Page 6

Chapter

Six

Mom and my dads took turns coming to check on me where I lay curled up on the forest floor, digesting the badger, over the next couple of days. Maya had let them know where I was, but I had no idea if she’d told them what had happened.

Honestly, it didn’t matter since Ezio knew now.

As the morning sun rose on the third day, the day before my birthday, I shifted and walked towards the house, taking a deep breath as I prepared for the barrage of questions.

Pushing open the door, I quickly realized that no one was home. I hurried to my room and grabbed my cell phone to check for messages. There was just one from Mom telling me they were going to the werewolf Den, the werewolves’ territory where they had their own city for the werewolves who didn’t want to or weren’t yet ready to be around the other races. My parents had left only an hour ago, which meant I could take a shower and change before meeting up with them there.

The hot shower felt good on my cold skin and I stood for several long minutes under the hot water. The anger I’d felt was gone, but the pain in my chest hadn’t lessened.

After the shower, I meditated for an hour before dressing and heading to the garage to drive Mom’s car.

I called Mom as I drove towards the gate.

“Hey!” she answered happily. “How’s it going?”

“I’m on the way to the Den,” I replied as happily as she had answered.

“Great! Dan will be excited to see you.”

“Okay, love you, bye.”

“Love you, too.”

I called Maya next and as soon as she answered I apologized.

“Girl, you do not need to apologize. I’m still mad at them.” She huffed.

Smiling, I could picture her annoyed face right now. “I love you.”

“Love you, too. So, what are your plans for today?”

“Going to meet my parents at the Den. Want to come?”

“Yes! I’ll be ready in five!” She hung up on me without waiting for my answer, which just made me laugh and shake my head.

Altering my course, I stopped at her house first to pick her up, then we drove to the Den. As soon as I parked in front of the main house, Great Grandpa Dan walked out and opened his arms.

Maya and I ran forward and hugged each side of the large werewolf who was the former king, and one of the sweetest males I knew.

“There are my girls!” he boomed and squeezed us. “I was debating ordering Ezio to kidnap you just so I could visit with you.”

I patted his back before stepping back to look up at the large man with a full head of grey hair. “Sorry, Great Grandpa. Things have been … busy.”

He patted the top of my head, just like he’d been doing since I was five years old, and smiled. “Who do I need to bite?”

“Kayden and his pack,” Maya grumbled.

Turning my head to the side, I glared at her and she put her hands over her mouth.

“Kayden? What has that headstrong pup done now?”

“Nothing, Great Grandpa. Don’t worry about it,” I said, and sighed as I shook my head. “It’s best if we just forget about them for now.”

His eyes narrowed. “That may be a bit hard to do, pup.”

I turned to see what he was looking at and groaned. Kayden, Trey, and Mason all climbed out of an SUV with Ezio as the driver, their car parked behind mine.

“Freaking great,” I muttered. Turning back around, I asked, “Where’s Mom?”

“The barns,” he answered.

Sighing, I rubbed my face with my hands. I couldn’t go to the barns because the animals were all scared of me.

“My dads?”

“The market,” he answered and stepped past me to intercept Kayden. “You and I can hang out later. Go on.”

Hopping up, I kissed his cheek and whispered a quick thanks before grabbing Maya’s hand and jogging towards the main part of the Den where the open-air market with vendors was.

Bran Bran stood in line at the meat stick seller and raised his arm when he saw me. “Hey, kiddo.”

“Hey, Bran Bran,” I greeted as I jogged over with a smile to hug him. Maya hugged him next and we joined him in line. “I’m starving.”

“Well, you came at the right time,” he said with a chuckle. “I was sent here to get food for your mom. So, I can get you some food, too.”

“I’ll go get bread so you don’t have to wait in two lines,” I said and headed to the next vendor who sold delicious, fluffy breads.

“I’m going to get drinks,” Maya announced and jogged over to the last food vendor who made smoothies, boba drinks, and also sold waters and teas.

Once we had purchased everything, we followed Bran Bran to a grassy area where several others were sitting on the grass eating or just hanging out. Mom and my other dads were sitting on a large blanket that we joined them on.

“Hello, girls,” Triston greeted Maya and I.

“You look refreshed,” Riddick said.

“I had a good meditation session,” I said with a smile, hoping they would drop the conversation, but as with many things in my life, it wasn’t that easy.

“Hello,” Trey said as he sat down beside me on my right side, crossing his legs.

Mason sat on Trey’s right.

Kayden sat down on Maya’s left, earning a glare from her.

“How are you boys?” Mom asked. She glanced at me, but kept an easy smile as she focused on them.

Grabbing one of the meat sticks, I tore a piece off while looking at the blanket just in front of me. I should have known Great Grandpa Dan wouldn’t be able to keep them busy forever. Why were they even here? Why were they bothering me?

“Things have been busy,” Trey said.

“How’s your dad doing?” Caleb asked.

Pulling out my phone, I looked up the most recent news stories to distract myself from their conversations. There wasn’t much going on, which was good.

Maya leaned her shoulder against mine, giving me silent comfort.

A strange, dark feeling hit me, making me jerk my eyes up.

Mom turned around as well, getting to her feet slowly. “Something’s coming,” she said and tapped Caleb on the shoulder.

I was on my feet, moving forward, but Mason stepped in front of me and put an arm out to stop me.

“What?” I asked, looking up at his scowling face.

His eyes darted to my face before looking back away from me. “I can smell demons.”

Kayden stepped up next to me and said, “Get back. We’ll handle this.” He shifted into a warrior form of half wolf and half man.

Arguing would have felt good, but this was their job, so I went back to the blanket and sat beside Maya. “Guess we’ll get to see if they’re as good as they claim they are,” I whispered to her.

Trey looked over his shoulder at me and winked, “Enjoy the show, Princess.”

I rolled my eyes and grabbed my boba drink.

A black oval made of swirling smoke appeared in front of Mason and Kayden and several demonic creatures jumped out. They were only about three feet tall, covered in scales, and scurried around on all fours. When they howled at us, they revealed thick fangs on the top and bottom of their jaws.

Mason drew a sword from a scabbard on his back that I hadn’t noticed and immediately decapitated one of the creatures. A thrill went through me that I didn’t want to admit.

My dads and Mom created a shield between the guys and us, so I sat calmly with Maya to watch, knowing they would keep us safe.

“Have you ever wondered what would happen if you jumped through the portal?” Maya asked.

I nodded. “I assume you’d get teleported to their world.”

“Do you think it’s just a vast landscape of creatures that are attacking each other and these are weird anomalies sending them here?”

“Or, are there sentient beings sending the creatures here as a test to see if we’re worth their time and energy or if they could colonize us?” I suggested.

“Oh, that’s a scary thought,” she said and shuddered.

Kayden and Mason attacked two creatures while Trey watched. Was he just going to make them do all the work?

Three more creatures jumped out and finally, Trey intervened, taking a warrior form to let his dragon side out, and spewed flames that coated one of the demonic creatures that looked like a dog with porcupine spines and we called a hellhound. It was apparently a term used in some mythology.

My body warmed as I watched the trio protecting us from the demonic creatures. I knew they were skilled fighters, but knowing and watching them in action were two different things. The darkness within me swirled higher, trying to overtake me and summoning some of my bloodlust.

No! No, I could not get out of control. I had to stop it before anyone noticed.

Closing my eyes, I took deep breaths and thought of the pond and rock in the barn, my safe place, and thankfully, the darkness receded, taking my bloodlust with it.

I opened my eyes as the black portal disappeared. When they killed the last creature, all of the bodies went up in a black poof of smoke.

Why did some demon bodies disappear while other times they had to be burned to destroy the body? There were so many questions and we had so few answers.

Standing, I dusted myself off, tapped Maya to get her to follow, and headed to browse the vendors’ stands. “Well, that was a bit anticlimactic,” I said despite actually being impressed with how efficiently they had handled the creatures and how I had reacted to them.

Maya gasped as she ran up to the first vendor selling hand carved jewelry boxes. “I’ve been wanting one of these!” She squatted down so she could look at them closer. “Which is your favorite?” she asked me.

I squatted next to her and pointed at the jewelry box with stars and hearts carved in it. “This one is my favorite.”

“This one is mine,” she said and pointed at one with a moon and two wolves howling at it.

The seller, an older man with grey at his temples, smiled. “I’m glad you like my work, Princess.”

“You’re very talented,” I said and returned the smile. “How much are they?”

“Fifty,” he answered.

“Oh, shoot. I only have forty on me,” Maya said and pouted.

“Here,” Trey said, and set a one hundred dollar bill on the table. “Consider it an apology gift for you both for disrupting your dancing last night.”

The vendor took the cash, picked up the boxes, quickly wrapped them, and put them in a bag. “Thank you for your patronage, Prince Trey.”

Telling him to take his gift and shove it would upset the vendor who was just trying to make a living, but I also didn’t want to let him off so easy. So, I just turned and headed to the next vendor without responding or grabbing the bag, forcing Trey to carry it.

“You can’t ignore us forever,” Kayden said from beside me as I looked at earrings and a necklace that would go really well with my birthday dress.

“How much are these?” I asked the teenage girl who was manning the booth.

Her eyes were focused on Kayden, which I totally understood. He was handsome and powerful. Even reining in his power, he oozed a bit that made you take notice of him.

“Miss?” I asked, finally getting her attention.

She flushed and said, “Forty for the set.”

I pulled out the cash from my pocket, but before I could pay her, Kayden gave her a fifty, winked, and said, “Keep the change.”

Growling, I turned and glared up at him. “Buying me gifts isn’t going to make me forgive you or want to talk to you. So, stop.”

“But it did get you to talk to me, finally,” he said. “And you stopped running away.”

“Would you want to be around someone who laughed at you when you tried to be open about your feelings?”

“About that.” He rubbed the back of his neck, his cheeks turning slightly pink. “You misunderstood what I was saying and why I laughed. I wasn’t laughing at you, Lily.”

Scoffing, I spun away from him, grabbed the bag the girl had ready with the jewelry, and moved to the next vendor. “Leave me alone. I don’t want to talk to you or your pack.”

“Why are you so damn stubborn?” he growled.

“Leave her alone, Kayden,” Maya snapped and stepped behind me to block him. “You’re an asshole and she doesn’t want to talk to you.”

“I’m not an asshole. She misunderstood and if you’d just let me?—”

“This is not the right location for this type of conversation,” Mom said sternly from behind us. “Lily, go hear them out.”

“No,” I hissed as I turned to face her. “I won’t hear them out. In fact, I’m done seeing them. You’re not welcome around me, so piss off.” Grabbing the bags from Trey’s hands, I walked away, but didn’t get far before Ezio of all people stopped me.

“This is one of those times when you really just need to listen,” he said softly. “I grilled them last night and you just need to hear them out.”

“Even you?” I asked and shook my head. “Well, he is your son, so I suppose that makes sense.”

“Lily, you’re being childish,” Ezio said. “Why won’t you let them explain?”

“Because they had four years to explain. Because they laughed at my pain.” The anger started to build, but I closed my eyes, took a cleansing breath, and said, “Fine, I’ll hear them out.”

Ezio smiled, but my next sentence ended that.

“In four years, they can come find me and explain then.”

Was I being childish? Yes. Was I going to stop? I couldn’t. Even if my hair wasn’t glowing, I was too angry and hurt to face them right now.

Maya looped her arm through mine and we headed out to the car. I dropped her off at her place and went back home, locking myself in my room to take a nap.

I was almost asleep when Kayden jumped through my window.

Screaming, I threw a pillow at him before I realized who it was.

“What are you doing?” I demanded.

He caught the pillow and smiled at the snake embroidered on it, a gift he’d given me when we were kids. “I used to sneak in through the window when we were younger all the time.”

“When we were kids . Why are you doing it now?”

“You locked the doors,” he replied, and looked over at the envelope on my desk. Smirking he said, “So, you did read it.”

“I told you I don’t want to talk,” I snapped and sat on my bed with my legs crossed in front of me.

He sat on the edge of my bed and looked at the pillow still in his hands. “My dad always loved you. I used to think he loved you more than me, but as I grew older, I realized he loved you in a different way than he loved me.”

We’d gotten into fights a few times over that topic.

Looking up at me he said, “As I got older, I realized that how I felt about you was different, too. I don’t view you as a sister, Lily, because I view you as a packmate, as a potential mate. Because I am interested in you. That’s definitely not how siblings feel for each other.”

Blinking in disbelief I asked, “Interested in me?”

He walked over to the desk, picked up the envelope, and said, “We’re serious, Lily. About this promise. About wanting you as a mate.”

Had I heard him correctly? Really? That was what the idiot had meant by that text?

“Don’t joke with me,” I said softly as I stood and backed towards the door. “It’s not funny to play games like that.”

“I’m not playing games,” he said and waved the envelope at me. “We’re serious.”

“You’re serious about a promise we made when you were six years old?” I arched a brow and crossed my arms over my chest.

“Why are you still single, Lily? You’re a beautiful, smart princess. Surely there were guys vying for your attention while you were at college, right?”

“What I did or didn’t do is none of your business.” Why was it hard to swallow right now? Why was my heart beating so fast?

He stalked closer to me and I backed up until I hit the door and he caged me in. “I know you’re attracted to us. I know you want me just like I want you. Mason may be blind, but I’m not. I see the way you look at us, how you’ve looked at us since at least high school. You didn’t get hurt because you wanted me to think of you as my sister. You got your feelings hurt because you thought I meant I didn’t care about you at all. Do you know what thought gets me through every demon battle?”

Against my attempt not to, I asked, “What?”

“Knowing that you’re out here, waiting for me, for us. That killing those demons helps keep you safe.”

I shook my head. “I haven’t been waiting for?—”

He pressed his lips against mine and I froze, shocked by the move. The darkness within me swirled in my core and a similar darkness swirled in Kayden’s aura. He pulled back slowly and said, “I’m sorry I hurt your feelings. That wasn’t my intention. I laughed because it was such a simple misunderstanding. Because it was so absurd that you would think I had meant I don’t care about you when it was the opposite. But of course, you’re so stubborn, so we’ve been spending all this time chasing you.”

“You could have come to see me. You knew where my college was.” Sure, they were busy fighting demons around the world and doing Trey’s princely duties, but they could have made time to come by for a single day.

He shook his head. “I was too scared.”

“Scared of what?” He was one of the most fearless people I knew.

“Of seeing you with some guy.”

Laughter burst out of me before I could stop it.

He scowled. “Now who is laughing at who?”

“You could have called me.”

“You blocked our numbers.”

Oh, right. I had.

“So, tell me, Princess, are you going to follow through on your promise?”

Follow through on taking them as mates? Without even courting? Yes, I was attracted to them, but we’d been apart four years. People changed a lot over four years.

“You want to follow through on our promise to be mates?” I asked. “How do I know you three aren’t just doing this to laugh at me if I did say I would follow through on it?”

He opened his mouth, but my phone rang, interrupting him.

I pulled it out and frowned at the name. Luca, a dragon from college who had tried to date me, but I had continually turned down. “Hello?” I answered.

“Lily!” he replied loudly, making me pull the phone away from my ear. “How’s the most beautiful woman in the world doing?”

Kayden’s eyes darkened as he glared at my phone.

“What’s up, Luca?” Turning my back on Kayden, I walked over to my closet to get some space from him. The distraction was nice, giving me time to breathe and think about what Kayden had said and how my darkness reacted to him.

“I just wanted to let you know that I will be at your party tomorrow and I’ve got an awesome gift for you. So, prepare to be impressed.”

“Oh, uh, you didn’t have to get me anything, Luca. And I thought you’d said you were going to be with your family so you couldn’t attend the party?”

“What kind of man would I be if I didn’t come to your party? I let my family know I would be gone for a few days and when I explained why, they were totally fine with it.”

“Oh, well, great. I’ll see you tomorrow then.”

“Have a great day, beautiful!”

I hung up the phone and turned around, but Kayden was gone.

“What the heck? Kay?” Sticking my head out my window, I saw him running in the direction of his dad’s house. “Huh? Maybe his dad or mom needed him.” I shrugged and decided it wasn’t my problem.

My problem was realizing that it seemed like they were serious about the promise and needing to figure out what I was going to do about it. I also needed to get the feeling of Kayden’s lips on mine out of my head.

“Lily!” Mom yelled from downstairs making me yelp and jump in surprise because I hadn’t heard them come home. “Time to go pick up your dress.”

I grabbed the jewelry and my shoes from my closet and called back, “Coming!”

As we drove to the store, Mom asked, “Do I need to cross them off the guest list?”

“No,” I said and shook my head.

“Good,” she said with a nod. “Next time, tell Kayden to use the front door. He always leaves dirty footprints on the windowsill when he goes in through your window.”

Laughing, I asked, “You knew about that?”

She scoffed. “Of course I did. Every time he snuck in, we were aware of it. You two weren’t nearly as quiet as you thought you were. We didn’t bust you because you weren’t doing anything nefarious.”

I laughed again.

After trying the dress on with the shoes and my new jewelry, I spun in a circle with a giddy laugh and smile. It was perfect!

“I think you’re going to get at least three courting proposals tomorrow in that dress,” Mom said with a nod.

“Have you received proposals for me?” It wasn’t uncommon for parents to send in proposals to royals to try to convince them to set up blind dates for an eligible royal.

“Yes, a few over the years, but we turned them all down.”

“Why?” I asked as I stripped out of the dress.

“Because if you wanted a blind date, you would have told us. We figured you weren’t ready to court yet and that you would let us know when you were ready. Plus, you were still in college.”

“I’m definitely ready now,” I said with a nod. Butterflies swirled in my stomach at the thought of potentially courting Kayden, Trey, and Mason. They were a packaged deal, after all.

“Good to know. I’ll make sure to make a list of those who request to be added to potential suitors.” She smiled and winked at me.

“Is there anything else we need to do to prepare for tomorrow?” I asked as we walked to the car.

“No, everything else is all ready!”

“Great, that means I can get a good night’s sleep in preparation for the storm tomorrow.”

“Good luck with that,” she said, and laughed.