The Selection: Bride Of The Dark Dragon

MIRA

“Missed me?” lady Cecilia smirks and I look at Derrien with the intention to kill. I can read one thousand books on gerdian etiquette, I am ready not to sleep and dance till my feet bleed. But I am not ready to become her student once again! What was he even thinking?!

“Lady Cecelia”, I smile unnaturally, “I am so glad to see that you are alive and well! What great news! Rien, my love, can we go and talk privately for just one second?”

“Absolutely not,” he smirks and flames of dark magic surround him as he disappears. That. Traitor!

“Yeah, she is alive as well,” Isidore rolls her eyes.

“And your posture is still absolutely atrocious,” the mentor slaps her back with a cane she has in her arm. Hmm, that definitely wasn’t there before.

“Is everything alright with your health?” I ask the older lady and she looks at me sharply, his lips are trembling for just one short moment.

“When the explosion happened, I got stuck under a stone,” she says calmly, “As a result, one of my legs was permanently injured.”

“I am very sorry,” I say and touch her hand, giving it a light squeeze.

“Don’t be,” she smiles softly, “I am one of the lucky ones…”

I see something like a tiny tear sparkle in her eyes that are full of pain. I can only imagine what she had to witness there. But she quickly regains control.

“Now, back to work, ladies!” she changes back to her usual straight tone. We have a lot of work to do! And especially lady Miradora here.”

Of course, she will single me out already! Grrrr!

“Brandon says I have impeccable manners,” Morgan quickly stands up, “So I think I’ll leave you…”

“There is no such thing as perfection, lady Rattleton!” Cecilia smirks, “You are about to marry a marquis. You can’t make any mistakes and need as much training as possible!”

Morgan sighs heavily and falls back to the sofa with no hope in her eyes.

“Ladies,” Cecilia walks to the centre of the room and makes a significant pause before she starts talking again, “I think you do not understand the situation that we are in here! Everything changed! And now it is more important than any time before that you are perfect! Anything less than perfection and you will be done here!”

“Didn’t you just say there is no such thing as perfection?” Isidore snorts.

“And that’s exactly the problem! You are already doomed!” Cecilia closes her eyes and rubs her forehead as if she is too tired of us already, “Don’t you get it? The Empire and the Kingdom are about to start a war! And you are all from the enemy kingdom! No one will spare you if you make any mistake! And everyone will be looking and waiting for you to make one!”

None of us say anything, we all know that she is right.

“You all need to get married to your gerdians as soon as possible,” the old lady continues, “This will protect you more. But even then… every lady that was born in Akyria is now under suspicion! We had traitors within us! We had spies who wanted to kill the gerdians and who were ready to kill their own to succeed! They don’t know if one of you is not a spy. They cannot trust you like they were ready to trust you before. Even the girls who already became wives are not safe anymore. That’s why you need to work hard to prove that you are innocent and that you deserve to be here! And, sadly, I am now the only one who can help you! So, keep your jokes to yourselves! You need this more than I do now! I proved my loyalty many years ago.”

We are all silent.

We are all silent.

“There aren’t any other spies within the ladies who were in the Selection with us,” I say, “Tristan and Xia were talking about it…”

“And this will mean nothing to the Emperor,” Cecilia chuckles darkly, “My girl, crystals with you saying a speech about how akyrians should fight the gerdians are already spread all over Empire as well! No one will believe you even if it’s true. You are the one in most danger here!”

I swallow. That’s not new information but hearing it out loud like this makes my b***d freeze within my body. I need to be careful. I need to learn. She is absolutely right.

“So, are you ready to work hard?” our mentor smiles already knowing the answer.

“Yes, lady Cecilia,” we say in shaky unison…

Hours later she leaves us alone and the girls practically crawl out of my room. I am lying on my sofa with shoes thrown away and legs up, seriously considering just letting the Emperor execute me. I’ve seen life, I’ve traveled, I’ve loved! I’ve done everything worthy of leaving and nothing – NOTHING- is worth the torture of being told by lady Cecilia.

“Hard day?” Derrien appears in his dark flames, brushing his fingers over my neck. And I turn away from him. This is the only thing I now have the strength to do.

“Traitor,” I mumble.

He kneels in front of me, smiling softly, and takes away naughty locks of hair off my face.

“I am sorry you have to do this,” he chuckles, placing a gentle k**s on my bare shoulder. Tingles erupt from where his lips touched my skin and I closed my eyes in pleasure.

“Still not talking to you!” I pretend to be angry even though we both know that I can’t stay mad at him for long.

“Uh-huh,” he mumbles leaving a wet trail of k****s from my shoulder to my neck and then to my chest. Paying special attention to the place where he put his mark on me. A m**n escapes me as this feels too good and he chuckles, biting my earlobe gently.

“I hate you!” I sigh, although it sounds more like another m**n.

“I know, I know,” he smirks lifting me up in his arms, “I’ve been a very bad, bad, bad fiancé. You can punish me if you like. Or I can punish you…”

“For what?” I snort as I wrap my arms around his neck, “I didn’t…”

“For lying!” he smirks and opens the door with his foot. We are in my changing room and then in the bedroom… But he doesn’t stop there and I raise my brow.

“Derrien Derwood, where are you taking me?” I ask with a slight disappointment in my voice. I was kind of hoping that the bedroom was our final destination!

“Somewhere relaxing”, he murmurs and opens the door to the bathroom…

“Naughty gerdian!” I bite my l*p already knowing what he had planned.

“Yeah, yeah,” he chuckles as he puts me down to my feet and turns the taps, perfectly warm water streaming to the giant marble bath. He comes back to me quickly, dark flames at the tips of his fingers.

“Don’t you dare!”I practically jump away from him, “Rien, you have ruined enough of my dresses!”

“I’ll buy you new ones,” he smirks coming closer.

“Only a man could say something like that!” I roll my eyes, “They are all handmade and one of a kind! People were working for weeks or maybe even months creating it! And you just want to ruin it because of your impatience!”

“I can be patient!” he snorts, coming from my back, undoing the straps and hooks of my dress and sliding it down my body to the very floor, and staying there with a mischievous gaze. He pulls my panties down and carefully places one of my feet to the edge of the bath, leaning in to k**s me in the place which a lady shall not name.

“Oh, gods!” I m**n as I tug on his hair, not to fall down. His hands around my thighs and bottom are holding me in place and supporting me as well as his tongue makes swift circular movements over my bundle of nerves. He knows very well how to bring me to the edge fast and uses it against me time after time. But, luckily, I don’t mind. My release comes within seconds, shattering sparks and tingles throughout my body.

He stands up, a smug smile across his face, as his own pants and shirt disappear in the dark flames. I open my mouth to say something but he covers my lips with his k**s, giving me a taste of myself and pulling me closer.

“I don’t care about how long did it take them to make my clothes,” he chuckles going up the marble steps and stepping into the bath, not letting go of my hand, “I am sure my tailor would be thrilled to receive extra orders from me.”

He seats at the head of the bath and helps me inside. I slide onto his full length, arching my back from all the sensations and closing my eyes once again. His hands travel around my body, his lips on my breasts and my fingers are in his hair. He grasps me by my bottom with one hand and by my waist with another, guiding my motions and pace.

“Oh, Rien!” I bend down to k**s him and shamelessly tug onto his hair to make him look at me. We c****x together and I put my head onto his shoulder, my body limp in his hands as he rubs my back with soothing motions and placing soft k****s where he can get me.

“I can stay like this forever,” I mutter into his ear and he turns to me to bite it.

“Me too, my little mage,” he whispers.

I tell him everything that lady Cecilia made me do today and he tells me everything he has been busy with. Dargen wouldn’t leave us alone, insisting that I should come to the castle as soon as possible.

“You know he is planning something, right?” I say, sighing.

“Of course,” he plays with a lock of my hair, “I expected no less from him. And he never disappoints. However, I think he can wait a few more days until the Jubilee.”

“And what if the Emperor ends up telling us that we can’t get married?” I say out loud something that was concerning me for all those days.

“He wouldn’t,” Derrien k****s the top of my head, “Don’t even think about it, Mira. You are mine, no one would argue with that.”

I sure hope so. But this lingering feeling deep inside bothers me…