Max looked up as Blake came strolling into the room and then paused to sniff the air. He said, in a slightly accusing tone, “You slept with the human.”

There was no way to deny it, and really, he didn’t want to anyway. “Yes. I know you’re probably mad at me. Given that you wanted her for yourself.”

Blake shrugged, “It’s fine. She’s made it pretty clear she wants nothing to do with me.”

Blake gave him a wary look. “I know you well enough to know that doesn’t mean you intend to stop pursuing her.”

Blake drew closer to the sofa that Max sat upon. “It’s not like there’s not another one of them. I’m just interested in knowing how you got her to agree. I tried everything with Christy, and she threatened to cut my balls off if I spoke to her again yesterday. I really don’t know what I’m doing wrong, Max.”

Max could hazard a few guesses, but he decided to start with the obvious. “What did you say to her?”

Blake slapped a hand down on his neck. “Well, I offered to give her weight in gold if she’d have my baby.”

Max stared at him. He asked, cautiously, “How did that work out?”

Blake’s shoulders slumped. “Not so hot. I told you she threatened to cut my balls off. Weren’t you listening to me at all?”

Max said, “I can see how that would not be the ideal way for it to work out.”

Blake said, “How did you do it?”

Max said, “Do what?”

Blake said, “Convince the human to sleep with you.”

Max said, “The same way I convinced any female to sleep with me. By not acting like a raging sex organ.”

Blake said, “No offense, but I am a raging sex organ right now. I’m in my prime, which means that I’m guaranteed to impregnate anyone I sleep with. That means nobody on this world will sleep with me.”

Max’s lips twitched upward. “I can see how that could be uncomfortable.”

Blake rolled his eyes, “You have no idea.”

Max muttered, “I don’t really want to either, thanks.”

Blake said, “Well, I have some news that will probably take my mind off my plight. I’m not sure how you’re going to take it though.”

Max’s eyebrows rose. “What is it?”

Blake said, “I got so tired of arguing with her this morning over breakfast that I took off for a long flight. I had to work off some steam, if you understand what I’m saying. I went a little further than usual, all the way toward the west lands.”

Max’s shoulders went rigid with tension. “You know that’s Orc territory, and that’s a really stupid thing to do. We’ve managed to keep them past our borders for a very long time, but if they see you flying over there, they may just decide that we declared war on them.”

Blake’s next words were a bombshell. “It seems that there are about to declare open war on us, cousin.”

Acid rolled up into Max’s stomach. “What do you mean?”

“They are gathering war machines. I saw catapults, fire throwers, and a few other things. Not only that: all the Orcs from that side of the known lands have gathered with the ones that reside there and are closer to us. Not only that, but yesterday, after you left us, I saw a small band of them. They were at the base of the mountain on the other side from our lands, but they were there.”

Max shot to his feet. Anger boiled through his system. “And you didn’t think to tell me this?”

Blake said, “I know I’m wrong for that. I got so distracted by everything that happened that I just set it aside, meaning to tell you in private. I never got a chance to speak with you last night. I came looking for you to talk to you but you were gone. I didn’t want to mention it in the council room, not when we had two humans in there. Two humans who saw the Orcs, by the way.”

Dammit! Heather had asked him about Orcs, and he had not even wondered how she had known of them., and had also not thought to ask her that question either.

It just figured. He had taken off with Heather and the results of that had been that he had missed hearing something as serious as Orcs gathering weapons and themselves together, and very near the dragon lands. “I was just in the village last evening. Nobody there mentioned it. So, if the Orcs are scouting out our people, they are doing it cautiously and quietly. We must move at once to ensure their safety.”

Blake stood, “That’s what I was thinking too. They have to be kept safe. I think we should bring them all here, to the castle. There’s enough in the way of outbuildings and the like to house and shelter them. The walls are high. They would be safer here. We can gather all of our weapons here, and many of the humans would be willing to help us fight as well.”

There it was. Blake, for all his faults, was a good leader. A better leader than even Max was, and Max was not so egotistical that he could not see that. His head nodded up and down. “You are quite correct. But we need to do it quietly. We don’t want to alert any Orcs that may be watching the village. If we do alert them, they may set their plans into motion sooner, and before we have a chance to actually arm ourselves and to learn what their plans might be.”

Blake said, “I will call the Council together. I will meet you in the chamber.”

Max watched his cousin walk away. His hands balled into fists, and a small little burst of steam came from his nostrils. Christy and Heather had distracted Blake so badly that he had ignored something as dangerous as Orcs. He was not the only one. How had he not seen them? If they had been there, right where he had dropped Blake and the two women, why had he not seen them?

The short answer to that, of course, was that he too had been distracted. His anger at Blake for going through the portal and his irritation at having to track Blake back through the portal along with the two human women had up-ended his ability to concentrate.

Heather also distracted him. From the moment he had seen her in that alley, staggering around with a broken heel on her boot and a wooden weapon in her hand, she had been a distraction. She was a distraction he simply could not afford. She was a human, and the portal would open soon, and she would go through it, back to the world that she belonged to.

In the meantime, his duty was to make sure that his world and the humans and dragons who dwelt within it were safe from their violent enemy, the Orcs. If that meant he had to stay completely away from Heather, then he would.

Max found his resolve sorely tested later that day. His frustration with the Council had mounted throughout the long, intense meeting that saw them arguing amongst themselves as to what to do next. Aura was, of course, in favor of immediate action, but many of the others were not. They had argued on the side of caution, to simply wait and see while Blake, Max, and Aura had argued on the side of acting at that moment in preparing for the worst while hoping for the best. In the end, it came down to a vote, and because there had been more dragons on Max and Blake’s side, they had decided to start hammering out a plan that would unfold over the next few days.

It would be a long few days for him, and when he sat down in his place at the communal dinner table that evening, he was out of sorts and determined not to let Heather distract him. Unfortunately, she decided to show up in another one of those gowns that made his fingers itch to take it off and with her hair pinned up in some arrangement of combs and pens that left her long and creamy neck exposed and revealed every contour of her heart-shaped face.

His organ, clearly not having gotten the memo that Heather was a distraction that Max could not afford, gave a heavy twitch and then stiffened immediately as she sat beside him and her legs brushed against his in a fairly innocent yet intimate way.

He immediately turned his face toward Aura, who sat to the other side of him. He charged into a conversation, low and quiet, refusing to even look at Heather. The meal came, and he picked at it, his appetite for food completely gone but his appetite for Heather increasing with every moment that went by. Even though he wasn’t looking directly at her, he could sense her presence, feel the heat of her skin and smell the combination of soap and that unique fragrance that was solely hers coming up off her skin.

That warm and satiny skin that had responded so willingly to his touch. That skin that had offered him so many delights earlier that day and the night before. That skin that he wanted so desperately to touch again, to explore with long leisurely strokes of his hands as well as the rest of his body.

His teeth gritted together as he realized that he was letting his mind wander and that he could barely keep up with the conversation that he had been so intent on having in order to ignore Heather.

Heather’s fingers grazed the skin right above his elbow, right where his shirtsleeve ended. That touch inflamed him and his head whipped toward her, his breath coming up fast and short. “Yes?”

The word was brisk, and his tone even more so. He saw her eyes widened a bit and she snatched her hand back as though he had lit it on fire. Immediate regret hit. He did not want to be unkind to her. He just simply could not afford her at the moment.

She said, very softly, “I just wanted to ask how your day had been.”

Her eyes went downward, and her head quickly averted. She stared at her plate, and he stared at her profile. Her eyelashes lay on her pale cheeks and her mouth, that lush and right curve, drew his attention. His heart softened. “It was trying and difficult. I’m sorry if I seem so distant. Things that need my immediate attention are pressing forward, and I’m afraid I do not have much to spare at this moment.”

She nodded but didn’t speak. His heart went heavy and still. That he had hurt her feelings was obvious. He had no idea how to fix that though. He wanted her, yes, but he wanted the safety of his people and his lands more than he wanted her. He had to want that more. He was a king in this world, and kings shouldered a heavy burden.

Nobody ever said being king was easy or fair.