Chapter 6
Beryl
The Guardians of Glitter Bomb Territory
Laying in bed that night, it hit me that I was the only one in the house who was neither mated nor a baby.
Even Mum had met her true-mate. Bloody hell.
I hoped I didn’t have to wait until I was as old as her to meet my omega.
My longings for the person who I had chosen in the Other World between lives, ebbed and flowed throughout my life.
Sometimes months would pass without me wondering where the hell he was and other times it was all I could think about.
That usually meant I needed to get out and find an adventure.
Only, I was stuck on Canton Valley Farm until Pras Lavender moved on. I needed to see him off.
“We might be like Pras. He never met his true-mate,” my dragon sighed into my thoughts.
I rubbed my palm around my forehead and tried not to think like that. Pras probably would’ve met his other half if he didn’t have to sacrifice himself to get rid of Ferrick Moonscale. Yep. I had to go for a walk and get out of the house for a while before my head exploded.
I left a note taped to the guestroom door before I left in case I didn’t make it back before someone woke up. I had been warned against wandering around the farm at night, but I’d take my chances with whatever security the rabbit shifter cooked up over stewing in my own thoughts.
It was a cool night. Almost too cool for this time of year, but it was humid. It was as if the air wanted to crawl inside my lungs with each step I took. I headed to one of the ponds I spotted earlier. As I walked closer, I heard little splash sounds and smelled an otter.
“An otter this far inland?” my dragon lifted his massive head and shifted my eyes to his so that he could see better.
Yep. There was an otter pup splashing around in the pond. He ducked under the water when he saw me. I stood immobile, not wanting to spook the little guy. He peeked back up and sank back under. I almost left but a second later a head full of human hair emerged from the water, gasping and shouting.
“GUARDS! GUARDS! DADDY! UNCLE! VATTEN! GUARDS! FERRICK ESCAPED! HE ESCAPED AND HE’S AFTER ME! HELP! HELP! I DON’T WANT TO BE EATEN!” A little boy in sopping wet pajamas raced further away from the houses and out into the fields.
“What the fuck?” I blinked.
“GUARDS! FERRICK’S OUT! THE MURDERER IS OUT! HELP! HELP! HELP ME!” the little boy shouted again.
I followed him, not wanting a kid out on his own in the fields.
“I have a feeling we’re going to regret this!” my dragon tutted into my thoughts.
“GUARDS!”
“HEY! I CAN HELP YOU!” I shouted back to the kid who was probably an otter. “I’M NOT FERRICK!”
I didn’t even smell the lioness until she collided into my body, pinning me face down in the mud and growling in my ear.
“Who is it, Evie?” someone called, but I couldn’t see them either for all the mud in my eyes.
I tried to push myself up and explain what happened, but the lioness’s teeth found the back of my neck. I sighed at the indignity of it all. I couldn’t even go for a walk without rousing the whole damn farm.
Another lion ran by. Only this one smelled different.
Fur and scales and warmth and ---- I shoved up with all my might and the cat’s teeth scraped down my back on her way to thud against the ground, but I was upright.
My heart pounded in my ears as the pride of four lions circled me.
One lunged and I dodged, landing straight against the teeth of another one.
The lion chasing the otter was mine. I swung at the lion holding onto my mouth with his arm and shook him off, but the lioness was back on her feet.
“MINE!” I roared unable to find the rest of the words I knew in any language. All the bites, scratches, and bruises would hurt later, but at the moment none of it mattered. Nothing mattered except getting to him before something horrible did.
“That baby isn’t yours!” A voice that could only be Thorne Canton’s reached my ears.
“Beryl?” Clarence Moonscale’s voice reached my ears a second later. He shouldered through the lions and looked me up and down. “What in the name of Frost are you chasing that kid for? Have you lost your bloody mind, Beryl? I should descale you right here!”
I shoved the lioness into him and hoped the fucker got some scratches out of it.
The pain would serve him right for all the years he didn’t speak up about Pras Lavender.
I sprinted into the fields and found myself surrounded by corn.
It was like something out of a horror film.
The kid was still shouting, and my guy was shushing him.
At least, I thought it was my omega’s voice.
He was the only one who didn’t stop to kick my ass when the lions found me.
I brought out my wings, planning to glide over the giant rows of corn to find them. I had to get to my omega. I had to get to him and explain what had happened. Only I was pounced by a lion from either direction and one of them bit into my forearm like he meant business.
“Stop it! I’m trying to get to my mate!” I roared, trying to shake the feline beast off my limb. “STOP IT!”
I drew in a sharp breath, stoking my fire to make some broiled lion, when his scent grew closer.
A shadow fell over us, and a little whimper came from the boy.
Both lions stopped biting me and turned to look at the man standing there in an oversized shirt and pair of basketball shorts.
He held the drenched little boy on his hip while he stared at me with yellow eyes.
“Don’t let him eat me!” the baby cried and something inside me broke.
I tried to sit up to explain what had happened but the bigger of the lions slapped me back down with a massive paw. What the hell were they feeding these lions out here in the GGB.
“Why were you chasing my son?” my mate asked. “It couldn’t have been because he smelled like me. He was in the water.”
“I’m sorry I snuck out,” the little boy cried. “I’m sorry. I won’t do it again. The pool broke and I wanted to swim and—” he broke down in sobs.
My mate turned his back on me and the big cat kept his paw on my face. The other had shifted into a human with his hands on his hips. He tutted at me and shook his head.
“Does your momma know how dumb you are?” he asked.
“I—” I started to speak but the other lion slapped me with his paw again.
“I bet she doesn’t. You cannot go chasing kids you don’t know around.
That’s a good way to get skinned. I should do it anyway just to prove a point,” the lion man said.
“You’re lucky Jade realized who you are to him.
Though, if we find out you’re a scum bag, he’ll kill you himself.
This isn’t Old Moonscale London. We don’t put up with piss poor excuses for alphas just because of true-mate responses. He’ll skin you and eat your heart.”
I sighed. Obviously, there was going to be no talking to these guys. I’d have appreciated a little help from my mate, but he was preoccupied with his kid.
“My rock! I had in my hand when Ferrick showed up! I don’t have it now!” the little boy sobbed.
“Shh... We’ll find it,” he cooed to his son. “We’ll make him find it. He’s not Ferrick. He’s an alpha. Ferrick was an omega. He’s just a big dummy.”
“Dumb dummy,” the little boy sobbed. “He made me lose my rock!”
Jade turned to face us again with the still crying kid. He walked towards us and I thought for a tiny second that he was coming to save me from the other lions.
“You made my baby lose his rock,” he said, squatting down.
“Big mean Ferrick!” the little boy shook his finger at me.
“I’m not Ferrick!” I protested, but the lion slapped me again. I was starting to get tired of it and considered biting off his paw, but Jade spoke again.
“The rock has a face,” Jade said. “I don’t want to see or smell you again until you find that rock and bring it back!”
“I didn’t do anything!” I protested but Jade was already walking away.
Neither of the lions left my side for several long minutes after Jade padded away on his bare feet. Neither of them said anything as they walked off. The one in lion form brushed against the one in human form.
I lay there in the mud on my back giving my draconic genes time to heal. I might’ve laid there in the mud forever, pondering why my mate considered a rock more important than me if Mum and Clarence hadn’t found me in the mud.
“Beryl,” Mum sighed, reaching her hand out to me. “I told you not to wander around at night. Everyone is on high alert and most of the guards don’t know you. We know you wouldn’t hurt that baby, but they don’t know that.”
I let her pull me to my feet. She held me at arm’s length not wanting to get muddy.
“He wants me to find a rock,” I groaned.
“I’d find the rock then,” Clarence finally said something. “Look, I don’t even claim to fully understand lion culture, much less otter culture, but if you want your mate, I’d find that rock.”
“I’m supposed to find a rock in a pond in the dark when it’s just like every other rock in on the farm?” I asked.
“It’s not to that baby,” Mum said.
“You’re not even on my side?” my pulse roared in my ears.
“I am on your side. I’m on my grandkid’s side too. That’s your baby too now. So, he’s my grandkid and I think you should find his rock,” Mum said.
“You—You’ll help me then?” I asked hopefully.
“Nope. This is your heroic task to prove to the farm you’re not some asshole chasing kids through a cornfield like a serial killer,” Mum said, crossing her arms.
“And to prove to your mate that you actually care about what he thinks is important in the world,” Clarence added.
“You two don’t even care that the lions tried to kill me!” I roared.
“No, they didn’t,” Mum said. “If Evie wanted you dead, you’d be dead by now.”
“Good luck,” Clarence said. “Try to let us all get some sleep, okay? Whether or not you find that rock, we have Pras’s departure ceremony in the morning.”
They walked away and I kicked at the ground. I never expected my true-mate to leave me in a cornfield because of a rock. Juda would’ve never done that to Frost.