. “Welcome to my realm.”
“Hi,” she said, giving him a small wave. That probably wasn’t how you were supposed to greet a king, but it was hard to think, let alone work out what she was supposed to do. She felt Valkimer stiffen by her side and knew he would have something to say about that later on.
Casimer did not respond, but Mika gave her a little wave back, and a smile that made Brianna feel a little bit better.
“I hear that you were brought here against your will, Brianna,” Casimer said. “Have you been harmed?”
She glanced at Chak and Valkimer. The king caught her look and waved his hand in their direction. “Leave us,” he said. “I will speak with her alone, so she will speak the truth and feel no fear in doing so.”
Brianna cast a panicked glance at Valkimer and Chak, but they were already following the king’s orders. They bowed and left the room, leaving Brianna to the dragon king’s intense scrutiny.
“Do not fear me,” Casimer said, his tone softer in the absence of those with which he was displeased.
“Um… okay.” Brianna chewed her lower lip. That was easier said than done. Casimer was an intensely frightening creature. The power he wielded was like no other. He was the absolute ruler of the realm and he carried himself as such.
“Have you been harmed?”
The question was not as easy to answer as it seemed.
“I…” She shook her head. “I mean… they’ve done things to me no man on Earth would ever do, but I’m not… harmed by it. I don’t think I am, anyway.”
“Dragons always do things men don’t do,” Mika chimed in compassionately.
“They’ve made me their…”
“Pet, right. They do that,” Mika said, coming down from the dais with what could only be described as a conspiratorial and compassionate smile. She sat down on the woven rug that covered the step up to their thrones and drew Brianna to sit with her, sideways so Casimer could see their faces as they spoke.
Casimer sat back and stayed silent as Mika and Brianna talked. If he minded his wife commandeering the conversation, he showed no sign of it.
“They’ve never hurt me, but they’re really strict about things. Their rules and whatever. They… you know…”
“They punish you if you don’t obey them,” Mika finished her thought again.
“Yeah…”
Mika looked up at Casimer with a little smirk. “Dragons do like to be obeyed.”
“Though it seems to be an increasingly rare occurrence these days,” Casimer rumbled. “The more humans in the realm, the less obedience from all manner of parties.”
“I’m sorry,” Brianna said quickly. “Are you going to send me back?”
The dragon king gazed down at her. “Do you wish to go back to your world?”
She shook her head slowly. “No,” she said softly. “I suffered a lot back on Earth. I didn’t have anything. And apparently I have some fucked-up… I mean, messed-up genes. I’m healthier here. Stronger. Happier. When Valkimer and Chak took me, they really only wanted to profit, but I’ve gotten more out of this than they have.”
“Yes,” Casimer rumbled. “You are currently in the company of flesh traders. Taking a pet is one thing. Selling women to the highest bidder is something very different.”
“I don’t think they knew what they were getting into,” Brianna said, speaking more freely than before. “I don’t think they knew what I’d actually be like.”
“A dragon never knows what he is getting into when he involves himself with a human woman,” Casimer drawled with something like a regal smirk. “Are you speaking in their defense because you wish me to be merciful toward them, or because you wish to stay with them?”
“Both.” Brianna lowered her eyes as she made what felt like a shameful admission. How could she possibly love two men who had taken her with the intent to sell her? She could feel the king’s pity and judgment and she did not like either.
“That is a sweet sentiment, but they have trained you extensively, so perhaps your will cannot be said to be truly free. It may be that I keep you here in this realm, perhaps add you to the royal household. Mika is in need of a human companion.”
Brianna bit her lip to try to stop the flow of tears.
“I don’t think she wants that, Casimer,” Mika said, seeing the pain in Brianna’s eyes.
“We may have to make decisions in the short term which do not reflect her desires,” Casimer said. “Brianna will adjust. She is still young.”
“I don’t want to adjust,” Brianna said in a voice too soft to really hear. Mika reached out and squeezed her arm, a sympathetic look on her face.
“Don’t worry,” the princess whispered. “It is going to be alright, I promise.”
“Mika, take Brianna to her chambers.” Casimer said. “I will speak with the criminals again.”
“They’re not criminals,” Brianna said, panicking as she realized her audience was coming to an end and she hadn’t really said anything in their defense. “They broke the rules, is all. And they did something good for me. They got me out of a hell on Earth and they found out about all this genetic engineering. You should be giving them awards, not yelling at them.”
“Brianna, were I to yell, I can assure you, you would know it,” Casimer s
aid with a patient smile. “Your defense of your partners is admirable, but unnecessary.”
“I’m just saying. I look like a lady now, but I didn’t when they met me. I was really fucked up. I was selling drugs just to get by. I hated everyone and everything and everyone hated me back. People would throw stuff at me on the streets and call me names and worse… and nobody ever took the time to help me. Even when I was younger. I grew up with nothing and nobody. I’ve been on the street since I was fourteen. For the last couple of months before they found me I was living with, like, six other people in a two-bedroom place. I was going nowhere. I probably would have been dead in a year or two. Someone would have hurt me, or maybe I would have just hurt myself doing something stupid to get money. Valkimer and Chak took me and made me their pet. And yeah, they were planning on selling me, but they took care of me. They fed me. They clothed me. They did all sorts of weird sex stuff, and made me their pet, but they treated me more like a person than anyone on Earth ever did. They talked to me and they taught me things and… and they didn’t sell me either. They could have. When they found out I was weird, they could have just sold me to someone and gone and got some other girl… but they didn’t. They sent someone to find out what was going on with me. Nobody has ever cared what was going on with me… they found out where I came from… they…” Her eyes flooded with tears and her voice cracked with sobs as she found it impossible to speak.
Mika drew her into a hug and held her as she sobbed against the princess’ shoulder.
Chapter Fifteen
Valkimer paced the antechamber for the hundredth time. He desperately wanted to know what was happening in the king’s chamber. What was Brianna saying? Was she making it worse for herself? Was she angering Casimer?
“How can you sit there so calmly?” he snapped at Chak, who had not moved from the seat he had taken when they first entered the antechamber.
“There’s nothing to do but wait,” Chak said. “A warrior doesn’t waste his energy. He conserves it.”
Valkimer gave him a little snarl.
“Valkimer! Chaksley!” The king’s voice boomed from the room beyond. They both moved swiftly back into the king’s chamber, finding that only Casimer was in residence. He was no longer sitting, but standing in front of the throne, his hands on his hips as he glowered at them.
Where was Brianna? What had he done with her? Valkimer felt his chest clench with tension at the idea the king might already have sent her away. He began to make plans in his head to retrieve her, plans that were interrupted by Casimer’s next words.
“It was utterly reprehensible of you two, having attended my wedding to the crown princess, to turn around and decide that humans could be a source of revenue.”
“We realize that now, sire,” Chak said quickly. “We realized it swiftly. As soon as we had her, it was obvious that she was possessed of an intelligence and sensitivity far beyond what we had anticipated. We learned that humans make excellent pets not because they are dull-witted creatures suitable for trade, but because they are lively companions in need of protection and care.”
Casimer gave him a searching look, then a curt nod. “I could not have said it better myself,” he rumbled. “Did you come to the same conclusion, Valkimer?”
“It was not as obvious to me,” Valkimer admitted. “But I admit I have become fond of her.”
“Fond,” Casimer ground out. “Fondness does not begin to cover what has happened here. I should then accord custody and ownership of this human to Chaksley.”
Valkimer’s eyes opened wide and his jaw dropped with pure surprise. This had not been mentioned in any of their conversations. “Sire! That is not our agreement. Chak and I…”
“I don’t care what your agreement was,” Casimer said with a curt gesture. “It was against my law and I will not honor it. All I care about at this stage is that this girl does not suffer any more for your greed than she needs to.”
“Please, sire…” Valkimer’s voice sounded hoarse and desperate even to his own ears.
“What?”
“Do not make me beg for a human, sire.”
“After all that has passed, your arrogance remains intact,” Casimer growled, leaning forward with his pale eyes lit with a disappointed anger. “You will not lower yourself to speak words of care for her, is that it? You, a kidnapper, a flesh seller, feel you are too good for such demonstrations? Or are you truly indifferent to her?”
Valkimer felt his pride withering and bursting into flame under the king’s wrath. He could not keep up the pretense that had kept him at a safe distance from his own feelings toward Brianna.
“I love her,” he admitted through gritted teeth. “And it would devastate me to lose her.”
“I have never heard such an avowal of love given so forcefully and also so reluctantly,” Casimer smirked. “Valkimer, there is no shame in love. The girl you have taken deserves it, and I would say she has earned it a hundred times over. Make no mistake, gentlemen, if it were not for the little human pet and her loyalty to you, you would suffer a far greater punishment.”
“Yes, sire,” Valkimer said, uncharacteristically humbled.
“I will not separate you,” Casimer declared. “From what I have seen, Brianna is as attached to you two as you are to her and it is largely for her sake that I am showing you mercy you have not earned and do not deserve. You will make amends and atone for what you have done. For the moment, you are all to stay in the castle quarters you have been assigned. Be ready to be called forth at any time to right the wrongs you have committed.”
“Thank you, sire,” Chak and Valkimer intoned, bowing and speaking with near perfect synchronicity.
“Make no mistake, gentlemen, you have disappointed me sorely,” King Casimer added. “You have broken my law, allowed an exile to return, and disgraced your names. Get out of my sight.”
* * *
“Well, he didn’t throw us into a dungeon. Yet,” Chak noted as they made their way back to their rooms.
Valkimer nodded. His temper was roiling beneath his calm exterior. To be spoken to in such a way galled his ego, and it was even worse for the fact that he knew Casimer spoke the truth. He knew very well that they were escaping the brunt of the punishment they deserved, and gratitude should have been uppermost in his mind. Instead, he felt an incredible guilt that only grew the more he meditated on the king’s words.
“You’re alright!” Brianna threw herself between them as they stepped through the doors, her face lit with a bright smile as she hugged them both. “I was afraid he was going to do some horrible dragon punishment to you.”
“He’s working on it,” Chak said, softening the words with a reassuring smile as he kissed her thoroughly.
Valkimer strode across the room and threw himself into an armchair where he glared out the window.
“We could kill him,” he mused, sliding his hand underneath his chin and narrowing his eyes toward the horizon, as if it had personally insulted him.
“Kill Casimer?” Chak hissed the word in a scandalized whisper.
“No, not Casimer, of course,” Valkimer growled, turning his annoyance on Chak. “I mean Lazarus. If we destroyed Lazarus, that would be the end of at least one of Casimer’s concerns.”
“I don’t think becoming free range executioners is going to earn us Casimer’s favor. He exiled Lazarus for a reason. He did not want him dead. If he did want him dead, he could send an army against him.”
“So we sit here, waiting to discover our fate?”
“It’s not much fun being a prisoner, is it?” Brianna’s soft voice broke into the conversation.
Valkimer shot her a sharp look, but there was no smirking schadenfreude on her face, just simple empathy.
“No,” he admitted. “It isn’t. Come here, pet.”
He saw the nervousness in her face as she approached him, not knowing if she was to be punished or not. His guilt grew as he realized just how unpleasant he had been toward her. His pet wor
e her heart on her sleeve, and must have impressed Casimer greatly during her audience. And all he had done was keep her emotionally at bay, afraid of what would happen to his ego if he admitted how much he loved her.
Valkimer drew Brianna onto his lap and looked into her curious gaze. What must she think of him? He cast his memory back over the acts of the previous weeks and realized that most of the time he had either been fucking her senseless or thrashing her round bottom. Had he ever actually taken the time to be softer with her? He was not sure he could remember such a time.
“I faced the possibility of losing you today,” he told her, brushing stray hair out of her face. “And I never want to face that again. I don’t know what Casimer has in store for us, but I know that it will not be easy. I need you to know something, pet. Whatever may happen, I need you to know that you are more to me than an amusement, or a product for sale. I love you.”
She looked up into his face with a smiling green gaze. “Well, of course you do.”
“What?” Valkimer exclaimed in surprise. “I have just been thoroughly lectured on the fact that I have not expressed my feelings. Are you telling me you know them anyway?”
“It is nice to hear you say those words,” Brianna said, leaning up to press a sweet kiss to his cheek. “I’ve never been loved before but I know what I feel from you and Chak. It’s like… if you’d lived your whole life in the dark, and then you saw two lights. You wouldn’t need them to tell you that they were lights, would you. You’d just know from the way they made everything brighter.”
He looked down at her with wonder. She was a constant surprise, sometimes being so innocent of everything he barely understood how she had managed to survive her rough upbringing, other times impressing him with insight beyond even his own.
“So you know,” he said, pressing kisses to her temple and cheeks. “You know I love you and that I would never sell you.”