“What the actual fuck?” I shook my head at him, baffled.
Verin laughed harder.
“Verin!” I snapped.
“I came here expecting a fight,” he finally spoke. “I've been arguing with my advisers for a month, trying to find a way to make a relationship between us work. I want to marry you and make you my queen but they said that's impossible. I fought for it and they refused me over and over. They said that as my consort, you were more than appropriate but you could never be Queen. I raged and bargained and threatened but they pointed out that it wasn't their approval I needed to win. I needed the backing of my people, and the Lóng can be stubborn when it comes to our traditions.”
“So, you came here to ask me to settle for consort status?” I grinned.
Verin nodded. “And I thought you would refuse. I thought you would reject me for being too weak. I thought you'd tell me to stand up for you—to fight for you.”
“Youhavefought for me—in battles that I needed your help to win. I don't need you to fight your people for me. I don't even want it. I have my own crown and kingdom—technically, I have three. I don't want another.”
“And that's why I'm laughing. I expected a fight but instead, you offered me the very thing I wanted.”
“Does that mean you're back?” I asked softly—hopefully.
“It meanswe'reback.” Verin yanked me into his arms and kissed me.
It was a kiss of tender adoration but also savage joy. His lips moved in a soft caress and his tongue dueled with mine in mimicry of the battle he had expected. His hands pulled me closer and satisfied rumbles vibrated through his chest and into mine. Desire shot through me without magic compelling it. I knew now that everything I felt for him was real. The weakness and panic the spells had forced on us were gone—the grasping obsession banished. Butthisremained—this deep ocean of emotion and passion. This truth. And it was all in Verin's kiss. The feeling of forever even if he couldn't promise it and the knowledge that promises didn't matter to us. Only this mattered.
In short, it was one of the best kisses I've ever had.
Chapter Fifty-Five
Conversation ceased and everyone stopped what they were doing when I walked out of the house holding Verin's hand.
“Aw, fuck me,” Declan declared, breaking the silence. “It looks like we've got a dragon in the family.”
“Just like that?” I asked in surprise.
“We agreed to it before, why wouldn't we now?” Darc countered.
“Because he left. Because it's been a month. Because the RS let him go.”
Verin made a protesting grunt.
“It's nothing they don't already know,” I said to Verin. “They're not going to change their minds because I point it out.”
“Can you seriously understand his grunting now?” Banning asked with wide eyes.
“Bann, please.” I grimaced at him.
“As long asyoudon't start grunting,” he shot back.
“It won't be quite as simple as Darc implied. We'll have to figure out how you're going to fit into our lives,” Torin said to Verin as he stepped over to us. “If you want to be with Elaria, you'll need to compromise.”
Verin grunted in assent.
“And one of the compromises is that Elaria remains your consort for a year before you propose,” Darcraxis added. “I want you to fully understand this life before you commit to it and I want the rest of us to have some time to get used to you.”
Verin lifted his brows at that, then shifted his stare to me.
“We can't get married,” I said to my men. “I'm not even asking Verin to join the spell again. I'll be his consort, nothing more.”
“What?!” Darc growled, his stare narrowing.
“His people won't accept his marriage to a woman who already has several husbands. This is the first compromise he had to make to be with me.”
