“To be Anne Atli one day?”

“No,” she said, shaking her head. “That is not life for me. Nor the life I desire. What about you? Is this life you want?”

“This is life I have. In the Sovereigns, you’re born into your life.”

“You were not born into your life. You took it from the hide of your uncle.”

“Only because he made me.”

“So you think you would have been happy being just a royal? A title with no power?”

Gaius let out a breath. “I honestly don’t know. When Vateria took my sister . . . all bets were off, as they say.”

“Meaning?”

“They gave me no choice but to kill them. Each and every one of them. There are, of course, a few of my kin still roaming free. But I’ll find them, too. If I have my way, I’ll find them all.”

Kachka suddenly smiled.

“What?” he asked.

“I was just thinking . . . if you were woman, you would make good Daughter of Steppes.”

“I would?”

“You have strong sense of vengeance. Daughters of Steppes were born of vengeance. The first Anne Atli, it was need for revenge that sent her to take control of the tribes. Once she started, she never looked back.” Kachka studied him closely. “Will you look back, Rebel King? Will you have regrets?”

“The only regret I will ever have . . . is that I let Vateria get my sister. And as long as she still breathes, that account will never be settled.”

Kachka reached into the darkness and brought back a bottle of that damn ale. She pulled the cork with her teeth and took a long swig before handing it to Gaius. Wincing, he drank a bit . . . then worked hard not to immediately spit it back out as it burned its way down his throat. A throat that could spew out fire at a mere thought.

Fire didn’t bother him, but Rider ale did. Interesting.

“Awake now, dragon?” Kachka asked, her smile almost warm.

He handed the ale back to her. “Well, if I wasn’t before . . .”

With their knees raised and Gaius’s back still resting against that tree, Kachka sat on Gaius’s lap, his cock buried deep inside her. Neither moving. It felt good just to sit like this. Enjoying the calm Southland night. Their hands roaming without specific intent.

Gaius seemed to like stroking his fingers against her scars.

“Where did you get this?” he asked, his index finger easing down the raised flesh of her left side.

She glanced at it, tried to remember. “Fell off a horse and onto a spike buried in ground. Which was why my horse reared in first place. Some city, trying to keep us out. It did not work. Nor did it kill me.”

Kachka ran her thumb down the scar on Gaius’s face. It cut across his forehead, past where his eye had once been, and part way down his cheek. “You do not want to tell me about this,” she guessed. “Do you?”

“Not at the moment. It brings up bad memories. Maybe I’ll tell you one day, when I don’t have a beautiful woman sitting on my cock, bringing me extreme pleasure.”

“I am not even squeezing.” She smiled. “Yet.”

“You don’t need to squeeze. Sometimes the pleasure is in the waiting.”

Gaius reached up and pushed Kachka’s hair from her face. “Tell me . . . why did you choose me?”

“Choose you?”

“To fuck. You had an array of dragons to choose from, if you just wanted to try a dragon.... Why me?”

Kachka ran her hands across Gaius’s square jaw. “Honestly? You irritate me less than most males do. That makes you very desirable to me.”

Gaius leaned forward, pressed his lips against her throat, easing up to her jaw.

“Rebel King?”

“Yes?”

She pressed her mouth against his ear and whispered, “I feel like squeezing now.”

He smiled against her flesh. “Then please . . . don’t let me stop you.”

Chapter Sixteen

Gaius awoke under that tree, his arms around Kachka, and looked up into the faces of the Riders surrounding him.

He tapped Kachka’s shoulder.

“What?”

“We are not alone.”

She opened her eyes, focused on her fellow tribeswomen. “What?”

“Tatyana has something,” Marina announced. “A temple. About three to four days’ ride from here. It might be at risk.”

Kachka was out of his arms. She grabbed the clothes they’d tossed aside the night before and, naked, started to walk off with her team.

Before she could get anywhere, though, Gaius reached out and caught hold of her ankle.

Zoya grinned. “He is going to beg!”

Gaius smirked. “I’m a king, Zoya Kolesova—ruler of an empire. I don’t beg. Now piss off.”

Zoya and Marina looked to Kachka, and she jerked her head to the side. With a nod, the women walked away, leaving the pair alone.

“Did you think I was just going to let you walk away?” he asked.

“Did you think that because you are king, I would stay?”

Gaius slowly ran his hand up the back of Kachka’s bare leg. “I thought you’d stay because you’re madly in love with me.”

Kachka crouched down in front of Gaius and, grinning, he slid his hand between her thighs, which Kachka quickly caught and held.

“I have to go.”

“You don’t have to go. You choose to go.”

“I have name to make. Honor to obtain. I do not have time to let a man get in my way.”

“I’m not a man. I’m a dragon. And I want what I want.” He let out a truly regretful sigh, pulling his hand back so he could take hold of her hand. “But I also understand your need to earn a name.” He kissed the back of her knuckles. “So go. Get your name.”

“And you will wait for me like loyal puppy?”

“That I can’t promise. But if death finds you well, Kachka Shestakova, I’m sure I’ll be around. Somewhere.”

She smiled. It stunned him how . . . sweet it was. Her true smile.

Kachka leaned in and kissed him, one hand pressed against his cheek, the other digging into his hair.

When she finally pulled back, she gave him one more soft kiss on his nose. Then she picked up her clothes again and walked off. Never once looking back.

Gaius stood and pulled on his clothes. He returned to the Great Hall, finding that a few, who had avoided the drink of the Riders, had managed to make it downstairs to get something to eat. But many servants were carrying tea and very dry bread up the stairs to those who couldn’t handle more.

Dagmar, sitting at the table surrounded by missives and parchments filled with figures, smiled at him as he entered. “King Gaius.”

“Lady Dagmar. I’m heading home,” he told her flatly.

Dagmar’s eyes narrowed the slightest bit behind those spectacles she wore. “Is everything all right?”

“Everything’s fine,” he promised, since it was. He and Kachka had no commitment beyond what they’d done the night before. In fact, he doubted that woman would make a commitment to any male if she could avoid it. “But it’s going to be a long flight, and I need to go. I just didn’t want to disappear without saying anything to you or Queen Annwyl.”