The Dragon Queen and her mates.
Chapter 215: Warehouse set on fire

Chapter 215: Warehouse set on fire

Bree raised her head and looked up at him, her eyes softened and they had a bit of gratefulness in them, it would have been better if she hadn’t looked at him like that, it made his pulse skitter, sending it to a higher setting. The two of them stared at each other for far too long, maybe she sensed it too because she looked away before he could do something, causing a distraction to ease the tension between the two of them.

She cleared her throat and then said softly, " Thanks for you know, listening to me and not being judgemental, I have never met any men who would sit down and listen to me without calling me cringe or trying to grope my ass."

He burst out laughing, it was such a bright, wonderful tinkling laugh with a deep timbre coated with a charm that she could only marvel. " Don’t think that I am that much of a gentleman either, I too want to do the same to you, your majesty.... It’s just that I am not crude enough to do it where anyone can see us."

" And it is not crude to speak about it?"

More laughter, this time he actually squeezed her shoulder. " If it makes you feel better I don’t think that you are cringe or anything of the sort, if anything you are one of the few real things that are out here in this world." His fingers drummed on her bare shoulder. " Feeling scared, and insecure with everything that is going on is completely fine as long as you don’t give up."

They sat in silence for a while, before he turned his head to look at her again and asked, " So which one is the real you, your majesty? The one who is sitting next to me or the one who sits on the throne and knows what she is doing?"

She didn’t respond for a while before ducking her head and blinking her eyes. " Both I think, I like being open but sometimes being too open causes a lot of trouble that’s why I like to lock myself up and pretend that I am cool," she paused and then added, " And I also like getting a heap of praise by men, it makes me feel like I am being admired by them not in just sexual sort of way, in a way where they will accept my strength and wits it makes me feel good about myself like I have proven something to them, though it hardly happens. Does that make me a bad person though? One who will be judged?"

Yakov blinked his eyes, if he was being honest such insecurities were never a part of his world, his father trained him to be the perfect heir. He had never had the time or luxury to set his books down and question whether he was doing the right thing or not because he didn’t have the time, he was busy learning new things when he was with his father and when he married Bree, he was too busy wiping off the trail of mess that she has left behind but he decided that he needed to answer this one question that she has asked him because it seemed rather important to her. " I have been to a lot of noblemen banquets and I assure you every time I go to their ball, the host would come looking for me with a champagne glass in one hand and a delicate pocket watch in the other, all dressed to impress, he would often tell me what kind of novel things he has brought to the ball and hope that I will praise him and from the looks of it, it’s not just one person but every single one of them was like that, people want to be admired but they wouldn’t say it outright nor would they be honest about it, it will be like be rather subtle, in a way that no one will be able to point it out."

" But you are different your majesty, you accepted that you want to be admired by them, not because you are beautiful, not because you have piles of gold and silver but because you want them to be acknowledged as an equal, it does not make you bad if anything it makes you an honest woman."

She frowned slightly seeing this he brushed his thumb over her shoulder, before skimming his fingers over the curve of her neck and tucking her head back in the crook of his shoulder, what? He liked it there. " I didn’t think you would be able to wake yourself up or do something good for once, you have been walking on a dangerous path far too long that you could have never recovered but then one day you suddenly strode out of your palace brighter than ever I have seen, you picked up every bit of slack that you and your council have left behind and you stuck out to finish it, even I wouldn’t have done that because I know that the last time those bunch of old fools touched their pen was when they didn’t even have a single strand of white."

"But you finished every bit of work that was left behind and that makes you a fantastic leader who cares about her people, and if you weren’t a good ruler then you would not have come here either despite being the Duke’s disrespect you have remained calm and collected because you know what is more important. I guess that crosses out all the weird things you have done like ignoring me."

She sat up straight, her head shooting straight up as she looked at him and sputtered, " But you tried to kill me."

" I guess we should clear out that misunderstanding as well?" He tucked the strand of her raven hair that was fluttering in the sea breeze and shook his head. " I didn’t mean to kill you, your majesty, the plan was to revive you after your death something similar to what we did to the unicorn elf, we had our preparations done... we only needed to take you down the throne before you ended up ruining the Empire but since you are okay now, I would not have to kill you."

She stared at him with wide eyes and a mouth that was so lush that he would have simply dipped down and taken it, but he couldn’t do it not when she has finally opened up a bit to him, he could have kissed her and then he would simply bring her to his bed but if he did that now, then he would ruin every bit of progress he made today, so he looked away, cleared his throat and held his hand out after he stood up from the bench. "Let’s go, we need to head to the orphanage, can’t let that Duke think he can fck us over like that."

" Oh no," she jumped off the stone bench and then looked at the setting sun. " We are ruined, he would not bring us to the orphanage now."

" It doesn’t matter whether he brings us there or not your majesty," Yakov smiled at her. " Because I really don’t care about his permission at the moment."

She frowned as she looked at him. " What do you mean by that?"

He turned to look at her and gave in to the temptation of touching her as he reached his hand and cupped her cheek. " That bastard made you sad, it might make me a jerk but I don’t like the idea of any other man making you upset that is why he would have to pay for what he has done."

" Don’t do something that you shouldn’t——" she began but then Yakov retreated and shifted with the crackling sound of his bones, she stared in a daze as a wolf the size of a wagon stood in front of her, he lowered his muzzle and motioned her to climb up as he walked around and crouched down enough for her to jump on his back.

Knowing there was no point in standing there and saying something to him any longer would mean nothing, she jumped on his back after taking a few steps behind.

Later that night, Yakov stood in front of the warehouse of the Duke, twisting the space ring on his finger. Once he promised something he would keep it till the end of his life, he promised his father that he will be a righteous ruler from behind the throne given that the Dragniere family didn’t give birth to any decent ruler for ages, that he would always follow the protocol and punish the ones who are in the wrong properly but now he was standing here in front of the warehouses of the duke without any decent or justified reason in his head.

All he knew was that he was going to punish the Duke for making Bree feel upset in the evening. He turned to look at the rebels whom he has goaded and his lips curled in an evil smile, did the duke think that he was the only one who can use others to find trouble with them? He can do it too and unlike the Duke, he did a clean job.

Three hours later, the Duke who was sleeping peacefully was woken up with the news that his warehouses were raided and set fire by rebels.