Page 24 of Fated to the Dragon King (Alpha Dragons’ Fated #4)

Hayley

The details were difficult to listen to. Officer Martinez was sympathetic and kind as he explained what had happened the previous night.

“The fire investigators believe your sister fell asleep while smoking. The cigarette ignited her chair, then spread to a bottle of whisky on the table next to her.”

Alaric draped his arm over my shoulders and hugged me tightly against his ribs.

“Do you want me to continue?” Martinez inquired upon seeing my stricken face.

I swallowed hard, nodding. “Yes. Please do.”

“We suspect she was also drunk,” he went on. “An autopsy will tell us more.”

“If she had passed out,” Alaric murmured, “she may not have felt the heat of the fire.”

“That’s what the investigators also think.”

“Oh, Roxanne,” I muttered, choking on a sob, “I told you to quit drinking. Dammit. Now look at what happened.”

“Do you need to sit down?” Martinez asked.

I drew in a deep breath, steadying my need to weep. “No. I’m okay. Roxanne, well, shit, she always hated me. There’s no reason to not say it. The last time I saw her, I told her to quit. She said no. Her hands were shaking so bad I had to hold her lighter so she could smoke.”

“Was she drunk then?”

“Yeah.” I swept my hair back, growing angry with Roxanne, with myself for not doing more. “I should have checked in on her again.”

“When did you last see your sister?”

“God, so much has happened,” I snapped, trying to shove my emotions back so I could think. “Um, the night before last. I have a new phone number, I wanted her to have it. In case she needed me.”

“Well, there’s not much you can do if someone doesn’t want help,” Martinez said kindly. “I’m so very sorry for your loss, ma’am.”

“Thank you for coming here to tell me.”

“The fire didn’t reach her car in the garage,” Martinez went on. “Inside it, we found your name and the name of this building on a piece of paper.”

I met Alaric’s confused gaze. “Why did she write that down and put it in her car?”

“That’s really strange.”

Martinez nodded. “It’s like she wanted you found if anything happened to her.”

“She couldn’t have known that she’d fall asleep with a lit cigarette,” I gasped.

“Maybe she considered the possibility,” he commented.

“Oh, God.”

I went limp in Alaric’s arms, shuddering, crying.

Roxanne! What have you done? What did you do?

Turning my face into his chest, I wept for my sister.

I wept for the life she wasted, the life she threw away, the love we might once have shared.

I wept because I loved her, even if my love was never reciprocated.

“I’m so sorry.”

Officer Martinez patted my shoulder, then departed.

***

My parents came to the funeral.

While they gave me cursory hugs and shook Alaric’s hand, I knew they weren’t pleased to see me.

Sure, they grieved for Roxanne, and it showed in their faces, their body language.

They both wept over her coffin, threw dirt into the grave as it was lowered into the ground.

After the service was over, they walked toward the cars in the midst of the few mourners without saying another word to me.

“Cold, aren’t they?”

Alaric scowled at their stiff backs. “How can they treat you like that? You’re their daughter for Pete’s sake.”

I shrugged, squeezing his hand as we, too, walked from the graveside. “Roxanne was their favorite. Their golden child. She could never do wrong in their eyes, while I was the accident they didn’t want.”

“Talk about a dysfunctional family.”

“That was us.”

Alaric glanced down at me with a soft smile. “While Roxanne became a raging alcoholic, you married a dragon. How well did that work out?”

“She wasn’t always an alcoholic.” I frowned. “That’s a recent occurrence. I don’t know why she turned to booze.”

“Now we’ll never know.”

Alaric stopped, halting me with him, as a man emerged from a Ford sedan parked among the others along the cemetery’s main road. He made a beeline straight toward us, while pulling a business card from the breast pocket of his suit’s jacket.

“Mrs. Desjardin?”

“Yes?”

“I’m Roxanne Smith’s attorney.” He handed me the simple card. “Mike Rodriguez. She named you as the executor of her estate.”

I glanced, shocked, toward the black Lincoln my parents were getting into. “Not my father?”

“No. If you’d like, we can go to my office. I have some time available if you do.”

At Alaric’s nod, I agreed. “We’ll follow you.”

“Very good.”

Mr. Roriguez rented an office in the ritzy downtown area.

He waited at the building’s entrance while we found a place to park, then accompanied us to the fifteenth floor.

As we rose the flights in the elevator, he explained that Roxanne had made a new will within the last week and named me as her executor.

“What’s in her will?” I asked.

“I’d rather let you read it.”

His office was pleasant, and yet not expensively maintained. His middle aged secretary brought coffee, while Mr. Rodriguez found Roxanne’s will in his files. He passed the manilla folder across his desk just as the secretary poured a steaming cup for me.

“She left everything to you.”

My coffee went cold as I read the will. Roxanne did indeed leave everything to me.

Her wealth, massive amounts of money in excellent investments that brought in a ridiculous amount of cash each month.

Shares in companies that I’d read about in the papers as being top money earners.

Her house. While burned to the ground, it was heavily insured and could be rebuilt and sold. For millions.

I stared at Mr. Rodriguez. “She didn’t leave anything to our parents. Why?”

“She didn’t confide that reason in me,” he replied. “But she asked that you be given this envelope in the event of her death.”

Like the folder, he passed me a sealed envelope. After a questioning glance at Alaric, I slit it open with my fingernail and slid the single sheet of paper out of it. My mouth fell open.

I’m sorry.

“That’s it?” Alaric asked, as bewildered as I was. “Just ‘I’m sorry’? No explanations?”

I burst into tears, holding the paper against my chest. “She loved me, after all. She did. She knew she treated me badly, and this is her way of atoning.”

Rodriguez handed me a box of tissues while Alaric knelt beside my chair and offered an awkward hug.

I accepted both, sobbing in a mixture of fresh grief and a very strange happiness.

Roxanne did love me. She was sorry she never knew how to express it, apologizing for having treated me as a second-class citizen.

I have no real way of knowing for certain why she suddenly changed.

Only that she did.

And it was a great comfort to me.

***

“I’m now a millionaire several times over.”

I marveled at this knowledge as Alaric drove us back to the coast and his house. “Just a month ago, I was dependent upon Roxanne’s mercy, desperately needed a job, and now I’m wealthy. How weird is that?”

“So when you kick me to the curb, you can find a handsome gigolo to keep you satisfied.” Alaric grinned.

“Exactly. It’ll happen soon, too.”

“But then, you’ll miss out on becoming royalty.”

“Royalty?” I scoffed. “You have delusions of grandeur.”

He laughed. “Uh, nope.”

Waving my hand, I stared through the windshield at the approaching coast. “So, what are you? A king or something?”

“Not something,” he said, catching my gaze. “I am the king. My inheritance, remember?”

“No way.” I laughed. “You said Damon wanted – oh, shit .” I stared at him in horror. “Damon was your cousin. He wanted your authority. I thought you were like a mayor or something.”

“No. As he was the closest in line to the throne, he wanted me dead.” Alaric stopped his smile.

“Fiona wanted him to become king, then she’d have the means to make war on humans.

Now, without Damon, she can only gain power if I abdicate.

In writing. That’s why they kidnapped you.

To force me into abdicating in Damon’s favor. ”

“Now, he’s dead.” I stared at the blue Pacific through the windshield. “And Fiona will still force you into abdicating in her favor.”

“Yep.”

“Lanokota, have mercy,” I whispered. “She’ll use me to get to you.”

“That’s what I’m afraid of.”

“What will we do?” I demanded wildly. “She knows where we are, doesn’t she? Alaric, you can’t let her do it. We have to get in the house, stay there. Hide.”

He seized my hand. “She’ll not get to you while I’m here. I’ll protect you, my queen.”

He kissed my knuckles, smiling gently.

“That’s why you call me that.” I forgot my panic in the wonder that streamed through me. “I am your queen.”

“You got it.”

Alaric turned the truck onto the side road that led to his property. I gazed ahead at the McMansion and wondered aloud, “Will we live in a castle?”

“It’s not exactly a castle as such,” he answered. “But it’s a massive palace built into a mountain.”

“A palace,” I breathed.

If Alaric planned another comment, he didn’t get the chance to utter it.

Something powerful struck the pickup from the rear and tossed it onto its roof.

I shrieked as metal crunched and glass shattered in my face.

Hanging upside down by my seatbelt, I caught a glimpse of gold blasting toward us and the overturned truck.

Fiona!

Alaric also hung upside down and blood dripped from his head to the cab’s roof below us. He appeared unconscious. Or dead.

I screamed his name as the passenger’s door was peeled open as easily as one might peel a grape.

Fiona’s fore talon cut my seatbelt with ease.

Helpless to fight against her, I still struggled as she plucked me from the truck.

Yelling, I pounded her closed fist with mine as she took to the air, her wings beating hard.

“Oh, knock it off,” Fiona snapped as she gained altitude. “You can’t hurt me so stop trying.”

I obeyed. Panting, furious, terrified that Alaric had died, I gazed upward at Fiona’s massive head. “If you killed him,” I growled, “I’ll kill you.”

She chuckled, flames shooting past her muzzle. “Yeah, yeah. But I didn’t kill him, sweetheart. If that little accident killed him, he’s not worthy to be our king.”

“The title you plan to steal,” I snapped.

“Of course. Why do you think I needed Damon? Until he got himself dead anyway.”

I looked down at the ocean far below as Fiona circled high over it. “If he’s alive, and I drop from this height, you’ll never have any leverage over him.”

She snorted. “That’s why you won’t fall, toots. By the way, handsome hubby is over there.”

She pointed with her free talon. Sure enough, a black dragon with flames shooting from his muzzle flew toward us at an incredible speed. A fresh fear spread its evil claws through my heart. If Alaric fought with Fiona while she carried me, I would most certainly die.

“Oh, shit,” I muttered.

“Don’t worry. He’ll not dare challenge me while I have you.”

“So you hope, toots .”

Alaric spread his wings and slowed his headlong pace to fly beside Fiona. “You’ll die for this, bitch.”

“Don’t be stupid, Alaric,” Fiona snarled, lifting me toward him. “I’ll hold onto this sweet thing until you get the papers that turn the throne and all the power that goes with it over to me. So, fly off and get them.”

Alaric roared in fury. “The crown isn’t yours. You have no right to it. Our people will never accept you as their ruler.”

“They will,” she screamed, turning her head to spit fire at Alaric. “They’ll have no choice. I will be their queen.”

Fiona suddenly shrieked in agony as a terrible jolt rolled through her body.

Her hold on me loosened.

Then I fell. I tumbled over and over, the blue sky and the blue ocean melded until I didn’t know which was which.