Chapter 14 #2
I finished my bite and set down my silverware before wiping my mouth and focusing on him.
“I didn’t want any of this, Ayao. Starting with my parents dying.
It’s been leaked our last words were in anger, so really I didn’t want that.
No, this isn’t what I want and no, I don’t want a fake relationship where you have quiet affairs and I’m unloved. ”
I’ve had enough of that.
“I’m sorry you see it that way,” he said honestly, and if that was all he said I would have accepted it and not been upset.
But he had to keep talking and fucking piss me off.
“Honestly though, it’s probably one of the best offers you’ll get given the corner you allowed yourself to be backed into.
Most are coming to be prince and take you over.
I have no desire for that, and I’ll be a shield from a lot of that and be a powerful ally even if my uncle is a pain in the ass. ”
Fuck.
Him.
Hard.
And I honestly almost said that. I really did.
Instead, I said that I would think about it and what he said. That I hoped we could continue to be honest about where we were in the situation.
“You say that, but you’re holding back,” he called me out when I was finished and stood.
That was fair and I decided to drop my mask and let him see I was fuming.
“I deserve better than what you offered. You might be right about what is coming at me and what I will deal with, but all of you are not my only options, and I will turn all of you down if I need to instead of accepting such matings and terms. More than that, don’t you dare judge me for the corner I allowed myself to be backed into when you weren’t there. ”
Something like desire filled his eyes. “And you doubt I could have done better. Plus, my family helped put you there.”
“Yes. To both even.” I nodded to him. “Welcome to my castle, Ayao. Good luck.” I snickered and walked off making it clear where I ranked him in all of it.
Asshole.
Sexy asshole but… Asshole.
Once I left, I headed for the security rooms because I needed to check on something Lydia had told me. Nothing surprised me more than finding the Alpha of Jade Creek standing outside of there with at least one of his Betas.
And obviously whatever was on my face made it clear I wasn’t happy to see him. He frowned and then glanced behind me, doing a double take and not hiding his surprise before he winced.
“I didn’t make the connection, Your Majesty,” he said adamantly. “I thought—”
“I told Uncle it was Tuesday so this exact scenario didn’t happen,” Ayao said from behind me.
The Alpha was less than thrilled to hear that, shooting him an unfriendly look. “I’m not a—you think I would have shown up and tried to influence the queen about—”
“No, of course not, Uncle. You are never crass,” Ayao quickly said.
Meaning he thought his uncle might show up to grill him.
Wow. That actually sucked and I felt for him… If he hadn’t been such an asshole to me.
The Alpha focused on me. “I’m here to run some things past Benson. It was just easier to drop things off and we…”
“They’ve had some issues at their hotel,” Benson said as he walked up and joined us. “It’s legit. We just got footage. They’re being harassed.”
“Of course you and yours are welcome to stay at the castle where it’s safe,” I immediately said, understanding what was going on. “We discussed it originally, but we wanted to keep it separate as much as possible visually instead of a favor directly to me.”
“And that was the smart move,” the Alpha agreed. He sighed, looking tired. “Maybe we should switch, but honestly this is just—” He snapped his mouth closed.
But they were all shocked when I chuckled. I moved closer and patted his arm. “You just need the break from all the annoyances and reasons to throat punch people. Yes, I fully understand. Every moment of every day now. Anything you need, and please forgive our construction.”
“We’re not here to be pains and we appreciate your understanding, Your Majesty,” his Beta said firmly.
The Alpha cleared his throat when I turned away. “So it did go well though?”
The balls on this man were ridiculous, Benson even chuffing while others stared at that Alpha in shock.
While Ayao simply looked vindicated.
I smirked at him before glancing back at the Alpha.
“He’s definitely related to you and I actually mean that as a compliment.
He knows when to play the games and when it’s best to put his cards on the table and not go another round with someone who can break him.
I appreciate honesty, and I look forward to seeing if he can keep up with Joris. ”
That was about as nice of a way of not being petty or getting him in trouble with his uncle but also making it clear to Ayao I wanted to tell him to fuck off… And shove his bullshit offer.
Hard.
Myriam sent me a message with a link and that Toni said we needed an official statement. She agreed and it wasn’t something I could ignore no matter how difficult it was for me. They would handle it, but they just needed to know where my head was and for me to give them a direction.
Except I had no idea the drama now.
I glanced at my schedule and was glad that my lunch with Ayao was set for longer so I could have a break in my suite.
I went up there and kicked off my heels as I clicked on the video.
The first thing I noted was how long it was.
It wasn’t just a clip or a segment up on YouTube from a show like normal.
It was the full morning talk show up on their YouTube channel. That was… Odd.
Horror filled me when I realized because it was about me.
The five female hosts that I thought were catty and useless—even when I agreed with them—were practically frothing at the gossip of my “mating contest.” They had all the candidate pictures up with names, ages, and areas.
It was like a fucking sports team roster.
And they handed out a multipage printout to the audience as if this was some sort of draft pick.
“Now, before we get into their resumes and what they bring to the table, I think it’s important go over what’s on Sagan De la Rosa’s,” Stacy Scalf, the lead host of Our Perspectives, said brightly.
My least favorite of them, Nicole Pritchard, snorted. “She’s the queen. That’s why she has a shot with any of them. Moving on.”
And no, it wasn’t because she was petty or mean, it was because she was dumb as a box of rocks and a fire dragon. She thought fire was the best thing ever and we were mocked constantly for being basic.
Yeah, fire was great. So?
“She has like a million degrees and is a gorgeous woman,” Sam Elorreaga replied.
She was honestly the only one worth anything and had a brain, but she immediately caved on any point. She was more afraid of being disliked—which was hysterical on an opinion show—and having to argue than people thinking she agreed with stupid opinions.
I snorted as she immediately agreed with what the next person said that others were prettier and had better education.
Prettier? Sure.
Better education? Few. Most dragons never left Thovudin for their education and most of mine had been in other countries. That made me leagues above the same everything dragons were taught.
Fools.
“I hate to comment on a woman’s body,” Austin Bunson practically purred.
Mostly because we all knew it was a lie. She loved to be petty, which was also ridiculous because she was always flipping out when people picked on her for having a “male” name. It was something stupid people noted though. I agreed with her.
It was also something stupid she allowed to get under her skin.
“While I was shocked the queen was so well endowed and I would have hidden it as well, our recent polls made it clear that male dragons are all about her assets,” she continued. “It’s not the beauty standard in Thovudin, but apparently breaking the mold in this instance is working for her.”
“Yeah, but she can’t even get a bra here. We checked with the estimates of what she wears,” the last co-host, Kristin Mopps, chirped in. “How horrible for her! She really is just like someone who doesn’t live here or something! Do we really know she’s a dragon?”
They all slowly looked at her, Stacy replying. “We were just talking about how her fire dragon flying around the capital caused a stir.”
“Oh, right, right. Silly me!”
That was one way to put it. Fucking moron would have been better but whatever.
I flinched as they flippantly discussed how I’d lost weight since “coming back to the country.” Well, not that I’d lost weight. That was very important and unmistakably added to my looks.
No, the flippant part was why I was back in the country. No mention of my parents dying or consideration that my grief was the reason for the weight loss. Just it added to my looks.
And it got worse from there.
If I styled my hair differently maybe I could bump up a level and basically score better to deserve one of the more attractive candidates. Updated my wardrobe. Slimmed my thighs. The size of my ass. Smiled more.
The list just went on and on. There honestly wasn’t one part of me they didn’t find flawed and suggest fixes for.
I watched the whole thing and then again just because… I wanted to torture myself? Then I messaged Myriam that I would get her a response since it couldn’t be ignored, but I needed a bit to think of a plan and how best to handle it.
Right then though?
Right then I went to bed praying to the gods for strength or that I woke up from this nightmare and my parents were alive to be back in charge. It seemed the right way to feel.
It really did.