Page 78 of ColdIron
“That’s enough!”
The dragon prince’s voice cut through the fog in my head like a scythe through weeds.
I lifted my haze-blurred gaze. When had Drakken crossed the balcony?
He stood beside our table. His blonde companion at his booth was forgotten. The dragon prince towered over the shifters, his large frame blocking the lantern light powered by Stormglass behind him. A black T-shirt stretched taut over the hard slabs of his chest and the ridges of his stomach. Faded jeans hung low on his hips, worn soft at the knees. He looked less like a general tonight and more like the man who’d pin you against a wall and make you forget your own name. Everything about him was built to intimidate. And every inch of it worked.
Fuck. He was a ten too. T-E-N. The female cadetswould riot if they knew I was sitting between two princes who both scored perfect marks.
I flashed him a coy smirk. He didn’t return it.
My body ran hotter at his proximity. Two alpha males saturating the air with competing power, and I sat at the center of the collision, my pulse drumming so hard I could feel it in my teeth.
The Stormglass lanterns overhead flickered, as if even they couldn’t handle the voltage.
T-E-N!Coldiron declared.
“She’s drunk, Caspian!” Drakken grated.
“I think I can go for a few more rounds,” I said. “Mind your own business.”
A round of gasps rose from all the tables.
Drakken glared at me. “You will not drink one more shot.”
Was that a threat?
I glared back at him while pondering if I should shoot to my feet. Go eye-to-eye or toe-to-toe. I was only an inch shorter, close enough to make the stare feel like a fair fight. But then, what if I swayed? I was getting lightheaded. He’d interpret it as me swaggering, then make me run twenty laps. I didn’t think I had it in me to even finish one lap tonight.
“What the hell?” Caspian shot to his feet, squaring off against Drakken. Very good. That was the way to do it.
Their chests nearly touched. Two walls of muscle and rage, inches apart. The air between them crackled.
“Everyone in this joint is drunk. That’s the fucking point of celebrating.” Caspian’s green eyes glowed,violence brimming in them. “So why don’t you go bark at the ones face-down in their own vomit before you come singling out Max again? You’re spoiling her evening and my fun.” I nodded eagerly. Well said. “Back the fuck off, Drakken.”
“Have you forgotten that Cadet Private Max doesn’t belong in your shifter army?” Drakken snorted. “She’s under my command.”
“As soon as she graduates, she’ll be in my elite shifter ranks,” Caspian said.
“Until then, she follows my every order.” Drakken’s sharp smugness returned. He turned to me, his gaze harsh and dominant. But he couldn’t entirely hide what simmered beneath—heat, veiled but present. “Cadet Private Max. Attention!”
Was I required to snap to attention off duty? I’d cooled a little. Countering him might earn me something worse than barefoot laps on the death track.
I rose from my seat. Swaggered a little, intentionally this time, then stood at attention. My gaze met his alpha stare and held. I refused to salute this asshole. He hadn’t ordered one anyway.
“Go back to your barracks now before you get any more wasted,” Drakken growled. “Unless you’re asking for a reprimand.”
Caspian snarled.
The two princes locked into rounds of heated argument. The VIP section cleared around them as officers and shifters alike edged back from the blast radius.
“The heirs have never fought in public,” Bryn whispered in my ear. “What do we do, Max?”
“We sneak the fuck out of here,” I whispered back. No need to be collateral damage in a clash of Titans.
I caught Bryn’s wrist and pulled her toward the stairs while Drakken’s bass and Caspian’s snarl tangled behind us. We slipped down the staircase, weaving through the packed ground floor. The officers and soldiers at the bar didn’t notice us. Their eyes were aimed upward at the balcony, where the duel between a dragon prince and a wolf prince was becoming the evening’s main event.
We made it outside. The cold air hit like a slap. But the heat in my veins wasn’t done with me yet.
