I crinkled my nose at the pungent smell that was wafting at me from the mug that Nala was pushing in my direction. “No way that stuff is going to make me stop throwing up.”
“Just drink it already. It’ll fix things.”
“I’m not going to drink it if I don’t want to,” I groused. I knew I sounded like a petulant child but I still wasn’t a Nala fan, even if she seemed to be trying to help me.
Nala heaved a huge sigh. “Look, I know you don’t like me, or trust me, and I can’t really blame you. But let me lay it out for you. You’re the queen of us all now . . . do you really think I want to make you my enemy?”
I narrowed my eyes at her. “Too late.” She wanted Bryn, and had tried to take him from me. That point fast tracked her to the top of my enemy list as far as I was concerned.
“I didn’t know you. And it’s the way of the dragon. Besides, if Bryn could have been swayed that easily, I would have been doing you a favor.”
“Are you kidding? I mean . . . are you serious right now?” I could feel my dragon magic pushing up from inside of me. If Nala weren’t careful, I’d end up burning her to crisp where she stood without a second thought.
She raised her hands up defensively as if she sensed the danger she was in. “Look, he doesn’t want me. He’s made that crystal clear.”
“But you still want him.” My voice came out as a low inhuman growl and I would have put money down that my eyes were glowing too.
“Yes, but it doesn’t matter. I have pride, you know. I’m not going to chase after Bryn when he’s clearly made his choice.”
My anger suddenly left me as quickly as it had come, and I felt my face crumple up involuntarily. “Yeah, he has. He thinks I should mate with Khol.” Much to my chagrin, huge fat tears began to roll down my cheeks. Damn pregnancy hormones!
Nala rolled her eyes. “Young male dragons are the worst. They haven’t fully come into their powers yet but they’ve already got the alpha male ego thing down pat.” She shook her head and frowned. “He doesn’t really want you to mate with Khol. He just has this idea that he should be able to protect you completely, unfortunately he doesn’t have the power yet—”
“And Khol does?” I interjected.
“Precisely.” She then smiled at me. “Although fully matured male dragons are no better. I think you’ve learned that from Khol.”
Laughter bubbled up and escaped from my chest. “Between the two of them I’m lucky I still have my sanity.” I paused and looked down at my hands that glistened from the tears I’d just wiped from my face. “At least I think I do.”
“I almost feel sorry for you,” Nala snorted. “Almost. If not for the fact that you have two powerful, handsome male dragons fighting over you.” She snorted again. “Never mind, I actually don’t feel sorry for you at all.”
“Bryn isn’t fighting for me at all. He’s given up.”
Her face grew serious and she met my eyes. “He’s fighting for your safety, and sacrificing himself in the process. It’s not the fight you want, but it does prove how much he loves you.”
I wasn’t quite sure what to say. I knew on some level that she was right, and I hated it. Bryn was only trying to protect me, and seeing in my vision how much he was suffering made me feel like someone had reached inside of my chest and put my heart in a death grip. But I loved Khol now too. I inevitably would end up crushing one of them when I mated with the other. It was easier on some level to be angry with Bryn when I was with Khol. Because otherwise I’d have to admit to myself that maybe on some level I’d betrayed Bryn just as much as he’d betrayed me. I reached up and rested my hand on my abdomen. “It doesn’t matter,” I murmured more to myself than Nala. And it didn’t. Whoever the father of my child was, he will be my mate. I’d made up my mind to let fate decide, because no matter which way I looked at it . . . fate was going to play its hand anyways.
“So you’re really going to mate with whoever the father of your child is?” Nala asked.
I gave her a sad smile. “Yes.” She simply grunted as her response and pushed the mug that contained the fowl smelling concoction closer to me. I stared at it for a moment, before deciding to just drink it despite the fact that Nala was the one giving it to me. I’d clearly seen she wasn’t trying to poison me and cutting my nose off to spite my face would only result in more humiliation by way of puke. I picked up the mug and chugged it down as fast as I could. It burned my throat, nose and eyes and I coughed demonstratively when I’d managed to get all of it into my stomach. “Blak!” I exclaimed. “That was just as bad as I thought it would be!” A sudden wave of tiredness swept over me. “What the hell?” I slurred as I fought to keep my eyes open.
“Oh, didn’t I mention that you should only take this before bed because it’s supposed to really knock you out?” Nala paused and winked at me. “No? Oh my bad. Nighty night, little Queenie.”
Panic rose up in me for a second before I had the chance to think about it. Nala wouldn’t risk hurting me because she knew it would result in her own death, but that didn’t stop her from being a bitch to me. A title that I thought she deserved to hear out loud. “Bitch,” I grated just before I felt myself slump down onto the kitchen table.
I knew it was a dream right away, or a memory really.
I stood alone with Khol in his old room.
“Please,” I whispered, my whole body beginning to tremble. “Don’t do this to me.”
“I’m sorry I don’t have a choice anymore.”
“It’ll be rape. Are you telling me you have no choice but to rape me? I don’t believe that.” My words came out shaky as I tried to withhold the onslaught of tears that were pooling in my eyes.
He came to stand mere inches away from me, his voice barely a whisper. “You’ll enjoy it, I promise. I know your body craves mine. That isn’t rape, coercion maybe, but not rape.”
He leaned forward to kiss me and I ducked down so he missed and got the side of my face. “But my heart and soul still crave Bryn. You’ll deny me that for the rest of my life? Because once you claim me for your mate, I won’t want him anymore, will I? At least not physically?”
“No, you won’t. And it’s better that way.” He grabbed my wrists and pushed them up over my head, causing my heart to triple in time.
“I’ll never forgive you for this,” I hissed.
A sad smile turned Khol’s lips up ever so slightly at the corners. “But you will because only I will be able to give you what you crave when I’m your mate. And dragon’s are quite insatiable, especially the females; you haven’t even begun to experience the full scope of your dragon side.”
Bryn’s image flooded my mind, and just like that time in the woods when I was almost raped, all I wished for was for him to come to my rescue. “Bryn!” I mentally screamed. “Please, somehow don’t let this happen to me—to us!” I struggled in Khol’s grasp, but he was much too strong for me. He managed to keep me pinned with just one hand holding both my wrists as he tore at my clothes. I screamed with fury. I couldn’t—wouldn’t let him do this. When he dipped his head to kiss me, I bit his lip, causing him to growl low in his chest, his eyes glowing brighter. I tasted the tangy copper flavor of his blood as he persisted, delving his tongue into my mouth.
“Get your hands off her. She’s mine,” a heartbreakingly familiar voice growled with menace from behind Khol. I had a moment of intermingled relief and joy before the smile on Khol’s face set internal alarm bells going off inside of me.