Rider King ✓

44

"Why are you leaving? What did Centres do to you?!"

The guards become fidgety, not sure if I'm in danger.

Damn it. This conversation wasn't supposed to happen like this.

"Calm down," I raise my arms. "Centres..." I hesitate.

"What did he say?!"

Nerve-wrecked, I blurt, "He told me I'd distract you from your work that we would do more good for Xelor if we worked apart with me on the frontlines. So I... I was thinking..."

"So what?" his crimson eyes have never been this bright. He is beautiful in his rage.

"You were going to leave again? Leave like that first time and send me looking for you for the hundredth time? I am tired of chasing you, so why aren't you tired of running? There is no sense in it! Haven't you learned how precious time is after being robbed away for two years?"

You. You. You. There's so many accusations.

"So it's my fault!" I erupt, tears blocking my vision for a second. My emotions are a mess. I'm so angry with him that I shove his chest. Fuck the ink he drew on himself for me, fuck those arms that embrace me so warmly, I'm as angry as he is.

"You hurt me to the point that I have to save myself, and I still end up as the crippled bitch who should be grateful to have a Rider King interested in her." I hit his chest three times.

"That is not what I am saying!" he grips my biceps and shakes me. "I am asking you to talk to me, for Fire's sake. Talk and stop running!"

"I need to breathe before I can talk to you, Dramon. I need to collect my thoughts because I've been spending most of my life thinking of others. You— you suffocate me. I appear after surviving a traumatic event and a week later you're trying to sleep with me?" I rip myself from his arms and give him another futile shove.

When I turn, my wrist is yanked so hard that I slam into him, hitting my forehead on his chin.

"That was for you. To make you feel better. Everything about this is for you. I took this insufferable title to find you, and I tore the planet apart as I searched."

"Xelor will die without you. I was thinking about my options because I was torn between being happy with you and keeping Xelor alive. But here we are. You're suffocating me again." I push hard, and his arms give out. "We are dysfunctional."

I take three steps back, and his gaze only catches fire.

"Well guess what, Venus. I'd rather be dysfunctional, I'd rather have a thousand arguments until you until understand that sometimes it's alright to choose your happiness over other's, I'd rather be suffocating than have you kidnapped and raped as you run off, alone. As much as I know you can protect yourself, it's not your job anymore. It's mine."

With that, he bends at the waist and throws me over his shoulder, kicking and screaming.

Nausea has me gasping. I want to return to the ground to end this awful feeling, so I fuss so hard that I kick him in the stomach in my desperation. Of course, that doesn't phase the formidable King.

"Stop! Put her down!" I hear Beysha yell. The argument must have woken her up.

Dramon continues to carry me on his shoulder even as I fuss.

"Put her down, she's pregnant!"

Although my blows weren't enough, the shock over those words has Dramon stumbling. I hold my breath as we both fall, and hope I don't land tragically.

THUD.

Dramon flips last minute, and I land on top of him with my chest pressed against his face. The only part of me that took a blow was my hands.

Dramon sits up, face stunned. I'm on his lap now, mirroring his expression.

Beysha scatters to our side. "Venus? Are you alright?"

"What—what were you—" I can't form a sentence.

"Oh, I'm sorry," Beysha fidgets with her fingers. "I never got to tell you. The last night we spent in the shack, I woke up and found you next to those fertility seeds we were eating— you know the ones that sprout in pregnancy? I saw a little seed coming out of one, so I stored it away to observe and completely forgot about it. Then I'm moved to the palace and find it in my belongings and faint and didn't get to tell you," she gulps. "I'm sorry."

Dramon sits up and helps me off his lap, but his hand remains on my elbow as if ready to catch me if I fall.

"A child," he repeats, face still set in stone.

Meanwhile, vomit threatens to burst out of my mouth.

Dramon nods. "Nothing changes. I will take care of it." He grits his teeth. It's odd. I would have expected Dramon to be over the moon at this news, and I don't understand why he would suggest the child would be a burden in the first place.

"I forgive you for this," he tells me. "Go get checked by a doctor."

I'm confused, shocked, and half-unconscious as Beysha leads me indoors.

A/N: Dramon thinks she cheated, since they haven't had sex in 2 years and she recently rejected him in bed. Still, he decides he will take care of the baby as if it's his own. The baby is actually his.