Page 21

Chapter

Twenty-One

The meeting turned into an overnight discussion that lasted through breakfast and finally ended at lunch.

Most of the time I was simply sitting in the background listening, but occasionally they would ask me questions about the pup and the demons I’d encountered.

They’d tried to remove the necklace in my sleep and I’d woken up coiled around Grandpa Foxfire who had apparently drawn the short straw.

“Okay, so we’re in agreement, finally,” Caleb said.

“Great!” I chirped. “I’ve got to run home and get ready for a date.”

Mason and Kayden growled softly.

“Tell Prince Liam I said, ‘hi,’” Grandpa Foxfire said.

Trey’s eyes widened. “That’s who you meant when you said, ‘a couple princes?’”

“Mom, can you teleport me?” I requested, completely ignoring Trey’s question.

“Wait, where’s your calendar?” Kayden asked. “We haven’t scheduled our second?—”

“You didn’t text her, so of course she hasn’t responded,” Mom interrupted. “Her calendar is at home, but since she’s in a rush, you can message me and I’ll find a date on the calendar for you.” She waved and teleported me away.

“Dang, Mom. Just call ‘em out in front of all the royals, why don’t you?” Laughing, I shook my head and headed towards the stairs.

“They’ve got to prove themselves and part of proving themselves capable is being able to message and schedule events on their own.” Mom shrugged. “It’s part of being an adult, something they’ve been for several years now.”

“Thanks for looking out for me,” I said.

“Always,” she promised. “And, while I am sad you didn’t tell me about the pup, I do understand it. In your shoes, I probably would have done the exact same thing.”

Giving her a big smile, I held back the tears that wanted to fall. “Thanks, Mom.”

“Hurry! You’re going to be late!” she shouted and shooed me to my room.

With record speed, I showered, changed, and drove to meet Liam at the address he’d given me.

I smiled as I parked at a theme park from a childhood show I used to love. My parents had brought me here several times because I’d begged them over and over again and demanded to do it at least twice for my birthday. Judging by the distinct lack of cars, he had rented the entire place out.

As soon as I climbed out of the car, I sighed, seeing Kayden in fennec fox form, one he took only for spy missions, running from the back of my car and into the park. Some hybrids were blessed with more than one animal form, Kayden was able to transform into both a fennec fox and a white wolf.

I should have known one of them would demand to be my guard, but I had hoped my dads would veto them and come instead.

Deciding I would just ignore him and let him do his job of guarding me from actual threats, I headed towards the entrance where a burly werewolf named, Albert stood. “Hello, Albert,” I greeted.

He bowed. “Hello, Princess Liliana. Prince Liam is waiting for you just inside.”

“Thank you.”

He leaned sideways, closer to me as I started by and whispered, “And I saw the pesky fox. We’ll be sure to help keep him in hand.”

Chuckling, I patted his shoulder. “I appreciate any help you can give me in that regard, Albert.”

Through the turnstile, I was greeted with a park employee who held out a wristband. She smiled sweetly at me. “Good afternoon, Princess Liliana. Please let us know if you need anything.”

I fastened the wristband and smiled. “Thank you for your work.”

She snickered. “Working the park for two people is way better than thousands, so I should be thanking you. I get paid either way, but this is much easier.”

“Glad I could be of service,” I said and winked before skipping through the arch that was the final entrance to the park.

Liam stood to the right, looking towards the entrance. When he saw me, he smiled and walked forward. “Hello, again.”

“Hello, Liam. I have to say, I am very excited about this date. The last time I was here was over a decade ago.”

“I thought it might be of interest to you. Though, I would have liked to keep it simpler, I did have to reserve the entire park or it would have been rather difficult for us to experience the rides.”

“Completely understand,” I said with a nod. “We’d become the main attraction if you hadn’t rented it out.”

He chuckled. “Exactly!” Holding out his bent elbow he asked, “Are you ready, milady?”

I slipped my arm through his and said, “Definitely!”

We nodded to an employee at the entrance to the nearest ride, a tall rollercoaster that went really fast and did a few loops. Once securely fastened to the ride, I smiled wide as it started.

“So, I saw the news,” Liam commented as we moved up the first ramp. The clank-clank-clank of the pulleys moving us up the steep incline had my heart beating in excitement.

“Which news?” I asked, wanting to be sure I didn’t give out information not public yet. I knew they would work fast, but wasn’t sure if they had spread the cover story. Yes, Liam was a prince, but that didn’t mean he was included in confidential discussions. Something I was fairly certain of since I was routinely involved in them.

“That you can control the demons and sent one back through the portal,” he said.

“Ah, that’s taken out of context,” I said. “I don’t control demons any more than I can control you.”

He waited for me to elaborate.

Instead, I asked, “So, which is your favorite ride?”

“If we’re going to be partners, you will have to share things with me,” he said as the ride reached the crescendo right before the drop.

Before I could respond, the ride went down and I ignored him to enjoy the ride. Raising my arms over my head, I forgot that I was a twenty-five-year-old princess. I forgot I was courting several alpha males. I was just a person on a rollercoaster enjoying herself.

Smoothing my hair back as we pulled back into the entrance, I waited until we exited and were walking towards the next ride, away from any employees.

“Was this the real motivation to our courting? For you to try to gain ‘insider royal knowledge’ or something? I understand you’re a prince who is left out of a lot of discussions and so you probably find it really unfair that I, as a princess who also won’t take the throne, am involved in those discussions, but I don’t make the decisions.”

“What are you doing with those demons, Lily? Was that pup one sired by Mason with you?” he asked bluntly.

Fury boiled within me and before my mind thought better, I punched him in the face, knocking him flat on his back. “How dare you!” I snapped.

Really, what was it about me that two people thought I’d sired the hellhound pup with someone? Was my pretty princess facade officially broken?

“I have not given birth to anything. And if it had been Mason’s child, one, it wouldn’t have been a hellhound, and two, I wouldn’t have sent it away. Mason is twenty times the alpha you could hope to be.” Laughing bitterly, I said, “I thought you were one of the good ones, but how quickly you showed your true colors. I suppose I should thank you for showing them so quickly. I’m leaving and I don’t want to see you again.”

He climbed to his feet, touching his broken nose. “So, the rumors of your anger issues are true. Good to know I dodged a bullet there. And that you do care about that insane psychopath.”

Stepping up into his face, I said, “Say what you want about me, but stop badmouthing Mason.”

“So, hybrids really will put out for anyone, huh? Good to know. I’ll set my sights on your hybrid friend, Maya instead.”

Why was he acting so differently than before? Was this really him?

“Are you under a spell? Possessed?” I asked. He hadn’t lied when he’d said he’d had a crush on me in high school and thought this was an opportunity for him. Or had he phrased it in such a way to be able to pass my lie detection?

He rolled his eyes. “No, I’m just tired of pretending. That first date was torture. You really are a dull woman.”

As I blinked in stunned silence at him, Kayden leapt from the nearby bushes, shifted, and punched Liam so hard that he spun in a corkscrew through the air and slammed head first into the fence ten feet away.

“Kay!” I gasped.

Several guards ran over to check on Liam and a few came towards us, but Kayden snarled at them.

Setting my hand on his arm, I asked, “How much did you hear?”

“Everything,” he said tensely. Glancing at me, he said, “That was a nice punch you landed. Broke his nose perfectly.”

A huge smile split my face. “One of the first fighting lessons Branson gave me was to punch rude boys in the face.”

His mouth quirked. “I remember.” He tapped his nose which had a bump on it. “That’s how I got this.”

I’d forgotten about that.

Brushing a finger down the bump I said, “I think it adds to your sexiness.”

“Want to go ride the mountain ride?” he asked.

I glanced at the guards and the unconscious Liam. “Do you think we can?”

He arched a brow. “You’re Princess Liliana of the Hybrids. You can do whatever you want. And I will destroy anyone who gets in your way.”

Albert approached and Kayden tensed, but I stepped forward and said, “I’m sorry, Albert.”

He shook his head. “We heard what he said. We wanted to intervene, but didn’t want to get in trouble for butting into royal matters.” He held out his fist and Kayden bumped his against it. “Thanks for doing what we all wanted.”

Kayden smiled.

“We’re going to go ride some more of the rides, okay?”

Albert nodded and gave us a big smile. “We’ll escort the prince out of the park, don’t you worry. You may not be from my clan, but you are our king’s favorite granddaughter, who I know would want you to have a great day and ignore this rude interruption.”

Hugging him quickly I said, “Thank you, Albert.”

Kayden waved for me to lead the way and once again, I found myself smiling wide and skipping through the park.

We got on my favorite ride in the park, one built like a mountain with a car that went through the mines, down a waterfall, and past a mythological monster called a yeti with glowing red eyes.

Gripping the rail, I screamed happily as we zoomed through the mountain ride, laughing and whooping with abandon.

Kayden joined me in laughing and whooping, which made me even happier. It was the first time I’d seen him let loose and enjoy himself really since we were in our early teens. Since before he got involved with the demons.

Grabbing his hand once we got off that ride, I dragged him as I ran to the next ride. We rode five more rides before I asked for water. There was a team of employees at the food vendor area, waiting expectantly for us. Their eyes did widen a bit when they saw Kayden instead of Liam, but they wisely made no comment.

We ordered our snacks and sat in the empty food court at a wooden table to eat.

“Oh, try this,” I said and held out a bite of nacho cheese dipped pretzel.

He took the bite from my hand, his lips brushing my fingers as he took it. “Mm, that’s as tasty as I remember.”

We spent the next twenty minutes feeding each other bites of food while laughing and teasing each other as the sun set.

It was the perfect end to what could have been an awful night.

Walking to the parking lot, I whispered, “I feel like the three of you are always saving me.”

“Well, that’s kind of our job,” he said and shrugged.

“I’m a job to you?” I asked, smirking.

His head whipped around to look at me, mouth open, but his mouth closed when he saw my teasing expression. “Brat.”

Looping my arm around his waist, I pulled him to a stop and hugged him. “Thank you.”

He hugged me back and rested his head atop mine. “You’re welcome.”

We stood like that for several minutes before releasing each other and getting in the car and heading home.