Page 72 of Night’s Fall (The Four Realms #1)

“Can we talk after you get done with work?”

“We can talk now, Laura .”

Totally the best.

“It might take a while,” I warned him.

“You’re concerned because his instincts have engaged,” he deduced.

“Well, I think so, except that they’re weird.”

“I can imagine it’s very intense.”

“More like…cold, distant, argumentative.” Mean .

“I’m sorry?” he queried, now appearing confused.

“It’s like with every conversation we have, he’s picking a fight. Like , he’s going for all the vulnerable spots, prodding them, even pushing at them to force me to react.”

“ Your vulnerable spots?”

“Mine.”

Mr. Truelock said nothing, but now he appeared contemplative.

“It’s only been today, and yesterday was a lot,” I explained. “ I get the sense he’s more upset than he’s willing to let on that we lost Antheme , so that might be part of it.”

“I’m not a shifter, as you know,” Mr . Truelock said.

“ But I do know, when their protective instincts have engaged, the males are very unpredictable. But shifters are creatures of action. For dragons, to that action, you can add fire. Either way, it’s known this runs hot.

For a dragon, I would suspect very hot. Not cold and argumentative. ”

Hmm.

“Freya is not my mate, demons don’t have them,” Mr . Truelock continued.

“I know.”

“So I fear I may not have any answers as to why Aleksei has retreated to this behavior after what’s happened.”

“So you think it’s a mate thing, not a shifter thing?”

“I could ask some of my shifter acquaintances,” he offered. “ And some of my mated ones.”

“Do you think they might figure out that you’re asking about Aleksei and me?”

“I think they know I’ve been moved to the Palace for my protection because you’re my family, so yes. Although I’d do my best to shroud it, if they have a brain in their head, and they all do, they would likely make that leap, considering it isn’t a far distance to land.”

So that was out.

“And I can’t ask the king or queen, because they aren’t mates either,” I mumbled.

“This is true. But you could look it up on a digi-pane.”

Oh my gods.

I was such an idiot.

Of course I could.

Why hadn’t I thought of that?

In fact, why hadn’t I done it weeks ago?

Aleksei had even mentioned how poor my research was, since I got everything I knew about mates from romance novels.

“I can’t believe I didn’t think of that.”

“It’s as if you have other things taking your time and other matters on your mind,” he teased.

He was totally the best.

“Thank you, Mr . Truelock .”

“I wonder, perhaps when you become princess, if you might consider acquiescing to one of my many offers to call me Mammon .”

I scrunched my nose.

He smiled at me.

“It feels weird,” I told him.

“I suppose after all this time, it’s become somewhat of a nickname, as it were.”

“Yeah. Look at it like that,” I encouraged.

He smiled at me, then sobered. “ Have patience with him. Sadly , the male gender is not good across species at dealing with emotion.”

“I’ll try,” I promised, even though I thought I was trying.

I was just failing.

And it was Aleksei’s fault (so said me).

We disconnected and I went to find my tablet.

I returned to the daybed, holed up in a corner and got to work.

I searched Male Fated Mate Reaction to Female Mate Vulnerability .

And I got a lot about volatility, unpredictability, and in some, the tendency to bait other males into a challenge. In others, though it was rare, physical abuse of their mate and/or young.

I stared hard at that one, rereading it repeatedly, until I let it go, because Aleksei wasn’t doing that, and I knew he never would. But my father definitely had.

Though I did note all the articles said that a fated mate would continue in these behaviors, with changes in the intensity depending on his ability to control it, until he sensed the vulnerability had passed.

Or , until he found a release of tension, and physical activity (including copulation, which was an intriguing concept), sparring or shifting were all suggestions on how to release said tension.

It was in this search I found myself sliding down a rabbit hole, skimming or reading full articles about the psychology of mates.

This was a fascinating, but not always fun place to be.

One of the fascinating parts was that the prevailing theory of the origin of fated mates was that the Night God , Sky God , Dawn God and Land God all got together to create them for the purpose of the continuation of the species.

They didn’t explain why this was the theory, considering nature for all creatures was to procreate in the first place, but it was clear it wasn’t to keep species pure, because from the dawn of time, inter-species mating was a thing.

The next fascinating part was that there were different reactions to finding your mate, depending on your species, or if your mate was of another species, or if there was mixed blood.

Shifter beasts made it easy, because they recognized their mates instantly.

It wasn’t so easy for fae or the magical, even manifesting itself as unexplainable enmity, at first, until something happened when the mating became clear.

The not-always-fun part was an article I read (definitely in full) about how there were mates who should not be.

The article was titled When the Gods Get It Wrong .

It explained, in modern times, this was sometimes a conscious decision, say, should I have turned away from Aleksei because I wanted no part in his complicated life.

However, there were some who simply didn’t get along, couldn’t find harmony, their lives didn’t naturally intertwine, or they found they simply didn’t like each other.

And the authors of that article encouraged those mates to part and find contentment elsewhere, at the same time cautioning they’d do so feeling the loss for the rest of their lives.

Though, they assured the pain would become manageable, like a chronic illness of the past that had no cure: for instance, migraines.

In other words, the pain was debilitating, but you had no choice but to learn to cope with it and carry on, and this you would do.

This brought to mind that Aleksei and I had few things in common.

Sure, we both liked quiet and being at home, reading, cooking, yadda, yadda.

We also liked having sex.

But was that a basis for a relationship?

He was wealthy. Titled . He had an intact family, which had some dysfunction, but there was love, care, support.

I had none of that.

He had a drive to make something more of himself, doing this making scads of money.

I liked nice things, and I didn’t mind working for them, but I’d never been ambitious that way.

He was business minded.

I was creative minded.

He was determined to find balance in doing what he wanted with his life and performing the duty he was born into.

I was struggling mightily with that, and I honestly didn’t know if I could take on another job and do it to my exacting standards, at the same time fret about all the appearances I was going to have to make, but I had to make them anyway because that was expected of me, and I couldn’t demur.

Truth be told, if we were not mates, we would never have found each other.

Like the article suggested, had the gods got it wrong?

Was that why Aleksei was behaving like this, because with all that was going on, he was realizing it?

It couldn’t be denied, even if it wasn’t my fault, I was trouble, a weakness that was not his own, one he didn’t really need.

All of this messing up my head, I searched Male Shifter Dragon Fated Mate Reaction to Female Mate Vulnerability .

And the results rendered much the same but included spontaneous or uncontrolled shifting to their creature.

Nothing about picking fights, remoteness, coolness, or overall dickish behavior.

I tapped my fingernail on the edge of the tablet until I got a brainstorm.

True Heir Reaction to True Bride Vulnerability .

There were a number of panes about the history of the True Heir and his Bride , but the only ones about any reaction harked back to general information about shifter mates.

But on the third pane of search results, there was an article about Prince Aerin and his True Bride , Princess Iphelia .

There was a famous play about Aerin and Iphelia . We’d put on a production of it when I was in school (and my costumes for it rocked).

The reason they were famous was that Aerin’s and Iphelia’s love affair was known as being explosive.

She was a warrior herself, which didn’t help things in their relationship, because he was big on wanting to make her stay at Spikeback Castle and go off to battle on his own, and she wasn’t so hot on that.

They clashed, she won and was eventually wounded at the Battle of Peak Neige , which made Aerin lose his mind.

They shocked realms by separating. But during this, they were both miserable.

The legend went, they eventually couldn’t deal with being apart and set out from their respective castles at the same time, met in the middle, and their activities there created the next True Heir .

I called up the article to read it just as a bubble drifted down from the top of the screen.

It announced a vid comm from Cat .

I took it. “ Hey .”

“Where are you?” she asked.

“I’m in the Princess Retreat ,” I told her. “ Where are you?”

“I just got back from the gallery.”

Thank gods.

“The Princess Retreat ?” she queried.

“We’re having drinks in here ASAP . Seeing as I’ll be princess, I decree it, but we also have all sorts of stuff to talk about.”

“I’m in,” she replied. Then asked, “ Did you know Prince Tanyn is here?”

“Yes,” I answered.

“Have you met him?” she asked.

“No,” I answered.

“Well, I just did. In the hall. And he’s a massive asshole.”

I felt my eyes get wide. “ Really ?”

“He thinks the Truelocks are demon traitors.”

I sat up and asked angrily, “ He said that?”

“Not in so many words. But when I introduced myself, his lip curled.”

I sat back.

This was not a new thing. In the past (the way past), demons of the Edge made it known their feelings about the First Families of Night’s Fall .

And yes, it was that they thought they were demon traitors.

But that was way past.

That said, how that was made known was so ugly, I knew Cat , as well as Mr . Truelock and all the First Families , had some sensitivity around it.

“It was five hundred years ago. He needs to get over it,” she groused.

“Aleksei says he’s broody,” I told her.

“I’ll say,” she replied. “ Why are we doing drinks there?”

“Because I need a drink, and I also need to suss out stuff with my gals.”

She knew me, so she knew what I was saying, and she proved this by mumbling, “ Uh -oh, trouble in paradise.”

Absolutely.

“Just come when you’re ready,” I bid. “ I’m going to text Gayle and Monique . This is about Aleksei , and Aleece knows him better than I do, but even though she’ll give good insights, I don’t know if it’s wise to invite her.”

“One hundred percent no,” Cat advised. “ I get she digs you, but if you talk shit about her big bro, that’ll go out the window.”

“It won’t be talking shit. He’s genuinely acting weird.”

Her brows knit. “ What’s going on?”

“Just come here after you’re done chilling a bit from getting back from the gallery. Do you know where our suite is?”

“No clue.”

“North wing, third floor. Just text when you’ve made it to the floor, and I’ll stand in the hall.”

“Cool. I just need to get changed and I’ll be on my way.”

“Thanks, Cat .”

“See you soon, babe.”

We disconnected. I sent my text comms. I got replies that Gayle was done with work (seemed I did fall down a rabbit hole, it was well after five) and on her way to my suite, and Monique was in a craft heading back to the Palace , and she’d join us when she got there.

I decided to take advice from Cat and not invite Aleece .

After all this, I sat and wondered if Aleksei was still in his latest meeting, which had started two hours before, or if he was being a dick again and not coming to me after it was over.

Since I had no intention to seek him out to discover the answer to that question, I picked up the receiver from the apparatus that sat on a table by the daybed, and I ordered drinks to be sent up.