Can't Get Enough (Dragon Kin) - G.A. Aiken Page 0,43
back on Bideven. “Who, Bideven?”
Bideven scratched the back of his neck with his tail and stared down at his claws. “Uh…well, my Queen…uh—”
“I cut his throat,” Shalin suddenly piped in, grabbing everyone’s attention. But it was Ailean she now stared at and, with a viciousness he never heard from her before, she added, “And I’d do it again at the asking.”
The room fell deathly silent and Ailean raised an eyebrow. Something Shalin took as challenge. Gasping, she stormed toward him but Arranz stepped between the pair.
“Now, now, hatchlings,” his brother chided with obvious amusement, “let’s be calm here.”
“This is your fault,” Shalin snarled over Arranz’s shoulder. “Your fault. I wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for you.”
Frustrated that he couldn’t speak, Ailean grabbed Bideven by his hair and dragged him forward.
“Ow!”
He hit the black dragon on the shoulder and gestured at Shalin. Looking between the pair, Bideven shrugged. “What do you want me to say?”
Gritting his teeth, Ailean pointed at Shalin, pointed at himself, made circles in the air with his claw, and slammed his fist into the palm of the other.
Bideven’s eyes grew wide. “Am I supposed to understand any of that?” he demanded.
But Shalin gasped and stepped back. “I’m being unreasonable. How can you say that? I’d told you to leave my father to me, but you wouldn’t listen. Like always!”
Ailean slapped his claw against his chest, pointed at the ground with it, and then slashed both arms across each other, accidentally hitting Bideven in the snout.
“Ow!”
“Ho, ho!” Shalin barked. “Do you actually expect me to believe that? Or to base my whole future on that load of centaur shit?”
Ailean flashed his fangs and smoke curled from his snout.
“Don’t you dare threaten me, Ailean the Slag!”
Resting his fists on his hips, Ailean slammed down his back claw, accidentally crushing Bideven’s claw in the process.
“Ow!”
“No,” Shalin answered with a haughtiness he’d never noticed before. Damn royals. “Absolutely not.”
He brought his tail forward to make his point, accidentally slapping Bideven in the back of the head and shoving his kin forward.
“Owww!”
“That’s enough.” And then the queen was there, gently lifting Bideven’s massive head, examining his wounds. “Much more of this conversation and your brother will be dead before the two suns set.”
She gestured Bideven and Arranz away and stood between the pair. Enormous, and one of the rare white dragons, Queen Ganieda towered over Shalin while meeting Ailean eye to eye. “I have to tell you two that all of this complicates things. When your father came to me, Shalin, this was all very simple. Simple because what happened to you was and is unacceptable. Dragons don’t sell dragons. I don’t care if you’re a lower-born, a royal, or future heir to the throne.” Glittering blue eyes cut across the room to a glaring princess. “It was something that was understood, but now the Elders and I have been forced to put that down in writing so there is no mistake ever again.” The queen sighed. “And once that decision was made, well, all need be done was track you down and let you know you could safely return to your life among the humans. Return home to your father. Or, if you so wished, and as Theodoric of the North so humbly offered, go with him into the Northlands and see if you could find your mate there. The choice, of course, was yours.”
She took several steps away from the pair before turning back to face them. “Now, however, things have changed, haven’t they, Ailean the Blue?”
He nodded, his eyes locked with Shalin’s. Without a word, without moving, the greatest battle took place between them. The greatest and the most important.
“You wish to Claim her as your own, do you not?”
Ailean gave one determined nod in agreement.
“No!” The word rang out over the chamber, but it wasn’t Shalin who spoke. She’d only shaken her head to let him know she’d rather eat stone than be his mate. It was from the princess.
She pushed past the other royals into the middle of the chamber. “I demand to speak,” she snarled.
Her mother chuckled. “Denied. Your mate has already been chosen for you.”
“I have not agreed—”
“You’ll do as I say or regret that I ever gave you life,” the queen hissed. “Your future mate waits for you. Go to him. Now. And on the next full moon, he’ll make you his own.”
“You can’t make me—”
Ailean grabbed Shalin by the arm and yanked her against him as a line of flame lashed by,