Chapter 15
Everly
“Do you think she goes by Goldilocks?” a voice teased.
Someone sighed. “She has dark brown hair, Taco, so no, I don’t think she does.”
“That’s too bad. Then we could be Goldilocks and the Three Bears!” A smack rang out, followed by a yelp. “Ow! You didn’t have to hit me!”
“If the Prime hears you talking about his mate, he’s going to do more than hit you, he’s going to eat you.”
“I’ve heard bear meat is stringy.”
I blinked groggily awake. Sunlight streamed through the wide front windows of the living room, splashing warmth across my face.
My neck ached from the sofa’s armrest, and the faint scent of pine and woodsmoke clung to the air.
For a moment, I couldn’t remember where I was.
Then I remembered that I’d been exploring the Bear Clan Lodge earlier, but had felt weak a little into my tour and had to sit down on one of the sofas to rest. I must have drifted off.
“Hola, chica. Sorry for waking you,” a man with light brown skin and gray eyes said, his grin more mischievous than apologetic. “I’m Attanassio, but everyone just calls me Taco.”
A man with caramel skin and warm brown eyes smiled at me. His posture was easy but watchful. “Sorry in advance for Taco. He’s our pet clown. I’m Mateo. Sorry we woke you.”
I ran a hand through my snarled hair and cleared my throat. “No problem. I think I’d already been sleeping for a while. I probably needed to get up anyway.”
Taco plopped into a chair across from me, but Mateo stayed exactly where he was—just inside the massive front door of the lodge.
“Taco,” Mateo warned in a growl.
Taco waved him off. “I’m just going to get to know her. Alpha wouldn’t let us visit yesterday.”
“For good reason, dolt.”
I smiled, already loving the easy banter between them. Was this what it felt like to be part of a clan—or a pack? Warmth curled in my chest at the thought. It felt like a pretty good deal to me, having a built in family.
Alaric entered the living room from the kitchen. He smiled when he saw I was awake, then frowned when he spotted Taco sitting across from me. Mateo chuckled darkly, muttering under his breath, “I tried to warn him.”
Both shifters lowered their heads when Alaric walked into the room, just as Alpha Riggs had done when he’d met Alaric yesterday.
I knew it was a respect thing for their king, but shifters seemed to take it a step further than humans.
Their heads stayed bowed until Alaric released them.
Then Taco’s head shot up, his shoulders easing, and he was back to looking like a friendly, gray-eyed golden retriever, all smiles and mischief.
If he had a tail, it would have been wagging.
I scrunched my nose at Alaric’s scowl. “He’s just being friendly.
Stop being a grump.” I patted the spot beside me on the couch.
He moved to accept the invitation, then gently drew me against his side and held my hand.
Warmth radiated from him, and the faint scent of the campfire scent he gave off tickled my nose.
We seemed to be in sync, and I wasn’t sure how, since we’d only known each other a few weeks.
Alaric stared at Taco as power unfurled in the room again, rolling outward from him like molten heat.
It pressed into my bones, coursing through me, and the air thickened with warmth.
Every muscle and nerve ending seemed alive with the weight of it, and I shifted slightly, a shiver running through me as the presence settled over the room.
Why does it feel like this this time?
Ah, Elandor replied, his voice echoing gently in my thoughts. I have been respectful of those around us thus far, but this cub in particular needed a demonstration.
Alaric’s presence pressed against me, steady and grounding, like an anchor in the molten heat of his and Elandor’s power. I could feel his pulse through his hand, the warmth of his side against mine, and it steadied me.
I pursed my lips in thought as I noticed the two bear shifters had bowed their heads again, their eyes wide in shock. Taco was practically vibrating. I didn’t think it was from fear, which would be logical, but excitement.
Was he insane? I wasn’t terrified out of my mind because I knew Elandor and Alaric, but if I were just some random person and encountered power this overwhelming... Let’s just say I would be shaking for a whole different reason.
A few moments ticked past, and they still hadn’t raised their heads. Mateo’s head wasn’t bowed as deeply as Taco’s, and I wondered if that meant he had more overall power than Taco, or if Alaric and Elandor were just bringing more power to bear on Taco.
Are you ever going to release them? I asked, growing fidgety.
I don’t think the pup is properly cowed yet, Elandor said, his tone sounding both calm and reasonable. So, no. Not yet.
Elandor! I growled.
He chuckled and he and Alaric immediately reigned in their power once again so it wasn’t filling every crevice of space in the lodge. The heat left my bones, and the heavy tingle in the air diminished.
Taco and Mateo both slumped in relief. Their heads came up and they looked at Alaric with expressions of awe and respect.
It was shifter culture, I’d learned, to respect those who had more power than you.
Because in shifter culture, the more powerful took care of the less powerful. They didn’t abuse it.
Why didn’t the power affect me as much as it did with Taco and Mateo? I asked Elandor.
You’re our mate. Our power would never make you submit to us. You are our equal.
I snorted in disbelief. Yeah, I was going with no on that one. I was ordinary, not powerful at all.
Have you forgotten your powers over the dreamspace?
I slumped against Alaric, kneading the ache in my wrists and hands as I thought that over.
Alaric immediately took over for me, gently kneading the muscles in both of my hands and wrists with gentle strokes.
He invited Mateo to sit across from him, and started quietly talking with both he and Taco.
As he did, I started to get a sense of the kind of king Alaric would be.
Alaric was interested in the individual. In who they were, in their thoughts and opinions. In their lives.
He genuinely cared about them.
I slumped back against the couch as Alaric calmly moved to massaging my forearms. He wasn’t making a big deal of it, but I knew that both shifters in the room were aware of the amount of pain I was in.
Shifters could smell it in my scent. I felt bad for the discomfort they were surely feeling because of my pain.
I never would have imagined that I would be in this position. It was weighty, the thought of it. I wasn’t naive. Becoming queen would be the most demanding thing I would ever do.
Bar none.
I hadn’t sought this, but Alaric was my mate. No, I couldn’t feel it, but I was beginning to sense it. It wasn’t as instinctual for me as it was for other shifters, but I think a part of me still recognized it.
Because I was not the kind of girl that moved this quickly. The limited experience I’d had with guys had in fact made me want to do the opposite.
I hadn’t realized when I left home as a raven, that I would be changed in more than one way.
At the beginning it had been scary, but once I met Alaric and felt safe, I’d started having fun in my raven shifter form, and more recently in my puppy shifter form.
But being in those forms, especially in my first days as a raven, I’d realized how vulnerable shifters were.
Not all of us are ginormous dragon shifters. Some of us were itty bitty pudges with fur or feathers, and were basically defenseless.
The strong protected the weak in shifter culture.
And Alaric? He was strong.
So strong.
I’d felt the mantle settle heavy upon him in the days after the Everlight Enclave had called him to be Prime.
It was invisible to the naked eye, but I knew Alaric felt it, and perhaps knew its heaviness in a way that I couldn’t yet grasp.
After all, his lineage was full of kings and queens.
He’d grown up this way, and with the knowledge that this responsibility would one day pass to him.
I knew that he hadn’t made the decision to rise to Prime lightly, especially because he was hesitant about how I’d handle it, but I also knew from our conversations that he wanted to do right by shifters.
All shifters.
The proof was in our own history. He’d waited over a thousand years for me, and yet hadn’t pushed me to be with him in any way.
Instead, he’d shown patience and kindness, and I bet If I asked him, he would tell me the choice to accept or reject him would always be mine, but that he’d already accepted me.
I couldn’t imagine waiting a thousand years for someone, and then when they finally showed up, having the strength of will, the moral character to let them walk away if it wasn’t what they wanted.
I was all he got in this life, and he’d waited so patiently.
That was how I knew that he was going to be an excellent king.
He cared about the feelings and thoughts of those weaker than him.
He wanted to create a safe space where they could thrive.
And, from what he’d told me, he wanted to crack down on and imprison those other supernaturals who were abusing the weakest shifters.
How could I say no to him?
Yes, the idea of everything that came with this choice was heavy. The idea of being queen was frankly terrifying to me, but I really wanted to be with Alaric.
I was falling so hard for him.
And I knew... I knew I would be a good queen if given half a chance. I might have health issues, but I was also wise, and kind, and a good person. What I lacked, I would learn, and I would work tirelessly to not only stand by Alaric’s side, but to be the queen that shifters needed.
He would be the power behind the crown, and I would be the heart.