Captured By The Dragon
Episode 73

Dylan

When I returned, I expected Patara to be happy to see me. I had been gone for days dealing with a few problems with the newly incorporated lands and surveying the borders. With any luck, I could convince Erik to take Ethan out for a few hours and pull Patara back into bed to take my time with her, but that wasn’t what happened.

I entered the dining room and found her with Ethan, feeding him quietly. Her eyes drifted up to meet mine before she turned away from me.

“Welcome back,” she said softly.

What kind of greeting was that? I was about to ask when I caught a scent in the air that I wasn’t unfamiliar with but also wasn’t exactly friendly. What had happened? What the hell was Erik doing letting some stranger into my house? I turned and went looking for Erik who looked pissed off.

“Whose scent is that?”

He looked at me with a mocking and almost accusing glance, “The tiger princess.”

F**k. I knew I’d recognized that scent somewhere. I couldn’t believe this shit. Just when I was planning to have a nice long break to spend with my son and Patara, she shows up. What the hell does she want?

Couldn’t I get a small break?

“Well, what did she want?”

Erik narrowed his eyes at me, “Why don’t you ask her yourself? She’s in your room.”

My b***d boiled, “And you let that happen, why?”

“She had a key. She was already inside when we came back from a walk. Scared the hell out of Ethan, by the way.”

Shit. I’d forgotten about that. A bit of guilt went through me, but to hell with it. Patara left me for two years. I had to keep my sanity somehow and courting the tiger princess had been enough to keep me focused on not going after Patara. It hadn’t meant anything, we both knew it, but I couldn’t afford for Patara to misunderstand when we were just now reunited.

I should talk to Patara, but I needed to get rid of the princess first or there would just be more problems. I stalked towards the stairs, planning what I would say. It wasn’t as if we had ever slept together. We had just been entering talks about a union before I’d gone to the human

I stepped out of the shower and scrubbed my hair a bit irritated at the way Patara had withdrawn from me. To make it worse, the tiger princess was here to start trouble.

I walked into my room and found her lounging on my bed as if she owned the place, purring. The arrogance of a tiger shifter knew no bounds.

“What are you doing on my bed?”

“What does it look like?” She asked, tilting her head, “Given everything we’ve been talking about, my father wanted to check on your acceptance of the terms.”

“Your father must think I’m an idiot to accept something like that.”

Splitting my territory for him to rule for peace after fighting for two years to take over the majority of shifter continent. He had been lucky that I hadn’t burned him to a crisp right then.

“Who is that woman to you?” She asked. “That human that’s here.”

I looked at her with a raised eyebrow, “When did you have the right to ask me such a thing?”

She snarled and leaped to her feet, lunging at me. In a flash, I dodged her and slammed her against the wall. If she were human, I wouldn’t have had to do this. She would have never tried to attack me.

She would have never asked me such a stupid question.

“You’re f*****g that human girl?” She growled at me, “Who do you think I am?”

“You showed up here uninvited. I gave you that key for emergencies only.”

“I think running into a human bitch in your house is an emergency. You should train your mangy wolf to know his place. When—”

“If,” I corrected, “Your father and I reach an agreement, Erik knows his place in my life. It’s you who doesn’t.”

“We’re going to be bonded partners. I won’t settle for anything less.”

“Then, perhaps you should simply give up.”

“Who is that human girl? And that brat she has.”

I looked at her, glaring at her, “He’s my son, and it doesn’t matter to you who she is. Back off, princess and don’t you ever barge into my house again or I’ll rip your throat out.”

Her eyes bulged and she slammed the door open, growling and stomping out of the house. I heard her leave as the door banged shut.

I grimaced at her scent hanging in the air. I opened the window to air out the room before getting in the shower. Her scent was like salt on an open wound. The sooner I got it out of my room and off me the better.

I had to talk to Patara, but I wasn’t sure what to say to her. It was ridiculous to feel guilty. She left me. She had that man practically wrapped around her finger. I’m sure her human family would have loved to have him in the family.

I should have just killed the princess and been done with it. It was practically inevitable at this point. She was going to go back to her father and tell him about my son and likely that she suspected that Patara was his mother.

The tiger king would turn his eyes on Patara, and I’d have to kill him too.

War was coming no matter what I did.

I stepped out the shower and got dressed as Erik knocked on the door.

“Come in.”

Erik stepped in, “Am I allowed to change the locks so this doesn’t happen again?”

I hesitated, “Yes.”

Erik nodded, “I know that you’re going to do it your way, but I’m going to say it anyway.”

“That’s what you’re good at.”

“An alliance might be useful, but she’s a pain in the a*s and a danger.”

I nodded, “Clearly. Leveraging a relationship will be pointless. I should have known that before.”

I just hadn’t had the chance to consider it fully. I didn’t want the princess. She was irritating and arrogant. She was almost the quintessential reason shifter men preferred human women. While she couldn’t overpower me, there was nothing in her that didn’t set me on edge either.

I hated her.

I hated her father too. I should have just killed them both when I had the chance. Now, I’d have to bide my time to get rid of them.

“So what’s the plan?”

“I’ll just have to kill the king when the time comes,” I said. “What’s a tiger to a dragon?”

Erik’s lips twitched, and he left. He wasn’t exactly happy with me at the moment either, but he’d come around soon enough. I followed him out as Patara came down the hall.

He glanced between the two of us and offered Ethan his hand, “Let’s go on another walk, hm? A young shifter needs plenty of exercise…”

Ethan looked at the two of us but took Erik’s hand. It was good that he was getting more comfortable with the people that would care for him if something were to ever happen to me and Patara.

Patara lowered her head with a little nod of greeting and said nothing. I thought back to the days when I wanted to follow her over the border with everything in me. I thought of all the days we had been apart and how I had been so sure that she had left me because she had been so desperate to be free of me.

I could see it in her eyes that she was reconsidering coming back with me

I f*****g lost it.