Chapter 12
We won’t stand alone.
Henley
We’re not let out of the bunker until the next morning. That’s when Uncle Ferno receives a verbal report of the damages. I’m invited to the meeting, and Parker is reluctantly allowed to come, but only after I point out that he’s in my head anyway. We have no secrets from each other.
“There were a few structural damages,” the middle aged woman reports. She looks down at her tablet. “One home was destroyed in a fire, and a couple of businesses had their windows busted out.”
“The crown will pay for the damages,” Uncle Ferno says.
She nods her head. “As you wish, my king.”
“What about casualties?” he asks.
I sit up straighter.
This is what I wanted to hear about.
She clears her throat. “Only one. An elderly phoenix was killed in a magical attack. She stepped in front of a child to save them.”
My chest aches at the news.
“But the child is unharmed?” Uncle Ferno asks.
The woman nods.
How does he keep a straight face? How does he hear these things and just take them? Tears press against the back of my eyes, and I struggle not to let them fall.
“Any injuries?” He folds his hands together on top of the table.
“There were a few minor injuries, but nothing serious. Everybody is already healed.” She locks her tablet and holds it against her chest. “But there were at least a dozen attackers last night.”
“We’ve been found.” Uncle Ferno leans back in his chair and sighs. “We’re lucky there were only a dozen. Next time, there could be an entire army.” He waves a hand to the woman. “You’re dismissed.”
She bows first to him, then to me, and leaves the room, her heels clicking loudly on the hard floor.
I turn to face Uncle Ferno. “Does that mean we have to leave? Do we need to find somewhere else to hide?”
He shakes his head. “It’s too risky to move everybody. When we first came here, there were so few of us. But we’ve rebuilt our numbers over the centuries we’ve spent hiding. We can’t move again—not without great risk to us all.”
“So what are we going to do?” I lean forward.
“We stop hiding,” he answers. “I knew when I was a young boy that we wouldn’t be able to keep hiding like this. I tried to get my sister to come forward, but she said it wasn’t the right time.” He looks from me to Parker. “Now may be the time. We have allies. We won’t stand alone.”
Paker nods. “We’ve already talked to Alpha Benson—he will stand with us, as will King Basilicus. I believe the Alpha Council will also stand with us.”
“Nobody can stand against the Alpha Council.” Uncle Ferno crosses his arms over his chest. “So we won’t be alone, and this is a war we can finally end.”
A war that has lasted centuries. A war that took the lives of my parents. A war that I don’t want my future children to have to fight.
There really is no option—we either win this war or die in the process.
“Then let’s end this,” I say firmly.
Uncle Ferno grins. “I knew magic chose right when it chose you to be queen.”
I don’t bother arguing that magic didn’t have a choice—I was my parents’ only child before they were killed.
“What about the elderly woman?” I inquire. “Will there be a funeral for her?”
The grin slips from his lips. “There will be a memorial, yes. Tomorrow. Her ashes will be spread, and she will be remembered as a hero for her actions.”
She was a hero. And I will remember her as such.
“I am proud of you,” Uncle Ferno says. “You’re going to make a great queen.”
My heart swells at his compliment. I wonder if my parents would feel the same, considering they chose to hide instead of fight.
“Why didn’t my mom want to fight? Why did she run?” I pull my knees up to my chest and hug them against me. Parker puts his hand on the back of my neck to offer comfort.
Uncle Ferno takes a deep breath before answering.
“Though I didn’t agree at the time, your parents did what was right.
We didn’t have enough allies to fight. We would’ve been slaughtered.
Now, thanks to you, we have the allies we need.
We have people who are willing to fight at our side.
The phoenixes won’t stand alone—not this time. ”
My heart pounds hard against my chest.
We’re going to end this.
I’m going to protect my people.
Uncle Ferno nods to the guard at the door and then looks at me. “I would like for you and your mate to contact your allies. Until then, you should go eat breakfast. I believe your friend, Blaine, has arrived. He and his mate are waiting for you.”
I jump from my chair. “Thanks, Uncle Ferno.”
Parker stands and grabs my hand. Together, we walk from the office toward the dining room. My guards trail behind us, as always.
When we get to the dining room, Will, Blaine, and Keagan are sitting at the table. None of them has food yet—I know from experience that they’re waiting on Parker. Will has his arms crossed over his chest, looking like his usual moody self. Blaine and Keagan are both grinning at each other.
I sit down across from Blaine. “You weren’t injured last night?”
Keagan looks up, her eyes widening as she looks at me. She stands from her seat and curtsies to me. “My princess, I apologize. I didn’t see you come in.”
I wave a hand. “No big deal. You’re mates with Parker’s beta. You can’t always curtsy to me.”
“I must,” she says, still standing.
“You can sit.” I wave a hand toward the chair.
Parker slips his arm around me.
Keagan reluctantly takes a seat.
“Everything went well last night?” Parker asks Blaine.
Blaine nods. “For the most part. The soldiers are excellent, but the rest of them have practically no training.”
Parker sits up straighter. “You’re serious?”
“Unfortunately.”
I glance at the plate of food that is set down before me before looking at Parker. “What’s the big deal?”
“They don’t know how to fight,” Blaine says. “They can’t defend themselves.”
“Is that something wolf shifters learn?” Keagan furrows her brows.
He nods. “I started learning to fight when I was three.”
“That’s not the usual, though.” Parker picks up his fork and stabs it into a piece of meat. “Most begin learning when they’re about ten. We only learned early because I’m an alpha and they’re my betas.”
I try to imagine Parker as a three year old learning how to fight. I bet he was adorable at that age.
Parker shoots me an amused look.
Will groans. “Can you two stop that?”
Keagan looks up, confusion on her face. “What?”
“Them.” Blaine pokes a finger in Parker’s and my direction. “Parker and Henley are newly mated, which means they’re sickeningly in love. They’re always flirting—if not out loud, then through their mate bond.”
Keagan sighs and puts her hand to her heart. “It’s so romantic. My parents aren’t soulmates, but they have a mate bond. They’re so sweet with one another.” She turns to Blaine. “I bet your parents are so cute together. They’re soulmates, right?”
Blaine clears his throat and glances down. “They’re soulmates.”
My heart goes out to him. It’s not easy to share the unpleasant things about one’s past. Even though Parker and I are mates, he still doesn’t know everything from my past—things even I don’t like to think about.
Keagan picks up on Blaine’s lack of answer and the way his face falls, so she instantly changes the subject. “The attacks last night were strange. We haven’t had an attack here in so long—long before I was born.”
“It’s probably because of me.” I frown and lower my head. Even now, I’m still debating if staying is the right thing. Maybe my parents had the right idea.
“You?” Blaine looks up at that.
“Because of my aura or whatever. I guess it glows brighter. It’s why my parents had to leave.
They were easy to hunt down. From what I understand, my aura will get even brighter until I reach my full magical potential at twenty five.
” My stomach is in knots, so I haven’t even moved to take a bite of food yet.
Blaine frowns. “What are you going to do?”
“I can’t leave.” I take a sip from my water. “My parents ran, and it didn’t turn out well for them. And without me, the phoenixes don’t have a monarch.”
“Without a monarch, we would all die,” Keagan says. “That is how we all knew you existed. Even after your parents’ bodies showed up, we still thrived.”
My jaw drops open. “What do you mean phoenixes die without me?”
“Not physically,” she says quickly. “It’s just that the monarch keeps us going.
If something happened to you, the birth rate of phoenixes would taper off until, eventually, we wouldn’t be able to have children.
It’s just the way the magic works.” She shrugs.
“I guess it’d also be like a wolf pack without an alpha. ”
Parker rubs a hand on the back of his neck. “The pack needs an alpha. Without it, there is no order.”
I swallow hard, not sure how I feel about that.
Some part of me thought that maybe we’d end up back in Montana with Parker’s family and pack, but that’s not an option any longer. We have to be here.
It still doesn’t seem fair to Parker to put this on him. Even if he says he’s okay with it, I hate asking him to do it.
He puts his hand on my lower back. His thumb does slow circles as he offers me comfort.
Parker has known for a long time that he was going to give up his pack for me.
I can see that now. The way August started training to be an alpha.
The way he started doing less with his dad.
I thought, at the time, that he had less work.
But it was never that. He’s doing it for me.
I only wish I could do something for him in return.
He’s giving up everything for me. It just doesn’t seem fair.