Page 70 of Night’s Fall (The Four Realms #1)

He looked at the door but didn’t say anything.

“Okay, here’s the deal,” I began to lay it out.

He returned his attention to me.

I kept going.

“All my beings are working. I don’t know where Aleece is, and I don’t want to comm her if she’s busy.

Your mom…” At the ice-blue flare in his eyes, I decided not to get into why she was unavailable.

“ And Aleksei was a big jerk to me this morning. Also , unless you aren’t paying attention, you know I didn’t exactly have a loving mother who sat me down and explained the many nuances of living with a male shifter, so all I know about it is my dad alternately not giving a dang about me or doing other not-so-fun things when it came to me. ”

Was that a slight flinch I saw on his face?

Hoping it was, I powered on. “ So you’re all I’ve got.”

“All you’ve got for what?”

“To explain about male shifters.”

He blinked. “ You want me to explain to you about male shifters?”

“You are one, who better?”

A long hesitation (very long), and he asked dubiously, “ What do you want to know?”

“You could start by explaining why the dragons flew last night, and the wolves howled, the bears roared, etcetera.”

“Someone shot a stream intended for the True Heir’s mate and killed her bodyguard,” he said like I was a dim bulb.

“Yes, I get that, but I’m not their mate.”

“Do you not know history?” he asked, again with the dim-bulb tone.

“Of course I know history,” I answered, thinking maybe I wasn’t the brightest, considering it was clear using this to try to make inroads with him was not a sterling idea.

His head tipped to the side as he muttered, “ Do females not get this?”

“Get what?”

It took him about twenty beats, throughout all of them, I didn’t know if he’d march away or stay.

Finally, he said, “ Follow me.”

I wanted to crow in victory that maybe I’d made a break in the walls around Prince Timothee .

I didn’t do that.

I followed him.

He took me into a cavernous room on the first floor that had its walls covered entirely in a magnificent mural.

This included the ceiling.

I’d heard about this mural. It was famous.

But I hadn’t gotten to this wing of the Palace before I got sidetracked by the gardens, so I hadn’t seen it yet.

He went to a corner and pointed at the wall.

“This is Battle of the Chasm , which happened about a hundred and fifty years before the Troll Invasion . And this”—he did a circle, his finger still pointing, indicating the entire room—“is the history of the Starknight Clan .”

Slowly I turned, taking it all in, knowing I was going to be in that room for hours, inspecting every inch of Aleksei’s family history in mural form.

“You know shifters adapted from humans before recorded history?” Timothee asked as I studied the dragons flying with eagles, hawks, ravens, owls, all of these clearly battling demons who were on the ground trying to stave off wolves, bears, snakes and a variety of big cats.

“Yes,” I replied.

“The Battle of the Chasm is the first resounding defeat of the demons who populated what’s now Sky’s Edge ,” he shared.

I looked to him. “ I know that too.”

“Do you know the reason we won is because Caelyn Knightstar devised a strategy that’s known now as the first militarized bank of dragons?”

I nodded.

Even so, he continued his history lesson.

“He synchronized this with land-based creatures. Before , the different shifter creatures battled among themselves. We were not united as one species but broken up into clans of the beast we carried. Further , war tactics were not that advanced. It was race into the clash, kill or be killed, and the leader with the most standing at the end won. In other words, it was chaos. Casualties were always huge. Caelyn not only amassed all the species together, he ordered reconnaissance and did not attack unless he knew everything he could about his enemy. He devised the first aerial sorties. He organized battalions, created flanks, trained commanders, planned battles to the last warrior, with secondary and tertiary strategies that could be called if he saw one failing. In essence, he created modern warfare.”

“He was also the first to treat all species of beasts equally, in battle and out of it,” I added.

Timothee nodded and pointed again to the wall. “ He wasn’t made chieftain until after that victory. And the reason that war was fought was because his mate had been captured by a band of demons.”

“I know that too.”

Then, Timothee pointed to the very top corner of the wall, where, on the ceiling, flying creatures hovered, and on the wall, land-based ones milled, but it clearly depicted a gathering.

And they were all looking up to a nebulous being in the night sky.

“The night before the Battle of the Chasm , Caelyn called all his warriors together, and together, they all beseeched the Night God for bravery, victory and glory, and not insignificantly, the return of Caelyn’s mate.

It isn’t known if the Night God answered their prayers, because they won, obviously, but she was killed by the demons in retribution for the routing of their troops.

But all the male shifters suffered her loss like they’d lost their own mate. ”

What he was saying started penetrating.

Because I knew all of this.

I just didn’t understand it.

Until now.

“And all the male shifters vowed, from then on, to fight and die for the protection of the chieftain’s mate,” Timothee said.

“ And that vow was definitely heard, and as such, bonded into the males by the Night God . Since , if the leader of Night’s Fall’s mate is threatened, we all rally to her defense.

It isn’t a choice. It’s ingrained in us.

And in doing so, we experience a significantly heightened sense of protection to the females of our own clans or families. ”

“Okay, I get that,” I said. “ So why didn’t it happen the first time there was an attempt? The one at the gallery?”

“Because we didn’t know you were Aleksei’s mate yet.

But that beam was aimed at him. No one would want the True Heir , or simply the next king, harmed.

But , right or wrong, he is not as vulnerable as a female.

He’s considered a warrior, and you are not.

He’s better able to defend himself. Though , the bottom line is, the Night God instilled in us all the uncontrollable drive to protect our queen, or the one who would be her, and at the same time, it ramps up our already seriously developed inclination to protect the females in our clans. ”

“So is this why Aleksei is acting like a jerk?”

I was lulled by our precarious camaraderie, I saw, after asking that question, and I regretted it the instant he smirked.

“Aleksei’s acting like a jerk?” he asked.

“Forget it,” I mumbled, turned from him and studied the wall.

The Troll Invasion was the next thing depicted.

I feigned fascination (well, not feigned, exactly, the mural was insane , it was so cool), and in so doing, hopefully, I dismissed him.

“I don’t have a mate, Laura ,” he said.

“I’m aware,” I told the wall.

I heard his heavy sigh.

“In other words, I’ve no idea why he’s acting like a jerk,” he went on. “ And I’m surprised he is. In a time like this, I’d think he’d be acting the opposite.”

I would think so too.

That said…

I looked at him. “ You shouted at your mother in front of people she barely knows at the breakfast table.”

His chin ticked to the side in visible shock at this, like he didn’t realize he’d been a jerk too.

“So is this a thing with you males when you sense your females are vulnerable? Letting your hormones dictate your behavior?” I asked.

“I’m worried about her,” he returned.

“Okay, but she’s an adult female who doesn’t make a move unless she considers the consequences to this family and the entire realm. Maybe you can share your feelings without yelling, throwing your napkin on the table and marching from the room.”

He was no less shocked when he shared, “ I didn’t really…have any control over that.”

Interesting .

“So, she told you she was…” His eyes flared blue, and again I skipped that part, but I did it this time noting that it was clear this was an uncontrollable response to the mere suggestion a female in his family was in danger. “ And it just happens?”

Timothee shrugged, but I could tell he was unsettled by this.

“It’s pretty mega, not the shouting part, the you caring about your mom so much part,” I told him.

He stared at me with even more shock.

“Also, you shouldn’t hide your dragon from the people. He’s gorgeous.”

Timothee’s mouth dropped open.

“Scary as farg, but gorgeous,” I amended.

“You think he’s scary?” he asked.

“Have you seen your dragon?”

“We don’t tend to look in mirrors,” he returned.

“A pic?”

Another shrug and I could swear it was uncomfortable when he said, “ Sure .”

“I don’t know what this is about, but from an objective observer, he’s fierce and terrifying.”

He brushed my words aside. “ Dragons tend to be that.”

“Mine isn’t.”

His smile that time was another smirk, but I was sensing, not a bad one. “ No , she isn’t.”

“It isn’t about size. It isn’t about status.

It isn’t about anything but what you make of what you’ve got,” I educated him.

“ The thing is, what you’ve got is a lot, and I don’t know, I haven’t been around for very long, but I suspect the reason beings are annoyed with you is because you’re smart enough to figure that out and do something with it. ”

His face closed down. “ You’re right, you don’t know.”

“I know. I said that. But be this guy.” I jabbed a finger at the wall. “ The male who helped me out. Not the other one, who would have walked away in the hallway and made me try to sort it out myself. I’d trust my life to your dragon. It’d be nice to know I could trust a piece of my heart to you.”

There seemed to be a variety of emotions battling it out in his expression, before he settled on one.

Incidentally, it was the wrong one.

“Do you think you can come into our family and fix us?” he asked, a hint of the snide Timothee in his tone.

“No. But that doesn’t mean I won’t try. It’s using what I’ve got. I might fail, but it would suck more if I didn’t bother to try.”

As his stare turned into a scowl, and I sensed the other Timothee coming to the fore, I again studied the depiction of the Knightstars in the Troll Invasion .

Timothee didn’t engage me in further conversation.

He also didn’t say goodbye when he walked out.

But at least I had a sense of why Aleksei got so hot and bothered after our flight from the gallery.

I still didn’t know why he was so cold and cutting in the closet.

I just knew one thing.

I was in this by choice and destiny.

So eventually, I’d have no choice but to find out.