Read The Dragon Legion Collection 9 for Free Online Page B

years for me.”
    Katina bit her lip. Alexander wasn’t a poetic man and she knew it. He could be evasive, and he wasn’t one to easily share all the secrets of his heart. Now that their moment of passion had passed, she remembered all the fault lines in their short marriage. There was so much she didn’t know about Alexander. He couldn’t literally mean thousands of years, could he? Where had he been? What had happened to him?
    As much as she wanted to know the story, there was no time to hear it. Not now. “You have to leave,” she repeated. “Please, dress yourself and go.”
    “Go?” Alexander frowned at her. “Katina, I’ve dreamed of returning to you all this time. Why would I leave now?”
    “Because you can’t stay here.”
    “Of course, I can stay here.” He became indignant. “You’re my wife...”
    “I was your wife, but you left.”
    Alexander stared at Katina and she knew from the intensity of his gaze that he’d guessed the truth. He took a deep breath, one that made his nostrils flare. His eyes began to glitter with a strange light, one that made Katina take a step backward. “You married again?” he asked as if this were incomprehensible.
    “You sent no word,” she replied with frustration. “Not a single message in eight years! What would I think except that you’d been killed?”
    He ran a hand over his head. “But if it’s been eight years, then my service is done,” he said, almost to himself, then turned to her with his eyes alight.
    Katina refused to be seduced by his hopeful expression. Even so, she knew that if he touched her, she’d lose the battle. She held up a hand between them. “Wait. You knew it might be eight years? You knew and you never mentioned as much?”
    “I didn’t expect it would be...”
    “You should have told me!”
    He stood up, looking grim. “Would you have married again if I had told you?”
    She knew the promise he wanted, but couldn’t give it. “Eight years is a long time,” she replied. “I had a son. I had no husband. I had to survive. We would have starved in eight years, easily.”
    “But you had your pottery...”
    “And no trade in it.”
    “Why not?”
    “Alexander, I’m not skilled at this craft.”
    “You should have been able to sell enough.”
    Katina had to avert her gaze. “And there were stories...”
    “What kind of stories ? What did people say about you?”
    “It doesn’t matter! No one would come to me to buy, and Lysander had to eat.” She spun and paced the width of the room, knowing there was no short version of the story he would accept. “You were gone, and I had no word from you. I made a choice , because I had to.”
    Alexander folded his arms across his chest. His body rigid and there was a curious flicker of blue light surrounding him, although Katina couldn’t guess what it was. “Who?” he demanded in a low voice.
    Katina simply held his gaze and let him guess.
    Alexander swore thoroughly as he turned away from her. He marched the width of the room twice and looked as if he’d put his fist through the wall.
    Katina was shocked. She had never known she could provoke him to such a visible display of anger. She supposed it was the sign of his feelings that she’d always wanted, but in this moment, she didn’t like the sight.
    Alexander returned to face her. He caught her shoulders in his hands so that she couldn’t evade his gaze. “Not Cetos?” he demanded, clearly guessing that it was. “You didn’t want to marry him before.” His voice rose. “I ensured you didn’t have to!”
    That blue light surrounding his body became more vivid, like a lick of lightning. Katina felt the intensity of his anger, but she was unafraid of him.
    Alexander would never hurt her.
    Katina held his gaze. “I had no choice,” she said, biting off the words. “No other man would have me. I did what had to be done for Lysander. Our son needed a future and I was the only one here to give it to him.” She