“Nay. We became Kings of our dragons because we had the most magic and were the fiercest.”
Darcy frowned. “You’re immortal. So once you become King, no one else can take your place?”
“No’ necessarily. A Dragon King can only be killed by another Dragon King. There were a few skirmishes between packs, but sometimes it was a matter of another with more magic and power wanting to take over.”
“Is that what you did?”
Warrick still remembered the day he became King of the Jades. “A dragon knows when he can be King. He feels the force of the magic and instinctively knows he has more than another. So do the other dragons. The previous King of the Jades wasna ready to relinquish his title. He attacked me, intending to kill me.”
“My God,” Darcy said with her eyes wide.
“It sounds violent, but it isna any more than what humans do to each other. It was our way, Darcy. It’s how we lived.”
“And you obviously won.”
“Aye. I wouldna have challenged him for a few years yet, but he wasna content with that. It was kill or be killed.”
She swallowed. “So you became King of the Jades.”
“Aye. Several millennia passed before the first humans arrived.”
“Arrived? Like on a spaceship or something?” she asked with a twist of her lips.
Warrick scratched his chin. “One day they were no’ here, and the next they were. Once they arrived, each King shifted into human form. That allowed us to communicate with the mortals. They possessed no magic, so we vowed to protect them.”
“You had to know that whatever accord was between you and the humans wouldn’t last.”
“Why no’? Why did it have to end?” Warrick asked, feeling anger begin to rise. “We protected them. The dragons even moved out of areas that had been their homes for eons to give the humans a place to live.”
“Did you ever consider that they were scared of you?”
Warrick scoffed. “No’ a single dragon harmed them. No’ one of the smallest nor the largest of us.”
“So you were happy to have humans share your realm?” she asked with a knowing look.
“I didna say that. Would you be happy if another race of beings suddenly arrived and you had to move entire populations from their homes for these new people?”
Her shoulders slumped, a sad expression coming over her face. “No. I doubt we would be so accommodating.”
“There were angry dragons. We Kings kept them in check. It wasna easy, and we had resentment of our own. But a vow is a vow.”
“And we ruined it.”
Warrick sighed. “We should’ve seen it coming. With every mortal born, the humans became more and more aggressive. They wanted more of our lands. They didna just take our homes, they began to kill our food sources. Hungry dragons can become … violent.”
“You mean the dragons didn’t eat us?”
“We did our best to enforce it, but I know there was a human who went missing every now and then.”
“And you wonder why the humans turned on you?”
“Did I mention that the humans hunted the smallest of us when they couldn’t find food? We each did harm to the other. It’s never one-sided, Darcy. Never.”
CHAPTER
TEN
Darcy shifted in the chair. She was sorry to say that it never occurred to her that humans had harmed the dragons. They were dragons! They had magic and powers. Why would a human ever think to hurt a creature who was protecting it?
She knew what came next in the story, at least from Ulrik’s point of view, but she was eager to hear it from Warrick’s.
He had a way of talking that sucked her into the story instantly. His brogue was deep and thick as he weaved his words around her. And she wanted to hear more. A person would have to be deaf not to have their stomach tremble with excitement every time his rich voice filled the room.
“Despite everything, there were Kings who took mortal females for themselves.”
“Was it the power of a King that drew the humans?” she asked.
Warrick shrugged one wide shoulder. “It’s a possibility. A dragon mates for life.”
“Which wouldn’t be too long since you’re immortal and we humans aren’t,” she pointed out.
Warrick’s cobalt gaze pinned her with a hard look. “It does when a human becomes immortal, irrevocably tied to her King until he dies.”
Darcy knew her mouth opened in shock. This was something she hadn’t gleaned from Ulrik’s memories, and it surprised the hell out of her.
“Exactly,” Warrick said at her lack of a response. “The mortals gained much by a King’s love.”
She closed her mouth? her mind racing as she tried to put herself in a King’s shoes. No wonder they killed Ulrik’s woman. “Will you tell me what happened with Ulrik?”
Warrick got to his feet and ambled around the shop, inspecting the crystals hanging from the ceiling. “Ulrik could’ve been King of Kings. Everyone knew it, including Con.”