39. Chapter Fifty-One

The dungeon smelled like earth and mildew.

It was a step down from his mother's place on the throne. The lower we descended the steps, the more I could hear his mother's screaming.

More like wailing.

Dorran stopped on the bottom step and glanced at me over his shoulder. "Let me do the talking. Do not speak to them. They don't deserve it."

His handsome face brightened from a stream of moonlight from a small window close by. Everything about the situation was terrible. We'd been dragged through Hell to be together, but his sticking up for me to his family made me feel right at home.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

I lost eye contact and stared at his boots. "Nothing."

"Tell me."

"I love you," I whispered. "You don't have to get an apology from them. I don't care about it. I don't care what they think about me."

He hummed under his breath. "Well, I care. They are going to apologize to you because you didn't ask for any of this. My father was beating you, Amara—,"

He closed his eyes.

I could only imagine the images flashing through his mind at that moment.

"Don't do that," I said, touching his jawline. "Don't think about it."

"It's all I've been able to think about," he said in a gruff voice. "I failed you—,"

"Dorran," I hissed. "How in the Hell were you supposed to save me? I had you restrained."

"I don't know, not let my mate restrain me so easily?"

I lifted on my toes to kiss him softly. "If you need this apology, then let's go, but know I don't need anything from them. I just need you."

His mother had gone quiet by the time we made it down to the cells. It was murky and wet. The stink clung to me the further we walked into the room. His father sat on one of the benches in the middle of his cell, his elbows resting on his knees.

He glanced up and I winced at the evidence of their battle.

"Dorran," he said. "Let your mother go."

His mother stood in the corner of her cell, looking out of place in her dress, and up-do.

"Seems the King doesn't have to take others" opinions. Isn't that right, Dad? Just like you attempting to kill my mate? Tell me, would you have killed her if Toby hadn't interfered?"

Dorran looked over at his mother and pulled me over to the bars. "Do you see these marks?" he asked, looking down at my scarred legs. "How would you like it if I did that to you—,"

"Don't Dorran," his father hissed. "She's a siren—,"

"She's my mate!" he shouted, his voice vibrating off the stonewalls. The dominance he portrayed melted me to my spot. His strength was evident in every syllable he spoke. "You tried to kill her because she isn't a dragon. Because you were pissed that others would fight to protect her. I needed your help and you brushed me under the rug. Your son. Why should I take any mercy on either of you? Tell me why I should take these keys," he said, pulling them out of his pocket, "and let either of you out?"

The silence dripped down my skin like an acid leak.

Dorran waited for either of them to speak, but they didn't answer. How could they?

He chuckled humorlessly. "You have nothing to say to me? To Amara?"

His father looked up at me. The pain and shame there were evident. "I'm sorry, Amara. What I did was wrong. I just wanted what was best for my son."

Dorran scoffed beside me. "Amara may forgive you, but I don't—,"

"Dorran," I whispered.

He glanced down at me with hate-ridden eyes. "You have to forgive them. They are your parents—,"

"I don't have to do anything," he said.

"Dorran," his mother whispered, wrapping her hands around the bars. "Please, Son. It's enough that you've taken the throne from your father—,"

"He won fair and square," his father said, a defeated look on his face. "This is all my fault. I listened to you—,"

"Oh, so it's my fault?" she said. "Great. Blame me for everything."

His father leaned back until his back was flat against the bench.

Dorran walked over to his mother's cell. "You apologize to Amara or you'll be down here with Father until I feel gracious enough to let him out."

His mother's gaze slid toward mine and held. I could see the defiance across the room. The fact that I wasn't a dragon clung to her like a second skin.

She had no idea I had no powers anymore and still was too stubborn to apologize.

"You're not going to apologize for treating my mate like a leper?"

She glanced down at the cement floor. He laughed humorlessly and walked back over to me. "Then stay down here and rot.

His mother became vocal again as we stalked up the stairs. She begged and pleaded to be let go, while the sadness I felt for them began to sink away.

Dorran stalked angrily up the stairs and onto the main floor of the castle.

The tension in his back was wound tight, his muscles moving under his tanned skin as he braced his palms against the wall and let his head hang low.

There were employees of the castle moving about, but none of them dared to question his mood. "Dorran," I whispered, sliding my palm up his back. "I'm fine—,"

"You were hurt because of them," he hissed, turning to look down at me. "I swear to you that I will never let another person put their hands on you."

Dorran's emotions were all over the place. He went from pissed to sad with the flip of a coin. "I believe you," I whispered. "I believe you'll keep me safe, Dorran. Now I need you to believe me when I say that you need to forgive your parents. You don't have to like them or even spend time with them, but you need to give them your forgiveness. They could die, and you'd never be able to forgive them. You'll carry it around like a shell of regret."

Dorran closed his eyes, his big body moved as he breathed in deeply. "Not today, Amara. I'm not forgiving them today."

I grabbed his wrist and gestured toward the bridge. "Why don't we go home? Toby is waiting for us. I'm tired. You look tired, and you need to calm down."

"I am calm," he mumbled. "I could have ripped their wings off I was so mad."

I pursed my lips. "There will be no ripping of anyone's wings today, Dragon King. Take me back to the house. We both need to relax."

Dorran walked with me up the stairs and down the hallway. We walked out onto the bridge. The September air whipped at my skin, bringing goosebumps up my arm, and down my body.

He lifted me into his arms, his emerald-colored eyes full of so much that I couldn't pinpoint his mood.

"We need a honeymoon," he said.

I smiled up at him. "Maybe after we get the kingdom on its feet."

I glanced down at the kingdom and it broke my heart. "Tomorrow is going to be a big day. We need to figure out a plan to fix everything and get the place in some kind of order."

Dorran stroked his fingertips against my skin. "I don't want to talk about tomorrow. I want to be alone with you."

A feverish blush crawled up my skin. It reminded me of my time before my powers. A time when I was a shy little human who didn't know anything about sex or a man. Things had changed when my powers arrived.

A siren was a charming, sensual being.

I was no longer that.

It'd been taken away.

I was left with the human side of me.

Maybe that was a good thing. I'd once loved myself as a human. I could do it again.

Dorran shot into the evening sky, curled me into his arms, and held me closer than before.

To know he loved me regardless of my status, and his parents" inability to comprehend our love was comforting.

Dorran didn't sit me down until after we"d made it inside the cabin. Toby shot up from the couch searching Dorran's face for some type of clarification of the day.

"How'd it go?" he finally asked.

"Fine," Dorran said. "My father apologized. My mother did not."

Sasha stood up from the loveseat where she'd been reading. "She didn't apologize for treating Amara like crap?"

"I don't need her apology."

"Yeah, but you deserve it," Sasha said, she popped her hip to the side and folded her arms. "You're being too nice."

"Is there such a thing?" I whispered. "I forgive them without them asking for it."

Sasha glared with a pleading face.

Dorran cleared his throat. "I need to be alone with Amara tonight."

Toby gestured for Sasha to follow him outside. "Let me know if you need anything before the morning."

"Tomorrow I will need your help. We're going to meet with the kingdom and set a plan to rebuild it."

"I'll be here in the morning," he said, leaving the two of us alone.

Dorran turned to look at me, and I hated the pitied look on his face.

I braced my hand on the kitchen island beside me and looked down at the granite. "Don't pity me."

"I don't," Amara," he whispered, stepping over to palm each side of my face. "I envy your ability to let things go. To forgive the unforgivable. How? How do you do it?"

My bottom lip trembled. "Because when I stand in front of my maker, I want him to forgive me for my sins the way I was able to forgive others."

Dorran pressed his forehead against mine, lowered his hands to my waist, and picked me up to his chest. He placed soft kisses all over my jawline and neck while carrying me to the bathroom.

I watched as he ran a bath with soaps and bubbles, before stripping out of his clothes. He turned to me and gestured for me to do the same. I slid out of each article of clothing until I stood there with fresh wounds in front of him.

Dorran looked uneasy as he bent down and brushed his fingertips over each one. "Please forgive me," he whispered. "For letting this happen to you."

I stepped around him and slid into the water until he was face-to-face with me. Dorran hung over the side of the tub, his fingers in the warm water, while I relaxed into the heat. "Forgiving someone can mean forgiving yourself, Dorran. You need to do that."

He stood and gently slid in behind me, his wings hanging over the side of the tub and his bent knees on either side of me.

Dorran's hands slid over my skin, washing away the grim from the day, and gently touching each fresh mark.

Dorran began to lower his hand and brush over my most sensitive places until I was a heaving mess between him. The orgasm building in my stomach felt heavy and electric. Each time his rough palm slid over my nipple another plunge of desperation washed over me.

He brought it out of me like a snake charmer.

Everywhere he touched was deliberate. Each finger that he slid into my heart felt better than the last. The feeling of his teeth pressed against my shoulder sent me over the edge. Dorran kept quiet, letting me enjoy each roll of lust that flew out of me.

It wasn't long before my eyes had closed and my head rested back against his chest.

It was the safest I'd felt in weeks.

Even with the shambles of the kingdom around us—Dorran was my haven.