Chapter 9 #2
We made good time down the mountain. Everly poked her head out from the top of my shirt, eyes bright with curiosity as she looked around.
I was eternally grateful that the soulmate bond had called her to me.
But it still stung that she’d been so close, and neither my dragon nor I had sensed her.
With our strength, we should have felt her from clear across the country.
We’ve been sick, Alaric. Be grateful for what is, and let go of what was. We’re getting better—and we’ll never let her go again.
We’ll have to if she doesn’t choose us, I said.
She will choose us.
How can you be so sure? I wished I had his confidence.
We are for her, and she is for us. She will stay.
I hoped so. With all my heart, I hoped so.
We met at the Port Noble Hotel in the conference room.
It was completely empty except for eight large chairs around an expensive-looking table.
Everly had demanded to be let out of my shirt as soon as we arrived and was now riding on my shoulder, looking around with interest. Morning light streamed through the floor-to-ceiling windows in the back.
To the side, a table held hot drinks, cold bottles of water, muffins, and breakfast pastries.
Seven of the chairs were occupied by the Everlight Enclave—the kings and queens who ruled the paranormals.
Directly in front of me sat Draven, the Vampire King.
To his left was Virion, the High Elf Prince—not yet a king, though the elves had made it clear he was their only acceptable candidate.
Seated around the rest of the circle were Garyyk, the Troll King; Sylvara, the Fae Regent; Asharien, the Elemental King; Vylarin, the Shadowthorn King; and Thessaly, the Mistweaver Queen.
There were other kings and queens within the paranormal community, but these were the ones on the highest council of the land, and the highest governing body that paranormals had.
That empty chair next to them carried a weight I could feel all the way down to my toes.
I murmured to Everly who my tablemates were. Each of them nodded as I stated their name.
She’s confused about who they serve, my dragon said.
Ah.
“My mate is confused about who each of you serve. Could you explain that to her, please?” I directed the question to Draven; he was the one I knew best. Besides, I needed a moment to calm my nerves.
My heartbeat was steady, but only because the paranormals in this room could tell if it wasn’t.
There were no biological secrets among most paranormals—not unless you learned control.
Draven nodded, his eyes bright and alert even at this early hour. “Certainly.” He addressed his comments to Everly. I’d placed her on the table as I sat down; she stayed close to me, uncertainty clear in her body language.
“I am Draven, King of the Vampires. To my left is Virion, the High Elf Prince. The others are Garyyk, Sylvara, Asharien, Vylarin, and Thessaly.”
“The Shadowthorn King is the king of the outcasts—those without a pack, a home, or a place in supernatural society, but who want to be part of one and seek protection,” Vylarin said, his voice quiet but deep.
“And I oversee magical humans—wizards, witches, seers, and so on,” Thessaly added.
She doesn’t know what an Elemental is, my dragon said.
“Asharien, she doesn’t know what an Elemental is.” The Elemental King, like the Troll King, had fascinating eyes: storm clouds danced within them—purple, charcoal, and grey. Lightning flashed when he was particularly fired up, both in his eyes and in the space surrounding him.
Asharien nodded respectfully. “Elementals are a bit like mythologicals,” he began, but I interrupted.
“I haven’t gotten to that explanation in full yet.”
He nodded again, patient as an everstorm.
“Mythologicals are a type of shifter that belong to the mythological races—dragons, unicorns, phoenixes, and the like. They are more powerful, and have special abilities related to their kind. Elementals, unlike warlocks, wizards, and witches, are pure magic—from the crown of our heads to the tips of our toes. Every strand of hair, every cell of our body, is infused with magic. We generally fall into seven classes: fire, water, earth, air, storm, ice, and gravity. I am a storm elemental.”
Hence the storm clouds and lightning in his eyes.
Everly bobbed her head. Braver—and far more curious—than I was comfortable with in this setting, she tapped her talons across the table and studied Asharien.
They stared at each other, black eye to storm-cloud eye, until I was thoroughly uncomfortable and wanted to snatch her back to my side of the table.
Since that wasn’t exactly acceptable behavior here, I gritted my teeth and endured the prolonged greeting, fighting the urge to smash my fists into the Elemental King’s annoyingly handsome face for no good reason.
“Oh,” he murmured, as if she’d said something only he understood, and then he chuckled, and my mate—the woman I’d waited over a thousand years for—settled contentedly beside him like they’d been friends for eons.
I ground my teeth harder, and my dragon growled within me.
I never liked him.
I’m right there with you, big guy.
His teeth are too perfect. Who has teeth that white and straight? my dragon muttered.
And his face is too pretty, I thought.
Clearly we need to eat him.
Clearly.
The Elemental King leaned closer to my mate and murmured, “Is it okay if I pet your feathers? They look really soft.”
That was a hard no. I got up, stalked over, scooped Everly into my arms, and sat back down.
She squawked in outrage, and I briefly considered shoving her back into my shirt.
I didn’t because I wasn’t a brute. I gave her a guileless look instead, like Who, me?
I just wanted some Everly time. I definitely didn’t just snatch you away from him in a desperate attempt to keep myself from murdering the Elemental King.
From the venomous glare she gave me, I doubted she was buying it.
Asharien and Vylarin were outright laughing, Draven was smirking, and Garyyk was watching the byplay between Everly and I as though we were primetime TV.
Ignoring my mate’s laser stare, I cleared my throat and tried to refocus as I looked around the table. “I’m here. What did you want to talk about?” I already knew what they wanted to ask, but I wasn’t about to make this easy on them.
Draven, blunt as always, said, “We need you to become Prime. The shifter council has been running things while we searched for a suitable candidate, but with your health improving, it’s time.”
“You’re the strongest, Alaric,” Thessaly said quietly.
“It is an honor to serve,” Sylvara murmured absently, frowning down at her phone.
I sighed. I’d had a year. I would have been crowned right after my uncle and aunt had passed, but since I was expected to die within a few years, the Everlight Enclave had searched for a close second.
Unfortunately, there wasn’t one. The closest was a dragon named Roarke in Moonhaven Cove, who’d refused because he’d finally found his mate—and quite categorically threatened anyone who came near her or his home.
I’d do the same, except…
Shifters needed me. There was so much reform needed, and they deserved a good king on the throne.
I had the training and the capacity, but I also knew the weight of the crown. I’d watched my parents bear it, and then my uncle and aunt. For some, the crown could be a millstone, dragging you down.
My gaze drifted to Everly. She was leaning against me with her eyes closed, still exhausted from her transformations. She would be my queen—a full queen—even if the others saw her as a partial shifter since she didn’t carry dual souls.
Even if she didn’t choose me, I needed to do this. I’d known the moment she appeared that this day would come.
But how did you explain to your mate, the one you were still hoping would choose you, that choosing you meant choosing a king and a people? That it meant becoming queen herself?
It was a heavy ask. And for Everly, with her health struggles… what if it was just too much?
I had to talk to her before I accepted.
I met the eyes of the council. “I need a moment with Everly,” I said, then gently scooped her up and exited through a side door to the outside. I walked far enough away that even Draven, with his elder vampire hearing, wouldn’t be able to catch our conversation.
“Everly,” I began softly, “I know you wanted some time to think last night, and I know this is overwhelming. I’m so sorry about that.
But I need to know if you’re okay with this.
” I didn’t know what I would do if she was absolutely set against it.
My people needed me, but I also really needed Everly.
I didn’t want to give her up. Surely there was a way that I could have both in my life?
Everly looked upset, and I had to keep myself from offering her comfort. I didn’t think she would want it right then.
“I know. It’s a lot. And I realize this doesn’t exactly help my case in asking you to consider me as your mate. It’s a really heavy ask.”
My dragon rumbled deep in my chest and mind, a low vibration that grew until the sound filled me completely. Then—light burst from my chest, and a smoky, wispy dragon head emerged, hovering nose to nose with Everly.
Everly gaped at my dragon.
I gaped at my dragon.
What are you doing? You don’t—we can’t—what are you doing?! I was completely stunned. Shifter counterparts did not burst out of their others’ chests in smoke form. That simply wasn’t a thing that could happen. I had no earthly idea what was going on.
Our mate is upset. I am trying to calm her, my dragon said, as though performing the impossible was something he did every day.
He hummed softly and pressed his snout to Everly’s beak. She closed her eyes and leaned into him—actually leaned—because she didn’t fall through him. My dragon had weight. Substance.
I needed a chair.
It felt like the perfect time to have a heart attack.
I seriously couldn’t believe my eyes.
I felt like an alien being.
Everly calmed. Her frantic heartbeat slowed. My dragon, after nosing her goodbye, slipped back into my chest, and I slumped to my knees and closed my eyes.
Okay—that happened. Good. Great. I’d just… put that in a box labeled Things I Don’t Understand Right Now so I could focus on my mate.
“Everly? I’m sorry,” I said hoarsely. “I’m so sorry.”
I stayed quiet, waiting for her to respond, and for my dragon to interpret.
Finally, he said, She does not accept us yet, but she has said that we need to be king. She respects that, and will go wherever we go for the moment.
I nodded. My dragon sounded a little heartbroken that she hadn’t accepted us right away. If she’d been a shifter, she would have. But for myself… I was grateful my mate was human.
I am... coming around to your way of thinking, my dragon murmured. I understand your point of view, I do. But we’ve waited a long time for her, Alaric. A very long time.
I nodded again, whispering my thanks to Everly as I stood and headed back toward the conference room with the council.
We’ll build something lasting with her, I promised. And we’ll do it at the pace she’s comfortable with. She is courageous.
My dragon snorted. Of course.
And we will be courageous as well.
He sighed. Yes, we will be courageous as well. Delayed gratification is good for us.
I grinned. Yes. And especially for right now, I’m mainly focused on her needs. On what she needs to feel comfortable, happy, and safe with us. What she needs to feel loved.
Way to show me up, my dragon groused, and I laughed as I opened the conference room side door and stepped back into the council’s waiting presence.
“We accept.”