Chapter Twenty-Five #2
Colbie isn’t done. Her body shifts again, and this time when the magic clears, she throws around a magnificent mane while stomping a hoof, her large, gorgeous wings stretching out wide.
“A pegasus!” my sister shouts with excitement.
“Wow, not one, but two mythical animals and three different forms.” I can’t help but hear the worry in Layla’s voice. “Poor girl, it’s going to take some hard work to get a handle on all those shifts.”
The magic activates again, and we all hold our breaths, waiting to see what will happen next. This time, her small, curvy body is lying in the middle of the floor. She appears to be unconscious, and Gem hurries toward her and scoops her up, releasing his healing magic.
“Just even more exhausted. I’m not surprised. I’ll take her up to her room, but I recommend we up her intake of food over the next few weeks while she practices. She’s going to need all the energy she can get,” he says after assessing her body.
“And the sooner she bonds to her mates, the sooner she can take energy from them. Hopefully they start arriving tomorrow, and it’s an easy pick like it was for us,” Mia says to Lucas, who is watching the new queen with the same kind of worry he has for his own children.
Brodie scowls at her words, but we don’t have any right to say anything, and thankfully, he keeps quiet.
“I think she should wear that pendant that suppresses her animals and stops her from shifting. Control is going to be hard to learn, and we don’t need her shifting into her hydra inside the palace and bringing it down around our heads,” Adam says as he watches his wife stroke a reassuring hand over their son’s body.
“Yes, that’s a great idea.” Gracelin holds out the pouch the pendant is in, and Evie reaches in and pulls it out.
She wrinkles her nose. “Wow, that is powerful. It suppressed my animal by just holding it.” She places it over Colbie’s head then pulls her hair out, and the tension seems to drain out of the unconscious girl.
“Come on, let’s let her rest again. Poor thing has been through so much.” Gem follows the queens and my mother out of the test room, followed by our siblings and Violet, leaving my bond group, Dad, and Lucas behind.
“Whoa, so not what I thought was going to happen,” Lucas admits, nervously running his hand through his hair. “A hydra. Who would have thought?”
“At least no one is going to want to fuck with that,” Dad points out.
“Damn, how is she going to find any mates who aren’t absolutely terrified of her?” Liam smirks meanly. “Let alone six of them.”
Brodie glares at him. “Shut the hell up, man. That isn’t helpful.”
“No, but he’s not wrong,” I agree reluctantly. “Male shifters are notoriously arrogant. It will be a blow to their ego that their mate is so much more powerful than them.”
“Aramis wouldn’t choose partners for her who would be resentful. Trust me, whoever she ends up mated to will be the perfect fit,” Lucas argues, the voice of experience.
“I think Lucas is right. I can think of half a dozen very powerful shifters in my army who aren’t in bond groups, and those are just the ones I know of.
Remember, the call goes out across the shifter lands.
You’ll see, everything will work out like it’s meant to.
” My dad is quick to agree with his friend.
“Now, you guys should head off to bed. You have your work cut out for you to get her up to speed with all her abilities. Hunter, talk to your mother, she may be able to find some books with more in-depth information about hydra shifters, not to mention the pegasus abilities. You’re going to need to know those too, so you can work with her on them. ”
I don’t have the first clue about pegasus powers, so any help I can get will be appreciated. “Yeah, I’ll do that first thing tomorrow morning,” I tell him. With that, we all take our leave.
“Oh, and boys, find out where the hell my son is, and when you do, let him know I want to speak to him.” Lucas’s tone is deadly. The man is usually so easygoing, but I would not like to be in Gryffin’s shoes right now.
“He’s following up on an anonymous tip about the shifter kids that are still missing.
He promised to be back tomorrow. I’ll let him know you need to speak to him,” Liam says, flat-out lying to the king, and Brodie and I gape at him.
It’s not like Liam to cover for one of us.
He likes to stir shit up and is happy to watch the fallout.
“A tip?” Bryson scowls. “Why did I not know about this?”
“We think it’s a wild goose chase, which is why he went on his own. The village he’s going to sits at the base of the Aramis Rift. It’s unlikely to be true because it’s so inhospitable there, but we didn’t want to ignore it just in case.”
Well, he’s not lying about that. The village he is going to is exactly where Liam said, but the reason is wrong. It softens Lucas’s anger, though, so Gryff better kiss Liam’s ass when he finally returns.
“He better be. We’re having a formal dinner to introduce Colbie to the rest of shifter society tomorrow.
It will be broadcast to all of them. It will look like sour grapes if the son of the former king is not in attendance, so make sure he’s there.
” He growls the last bit, his tiger pushing forward.
We assure him we will before the three of us take our leave.
“Fuck, he better be back,” Liam growls as we head toward our suite, “or I’ll kick his ass myself.”