Page 40 of In the Embrace of Dragons

VIZARIOS

I’m deep in reading a letter from Orgrin, the king of the ogre-people who live to the west. It’s hard to read his flowing script sometimes, but I persevere because he always has information for me. We are building a road between my western province and his eastern one to make trade easier. It will benefit both of us immensely, but there have been hiccups along the way.

It is yet another way to distract myself from the feverish itch in my groin, the instinct to fuck, the need to release my scent glands again, which has nearly become overwhelming.

“Your Majesty.”

I’m startled out of my focus by the sound of Syzari’s voice. She strides into the room, a very worried look on her face. Usually my advisor betrays little. She is professional in most regards.

“What is it?” I ask, concerned.

“I have just spoken to your wife.”

Oh, great. Wonderful. My groin aches at just the word,your wife. Nissia, with those bountiful breasts and?—

“So what?”

“I had intended to ask her about my idea. Instead, I have learned that you are, once again, ignoring her.” She seats herself across from me, and I open my mouth to tell her off, that my business is none of hers, but she snaps her fingers toshut me up. “Listen to me. You aredestroyingsomething, Your Majesty. Something that once killed... may never grow back.”

I tighten like a taut rope. What does she mean by that?

“There is nothing to destroy between us,” I growl. “And who says I care if it grows back?”

“Is that so? You would not be upset if she found a lover?”

Suddenly, I picture Nissia underneath some faceless dragon, some creature that is not me, and a visceral growl rises in my throat. She ismine.

I’m startled by the noise leaving my mouth. She never was mine, and she never will be. She’s not what I want.

Syzari arches a brow. “So you won’t take her as your own, but no one else can have her, either?”

I grind my teeth together. “Leave me be about it, Syzari. You know nothing of what you’re talking about.”

“I know that a human woman was sent to another land against her will, uprooted from everything she knows and plopped down in a new place with new rules. She has no friends, and her husband pretends she does not exist. What is there for a female like that?”

“It is not myconcern!” I abruptly rise to my feet, irritated that my advisor is needling in my private business. “She is a princess. She always knew this was her fate.”

Syzari wears a pitying look I wish I could wipe off her face.

“And being the queen means she is not allowed to have wants?” she asks. “To have needs?”

“Then give her a friend,” I bark, heading to the door.

“Someone has already seen to that. She had a rather cute hound dog with her when I saw her last.”

“See?” I yank the door open and step out. “She doesn’t need me.”

I let it slam closed behind me.

“Wereyou the one who gave the queen a dog?” I ask Ragnakor that evening when I insist that he eat dinner with me in my rooms.

He nods, not offering even a single apology for going behind my back. “It was in my off time,” he says instead.

I bristle all over. He will not share any words with me, but he will give my wife a new pet? My life was so much simpler before she came here. Perhaps that is what I resent the most—that Ragnakor was mine and only mine, and now they have teamed up against me.

Fine. I push my chair back and slug some firewine. Ragnakor follows me with his eyes.

“I’m tired of this,” I say, slamming my mug down on the table. “I’m tired of that woman holding the strings.”