Chapter 14
Arkyn sat at the family’s breakfast table the next morning, mug of coffee in his hand while his mother cooked a simple breakfast and Astra lapped at a ramekin of milk.
He’d been unable to sleep last night, his mind racing with the Council’s news and sweet memories of making love to Ama. He’d dozed a few times, but his dreams were riddled with images of a dark, foreboding place in the depths of space and a strange dragon. A dragon with scales of deepest aubergine and swirls of amethyst punctuated with glittering scales like white starlight.
A dragon unlike any other.
“So tell me about Ama.” Mother urged as she put bread in the toaster, slanting him a knowing smile.
He’d never been able to hide anything from her. She’d pulled many confessions from him over the years, sitting at this very table like the kitchen was her throne room. He didn’t even try to pretend ignorance of her meaning. She’d swat him for the lie, and he was secretly grateful for the conversation starter.
He stared into the black pool of his coffee. It was like looking into a black hole, sucking all the answers down into its dark depths instead of offering any up to him. “I guess we’re getting serious.”
Mother snorted. “If you said that every time you had sex with a woman?—”
“How’d you know we had sex?”
She tapped her temple. “Group chat.”
One of his brothers had spilled the beans to the family via their mental communication. Obviously while Arkyn had been too preoccupied to listen in. He didn’t care that Mother knew. He was a grown-ass man for heaven’s sake, and had been sexually active for all of his adulthood. What bothered him was her easy dismissal of what he and Ama had shared. The tenderness, the passion that burned between them, the way her smile evaporated all the heaviness in his soul. The joy that bubbled up?—
Dammit. He chuckled as he pretended to glare at his mother. “You don’t have to use your seditious, reverse psychology tactics to get me to like Ama, dontcha know. I already do like her. A lot.”
“What is it you kids say these days? Sorry, not sorry?” She winked at him as she handed him a plate piled with ham and eggs. Then she sat down across from him and sipped from her own mug as he buttered his toast. “I just want to make sure what you feel for Ama is authentic.”
He paused with a bite halfway to his lips, then put his fork back on the plate with a sigh. “I don’t doubt my feelings for Ama, even though it’s been so quick.”
Mother shrugged. “The passage of time and the blossom of love are not mutually inclusive. In fact, they most often happen independently of the other. Take Ulrik and Eydís as an example. You and Ama have already known one another longer than they had before getting engaged.”
And no one, least of all his parents, had questioned the brevity of their courtship. “How did you know Father was the one you wanted to marry?”
“Because I loved him.” She shrugged as if the answer was obvious.
“But what did you love about him? What traits did you admire, what skills, what strengths did you see in him that made him worthy of your love so that you wanted to spend your life with him?”
Mother didn’t answer immediately. She took a long drink of her coffee, looking at him from over the top of her mug as Father walked in, poured his own coffee, and sat beside her after nodding to Arkyn and kissing his wife on the cheek. Father sipped his own coffee quietly, and Arkyn pushed his untouched breakfast away, stomach twisting too much to eat.
When she finally answered, Mother’s voice was soft. “Dearest child, I fell in love with your father because he was the handsomest man I’d ever met, my heart filled with joy and desire whenever I looked at him, and all I could do around him was grin like an idiot and hope that he would kiss me or touch me.” She reached out toward Father and he threaded his fingers with hers, bringing her hand to his mouth for a kiss. Her gaze never wavered from Arkyn’s, but it was obvious how attuned she was to the man seated beside her. A dreamy smile lifted her lips. “And I still love him for all those same reasons.”
“But, he’s also been a good father to your children, a provider, a partner in the challenges life has thrown you. Right?” Arkyn shook his head, trying to wrap his brain around his mother’s words. Surely, she should enumerate Father’s qualities and characteristics that have served their family over the decades.
She chuffed a small laugh. “Yes. But lots of men could have been good providers, partners, and lovers. Those are merely skills, if one cares enough to learn them. And those men would have been mediocre husbands for me because of it. But the effect your father has on me… the way he brightens my world just by being in it… that can’t be taught or faked. That is love.”
Arkyn looked at Father, who had so far listened without adding his own thoughts. Would he contradict what Mother had said?
He said nothing. And in the silence, Arkyn blurted out “I think I’m falling for Ama.”
“Congratulations, son. She’s a lovely young woman.” Father smiled as he sipped his coffee.
“No, that’s not… She is, but…” Arkyn huffed in exasperation as words once again failed him. “She’s flighty. Spacey. She dresses odd and blurts out random things. People look at her funny and don’t care to get to know her because they’ve already pigeonholed her in their minds.”
“Soooo… she’s not a lovely woman?” Father prompted, one eyebrow winging up.
“She’s…” Arkyn scrubbed a hand through his beard, his admission blurting from his mouth. “She’s beautiful. She’s light. And air. The wind in my hair, the breath in my lungs, the sun on my face. She’s everything good in this world. Innocence, joy, laughter, acceptance.”
He sighed and looked between his parents. “My brothers have all found strong, spirited shield maidens to stand at their sides. I’ve found a woman who makes conversation with kittens, thinks bowling rental shoes are high fashion, and says whatever pops into her mind. If I continue to pursue her, she’ll embarrass the family and the business.”
Honestly, he wouldn’t care. Let others think what they might about Ama. But he couldn’t allow his family members or the family business to suffer from negative public opinion. His parents had worked too hard and long to be punished like that.
“Arkyn, do you love her?”
Mother’s voice was imperious. A command he couldn’t ignore, even if it came in question form. Odin’s beard, he wanted to deny it, but he couldn’t. “Yes, I love her.”
She smiled. “Haven’t you learned anything from watching your younger brothers? Love is stronger than you give it credit for being. I suspect Ama is as well.”
“If you have a solid foundation of love, all the rest either goes away or stops being important.” Father shrugged. “We Drekisons can survive whatever petty gripe anyone might have about the choices we’ve made. If you’re looking for our approval, you have it. Always and unconditionally.”
“I just…” Was he looking for their approval, or hoping they’d try and talk him out of being with Ama? Would he listen if they did? “You’d tell me if you thought she wasn’t a good fit for our family?”
“Of course. We didn’t raise our sons to be shy with their opinions because we aren’t with ours.” Mother lifted her chin like a regal queen.
“I have always trusted your judgment.” Father nodded. “You will make a great alpha when the time comes. And as my son, I have always been proud of you. If you love her, that is because she is worthy, and will be as easy to love as our other future daughters-in-law.”
Arkyn’s hunger raged to life again, unburdened by the worry that, by loving Ama, he might fail in his responsibility to the family. His parents’ assurance and support had lifted the weight of expectation he’d carried, even though he might have been the one to saddle himself with it in the first place. Grabbing the fork and pulling his plate closer, he dug into the meal, shoving a large bite of lukewarm ham and eggs into his mouth as Mother refilled all their mugs.
Halfway through his breakfast, his spirit lighter than it had been in months, his phone rang. Arkyn pulled his phone from his pockets and frowned at the unfamiliar number on the screen.
“Hello?” He answered, breakfast settling heavy and ominous in his gut.
A soft sigh and stuttering inhale on the other end dropped his gut to the floor. He knew immediately who called him.
Ama’s voice was tiny and terrified. “Arkyn? I’m so sorry for calling, but you’re the only person I could think of to call, well, I mean, I could have called someone else but I couldn’t remember anyone’s number and I don’t have my phone, but you’re the only one I trusted to—I hope you don’t mind, it’s—you know what, I’ll just hang up, I’m sorry I bothered you, I?—”
“Ama, calm down.” He softened his voice to soothe her as best he could through the phone. “It’s okay, I’m glad you called. What’s going on, elskr? What do you need?”
“Um.” She sniffled and it broke his heart to hear her cry. Had she not read his note? Did she think he’d deserted her? “I, uh. Need you to come pick me up from the police station.”
His heart spiked.
Ama cleared her throat, her voice growing even smaller and softer, as if that might lessen the impact of her next words. “I was arrested for public nudity.”