Chapter Twenty-Nine #2
I thank the bartender and head out. I need to return and get some sleep.
I have an interview with the Chaos king tomorrow.
It’s why I’m here in this kingdom, and it gave me a good excuse to leave Aramis.
As much as I longed to see Colbie again, she would insist I integrate back into shifter society—it isn’t legal for shifters to live in the human zone—so I left.
I may return eventually, but when King Loki contacted me regarding my security services, I decided it was too good an opportunity to turn down.
Unlike Aramis, Chaos rarely gets cold, and it’s a hot, stuffy night as I walk back to my accommodations.
The streets are loud and crowded, with people parting and seeking their vices in every manner.
Random shouts of glee or disappointment come from the gambling establishments, and the balconies of the whorehouses are filled with stunning, scantily clad males and females flaunting their wares.
Music pumps out of the bars and clubs, and if you want your vices a little on the dark side, then the fighting ring is a hot spot and drugs are easily found on every corner.
There is no segregation here. Half breeds, shifter, fae, witches, and vampires all intermingle, mostly without trouble.
The only race not accepted in the Chaos Kingdom are humans.
They don’t even know this kingdom or half-breeds exist, and that’s how we want to keep it.
They see only a great desert on their maps, which is inhospitable and dangerous to venture into.
That’s not to say they don’t attempt it, but the witches warded the borders with a spell that turns them around, and all they remember is a barren wasteland with nothing of any value.
I reach the central square of the city. There’s a huge park surrounded by hotels.
Mine is on the other side, so I walk through the park.
It’s well lit so people are wandering about, making use of seating areas and the licensed food trucks to grab a late-night snack or soak up some of their indulgences.
In a particular thick copse of trees, I can hear the sounds of people fucking.
I guess they couldn’t wait to get to a bed. Good for them.
In the center of the park is a pond, and in the middle of the pond is a fountain dedicated to the four realm goddesses.
Chaos doesn’t have a patron god, so instead they worship all four, giving thanks for their lives and the acceptance found for all four races in the Chaos Kingdom.
Personally, I think Chaos has the right idea.
We don’t need to be segregated to maintain pure species.
Like will always be attracted to like, and mixed breeds are not going to weaken the species.
A group of giggling teenagers on the verge of adulthood pass me. They all have that swaying, stumbling motion like they’ve had a few too many beverages. One groans and puts her hand over her mouth then sprints for the nearby trash bin, but she doesn’t make it and instead throws up at my feet.
I grimace, my shifter nose way too sensitive for something like that, and she looks at me with pink cheeks and eyes filled with tears. “I’m sorry,” she slurs as one of her friends, one who doesn’t look quite so drunk, wraps her arms around her and leads her away.
Fuck, maybe living in a kingdom of excess isn’t going to be so fun. I look down at my splattered sneakers and make a note to send them out for cleaning when I get back to the hotel.
I pick up my pace, ready to be back in my room.
A hot shower, a late supper, and bed sounds perfect.
The shouts and sounds of the party district disappear as I approach lodgings.
I splurged on a five-star hotel, wanting to enjoy a few days of luxury, but it isn’t as fun as I imagined on my own.
It would be nicer to share it with someone.
A dark-haired, fresh-faced beauty comes to mind.
I bet Colbie would love the dessert menu the hotel has to offer.
I feel a pang of longing for the potential that will never be.
The doorman of the hotel I’m staying in nods his greeting as he holds open the door for me.
The receptionist flutters her eyelashes at me and gives me a flirty wave as I pass her.
She informed me she gets off at midnight when I left earlier, but I have no intention of taking her up on her offer.
The temporary reprieve from the pain in my chest I got from the drugs and the unexpected company lifts, and it throbs with renewed vigor.
Fuck, I’m going to have to find a witch or a fae and see if they can help me with it.
I had gotten used to the dull ache from the bond group pull, so I learned to live with it, but this new ache is different.
It burns, an incessant throbbing that doesn’t seem to let up.
Either I need to find something to mask it and become reliant on the drug to ease it or give into the pull and go in search of my bond group and our mate.
The latter option is what I want the most, but the thought of rejection when they find out what kind of shifter I am is too much to risk.
Here in the Chaos Kingdom, nobody cares that I am an equine.
If I go back to the shifter kingdom, I risk running into my bond group.
Being in close proximity to the other males marked with the same mark on my chest is enough for the telepathic link to activate, and then there will be no escaping them.
I’ll constantly have to feel how they feel about having an equine in their bond group, and I refuse to let myself be belittled and ridiculed like I was when I first shifted.
We didn’t live in Zalfari then. We had a home in another village, and we were tolerated.
Only my mother and one father are equines, and the village was a little more tolerant because one of my fathers is a dragon, and the other is a panther, and both of them served under General Bryson for years.
Everything was okay. My older sister is a panther, but when I was born and didn’t shift immediately, they knew I was going to be an equine.
Dragons only happen when the female is a dragon, so my father knew I wouldn’t be one, which left me as a pegasus or a unicorn.
At first the children at my school didn’t care.
I don’t think any of them realized I was a mythical shifter who would change when I was a teenager, but then we learned shifter lore in school, and they put two and two together, and many of the kids who were my friends rejected me once they learned I would be an equine shifter.
I still had a few friends, ones whose parents weren’t assholes and taught their kids that being an equine didn’t make us less.
Technically, we’re prey animals, and our magic is mostly passive, but everyone is equal in human form, and my pegasus has a mean streak.
You don’t want to get too close to either end if he decides he doesn’t like you.
The elevator ride to my room is over quickly, and I toe off my shoes as I enter the suite, leaving them by the door to be picked up by housekeeping.
I order some food and strip, jumping into the shower.
My meeting tomorrow with the king is a dinner, and I want to do some sightseeing beforehand, maybe some shopping as well.
My sister’s kids would love presents. I don’t get to see them enough, and when I do, I like to spoil them, but a good night’s sleep is definitely on the cards first.