When Cherry and Cezar came to get Chyna, not a word was spoken. They could feel the tension, I was sure. It was so thick, it was hard to breathe in my own castle.

My mate left, but the feelings that had blown up between us still snaked around me, taunting me. I’d lost control of my temper. I’d gotten angry and raised my voice to her like my father did to my mother. I had not struck her as my father would have done. But I could hardly claim that as a victory.

Every well-meaning plan I’d constructed in my head had blown up and flown off. I’d meant to convince her to talk to me and get to know me, to show me what she expected from a relationship. I wanted to be a good mate for her. I wanted that so much.

I sank into one of the chairs outside on the dock with a flagon of Armand’s special brew and chugged a hefty amount, hoping to numb the pain. I needed to mend the gaping hole in my heart.

How pathetic is a dragon imbibing while waxing poetic to himself about his own aching heart, brother? I called out randomly to Remy.

Coming.

I didn’t wait for him to arrive before upending the flask of spirits and finishing it. I wasn’t in the mood to share. Not when I’d preferred to drink myself unconscious or dead. I’d lost my queen. She had not even looked back at me when she left. She had kept her head down and had been so closed off. I tried to invade her head to get a glimpse of what she was feeling, but there was nothing there for me. She was guarded, cold. She must hate me.

I wasn’t sure how much time had passed before Remy landed on my dock and then strode up to me. I pointed him inside for clothes, and when he came back out, he was dressed in a pair of my jeans.

“You might run a vacuum around the place once in a while, bro. What happened?”

“I would like to know that myself.”

“You don’t know what happened?”

I let my head fall back and stared up at the sky. How had it become night already? The stars were out and bright, unobscured by city lights like some places in the new world were. “Do you ever miss the old kingdom, brother?”

Remy snorted. “Is that a joke? Do I miss the place where we ruled over our kingdom as the most powerful dragons in the land and all respected and feared us? Where our very names spoken aloud conjured up visions of such power and might that our subjects were left trembling? The place where commoners prostrated themselves at the mere sight of us?”

I grunted. “Chyna does not want to clean.”

“O-kay. No big deal, right?”

I looked over at him. “It is a big deal, apparently. I tried to explain to her what mates are and how the female is in charge of the home and birthing younglings. No, wait…I did not even have a chance to mention younglings. The conversation never got past caring for our home.”

“You’re not making any sense.”

“She said she will not wipe my ass. As though I would ask her to do such a thing. Never.” I tossed the empty flagon away from me and grinned when I heard it smash to the ground. “The disrespect she has for me. She cares nothing for me at all. She does not want to be mated to me. She does not want to be my queen.”

“Because she doesn’t want to clean?”

“I suppose. I don’t know. Maybe she just doesn’t like me.”

Remy blew out a heavy breath and sank farther into his seat. “Well, what did she say? Her exact words, bro.”

“I…” I wracked my brain. What had she said? “She said something…”

“Weren’t you listening?”

“Well, of course, I was listening!” I stood up and stumbled away from him. “She said she did not want me.”

“Because of the housework?”

“Why do you keep talking about housework?”

“To show you how stupid you sound.”

I charged at him and knocked him backward. The chair broke under us, and I let another broken thing in my life fuel me on, even if it was just furniture. I punched him in the face, and then he was somehow on top of me, throwing his own jab at my chin. My movements were slow and hindered by Armand’s brew. It was easy for Remy to get a couple more good shots in before hoisting himself up and walking away.

“You are a fool. You have a mate. Why are you fighting about birthing younglings and doing housework? If she does not want to cook or clean, then she will not cook and clean. What is the big deal?”

“What are you talking about? We were just talking about how amazing the old world was. Women took care of us. Our mates should want to take care of us.”

“Flaming scales, Blaise. Of course, the old world was nice. We were younglings. And then we were royalty—males who were catered to as younglings are. Having everything done for you is a privilege, but our life is here now. Females here—human females—are not the same as dragonesses of the old world were. They work. They take care of their families. And we are no longer kings. You really cannot get over the change?”

“I did not want anything to change.”

“None of us asked to be here. The old world crumbled, brother. We flexed our power too much and turned some against us. We were being hunted and slaughtered one by one. Do you think living like that is better than having a mate who will not wipe your ass?”

“I do not want my ass wiped! For the last flaming time, I will wipe my own ass!”

“Well, fortunately, the toilet paper here is so much better than what we used in the old world.”

I held my composure for a second and then laughed. “You are an idiot.”

“You are the real idiot. You do not need a mate to clean up after you and feed you like you are some overgrown youngling. You are a warrior dragon. Care for yourself, brother.”

“I can do that. Maybe. I just thought… I assumed that if I found a mate, it would be like the old world. A little bit.” I looked back up at the sky. “I do miss it sometimes. The power and the freedom.”

“Don’t we all, brother.”

“What if that is not the real reason she does not want to stay with me?” The thought had been there, niggling me for a while. What if she could see the evil that had been bred into me? What if she could see into my soul and did not like what she saw. And who would? The dragon who had sired me, my father, had been called the Demon King. Perhaps she could see a sign of that in me, and that sign told her to run.

“Your cock is not as big as mine, but I am sure she will grow used to it, Blaise.” Remy shrugged, fighting a grin.

I scowled. “Leave.”

“Yeah, yeah. I am going, Puny Penis.”

“Enough of that.”

“Why? What are you going to do about it, Teeny Weenie?”

I dragged myself to my feet and shifted. I am going to kick your ass.

He shifted and took to the sky. That’ll be the day, Dinky Dick.

Remy knew what he was doing—fighting with him took my mind off my mate for a few minutes. Unfortunately, it left another gaping hole in my castle wall that no one but me was going to clean up.