The Dragon King’s Substitute Bride
Chapter 3

MIDAS

It wasn't the force of the attack that knocked him to one bended knee. That would be ridiculous

No, it was surprise; surprise that she had actually gone through with it.

He'd known the minute she started to think about it, his senses alert to the change in her breathing pattern even with his back turned and his dragon instincts aware of the increase in the rate of her already pounding heart. All indicators of a cornered prey.

But that she would actually do something as foolish as trying to attack him was so inconceivable an idea, that when she jumped on his back and wrapped her feeble limbs around his neck, surprise at her foolhardiness, knocked him to his knee. Well, no one ever said humans were the brightest of the 7 realms' creatures.

He roars in rage as her teeth sink through his tunic and deep into the skin of his shoulder.

Resisting the urge to fling her backwards and crush her tiny body against the wall behind them, he grabs her hair and pulls her off and over his shoulder and with one inhumane leap, lands on the bed, taking her with him.

He pins her below him, holding her hands with one arm above her head and as she thrashes around, fighting against his grip, his brows draw together in confusion.

She didn't even have a fraction of his strength, why did she keep struggling?

The doors to his chamber swing violently open and standing at the entrance, sword drawn and eyes frantically searching for the danger that had called to him; is Leo.

"My Lord!"

As Chief Ryder and personal protector to the throne, Leo and his dragon had the ability to sense when even a drop of blood had been drawn from a member of the royal household.

Midas doesn't turn, his eyes still fixed on the now still, half naked form of the woman below him, her blue eyes glaring at him with hatred so strong you could almost taste it.

He found himself strangely amused by it.

"At ease Chief Ryder there is no real danger here. Not from this one"

Leo unconvinced advances into the chambers, still searching the room with his eyes. "But my dragon smelt blood My Lord."

Midas glances at his shoulder seeing the teeth marks and the tiny spots of blood seeping through and staining the fabric. "It would appear my bride is impatient for her execution tomorrow and would love for it to be brought forward to this very second." Leo returns his sword to its scabbard, stopping a few steps from the foot of the bed, his feet rooted to the spot by the confusing scene before him.

Surely she could not have been so stupid.

Unwillingly bride or not, to attack the dragon King could only mean certain death.

Midas turned his attention back to her, he could sense her anger and it... excited him.

Memories of the feeling of her softness pressed against his hardness, the intoxicating taste of her on his tongue, pushes it's way to the front of his mind and he has to struggle to stop himself from simply kissing her again. Slave or not

"Your meaningless rage and futile attempts at hurting me are bemusing. It's almost a shame that I'm going to kill you."

"Go to hell." She spits at him and it lands on his cheek before he can turn his head.

The sound of the chief Ryder unsheathing his sword on instinct echoes through the room and she smirks up at him.

"Oh no, have I perhaps hurt your feelings? Is your errand boy going to cut off my head for you?"

The mockery in her tone and defiance in her eyes threatens to push him to the very edge of his control.

Midas laughs instead. A dark laugh devoid of mirth and warmth and when his eyes focus on her again, they are cold and emotionless.

"Put away your sword Leo, the empty words of this slave girl mean nothing to me and I can defend my own honor"

She looked up at him, her chest heaving with the exertion from her struggles "honor...what do you know about honor?"

"Enough to know that your words are beginning to make me less inclined to make your death as quick as possible."

"So says the king who had to threaten the annihilation of an entire kingdom of people because it was the only way he could manage to get a wife."

"You push your limits slave."

"And so what dragon king... what is that you will you do, kill me?"

His eyes slowly begin to turn red again, his brewing anger at her disregard for his title momentarily clouding his vision and he does not notice the smirk of satisfaction that creeps unto her face. Leo does however and he realizes what she's doing; she trying to goad him into killing her quickly.

Midas however is too infuriated to notice this. "Chief Ryder..."

"Yes my Lord"

"Leave us... but stand outside the door; I shall need her body removed from my chambers when I am finished."

Leo bows low. "As you wish sire."

But as he gets to the doorway, he turns to look back at the woman forced to give up herself for her people and knew her rage was merely thinly veiled pain.

And he would never be able to explain why he opens his mouth knowing he was risking not just her life but his as well "My Lord..."

Midas says nothing in response, his eyes never even once straying from the object of his fury but his body stiffens and Leo knows he can hear him.

"If you kill her My lord, you will be giving her what she wants... you will be setting her free."

And with a single bow and not another word, he closes the heavy doors behind him before the King can send his head flying from his body.

But he need not have worried for all of Midas' attention is on his sham bride and the way her eyes flood with fear at Leo's parting words. A cruel smile flickers across his beautiful lips. "That is what you wish isn't it?"

She turns away from him, all traces of her earlier defiance gone. He grabs her chin, forcing her to look at him.

"You would rather die than stay here as my wife."

She laughs, harsh and bitter. "It is a fate worse than death."

Her words, like a knife send an odd prickling sensation through him.

She has managed to hurt him somehow and he does not know how but he does not like it, not one bit.

"Is that so?"

Her voice is full of a bravery he knows she does not actually feel. "Do what you must. I tire of this"

He lets go of his grip on her chin, "Oh that's where you're wrong Hera..."

His fingers tracing a path, both cool and searing down her neck, watching how even though she gazes at him with contempt, her breathing quickens and her eyes, grow darker turning the color of a troubled night sky on the brink of a storm and her body, the ship caught in the billowing waves tremble at his touch.

"For you see I on the other hand..." the path deeps lower with every word till the pad of his thumb brush against the now hard peaks that poke through nearly non-existent clothing as if begging to be touched.

Her back arches involuntarily; her striking red mouth parting in shock to let out a small sound that nearly drives him to distraction."....... am just getting started."

And before she can blink and re-orient herself, he is gone, taking the heat of his body with him.

He stands by the door, fastening a scarlet fur-rimmed cloak around his neck, every inch the commander of his army.

Without a single word, he calls to Leo's dragon -an ability belonging only to the King of the 5th realm -and the chief Ryder appears by the door as if summoned.

Leo hides the relief he feels at the still alive even if badly shaken woman on the King's bed, clutching the covers against her chest.

"You called My Lord."

"I did. It seems the queen is in need of a quick lesson on what happens to people who do not accord me the respect I am due by trying to deceive me as she has done. Take her to the cellar."

The Ryder's reaction is reflex, his head wiping up in alarm to look past the king and at her cowering from.

The cellar was reserved for the worst of criminals, traitors to the kingdom, vicious men who would much sooner slit your throat than they would offer you a chance to breathe.

She would not last one night there.

Midas notices this and he raises one perfectly arched brow, his chief Ryder, eternal sword and right hand to the king had never balked at an order, no matter how cruel.

He bristles and his voice takes on a dangerous tone. "Do you have an objection to my instructions Chief Ryder?"

The protector of the throne falls to one knee, head bowed and right hand on the hilt of his sheathed sword. "Never...my King"

"I would hope not. And as for you...my dear wife"

He turns to look at her. "....you will soon come to learn what fates far...far worse than death actually are"

Yet when she raises her tear streaked face to look at him, enthralling even in her sadness, Midas the immortal is baffled to note he does not feel the satisfaction he expected to feel.

Instead there is a vague... rather faint ache in the region of his chest and he stands still, simply staring for one moment at her; bewilderment at this unexpected confusing perception, drawing his impossibly beautiful face into a frown. But like fine sand blown away in the wind the moment passes, the feeling is gone and he strides from the room without a backward glance.

She had lain her bed and now it was time to lie in it.