“My bed, royal. This is my bed. Not yours. I allow you to sleep here. And I allowed them to sleep here. I do not see what problem is.”
The door to the bedroom slammed open. Dagmar Reinholdt stood in the doorway with her mate. She took one look and her hand covered her open mouth, her eyes widened in shock and despair.
Her mate, however, began to laugh—until Dagmar brought her fist down very close to his balls.
“Ow! What was that for?”
“King Gaius,” Dagmar began, “I am so sorry about this.”
“Sorry for what?” Kachka demanded. “We do nothing wrong. It is not like we fucked him while he slept.” She abruptly looked at Ivan Khoruzhaya. “Did we?”
“Why are you looking at me?”
“Because you are male. And if there is hole, you must fill it.”
“Well, I did not fill any of his holes.”
Unable to listen to another second, Gaius roared, “Get the fuck out of my bed!”
“Not your bed. My bed.”
“Shut up!”
“I saved your life!” Kachka shot back.
“You should have left me to die!”
“Next time I will!”
“I do not understand,” Dagmar snarled, “why you did not just take him to one of the many rooms we have available.”
“You all waste space. I do not understand why you waste so much space! And it is not like he is so important.”
Fed up, Gaius took in a breath, ready to unleash flame that would destroy every Rider . . . and most likely the entire room. He didn’t care. He cared about nothing at the moment. Because this was ridiculous!
But before he could burn them all to ashes that he would roll around in like a pig rolled in its shit, Dagmar’s mate joked, “Maybe you should fuck him, Kachka. It might loosen him up a bit.”
When Gaius’s head snapped around, Dagmar squeaked a little, then dropped into a crouch, her arms over her head. He appreciated that. Because he unleashed a ball of flame that sent the gold dragon flying out of the room and over the banister outside.
“Owwwww!” the Gold cried out when he hit the hard stone floor below. Gods, that poor floor took a lot of abuse.
“Feel better now that you hurt another?” Kachka asked.
“Shut up.”
“King Gaius,” Dagmar said, standing. “Please. Allow me to show you to another room. Your own room.”
“Yes. Horse gods forbid some royal should be forced to share anything with another.”
“Shut up,” Dagmar snarled at Kachka. Then she took in a deep breath, let it out, and stretched out her arm. She motioned to Gaius with a twitch of her fingers. “Please, my lord. This way.”
Gaius stood, trying to pull the fur covering around his bare ass. But none of the Riders would move. So, he yanked, sending them all flipping to the floor.
Feeling sadly triumphant over that, he wrapped the covering around his waist and allowed Lady Dagmar to show him from this room and these ridiculous people!
Dagmar placed him in a room beside Annwyl’s.
“King Gaius, I am so sorry—”
“No, no,” he said, sitting on the edge of the bed. “No need to apologize, Lady Dagmar. This was not your fault.”
And it wasn’t! Gaius wasn’t lying or trying to ease her discomfort. It really wasn’t Dagmar’s fault.
It was Kachka’s!
“Would you like me to order water for your bath?” Dagmar asked.
“Actually, I think I’ll go out to one of the lakes.” He needed to shift to his natural form. He needed to feel water against his scales. He needed to be away from here!
Dagmar nodded. She’d lived with dragons long enough now to understand. She stepped out into the hallway and peered in both directions. She finally raised her hand. “You. Boy. Come here.”
A young boy ran over and Dagmar gestured to Gaius. “Please escort the king to the lake that Prince Fearghus likes to use.”
“Aye, my lady.”
“And make sure to stop by the gates and get some clothes for his majesty as well. He’ll need them when he’s done bathing.”
“Aye, my lady.”
Gaius moved into the hallway, stopping by Dagmar’s side long enough to nod down at her. “Thank you.”
“Of course. Anything you need, King Gaius.”
Normally, Gaius would never need so much use of his title, but at the moment . . .
Gods! That woman!
Kachka was pissing in the chamber pot, sighing loudly from the pleasure of it. She’d drunk much the evening before and was glad she hadn’t pissed the bed.
Honestly, she didn’t remember getting in bed with the dragon. Or bringing the others with her, but she truly did not see the big deal of it all. Riders shared beds. The winters on the Outerplains were brutally cold and sharing beds for warmth was typical. Yet these Southlanders acted like it was the most outrageous thing one could do.
Whatever. Let the dragon be pissed at her. She didn’t care. Life was too short for such bullshit!
Deciding she wouldn’t worry about it for one more second, Kachka was about to stand when the door slammed open again.