The Warrior King (Inferno Rising) by Owen, Abigail (reading a book txt) 📕

moment, but he was right. Whatever happened next, she had Sam. She would always have him.

“Let me call my men and bring them here. Best if they convene Gorgon’s Curia Regis and escort us there. The council are who we must win over first.”

Releasing her hand, he disappeared through the large, open doorway that led to the rest of the apartment.

Curious, Meira looked around her at her new mate’s home.

The basic bathroom led into a basic bedroom. Single king-size bed. One armoire for clothing and one bedside table also carved from the rock wall, protruding like a hovering ledge. No personal items. No pictures or books or even a small token or memento. As though his life hadn’t been worth remembering. A thought that pressed on her heart. Together they’d make memories worthy of keepsakes that they’d both get to enjoy.

The bed was made simply with black sheets and a gray comforter. She smiled at the sight. The colors of his clan, of course.

My clan.

A shout in the hall beyond the suite snapped her out of her wandering, and she swung around to find Samael already crossing a small entryway to a door of solid dragon steel.

“What was that?” she asked.

He held out a hand, telling her to stay there, and she waited quietly as he cracked the door open. She couldn’t see, her view blocked by the wall of the bedroom, but she could hear fine. Feet pounded by through the hallway.

Samael closed the door and locked it before moving to the other side of the suite. Meira moved forward, hovering in the doorway that opened into a living/dining/kitchen combo. Like in Ben Nevis, a massive glass door looked out over a stone outcropping. Not a balcony, exactly—more a slab of solid rock, big enough for a dragon to perch, that protruded out over a massive cavern.

Even from her vantage point, she could see dragons flying past, their shadows flashing through the sheer black curtains, though she didn’t hear a sound. Silent black dragons. So different from Ben Nevis. The blue dragons created a whirlwind when they flew inside the mountain in any kind of numbers.

Samael turned away from the window, reminding her of a raccoon that used to ransack their trash in Kansas, with black scales surrounding his eyes like a mask. And a look that speared through her heart, pinning it to her spine. “What’s happening?” she asked.

“The king!” A shout sounded from the hallway, muffled by the door.

King?

No one had seen them yet. No one knew they were here or that Samael had come to take his throne with his mate at his side. What king were they shouting about?

Realization dawned, and her stomach pitched and rolled as though the solid rock beneath her feet had turned into a sinking ship on roiling ocean waves.

“Sam?”

No emotions filtered to her. Nothing. That invisible wall had slammed up so high around him, she wondered if she’d ever get through again. The nothing from him only fed the fear slithering through her, joining the sensations tossing her around on that violet sea. “Sam. Please. Talk to me.”

He slowly raised his gaze, and his eyes… She imagined his eyes might look that way when he died.

“Sam?” she prompted.

“Gorgon isn’t dead…” He shook his head, gaze blazing to life even as he took a step away from her. “He is alive, and he has returned.”

Chapter Sixteen

Fuck.

The king was alive. His king, his friend…was alive. The man who was under the belief that Meira’s vows held her to him until he could claim her body…was alive.

And Samael was being torn apart from the inside.

His dragon blasted a roar in his head so loud he shook with it. The sound reverberated with challenge against anyone trying to claim her, but also with terror they’d lose their mate. Especially given where Samael’s immediate thoughts were already going. Beneath those first two instinctual, bone-deep emotions lay grief, for the man he’d have to fight was not only his king, whom he’d been loyal to for centuries, but his friend. One of his few true friends.

How could I do this to him? To the clan? How could I have put Meira in this position?

Because his actions would be setting her against her sisters and everything they were trying to achieve, but also against his king and clan—no way would his people ever accept them after this. Not as their king and queen. Not as members of the clan at all.

Not as anything.

Hell wasn’t a deep enough pit to hurl him into. As her mate, his job was to protect her, make her happy. Fucking impossible now.

He forced himself to look at the woman staring at him with wide eyes, her face so pale she might as well be translucent. He’d made vows, but so had she. Sacred vows in front of the Blue, Gold, and Black Clans. Witnessed. Technically, she belonged to Gorgon.

I have to fix this.

Only one way to do that.

“Stay here,” he ordered.

“What?” She started toward him as he unlocked the door and slid it back. “No.”

“I’m not asking, Meira. I’m telling you.”

She’d lifted an imploring hand toward him as she walked. Now she dropped it to her side, eyes narrowing. “An order?” she asked. “Talk to me, Sam.”

“Can’t you see my emotions right now?” He snapped the words, feeling like a bigger asshole for turning this on her, but not willing to take it back.

Meira winced. “No. That wall of yours is up.”

Good. He didn’t want her feeling this. “Stay here. It’s for your safety.”

“I can use the mirrors to search for him—”

“I know where he is if he’s here.”

“So I go with you.”

“No.” His hands curled into fists at his sides. “It’s not safe for either of us out there.” Not if Gorgon was alive.

“All the more reason to do this together.”

“Dammit, Meira.” The words came out more dragon than human, the growl snarling out of him. “I can’t…”

Fuck. He’d been about to say he couldn’t lose her,