Page 17

Chapter

Nine

Obi

I ’d watched four of my brothers become egg-papas, but nothing that I’d observed or that they’d told me came anywhere close to preparing me for the way everything changed in an instant once I held my own egg in my arms.

“It’s silver, so I feel like it should be cold,” I told Argus as he fussed around where I sat against a mountain of pillows in his bed. I supposed it was our bed now. “It’s not cold at all, though. It’s warm, cozy.” I laughed as I studied my egg, my heart filling with love.

My brothers had failed to mention that you could actually feel your egg once it was out of your body and you could hold it. It radiated happiness and love, specifically love for me. And for Argus. I could definitely tell that our egg loved its sire, too.

“All living things have warmth,” Argus said, finally moving to sit on the bed with me, though I could tell he was hesitant to snuggle in close or wrap his arms around me.

In a complete, paradoxical shift, I really wanted him to put his arms around me. I wanted him to pick me and our egg up and settle us in his lap so that we could be surrounded in a love bubble, in our family love bubble.

Just hours before, I hadn’t wanted anything to do with my mate. He couldn’t have gone far enough away to satisfy me. I had been blazing with anger at him, feeling betrayed and alone, and raging over all the things he could have and should have done for me and my brothers.

Those feelings still hovered around the back of my mind, but how could I possibly hold onto them or entertain them when I was in the presence of something so amazing and precious?

“Never in a million years would I have thought I’d give birth to an egg,” I said, laughing at the miracle in my arms. The egg seemed to purr in response, though it didn’t make a sound.

The egg’s peace made me feel more peaceful as I glanced up at Argus.

“I never would have imagined bonding to a dragon either.”

Argus smiled and laughed without opening his mouth. He reached out to rest a hand on my shoulder, but quickly drew it away, his smile dropping. “I’m sorry,” he said. “I don’t know if you want to be touched right now.”

I drew in a deep breath, knowing I had some serious apologizing to do. I could feel Argus’s wariness and reluctance to upset me, but I could sense his love and hope as well.

“I don’t think I behaved very well earlier,” I said, using the excuse of looking at our egg to avoid his eyes. “I’m not certain I was fair to you.”

Argus surprised me by laughing. “And here you were the one who kept saying things weren’t fair.”

My face flushed hot. “Well, things aren’t fair,” I said, looking up at him again. “I still don’t think having a fated mate is fair at all. We should have had more of a chance to find each other and fall in love slowly. We skipped right past a lot of good stuff.”

“Like wooing?” Argus said, mischief radiating from him.

My whole body went hotter. “Yeah. Don’t you like that kind of thing? You know, where you see someone across the dance floor and like the look of them, so you work up your courage, talk to your brothers to get their opinion, then actually do something about it and talk to them?”

Argus’s amusement grew. “But that’s exactly how it was for me.”

I blinked. “What? How? I’ve been going to the pavilion for dances for months now, but the other day was the first time I saw you.”

“Was it?” Argus asked, the glint in his eyes downright devilish.

I was about to reply that it was, but I gasped instead as it dawned on me what he meant.

“Councilor Dormas is an old man,” I said. “And he, you, is, or maybe are, one of my father’s closest councilors. How was I supposed to grow feelings for you when you showed up in my life as someone I could barely stand?”

Argus sighed and settled against the pillows with me, though not touching me.

He stroked our egg, which practically vibrated with innocent joy.

“The disguise was necessary,” he said. I could feel waves of regret washing over him.

“Freslik wouldn’t have trusted any alpha appearing in his court who was young and handsome. ”

“You’re not that handsome,” I teased. It was also a blatant lie.

Argus smirked at me like he knew it was a lie and went on.

“Mother has been aware of the evil spreading in the cruel world for some time,” he said.

“She knew where it would lead if Freslik wasn’t stopped.

But she has strict rules about different worlds interfering with each other.

She says that even great evils bring necessary goods along with them.

It’s why the most beautiful flowers and nourishing plants are fed with manure. ”

I laughed, though I didn’t think it was as funny in practice as it sounded when put that way.

Argus grew very serious as he went on with, “Your father had worse plans for you and your brothers than locking you away in your bedchamber, or than giving your heats to some of his more loyal noblemen in exchange for money or favors.”

I swallowed hard, my stomach knotting. “Worse than selling our heats?”

Argus nodded. “I do not wish to go into great detail, but I’m afraid his hatred for your papa and the so-called betrayal he thought your papa was guilty of by only having omega sons runs far deeper than you and your brothers know.

He had devised ways of publicly torturing and even killing you all, cruelly and over a long period of time.

He not only wanted to make examples of the six of you, he would have delighted in every second of the torture. ”

“My father is evil,” I whispered hoarsely. “He’s mad.”

“Unfortunately, he is also powerful,” Argus went on. “The only way to save the six of you and the people of your father’s kingdom was for me to stand guard in the castle, using bits of magic whenever I could to curb his villainy and stop him from committing abominations.”

“So being locked in our bedchamber really was the best option,” I said, hating the thought.

“It was,” Argus said with a sigh, rubbing a hand over his face.

“It was a fortunate thing that Emmerich found your brother Rumi when he did and began that courtship. Freslik had begun to fight back against the magic I used to control him, and if you lot hadn’t been given a doorway into this world, I do not think I could have held off his malevolence for much longer. ”

I shivered and held my egg closer. I couldn’t imagine what life would have been like if we hadn’t been able to escape into the magical world.

I inched closer to Argus, needing his touch. Fortunately, my mate felt my need and moved flush against me, putting his arm around me at last.

“I suppose it’s my fault, really, that Emmerich was so drawn to Rumi and that my brothers were fated for your brothers,” Argus went on.

I frowned and glanced up at him. “How so?”

Argus grinned guiltily. “The thing about fated dragon mates is that they are not written in stone until genuine feeling joins with the natural inclination to like someone,” he said.

“I became aware of you, of your sweetness and your spark, from the very first time I saw you. You were beautiful and young and full of life. I knew that you were a potential fated mate, but it wasn’t until that afternoon when you snuck off from where the rest of your brothers were having a music lesson, back when your father still allowed you such things, and found yourself in the kitchen garden. ”

I blinked and sat straighter. “I remember that day,” I said. “I just wanted to breathe some fresh air, and I was so disappointed that Councilor Dormas was in the garden.”

“Yes, and you made your displeasure known in no uncertain terms.”

I sank back into the memory. I’d only been eighteen at the time, and I’d been horribly rude to Councilor Dormas.

I’d sassed him when he asked where I was supposed to be, and when I refused to leave the garden, I’d spent a good half hour trying to fish frogs out of the pond in the corner of the garden to slip down his trousers.

I sucked in a breath as the truth of that afternoon hit me. “We had a good time,” I said softly. “Councilor Dormas, you, were far more patient with me than I thought you would be. You even tried to play a few tricks on me in return.”

“It was love at first sight,” Argus laughed. “Fated mates.”

My jaw dropped as so many things suddenly made sense. “I always did like you, but?—”

“But an eighteen-year-old boy can hardly fall instantly in love with a withered, old man.”

I had met Argus and taken my time to get to know him.

I suddenly recalled a dozen or more times over the last few years when Councilor Dormas had smiled at me or winked at me and slipped me a sweet from my father’s private stash, or when he’d intervened on my behalf with Father.

All this time, Argus and I had been sort of courting and falling in love, but I couldn’t have known it because of his disguise.

“Was there something about the magic in your disguise that stopped me from recognizing you as my mate and going into heat?” I asked.

“There definitely was,” Argus confirmed with a nod. “That magic acted like a screen separating the two of us.”

“Which is why when I saw you as yourself for the first time, in the pavilion the other night, I went straight into heat.”

Argus grinned. “You’ve seen me without my disguise before, but thanks to magic, you don’t remember.”

That was something I would definitely have to ask about at some point.

I shifted and squirmed, trying to face him more fully while still holding our egg and getting closer to him. “So all this time, you were running around the castle as Councilor Dormas, doing my father’s bidding, but really falling in love with me and keeping me and my brothers safe?”

“More or less, yes,” Argus said. “And because of me, my brothers became very much predisposed to fall in love with your brothers. They all became fated mates as well.”