The Warrior King (Inferno Rising) by Owen, Abigail (online e book reading txt) 📗

even realize she did that? “I’m not one of your strays who needs protecting. That’s my job. If we lose you, we lose everything.”

She glared at him, eyes swirling a darker blue, swallowing the white with her inner turmoil. “If I lose you…”

She cut herself off, eyes going wide, then shook her head and took a step back, away from his touch, her expression turning suddenly uncharacteristically cool as she guarded her heart, hiding herself from him, and, seven hells, he wanted to chase that look away.

She crossed her arms, the defensive move a jab to the gut, but he forced himself to remain still and calm.

“I can’t do this without a black dragon shifter at my side to guide me and stand up for me.” She canted her head slightly to the left, as though acknowledging Rune’s presence in the room, but didn’t take her gaze from Samael. “You are Gorgon’s most trusted adviser. It has to be you. I… I…” She dropped her arms, pulling herself up to her full height. “I order you not to go without me.”

She did just not say that. Albeit with a waver in her voice, but still. Samael crossed his arms, mimicking his unclaimed mate’s stubborn scowl.

Tyrek stepped beside them, in view but not between them. The white dragon clearly had enough sense not to try that. “Why don’t we pause, take the time Meira needs to rest anyway, and discuss options?”

“Get some rest,” Kasia reminded them all that she and Brand remained distant witnesses to the room. “Gather your strength. Let’s regroup in your morning time. What time zone are you?”

“U.S. Pacific,” Aidan answered when no one else did.

Kasia reached for a button on her side of the console. “Eight a.m. Pacific, then. We’ll call you.”

The screen went black. Meira didn’t even turn to say good-bye to her sister, holding her ground and her glare at him.

“You need to eat,” Samael said. All he could think of to say.

She rolled her eyes, then turned to Rune, her expression shifting to a polite but distant smile. “According to my captain of the guard, I must be fed now.”

Ouch. She really was upset, relegating him to staff, essentially. And that was not at all what he’d said, or even implied.

Despite the two-ton weight that had settled over his shoulders the second he’d learned of his beta’s death, knowing exactly what that meant for him, Sam had to bite back a smile. Meira might be unaware, but she was changing. Growing bolder. As if she’d given herself permission to speak her mind and take a stand. Still sweet, but that core of steel always had to have been there. Though he suspected she didn’t realize that herself.

“Would that be possible?” she asked, her expression softening for Rune. Because Meira would hate taking her frustrations out on an innocent bystander.

Rune’s eyebrows went up, and he glanced at Sam, who shrugged.

“Of course,” Rune said after a moment. “It’s close to dinnertime, and I think Sera’s cooking tonight.”

“She is,” Aidan confirmed.

“At least it’ll be edible, then.” Tyrek offered her an arm and walked her out of the room. Meira went without another glance in Sam’s direction.

Sensing her need for space, even if he wanted to crowd her, make her admit they were meant to be, Samael waited for the others to file out before following.

Except Rune stood outside the door, clearly lying in wait for him. “We need to talk.”

No shit.

Watching the distance grow between him and Meira as she walked down the hallway, away into the darkness untouched by torchlight beyond, felt almost like a vision, like the fates warning him of things to come.

That, in the end, he would lose her.

Every trace of amusement vanished, leaving him vibrating with dread and no outlet for it, like a live electric wire flapping in the fucking wind.

“If you’re thinking what I think you’re thinking, then you are well and truly fucked.”

Samael jerked his head around to find Rune watching Meira’s progress down the hall. “I’m well aware of my fuckedness.”

Rune blew out a sharp breath and turned to face him. “And Gorgon? After all he did for you?”

Samael closed down at the question. But Rune, maybe more like him than he cared to admit, didn’t give up. “He made you Viceroy of War because he trusted you.”

“I know that,” Samael growled. “I also know his last request was that I protect her. I’m doing everything I can.”

Rune eyed him in silence for a long moment. “Yeah. I guess you are.”

A hell of an admission from his hard-ass captain.

“But you need to ask yourself… Is your priority her or the clan?”

“Is that what you asked yourself when you went rogue?”

Samael waited for Rune to lash out at that, aware he was being an asshole. Except the other man merely shrugged one shoulder. “I told Gorgon what I was planning before I did it.”

Shock stopped Samael’s feet midstride. “You…what?”

For once, the dour expression lifted. “Didn’t expect that, did you?”

No.

“I couldn’t tell my team. I wasn’t going to drag them down the same path. But Gorgon understood. In fact, he’s the one who reminded me about this place.”

Samael shoved his hands in his pockets as he mulled over that piece of information. “The king sanctioned you going rogue.”

“He couldn’t openly do that. But…yeah. Gorgon was a good man.”

“Is a good man. And I’m going to find him.” But what the hell would that mean for him and Meira, because he couldn’t turn his back on his mate, either?

Rune gave a sharp nod. “I believe you.” He glanced down the hall the others had disappeared down. “But if you can’t see the conflict of interest, I sure can.”

Not see it? It’s all he could think about, seeing no path to get them all where they were supposed to be. Where his bones told him he needed to be.

“Are you sure she’s your mate?” Rune asked.

“Have you mated yet?” Samael asked, rather than answer the question directed at him.

A muscle ticked at