Chapter 14 #2
The tension we had been holding had faded slightly, mostly because we hadn’t seen my father since the start. We were hoping that he’d realized he wasn’t welcome and left, but either way, this extremely long procession was stopping us from focusing on it for too long.
“I would love to hear more stories later,” Maya said. The wrinkled older gentleman flashed a massive smile, thrilled at her request. I had no doubt he would fucking love to talk to our mate for hours. Too bad Marco, on her other side, was facilitating the movement of the line.
Although when I saw who was next, I wondered if he regretted the move—the next two in line were Marco’s father and Henry’s father, who’d apparently decided to take the trip together.
Marco and his father never seemed to have a particular resemblance to me outside of their eye color—he wasn’t nearly as tall as Marco, and he was far leaner.
I didn’t know him very well, only having met him in passing, but he was a fairly prominent member of the community and was said to be skilled with a sword.
From my understanding, he wasn’t a bad man—just distant, like most Dreki fathers.
When we had a kid, I would do everything in my power to combat that bullshit.
Henry’s father, on the other hand, looked exactly like his son, with the exception of the glasses. Guilt darkened his expression as his gaze moved to his son. I had a feeling he blamed himself for Henry’s eye injury, although I’d never confirmed that.
“Father,” Marco greeted, Maya’s eyes widening.
“Son.” He nodded in greeting before looking towards Maya and bowing. “Queen Maya, it’s an honor to meet you. Not only as the queen of this new land, but as my son’s mate.”
Maya nodded as she offered her hand, a gesture her mom had instructed her on, as he met it and continued, “I’m Admiral Moretti, but you’re welcome to call me Amatheon.”
“Amatheon it is,” Maya said sweetly. “I didn’t realize you would be here, but it’s good to meet you.”
“When we realized that you had come to the realm recently and we’d missed it,” Henry’s father said, stepping up to greet her, “we knew we had to take the opportunity to meet you. I’m Velho O’Connor, and it’s wonderful to finally know who my son’s mate is.”
Henry made a sound in the back of his throat as Maya met Velho’s hand. She retracted it fairly quickly, her entire body tense, probably not knowing how Henry felt. I didn’t think he disliked his father, per se, but I also didn’t think he liked him touching our mate.
I didn’t disagree—far too many people were here interacting with her.
“I hope we have a chance to talk more later,” Amatheon said, taking a step back. “Marco, I would love the chance to catch up. We’re staying the night in town.”
“Maybe,” Marco conceded.
Henry’s father walked past his son and said something about his mother, but Henry didn’t react more than a nod.
Then the two of them left us, Maya’s fathers talking to the group next in line and giving us a moment to gather ourselves.
Maya instantly turned towards the two of them and spoke softly.
“I didn’t expect them to be here. Were you okay with talking to them?
I would’ve been comfortable ignoring them if not?—”
“No.” Henry shook his head and offered her a smile. “You were perfect, sweetheart.”
“Sai!” a feminine voice exclaimed.
Anani and Atlas chuckled as Sai made a surprised noise in the back of his throat, all of our attention drawn to the two individuals that skipped the line and walked proudly towards the front.
No one stopped them, though they did receive some dirty looks, and I felt a pang of sympathy for Sai, who looked both embarrassed and frustrated.
I knew he had always felt forgotten by his family, and with his parents striding boldly towards him as if they were thrilled to see him, most likely because of his current placement next to Maya… That had to fucking sting.
“Mom, Dad.” Sai swallowed as he stepped forward, my beautiful mate joining him.
I noticed the way she shifted on her feet, which despite being barefoot was no doubt a sign of them being sore.
She wouldn’t complain, though. My gaze moved over the line, counting at least twenty more people left. We would have to make this quick.
“We are so happy to see you! You never visit!” Sai’s mother pulled him into a hug before pulling back and looking at Maya. “We didn’t even know you had a mate, and such a beautiful one at that! Queen Maya, we are absolutely honored to be part of your family. Please call me Brienne.”
“You’re Sai’s mother,” Maya clarified. Brienne nodded and motioned to the man next to her, his expression a bit more reserved as he and Sai exchanged a look. “This is Arolly. The minute we heard you were being crowned, we had to come see the moment for ourselves.”
“I’m glad to finally meet you,” Maya said formally, but Sai wrapped an arm around her, causing her to relax.
“How about we talk later?” Sai suggested. “Maya has at least two dozen more people to greet, but maybe during the celebration?”
I couldn’t hear their answer, because suddenly my gaze was on the group of individuals that Maya’s fathers were talking to. The man following them, with a woman and child, had my full attention.
“Anani…” I hesitated.
“I see it.”
Maya stepped back next to us as the family came towards us. The woman with him was petite like my own mate, and the little girl she was holding was even smaller—but that wasn’t the part that caught me. No, it was that the man in question looked exactly like my brother and me.
“Queen Maya,” the man said, giving a small bow of his head before looking towards us. “Brothers.”
Fuck.