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

was her own sorrow for that fact. Then she crawled to her knees to face him. “I’m sorry. Truly. I know what he meant to you. Anyone could see your loyalty, but also your affection for him. I thought to mate him, but, more than that, I genuinely liked Gorgon. I think you know that. But even he would want us to do what’s right here.”

Seven hells. Did she not understand the position she was putting him in? Gorgon had been a second father to him. At the same time, a dragon shifter waited for ages to find his mate, a day they lived, breathed, dreamed, and fought for. Stole for, too, apparently, based on Rune’s stories.

Meira was his.

He had absolutely no doubt of that. But to ask him to simply forget that and take her in such a clinical manner? “How can you sit here and propose—”

She put her hand on his forearm, the physical connection cutting off his words. “We don’t have time, Sam,” she said quietly. “You know this.”

That she used the nickname only she dared sent a few more arrows into his heart. Because, gods forgive him, he wanted her with the force of a thousand suns.

He shook his head.

“I wish we could take the time to mourn Gorgon together, to honor him first and figure things out later, but the clan is falling apart. If we lose them, the war is lost and that monster who killed my mother wins. Is that what you want?”

Sam dragged a hand over his face, because part of him reached for her with everything he had inside him. She could be his. Except the hole in him left by the death of his king might be too deep in this moment. This was too soon. Too hasty.

Meira held her blanket around her body with one hand and cupped his face with the other. “To be a king is a terrible honor. Gorgon knew that. I think…” She took a deep breath. “I think by placing you in the position he did, he believed you could be a man worthy.”

“I’m as common as dirt.”

“Not to the king, you weren’t. I saw that. You know that.” She moved her hand over his heart.

Sam closed his eyes, trying not to lean into her touch—or the dangerous, seductive answering thoughts swirling inside him.

“Your people need an anchor, Samael,” she said, low and soft, her voice a seduction by itself. “Together, we can be that for them. Together, we’re both harder to deny. A king with a phoenix at his side, and a queen mated to a king from the clan, a leader chosen by the previous king. Together we’re stronger.”

Politically, she was talking about. But what about…

She searched his face, her expression almost willing him, compelling him, to buckle to this new possibility.

Only…

Another shake of his head, and he opened his eyes. “This isn’t choosing me, Meira. Dammit.”

A confusing mix of sorrow and surety swirled in eyes gone navy.

“Just because circumstance has put us here doesn’t mean I don’t want to be here,” she said softly.

His control slipped a notch. “What are you saying?”

She tipped her head. “I’m saying that you’re right. You’ve been right all along.”

Was she saying what he thought she was? “Right about what?”

“We are mates.”

His shock must’ve shown in his face, because her eyes widened, her face paled, and she jerked her suddenly trembling hand from his cheek. “Oh gods. You were testing me? You didn’t mean it—”

He snatched that hand in both of his, flattening her palm against his chest so she could feel the tattoo of his heart against his ribs. “I meant it.”

Through that connection, he felt the shudder that rippled through her body—her emotions like his, like an underground river, so deep and strong they had to bury them. “Why didn’t you tell me sooner?”

She huffed a bitter-sounding laugh. “How could I? I’ve been fighting it with everything I have because I promised…” Her voice broke, and she shook her head. “We weren’t possible when Gorgon was alive. A human woman is fated, but a phoenix gets to choose. That’s what I was taught. I had made my choice, made a promise, one that potentially affects not only a clan, but all dragon shifters.”

The pain in her voice was like dragging sharp blades over his own skin.

“Turning my back on you was killing me a little at a time. You spoke to me in that mirror, and that was it. I looked for you in every reflection I saw after that, until the day I proposed to Gorgon, and there you were…”

Samael could only shake his head in wonder. “I never would have guessed. Still waters run deep with you, Mir.”

She gave a small shrug that about knocked him out, because she so obviously didn’t expect his understanding, her dark-blue eyes full of worry. “The same as with you, Samael Veles.”

She couldn’t be playing on his emotions to ensure their mating? His dragon gave a small growl in his head that he even considered that to be her motivation.

“We should sleep,” he forced himself to reason. “Rest and make decisions tomorrow.”

Meira’s chin wobbled, and he groaned a protest as he kept himself from pulling her into his arms. “You’re not sure if you can believe that I’ve chosen you. Are you?”

He wouldn’t lie to her. “This is happening too fast.”

“I know.”

“I won’t use you to buy my clan’s loyalty.”

Her lips twitched. “I’m the one propositioning you.” A blush bloomed in her cheeks, spreading down her neck. “I’ve been pulled in a thousand directions and torn to shreds trying to do what’s right.” She swallowed hard, a plea in her eyes. “What if what’s right is also what we both want?”

How could he walk away from a world with her in his life? Even with everything that it brought.

“Sam.” She whispered his name. Almost like a vow.

Then shock speared through his heart as she, with a boldness to rival her sisters’, opened the blanket, arms wide,