The Alien King's Prey - Loki Renard Page 0,41
wanted him to hurt her, so that she could prove to herself that he didn’t really care.
It would be beyond dangerous to fall in love with a creature like Archon. He might have been a king, but he was also a vicious, manipulative, rough creature. The last time she saw him, she was leaking his seed as she ran away from him after having made her a public spectacle.
That scene was so incongruous with the one she faced now, the king coming for her with a towel. He started to use it softly, showing an admirable understanding of the soft and tender parts of her body. This was an entirely different king. She looked at his face, wondering if it was actually someone different. But it was him. From the scales around his eyes, to those bright blue eyes which seared into her, he was unmistakably him.
“I can feel the questions inside you,” Archon said, running the towel gently over her skin, patting her breasts lightly. “Ask them.”
“I don’t have any questions for you,” she lied. “I loathe you.”
He looked at her calmly. “Let’s eat.”
The king put on a feast the likes of which Iris had dreamed about every day while incarcerated. There was bird and boar matched with ground roots all boiled and mashed up with the milk of goats. Iris ate a lot of it very quickly.
“Careful,” he cautioned. “Don’t make yourself sick.”
“You make me sick,” she countered with little concern, and even less gratitude.
Archon let out one of those low, dragon-ey growls which served as a warning that she was getting near his last nerve. Iris did not care. Her pain and her suffering could all be traced back to this king. If he hurt her more, it would simply be more of the same. If he wanted to prove that he was truly fond of her, then he could do that without her help.
“I came back for you,” Archon reminded her.
“You came back for your own selfish reasons.”
“Those two things are not mutually exclusive.”
She was full. Full of food, and more than over his bullshit. Whatever Archon had come back for, it wasn't her. At least, she couldn't believe it was. Not yet. He had a lot of making up to do. And he could start by giving her some answers.
“Where are they? My family, I mean.”
“New York city, 2020. On a planet called Earth.”
“Excuse me fucking what?”
“I didn’t just move them in space. I moved them in time.”
“What does that even mean?”
“It means a king capable of commanding a flying metal dragon is capable of more than you have seen, or might imagine.”
Iris was curious. She still loathed Archon, but she had always been a creature of intellect and exploration.
“Show me.”
“You make commands as if you were the one who had the power. You just came out of a dungeon, and that did nothing to cow your arrogance, did it?”
“I can be in a dungeon, or in a castle, it doesn't change who I am. You’re the one who needs a crown to feel special.”
He gave her another one of those glowering looks, the ones which excited her all the way to her core. She realized that she had missed annoying him. It was a pleasure to see his scaled brows draw down over those blue eyes, and know that she was making an impact on him. She didn’t need a castle to feel special, but having the king hanging on her every word, that made her feel incredibly powerful.
“I will show you under one condition.”
“And what is that?”
“You will make an effort to be respectful enough that I don’t feel the need to whip you every two seconds. It is tempting to clear this table of its plates and cutlery, put you across it and make a meal of you.”
“Why don’t you.”
“Because you just came out of a dungeon and I’m still feeling somewhat guilty about that - though you are eroding that sense of guilt faster than is good for you.”
She smiled to herself behind a cup of tea.
“Maybe I’ll have a nap first, and then you can show me all the wonders of your kingly abilities.”
Chapter 21
And so it was done as Iris decreed. Archon was not certain that he was doing anybody any favors by giving into the whims of his human, but there was no doubt that the balance of terrible things in their relationship was very much tilted against his favor.
He wanted her to like him. Archon had never