Chapter 30
CHAPTER THIRTY
After a few days of being excessively pampered and babied, they finally relented and allowed me to leave the room.
I was fairly certain they only allowed me to leave because Vicky had officially been banished and Zeke had watched to ensure she left, then triple checked the security measures to keep her off-planet for the rest of her life.
I knew I could take her in a fight, but it was nice to know that he took it so seriously and he ensured she couldn’t return to cause any future trouble.
My first outing was to the royal city to greet the citizens and allow them to see me in person, to show I was alive and well. Then, I began my introduction to life on their planet with a visit to each of the four territories and to see a real, full-sized jungle!
The jungle was definitely my favorite part, and I took a few of the leaves back with me to start creating bracelets for each of them. It still irritated me that the ones I’d been working on were floating in the vacuum of space right now.
The time flew by so fast that I didn’t believe the date on the calendar when I read it and realized I’d been living on their planet for two months already!
“What do you think about this style?” Lyra asked and held up a sketch of a wedding dress.
All three of Wayne’s sisters, Lyra, Elira, and Vexa, had graciously agreed to help me prepare for our ceremony, which was going to be combination mate ceremony and wedding.
There were so many decisions to make, and since I wasn’t as familiar with Dragonkin traditions yet, they were giving me their opinions to help me ensure my choices wouldn’t offend or be looked down on.
“That’s beautiful,” I said and nodded. It had a form-fitting shape with a lowcut back and beautiful strapless front.
“I’ll have the seamstress create a prototype for you to try on so you can confirm the style and fit are really what you want.
Sometimes, you see a dress on a mannequin, but when it’s on you, you realize it doesn’t fit like you imagined.
We don’t want you to experience that for your wedding,” Lyra said and set the sketch on the growing pile of decisions we’d made.
“We’re pretty much done, right?” I asked. We’d been going over decisions for two days already and my brain felt like mush at this point.
A burst of warmth and closeness flowed down Wayne’s bond just before he opened the door and carried in a tray of snacks.
“I had a feeling my favorite women would be in need of refreshments after working for so long.” He set the tray down and gave each of his sister’s a hug before sitting on the loveseat beside me and pressing a kiss to my temple.
I leaned into his warmth and felt my body relax a bit from his touch. The bond had strengthened significantly over the last couple of months and was almost solidified.
“I have a surprise,” Wayne whispered in my ear. “Can you take a quick break from wedding planning?”
“I think we’re actually done!” Elira announced and Lyra nodded.
“Done?” Wayne asked.
We all nodded.
I smiled at the three women and said, “I couldn’t have finished this so quickly and so beautifully without you three. Thank you for your help.”
Vexa stood from her seat to hug me and said, “Anything for our new sister!” She grabbed the tray of snacks and said, “We’ll see ourselves out!”
Wayne opened his mouth, but quickly shut it as I chuckled at their antics.
Once they had gathered all the items they needed and left the room, I turned to Wayne and asked, “What’s my surprise?”
“Scout received some upgrades,” Wayne announced proudly and whistled.
The door opened and a robotic feline prowled in through it. It was two feet tall and had a long tail that swished back and forth as it walked up to me. The robot sat on its haunches and chirped.
“Scout?” I gasped.
“Hello, Princess,” a melodic voice greeted.
“I know you and Scout have been through a lot and I thought this shape would give her more mobility and allow you to interact with her more physically. She can still separate from this shape into the disc shape and dock behind your ear like you’ve had her do, and she can summon the body wherever she is if she needs it. Scout, show her your new arsenal.”
Scout raised one of her paws and long, curved metal claws popped out.
She opened her mouth and the small fangs elongated and thickened into true fangs.
The next second a red laser lit up within her eyes, but she turned them off before they did more than carve two dots into the floor next to my foot.
“Whoa,” I whispered as I rushed over and inspected her. “This is awesome! She’s awesome. Scout, you’re awesome!”
“Thank you, Princess,” Scout replied.
“Thank you, but that’s only part of it. I also made some minor improvements to your AI coding and I uploaded most of Drakorantia history.
She should now be able to send you an outline or detailed synopsis of events to your HUD whenever you need it.
” He leaned closer and whispered, “This saves you from all the bothersome memorization that Preston keeps trying to get you to do.”
I threw my arms around his neck and hugged him tightly and he returned my hug. “Thank you, Wayne. You made me this awesome new leg and now an improved version of Scout. You have no idea how much this gift means to me.”
He pressed a kiss to the top of my head and said, “I will build you an entire planet if you asked me to. Whatever you want, Xo-Xo.”
Xo-Xo? He hadn’t given me a nickname before, which I hadn’t minded, but hearing this one made me smile and warmed my heart. Maybe I needed to give them each nicknames, too?
I sat down to inspect Scout more and she trotted around me in a circle. “I look cool now?” she asked.
Laughing, I said, “Yes, you look very cool, but I thought your drone form was cool, too.”
“Being able to talk, to communicate with you is the best!” she exclaimed and twirled in a circle. “Now, when you’re sad, we can talk and come up with an answer together!”
Tears built in my eyes and I wrapped my arms around her cold, metal body. “Thank you for being with me all this time,” I whispered to her.
“We’ll be together forever and ever and I’ll watch over your children, too!”
“It’s still a bit too soon to discuss children,” I grumbled, which made Wayne laugh.
“You know what you haven’t done more than once yet?” Wayne asked.
“Hm?” I tilted my head back to look up at him.
“Flown.”
“Flown?”
He nodded. “On a dragon’s back.”
I gasped and asked, “For real? You’ll really let me ride you while you fly?” I had ridden on Zeke once, but had been too afraid to ask any of the others to do it again.
Taking my hand, he pulled me out of the room and out to the open courtyard. Immediately, he shifted into his dragon form and lowered himself so I could climb onto his back.
Trailing my hands along his scales, I admired the beautiful green color. Each of the guys had different colored scales, but I personally really liked Wayne’s best. Not that I would ever tell them, since I knew better than to play favorites.
He grunted in question at me, so I hopped onto his back and said, “Let’s fly!”
Gage or Zeke might have roared before taking off, but Wayne simply propelled himself up into the sky while I clung to him and laughed happily.
We soared over the castle, over the royal city, and out to the farmlands.
It was surreal to me flying on the back of a dragon while watching over dragons flying around and fighting on the ground below.
It was surreal because I realized that I was no longer out in space dealing with mercenaries and all manner of scientific weaponry and instead what felt like a fantasy novel.
I was no longer running from mercenaries and cyborgs. I was no longer worrying about Charles coming after me.
For the first time, I was safe and happy.
Leaning down, I wrapped my arms around as much of Wayne’s dragon neck as I could. “I love you.”
Wayne suddenly shifted into his man form with dragon wings.
I squealed as I fell, but the fall was brief as he caught me.
“Say it again,” he ordered as he flapped his wings to keep us aloft.
Sliding my hands around the back of his neck, I met his eyes and said, “I love you, Wayne.”
“I love you, too, Xoe.” He kissed me so tenderly, I barely felt his lips.
“I love all of you,” I said as I realized that at some point, the rest of the guys had joined us and were now hovering around me.
“My turn to take her flying,” Gage said and took me from Wayne’s arms. “You haven’t truly flown on a dragon until you’ve flown on the best flyer on Drakorantia.”
“Best flyer? Pfft, you’re second best,” Zeke argued and tried to take me from Gage.
The guys squabbled back and forth, but love and joy were the only emotions flowing through the bond.
“Before I forget,” Zeke said as he snagged me from Gage’s arms. “I received confirmation today that the refugee city is under construction and we’ve already started reaching out, searching for Caltyrelan survivors.
Soon enough, those that are alive will have a permanent place to call home and you can visit them as often as you’d like. ”
Tears welled in my eyes and I hugged him with my nose buried in his neck to hide my tears. “Thank you. I can’t believe my people will finally have a place to call home again.”
“It’s the least we can do,” he whispered and patted my back.
We stopped at one of the orphanages that I’d sponsored and the children immediately rushed outside to greet us. And by greet us I mean jump all over the princes.
The guys didn’t seem to mind as they scooped the kids up, tossed them into the air or started playing with them.
One of the little girls fell and skinned her knee and Zeke knelt in front of her, his voice as soft as he could make it, and within seconds she forgot about her scrape and laughed at whatever it was he said.
Butterflies swirled within my stomach as I watched my handsome men playing with the children and the thought of them doing the same with our own children circled in my mind.
They were great protectors and they would no doubt be even more overprotective of our child as they were of me. When my planet blew up and Charles took me hostage, I never envisioned myself having children. I thought that path was dead for me.
Yet, here it was, open and waiting for me to make the choice. And for once, it was my choice. And for once, I realized how much I wanted it. How much I wanted a little me or a mini version of one of my mates running around.
“Princess! Princess!” a little boy called as he ran over, a huge smile on his face showing off his three missing teeth. “Will you come play with us?”
“Of course!” I replied and let him take my hand and lead me over to play with the others.