Page 14

Chapter Fourteen

“I agree that we need guards stationed at the portals,” I said as we sat in the meeting with all the kings and queens and Jol. “Due to the portals being a space to simply walk through, you are more likely to have animals crossing if it’s not guarded, which could lead to a lot of unexpected issues if the animals begin crossbreeding.”

“Exactly,” Great Uncle Silverowl said with a nod. “My main concern isn’t the people crossing, but the potential devastation of our flora and fauna.”

“Where are we at with the identification for the demons?” Dad asked.

“We’re going to give the demons two of our cameras and card printers. Since demons don’t have different races among them, we will simply put demon as their ethnicity and since most can’t shift, we will only need to put one picture,” Mom said.

In this world, we had two pictures on our cards, one of us in human form and one in shifted form to make it easier for us to be identified. It was something people complained about for us hybrids who had multiple forms, like Dad, since he had so many different forms he could take, but was only identified with one. It did say hybrid on his card, though.

After several other discussions, the meeting ended and I was able to go around the table to where Grandpa Rhys sat. The Dragon King was slumped in his chair, but his aura was still imposing. I wasn’t sure why, but he had scared me the longest, even though the dragon form was one of Dad’s favorites.

At my approach, he looked up and smiled, his blue eyes sparkling with warmth. “Hello, Lily.” Even as imposing as he was, Grandpa had always been incredibly sweet and spoiled me almost as much as Nana Jolie. He had helped me a lot with learning how to make my scales appear on certain parts of my body, something that was great for protecting vital organs in a battle.

“Grandpa Rhys, I’m going to build an orphanage in the demon world. Can you provide me a copy of the blueprints from the orphanage I built here?” I requested.

His smile widened as he nodded. “Of course.” Almost immediately, his smile wilted a bit and he said, “We should discuss building materials, though. The demon world does not have the same materials available to them.”

“We have rocks and brick,” Jol said, overhearing our conversation since he was seated just two chairs over.

“I plan to transport concrete in bags and take a few mixers to utilize,” I explained.

“Give me a day to think about it and I’ll come up with a solution,” Grandpa Rhys said. “I may have some other alternatives that will make building it even easier, but keep it safe and secure for the children.”

“Thank you.”

He smiled. “Anything for the savior of the two worlds.”

I shook my head. “You guys have saved Jinla and the world before, so don’t start that with me.”

“Are you going to put a barrier around the orphanage?” Grandpa Nico asked and pushed off from the wall where he’d been leaning.

I nodded. “Once it’s built, yes. I want the kids to feel as safe as possible.”

“Let me know when you’re ready and I’ll install it, personally.”

My eyes widened. “Grandpa, you’re far too busy for that. I’m sure some of the mages can –”

“Nonsense. This is the first orphanage in the demon world, built by my granddaughter. I’m going to install it to ensure it’s perfect.” He winked. “Just like you.”

I rolled my eyes at him, but couldn’t stop smiling. Having such powerful family members did come in handy.

“Have you and your people discussed installing solar and wind power for electricity?” Grandpa Nico asked Jol.

Jol turned to me. “What do you think? Is it okay to use?”

I nodded. “Both are good solutions to adding power. They will require quite a bit of infrastructure and other work before you can start utilizing it. However, in the end, I think the demons will appreciate having power.” I knew I did. “Oh!” I gasped. “We haven’t discussed currency.” How had I forgotten to bring it up?

“We discussed it previously and agreed that we would have the demons bring items and sell them here, or work here, to earn our currency,” Dad answered. “It seemed easier than the demons creating a currency that they never had before.”

“It’s going to take our people a bit of time to get used to the knowledge that certain bits of paper and coins will be worth something significant over here,” Jol said.

I could understand how they’d see that as strange, especially when they’d been used to a bartering and trading system that didn’t involve money.

“Are you ready to go?” Trey asked Jol.

I turned with my brows furrowed. “Are you going somewhere with him?”

“We’re taking him out to dinner,” Trey explained with a smile. “Wasn’t that one of the things you’ve been wanting to do?”

Squealing, I threw my arms around his neck and kissed him. “Yes! Thank you! Where are we going?”

“Well, we thought we’d start off at a place we’re all familiar with,” Kayden said. “Brickhouse.”

My mouth instantly watered. “Yes, please.”

“Are we invited, too?” Mom asked. “You’re going to our favorite restaurant, after all.”

“That’s up to Jol,” Trey said. He turned to Jol and asked, “Would you prefer a more intimate experience with just us, or are you okay with taking more people?”

“I think I’d like to experience what Lily would experience if she were to eat there,” he said.

“Oh, boy,” I mumbled and shook my head. “Now you’ve done it.”

“I already called and reserved the entire restaurant!” Great Aunt Leona announced as she walked into the room.

“I didn’t even know you were here,” I admitted.

She pouted. “How awfully rude of you, Grand Niece! I was just in the other room.”

Rushing over, I hugged her and patted her back. “There, there, Great Auntie. You know how stifling it gets with so many alphas in a room.”

She pretended to sniffle and nodded. “There is a lot of alpha testosterone in the air. So, shall we go?”

“How will we get there?” Jol asked. “In that … car, thing?”

“My good friend,” Grandpa Nico said with a smile and set his hand on Jol’s shoulder. “We teleport.”

“Teleport?” Jol asked with a frown and looked at me.

I waved and smiled wide. “See you there!”

He opened his mouth, but Grandpa Nico winked at me and teleported Jol, Nana Jolie, Great Aunt Leona, and Grandpa Rhys away in the next instant.

“Portal or teleport?” Mom asked me.

“Portal,” I said with a nod.

“Yes, thank you,” Branson, one of Mom’s other mates and another of my adoptive fathers who I called Bran Bran, said.

“Oh, Branny Boy,” Mom said with a shake of her head. “I only teleported you somewhere high that made you fall one time. Have you so little faith in your mate?”

“They make my stomach queasy,” he admitted.

The bear shifter was far from small and hearing him admit that had me snickering and trying to hide it.

“Oh, you think that’s funny? Come here, Daughter!” He started chasing me around the room and I laughed as he did.

Mom opened a portal in the wall before me, giving me an escape. I ran through it, right into the dining room area of Brickhouse where Jol was already seated at a large table.

It looked like they’d stuck four or five tables together to give us the largest table possible.

“Hello,” I panted as I walked over.

Jol’s eyes widened before he looked at the portal behind me. “Ah, a portal. Your family is very powerful.”

Sitting next to him, I said, “Honestly, Jol, you don’t know the half of it. Had I not asked them to avoid harming the demons, it would not have been a pretty battle.”

“Is that a threat?” he asked, arching a brow.

Rolling my eyes, I flicked one of his horns. “Absolutely not.”

“How is Elrith settling in?” he asked.

“Really well, actually. He’s with my brother and my best friend right now. They’re both hybrid shifters and my brother was excited about getting a nephew. Elrith is definitely going to be spoiled.”

“I’m glad to know that he will be so well taken care of,” Jol said. “Apparently, Talrinir was next in line to adopt him if you hadn’t.”

“Speaking of Talrinir,” I commented. “You two seem closer. Something going on there?”

He shrugged and picked up a fork with a nonchalant expression. “Perhaps.”

“She’d make a great queen,” Trey said.

A sudden bout of jealousy surged through me, but I quickly tamped it down, knowing it was ridiculous to feel.

Unfortunately, from Trey’s smirk, he had felt the emotion through our bond.

“I agree, she would,” I said, and cleared my throat.

“Are we having our usual drinks?” the waiter asked.

“Yes!” I shouted, making everyone laugh.

“I’ll have whatever Princess Lily is having,” Jol said.

“Do we need time to read the menu?”

“No, bring us our usual, plus one of my usual dinners for our friend,” Mom said.

“We’ll have what Lily is having,” Trey said.

“I also need four orders of cheesecake and one of my dinners to go when we leave,” I said.

He bowed his head. “As you wish, Princess.”

Our drinks were brought out shortly thereafter and Jol sipped at his, eyes widening. “It’s bubbly and sweet.”

I nodded and sighed happily. “So tasty.”

“Did you try out that game?” Nana Jolie asked.

Kayden nodded. “We got sucked into it pretty fast. I think Lily’s already maxed out on her skills.”

“Not cooking,” Mason commented. “She sucks at it.”

“That’s not very nice to say,” Jol said with a scowl.

Smiling, I said, “They’re talking about in a videogame, not real life.”

“Though, she’s not great in real life either,” Mason muttered.

My smile disappeared and I kicked his shin, softly, beneath the table. “Rude!”

He smiled and asked, “Remember when you made brownies for my birthday?”

“Those were weapons, not brownies,” Bran Bran muttered down the table.

Jol looked confused, so I explained. “I made brownies, which is a chocolate dessert that is supposed to be soft, but I overcooked them and they were super hard.”

“They only became weapons because you were rude,” Riddick reminded Branson.

“I threw one at his head,” I told Jol. “He dodged it.”

“Barely,” Branson muttered.

“Oh, the chicken pasta was another epic failure,” Caleb said.

I gasped. “You said you liked it!”

“We all lied,” Mom said.

Nana Jolie fanned her face. “Don’t mention it. I barely kept that down.”

“You could have told me,” I mumbled, embarrassed.

“You should have tried Caleb’s first cooking attempt,” Nana Jolie said and scoffed.

“It was toxic,” Grandpa Rhys said.

“Dubious food,” Nana Jolie said with a snicker.

“And none of you taught me how to improve it,” Dad shot back. “I had to go to a cooking school.”

“You went to a cooking school?” I asked, shocked since I hadn’t heard that before.

“After we adopted you,” Mom said with a nod. “He wanted to learn to cook so he could make you tasty and healthy meals.”

That was the absolute sweetest thing I had heard! My adoptive father, a king, had taken cooking classes for me.

“That’s so sweet,” I squeaked.

“I think I’d like to take cooking classes,” Jol commented.

We all looked at him.

“Really?” I asked.

He nodded. “You have so much variety in your foods. I’d like to learn and also have my people learn, how to use the items to make meals for their families.”

“That’s a great idea,” Great Aunt Leona said. “We could have a class to teach them about the foods, their uses, and how to make easy meals using the resources you currently have.”

“Can we sign our mates up for that class?” I asked.

My three mates turned wide eyes on me at the same time my fathers and Jol laughed.

“Challenge accepted,” Trey said. “I’m going to make you a meal tomorrow that you’ll beg me to make weekly after.”

“We should learn some new recipes now that we have Elrith,” Mason whispered and tapped his finger on the table in thought. “We need to introduce him to healthy foods early.”

“Or he might end up picky like Kayden,” Mom teased.

“I’m not picky!” Kayden argued.

“You’re the pickiest person at this table,” Caleb argued. “Which is saying something since Lily is here.”

“I just prefer meat,” I countered.

“And sweets,” Branson said.

“You’re the one who always spoiled her by giving her sweets,” Nana Jolie countered.

“He was just trying to win her heart, and he did so with the power of sugar that he carried around in his pocket,” Triston said with a smile. He turned to me, his tiger striped hair flopping over one eye. “You’d start crying and he’d pull out a candy from his pocket.”

“It was the quickest way to calm her down,” Branson countered.

They argued back and forth a bit and Jol leaned over to whisper, “I can see why you turned out the way you did. You have a wonderful family.”

I smiled and nodded. “I do have a wonderful family.” And now it had grown with the addition of Elrith.

“When do I get to see my great grandson again?” Nana Jolie asked.

“Wait, what?” Great Aunt Leona asked. She looked at me. “Are you pregnant?”

“I adopted a hybrid demon boy,” I explained with a smile. “Sorry, I didn’t exactly have time to send out announcements yet.”

Great Aunt Leona gasped, stood, and walked to Caleb. “Take me to him!”

Laughing, I said, “You can meet him after dinner, Great Auntie. You can give him the cheesecake slice I ordered.”

With a resigned sigh, she sat back down. “Very well, I accept your offer.”

“So, it is the boy who can shift?” Jol asked.

“Yes,” I admitted. “He was worried about telling you.”

“It isn’t something our kind can do, so I understand his hesitancy. I think you are correct, that he is like you, a hybrid demon. That could be where his shadow powers come from as well.” He frowned. “I wonder if he could be related to you, since the shadow power is so rare.”

“Related to me?” I asked.

He nodded. “Perhaps your demon parent found a family to raise him, since he looks more demon than hybrid? Perhaps they knew he would face many hardships in this world versus ours.”

My brows furrowed as I considered it, but my parents had died when I was Elrith’s age.

“What if your missing mother was Third to Reign’s daughter, a demoness, and she went back to the demon realm? What if she left you with your hybrid father here, because you lacked horns and demon features, so she knew you would do better here and after returning to the demon realm, she found a new mate who she had Elrith with?” Mason suggested. “It’s not unheard of for women to have babies so far apart.”

“But, if she was alive so recently, then why did she allow the Grand Advisor to cause such havoc?” I asked. No, I didn’t think that made sense. Shaking my head, I said as much.

“It was just a theory,” Jol said. “He could be a cousin or some other type of relative.”

It was an interesting theory, though. And it made me wonder what had happened to my biological mother.

Shaking my head, I cleared it of the thoughts. It was best not to go down that thought path.

Our food came out, creating the perfect distraction.