Chapter 17 #2
I licked my lips and thought of what to say, not sure if I was covered by Belinda’s magic.
Plus… Maple deserved the credit for this.
“No, my aunt put this together and I will be forever grateful to her. I made it clear my priority was finding the right support, but I was being intentionally sabotaged too often to figure out a feasible plan. She found Belinda.”
Then I laughed, shooting Belinda a look of love.
“Yes, I let Maple find me. She was rather annoyed as well. I figured you might come looking for guidance or at least know I would always shield you from those cockroaches.”
I instantly lost my mirth. “You are not to put yourself in danger, Belinda. Not ever.” I barely controlled my anger when she clucked her tongue at me.
“You are just as important. Mystic dragons aren’t common.
A female making it to be ancient and with your power—Thovudin needs your abilities and teachings just as much as they need me. ”
“This is why you will prevail, child,” she said gently, reaching out and rubbing my shoulder. “You win people over the rare times you let them see the glimpses of your heart instead of the masks you were trained to wear.”
I flinched, remembering everyone around us. Still, I patted her hand. “I would never forgive you. I’d rather send you away.”
“Fine, fine, I will behave and obey, My Queen,” she said easily.
No, she wouldn’t.
She never obeyed anyone. She didn’t give me time to even try and bust her on that, focusing on Dray.
“I’ve called other ancients—ancients who are other types of dragons.
Male and female so the media cannot keep reporting that the castle is becoming a ‘hen house’ as if Darren has suddenly grown breasts. ”
Several people snickered at that.
“That will shut the media up fast,” Dray said, sounding happy, which surprised me.
He sighed. “I hated the elder system. I saw their corruption. A couple of us did and we clashed with your father on it. I understood the—he was stuck and I hated that for him, but I thought abolishing it and cleaning out the corruption was more important.”
“He didn’t disagree with you, but he didn’t have the allies to do it,” I replied, my tone making it clear the topic was closed. I was glad when he nodded and moved on.
The tigers graciously accepted to undergo whatever Belinda wanted with them and we moved to the ballroom so we had room. More learned of what was going on, and the next problem was we didn’t have enough rooms for everyone.
“If you—please understand we’ve had issues,” Raquel said directly to our guests. “If you could forgive our lack of hospitality, the staff will double up in our rooms and offer you some of theirs.”
“We were warned in advanced and planned to stay in a hotel near the castle, no insult felt,” one of them said.
I was glad when Dray shot me a look and we were on the same page. I gestured with my head for him to follow me and was less than thrilled when Onyx, Benson, and Ayao joined us.
But glad Joris did. They had all come into the ballroom with the masses of staff to help.
“Hear me out,” I hedged, rubbing my neck.
“Smart,” Myriam muttered, nodding when I glanced at her. “You were talking about this before, remember?”
I sighed. “Right, there’s just so much.”
“You’re doing great, Your Majesty,” Joris praised with a soft smile. “Tell us where your head is and it won’t go any further.”
I ignored when both Onyx and Dray shot him annoyed looks. Onyx I understood, but Dray?
Oh right, he wanted Ayao to end up with me.
“I want part of the damages claimed from the elders to be their fancy houses in the capital,” I admitted. “And that’s where the Alphas and their parties or whomever stay when they are in town instead of always my home being like a government building.”
Dray threw back his head and laughed. He laughed and laughed and I saw the signs of stress more than he really thought I was funny, but then Ayao looked completely gobsmacked. Was Dray really that amused with me?
“I’ll make this work,” he promised, nodding when I simply raised an eyebrow. “You have my word. I will—I know exactly who to call and who to—I ask you allow me to handle this, Your Majesty?”
Yeah, nothing was ever that easy. “And you want what?”
He smirked at me, not even about to deny it and almost extra amused I simply called him out on it. “First dibs on a certain residence when in town. There are even enough we should all be assigned residences that we can have our own staff at—we can talk details, but there’s one I want.”
It was hard not to laugh when I realized what was going on. “Glad we’re becoming friends. Really glad we’re becoming friends, Dray.” I winked at him when he lost some of his amusement. “You’re growing on me and I know you already like me. Don’t ruin the moment.”
He sighed but didn’t deny it.
I took it as a win. “Done.” I bounced it around. “You can’t keep having all of the wins. That will turn into you being my new puppet master, especially when your relationship with Father was contentious.”
“Smart,” Joris praised. “If I may?” He waited until I nodded.
“I would suggest giving Benson the win since there are new talks about how much was allowed to happen under his nose.” He hurried on when Benson reacted like he’d been stabbed.
“You cannot be—I wouldn’t know what was wrong with a plane either. ”
“No, but he needs to be reprimanded for major corruption in the staff of the castle,” Dray said quietly, giving me a hard look.
“Did you just have—I saw the thing with Fraser. That was definitely your doing and something is noticeably going on there.” He sighed when I gave away nothing. “I hate your poker face.”
“Thank you,” I replied, hearing the compliment.
Then I put together where his head was. “The Bodach royal family is known for thwarting more assassination attempts than just about any other monarch. You want to play up that the king not only sent Davian for Treena, but as an expert to advise how to step up our security.”
“Which we have, Your Majesty,” Benson reminded me but really said for Dray.
“It’s smart,” I muttered. “While you were getting some retraining or however it’s framed, more corruption was uncovered and Davian is truly an asset and we thank the king. Also, with the new tiger interrogators, we’re confident we can close the holes quickly since the elders are kicked out.”
“Except we know there’s more than that,” Benson warned, holding up the folder I’d been given by the tigers.
Yeah, there was definitely more than that.