The Dragon's Queen (Dragon Lords) (21 page)
Read The Dragon's Queen (Dragon Lords) Online
Authors: Michelle M. Pillow
ontinues…
What to see how King Attor’s sons turn out, despite their father’s teachings?
Lords of the Var: The Savage King
Was this your first Dragon Lords? Go back to the beginning!
Dragon Lords 1: Barbarian Prince
Read all the Dragon Lords and Var books? Yay, you, keep going!
Dragon Lords Books
Lords of the Var Series
Be sure to check out the other books in the Dragon Lords’ futuristic world:
Space Lords
series,
Zhang Dynasty
series
—with many more books to come!
To learn more and to stay up to date on the latest book list visit
www.MichellePillow.com
Michelle M. Pillow
Michelle M. Pillow,
Author of All Things Romance™
, is a multi-published, award winning author writing in many romance fiction genres including futuristic, paranormal, historical, contemporary, fantasy and dark paranormal. Ever since she can remember, Michelle has had a strange fascination with anything supernatural and sci-fi. After discovering historical romance novels, it was only natural that the supernatural and love/romance elements should someday meet in her wonderland of a brain. She's glad they did for their children have been pouring onto the computer screen ever since.
Michelle loves to travel and try new things, whether it's a paranormal investigation of an old Vaudeville Theatre or climbing Mayan temples in Belize. She's addicted to movies and used to drive her mother crazy while quoting random
scenes with her brother. Though it has yet to happen, her dream is to be in a horror movie as 1. A zombie or 2. The expendable screaming chick who gets it in the beginning credits. But for the most part she can be found writing in her office with a cup of coffee in pajama pants.
She has been on the Amazon bestseller list multiple times, nominated for the Romantic Times Lifetime Achievement Award 2011, the winner of the 2006 RT Reviewers
’ Choice Award, nominated for the 2007 RT Award, a Brava Novella Contest Finalist and a PAN member of RWA.
Michelle has titles published with The Raven Books, Pocket Books, Random House, Virgin Books, Adam
’s Media, Samhain Publishing, Running Press, and more.
She loves to hear from readers. They can contact her through her w
ebsite
www.michellepillow.com
Michelle loves hearing from readers and can be found interacting on social media.
Author Website:
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Curious to see the Var
’s side of things?
A Dragon Lords Story
The Savage King (Lords of the Var) by Michelle M. Pillow
Bestse
lling Futuristic Shifter Romance Series
A girl with a mission…
Agent Ulyssa Payne is on a mission. It's her job to make sure the Medical Mafia leader
doesn't leave the planet of Qurilixen. But, when her target is killed by his own daughter, her mission is over. Now, she stuck on a barbarian planet for three months until the Agency comes to get her.
Getting kidnapped by King Attor, she's left in the Var
harem to await his return. But, when the King dies in battle and doesn't come for her, she's stuck dealing with his son, the new savage King of the Var. This is one complication Ulyssa didn't need.
A royal complication…
The Var Princes were raised by a h
ard man who put no stock in love-especially love with one woman. Bred to never take a life mate, these men will do everything in their power to live up to the dead King Attor's expectations and never fall in love.
Kirill is a man who must do his duty, only
he didn't expect to do it so soon. When his father dies, he knows it's his destiny to be King. What he didn't expect is the troublesome mistress that's now his to deal with.
“
We can’t make peace with the Draig! They are our enemies!”
At the sound of his brother
’s hard voice, Prince Kirill of the Var looked up from where he’d been studying his hands. The stresses of the last several days lined his eyes—eyes that were so dark of a brown they were often mistaken for black. He held still, not moving from the chair he rested in.
The old council hall was empty, except for Kirill and three of his brothers. Deep set, antique, cushioned chairs were set around a large, intricately carved fireplace. A fire burned brightly, giving the tomblike room light and warmth. Long pill
ows lined the red-carpeted floor. There were no windows in the old section of the castle, not even a little slit. As young boys, they had made the room their private fort. Now that they were older, they still convened there to relax and talk in private. The air was stuffy and unmoving, but the four princes were too preoccupied to notice such things.
Falke, the Commander of the Guards, sat to Kirill
’s left. His stiff body was unmoving in its rigid discipline. Falke commanded the warriors at the castle and was in charge of the military. After a half century of command, he’d become hard and unforgiving.
Falke
’s counterpart and their younger brother, Reid, was Commander of the Outlands. Reid spent his days away from the palace, watching over the northern borders. Reid had a twin brother, Jarek, whom they hadn’t heard from in some time. Jarek was off gallivanting around the galaxies. The twins were the only princes with the same mother.
On the floor lounged Quinn, the youngest and sleekest of the princes. His smal
ler stature had come in handy on many occasions. As boys, they’d fit him into tight spaces, making him the lookout or spy, depending on what mischief they were about.
“
At least let us convene the old houses and vote!” Falke continued in his forbidding tone, breaking into Kirill’s contemplation. Kirill took a deep breath. He couldn’t blame Falke for his anger. The Commander had seen many battles with the Draig warriors and thus had seen the most Var deaths.
“
And you, Quinn?” Kirill asked.
“
I see the merit of both war and peace,” Quinn answered in his quiet voice.
“
Some ambassador you are,” Reid laughed, throwing the cushion from behind his back to where Quinn lay on the floor. Quinn grinned and tucked the cushion behind his head to replace his folded arms.
Fa
lke directed a frown to Kirill at the banter, his eyes begging for order. “I’ll send more guards to the Outlands. We should make sure the borders are well guarded. If there is to be a battle, let it be away from our city.”
Reid nodded. His smile faded slig
htly from his tanned features. “That would be wise. There has been no trouble in the shadowed marshes, not since father tried to kidnap Prince Yusef’s bride.”
At the mention to King Attor, the princes grew silent. Their father had harbored no love for the
Draig and each knew he’d been the main cause of war in the past. Solemn eyes turned to the fire, as each prince remembered watching their father’s body burn at the burial rite.
Attor had not been a loving man, but he was still their father. They were royal
ty and royalty had no time for love or weaknesses. As the late king was fond of saying,
Kingdoms are only as strong as their rulers. The Draig are weak and so the Var Empire will rise.
“
Have you contacted Jarek and told him?” Kirill asked Reid.
“
No, but I have sent messages through secure lines. It’s hard to tell where he has gone off to. Last I heard he was on Tragon, but that was about six months ago.” Reid shrugged. Then, to break the somber mood, he teased, “So brother, when you’re crowned king, will you be keeping the lovely women in the harem for yourself?”
Kirill frowned, rolling his eyes. “
Father collected women as Falke here collects weaponry. I have no idea what to do with them all. I have no wish for a lifemate, let alone several half-mates.”
All
princes nodded in firm agreement. None of them looked to commit themselves to a woman—ever. Why bond to one when you could have many?
“
According to law, they are your responsibility,” Quinn said softly, chuckling.
Kirill shot him a defiant glare and growl
ed. Quinn laughed harder, unconcerned. Sighing, Kirill gave up his feigned anger, lounged back in his chair, and threw a leg over the side. “I tried to give them freedom, but half of them didn’t want to leave the palace. The other half has nowhere to go. And the crazy one, Taura, wanted me to bind her to father’s corpse so that she may burn with him.”
“
It’s the Roane way,” Falke said, in defense of his birth mother. The other princes just laughed. Taura was partly the reason Falke was so serious. Whereas all the others had the blood of Var and human in them, Falke was half Roane. The Roane were a naturally bold, hard people with strict discipline and rigid ideals. Taura had passed those traits to her son. As children, when the boys were playing and getting into mischief, Falke had been training to be a warrior.
“
Ah, I suppose I’ll have to at least meet with them all. How many could there be? Fifty?” Kirill asked.
“
A hundred and sixty three, brother, by my last count,” Quinn laughed. “Give or take a few dozen.”
“
It almost makes you respect our father, doesn’t it?” Reid stood from his chair and stretched, prompting the others to do the same.
“
The late king always had respect. It was the other emotions he had little use for,” Kirill answered. With a thoughtful look upon his face, he strode from the old council hall, leaving his brothers to watch after him in wonder.
To find out more about Michelle’s books visit
www.MichellePillow.com
Read all the Dragon Lords and Var books? Yay, you, keep going!
A Dragon Lords Story
) by Michelle M. Pillow
Bestselling Futuristic Romance Series
Empath and space pi
rate, Evan Cormier is obsessed with decoding an ominous premonition about his future. When a fellow crewman angered a spirit, the vengeful Zhang An took her wrath out on everyone in the vicinity. Evan just happened to be one of them. He’s now facing a future in which he’ll be forever alone.
Lady Josselyn of the House of Craven has been betrayed. With her home world on a Florencian moon under attack and her family dead, she finds herself at the mercy of the one who deceived them. There is only one thing lef
t to do—die with honor. But before she can join her family in the afterlife, she must first avenge all that she held dear. Falling in love with a pirate was never in the plan. Evan and his thieving crewmates might have delayed her fate, but they can’t stop destiny.
Craven Estates, Earth Settlement, Florencia
’s Fifth Moon
“
Lift her,” the General ordered, his shiny boots walking away from her, taking her reflection with it.
Two men hauled her to her feet, holding her up by her arms. Josselyn suppressed a cry as they jerked her dislocated shoulder. She couldn
’t see their faces, didn’t need to. Her body hurt so badly she couldn’t tell where the pain was coming from anymore.
Th
e one who’d betrayed them stood before her. General Jack Stephans. He’d deceived her family and the fifth moon settlement. He’d traded them in for money and power. Josselyn lifted her gaze briefly to the hard depths of the steel green eyes before her. She wanted to kick, to give one last good blow, to go down fighting, but she couldn’t raise her limbs.
“
Poor little Josselyn, so heartbreaking,” the General grabbed her chin and swiped beneath her eye. He looked young, was in fact very young for his position, only a few years older than her six and twenty. And yet they all knew so much more of fighting than anyone their age should, than anyone ever should.
“
We gave you a home,” she whispered. “How could you do this? How could you join them?”
“
You gave me a place in your stables,” he spat, his grip tightening on her chin, bruisingly so. “Not a place at your table. Not a place by your side. Not equal. They gave me a rank, a title. They give me respect. They give me a place in this world.”
“
Jack,” she said, her voice softening for the orphan boy they’d found over twenty years ago. If she begged him, maybe fate could be turned around; maybe this day could be erased. Fate had spit them out in a whirlwind of chance and deceit. Maybe all that had happened wasn’t his fault. Maybe it wasn’t hers. None of it mattered. None of it changed the fact that he had taken everything she held dear, everyone, and now he was robbing her of her family home. Her tone hardened and she closed her eyes. “General.”
“
Look at me, Josselyn,” he said. His tone caught even as his grip on her face tightened until his fingers pressed the inside of her cheeks against her teeth. “You’re so cold. Even now, your face is composed. Is one, lonely tear all the passion you can muster?”
“
I am Lady Josselyn of the House of Craven.” Her eyes opened slowly, focusing on the shiny white of his uniform. It gleamed with the orange glow coming from the fireplace. The material looked odd in the drabber earth tones many on the fifth moon wore. Theirs was a world based on Medieval Earth. Each moon in the Florencian system was different, each settlement patterned off a singular time in the human past, times that history had almost forgotten. But the principals of the ancestors who’d established the colonies no longer applied. Times were different now. What had started as preservation of history had turned into reality, into laws and a way of life they all believed in as generation after generation was raised into the worlds of the Florencian moons.
The General shook her
by the face until finally she forced her eyes to meet his. He looked angry, hurt, wildly hopeful. “I can save you. I can say you had nothing to do with the treachery of your family. No one wants to kill a woman of noble blood. The line of Craven doesn’t have to die. I will take your name; the name denied me by your father.”
Was he serious? She knew he
’d asked her father for her hand in marriage. In fact, she’d dismissed the proposal with the full knowledge he only asked because he wanted power. Did he think she could love him now? Want him? Take him into her bed?
He must have read the answer on her face because his own expression hardened. She knew Jack. He wouldn
’t ask again.
“
I suppose not,” he said, almost sad. “Even if you agreed, I could never trust you not to take a blade to my back. Not after today.” He sighed heavily. “Not after this.”
“
Ago,” she whispered, even her voice beginning to fail in its strength, “pugna quod int-”
“
Quiet your tongue! This house is mine. Mine.” He let go of her chin and her head drooped. “And you can die knowing that I have taken more than what you all refused to give me in life.”
“
A place at our table,” Josselyn said, her tone softer still, the will to live leaving her. Her heart called out to her ancestors, to her dead family, begging them to come and get her.
“
My table,” he answered, stepping away. The General lifted a gun, pointing it at her head. She heard the telltale click of metal on metal. The weapon was not one found on the fifth moon. They fought with swords and axes, like the old medieval ways. Though technology was available, not using it was a point of honor. He must have brought the weapon from another moon. Perhaps the Victorians? The Elizabethans? It appeared to be too old to be from much later in time.
“
Do it, Jack.” She didn’t look at him as she waited for the final discharge of the gun, the loud bang before the end. When it didn’t come, she repeated, the words a mere mouthing of her lips, “Do it.”
“
Speed you to a quick end, Josselyn Craven,” Jack whispered. “You all brought this on yourselves.”
To find out more about Michelle’s books visit
www.MichellePillow.com
