Page 16 of Unwilling Queen (Kingdoms #1)

Chapter

Sixteen

Gem

I ’m so fucking angry and sad as I walk away from Gryffin, fire keeps erupting all over my skin as my phoenix tries to soothe me. I’m so pissed at Gryffin and his obsession with this fictional sixth member, I’m tempted to find the witch who suggested it to him and kill her, but I’m also so fucking sad that he doesn’t want to give the two of us a chance. I’ve wanted him for as long as I’ve known him.

Unlike Brodie, Liam, and Gryff, Hunter and I have only had our animals since we were seventeen. Mythicals don’t shift until their seventeenth birthday. I always knew I would be a phoenix. My father is one as well, but my mother is a wolf, so when I didn’t shift as a baby, they knew what I was. Dragons like Hunter are born from eggs, and both of his parent are dragons, so they knew what he would be too. I grew up in a large mythical village in the central shifter zone. Hunter is from the same village, but because his father is a general in the army, he grew up in the palace. I knew of him but had never met him until his parents brought him to our village so he could have his first shift. There are a lot of dragons in our village, and all of the buildings are fireproof. Both of us had our first shifts within weeks of each other and practiced control of our fire together.

It took a couple of months, but we both gained excellent control of our fire, so my father was working on my other magical gifts when Hunter and I both received bond marks. We were thrilled to discover our marks matched. Together, we made our way to the city to register our marks, only to discover that both his childhood friends, Brodie and Gryffin, were a bond match as well as another, Liam.

I just about swallowed my tongue when he introduced me to his best friend, Prince Gryffin. He was gorgeous, but also nice, nothing like I imagined a royal to be. We all moved into a suite in the palace to develop our bond relationship, and I quickly fell in love with the prince. I would see him watching me out of the corner of my eye, and I knew my attraction wasn’t one-sided, but he never made a move, and our bond group was pursued by female shifters hoping to be our mate. I watched as he had flings with both males and females alike, nothing more than a one-night stand. In fact, we were all rather promiscuous for a while before Gryffin’s moms sat us down and lectured us about how our mate would feel to be with a bunch of playboys when she was finally marked. We straightened up after that, but I always hoped something more would happen between us. Hell, we were already bonded, so neither of us was going anywhere.

Somewhere deep down, I knew his mothers’ talk had struck a nerve with him, and I was going to be sidelined forever, wanting what I couldn’t have, and he just confirmed it in a heartbreaking way. I don’t think the goddess would gift us a mate who wouldn’t accept us in a relationship, but I do also understand on some level—the reasonable, clear-headed Gem level, not the horny, pining for Gryff Gem level. No, that Gem wants to burn the world.

Instead of doing considerable damage to our home, I head downstairs to the night watch headquarters and decide to take my frustration out in our training room. Maybe there will be someone there I can spar with.

The hallways are clear as I make my way to the elevator, smashing the button to call it to our floor. When it opens, a rush of scents, both familiar and stomach turning, whooshes out, and a growl rumbles from my chest, sounding more like Hunter’s dragon than my phoenix. My bond mate, Liam, is in there, but he has company. Gianna is wrapped around him like a sloth, her legs gripping his waist while her arms circle his neck as she grinds on him, their mouths kissing with desperate need. I want to burn all the hair off this bitch’s head. She knows exactly which buttons to push when it comes to Liam. I’ve been watching his bear become more and more unruly as it pines for a mate, which means Liam is susceptible to the pretty words of a conniving manipulative fox.

Neither of them notice me, and I clear my throat as I step into the elevator. Liam looks up as he pulls his mouth away from the dark-haired cunt. His eyes are glazed, and her lipstick is spread across his mouth.

She smirks at me as she drops to her feet, smoothing her skirt down and straightening her top. “Hi, Gem,” she flutters her eyelashes at me and steps closer to run a finger down my chest in what I think is meant to be a flirty gesture, but it just seems contrived. That, combined with her scent which smells like wet newspaper to me, makes me step back, and I almost miss her eyes flash with frustration.

“Liam, what are you doing?” I ask him, ignoring the fox and narrowing my eyes on my bond mate. His eyes clear as he takes in my pissed off scent, and he adjusts the front of his pants as I huff in annoyance. Before he can answer, I turn my attention back to the wily female.

“You’ve been banned from the building and the neutral zone. If you are caught in here, Liam will be in trouble,” I warn both of them, and she shrugs, not giving one fucking damn.

“Nobody will know if you don’t say anything. We’re going straight to your apartment,” she snarls, and I chuckle darkly.

“I’m pretty sure Prince Gryffin will have something to say. His dad was the one who fired you and had you blacklisted after all.” She pales slightly, but my words finally get Liam’s attention.

“Gryff’s in there?” he asks, looking down the hallway in the direction of our apartment.

“For now,” I mutter, and he tugs Gianna back into the elevator. The doors close, and it starts to move downward. She screeches and crosses her arms, glaring at him.

“What the fuck are you doing, Liam?”

“You can’t be here, Gianna,” he tells her. Her lip sticks out, and she begins to pout, but I can still see the anger in her eyes. I’m certain she’s trying to get him to bite her in the hope that once one of us is mated to her, the rest of us will give her mate bites too. I’d rather cut off my dick than stick it in that piranha.

The doors open on the bottom floor, and he takes her by the arm and walks her to the building entrance, practically shoving her out the door. The glass doors close behind her, and as he returns to my side, I watch with amusement as she loses her shit. She screeches again and stomps her foot in anger before screaming something and flipping him off then storming away.

I whistle as he gets to me, and I shake my head. “Dude, what the fuck?”

He shakes his head, not looking at me as we start walking toward the mission rooms. “Fuck, I don’t know what happened. She approached me in the locker room, and I was telling her I didn’t want to see her again, and then the next minute, we’re dry humping in the elevator and my teeth were aching to bite her. Thank fuck you came along when you did, because your scent was what brought me back to reality.”

I frown. “That sounds like magic at work. Do you think she’s wearing a spelled charm or something?”

He runs a hand through his white hair before rubbing his jaw, looking lost. “Fucking sure felt like it.”

“You need to avoid her. If you see her, go in the opposite direction,” I suggest, and he nods, quickly agreeing, but grabs my arm.

“Don’t leave me alone. I’m worried if she corners me again, I won’t have the strength to fight her off.”

“Sneaky fox bitch,” I mutter. “Don’t worry, we’re going to be assigned to the palace for the next few weeks once the new royal presents themselves, and she definitely won’t be getting in there.”

His sigh of relief is heavy, and I almost turn around and chase after her to make good on my burning her hair off her head idea. Instead, I slap my bond mate on the shoulder. “Come on, I was just heading to the gym to work off some aggression. Why don’t you join me?”

He falls into step with me. “What has your panties in a twist?” he asks. I can feel his gaze on the side of my face, but I don’t look at him.

“I just came from the apartment where Gryffin is preparing to leave again,” I mutter, my annoyance leaking into my tone.

“Ah, Gem, I’m sorry.” He claps a hand on my shoulder and gives it a squeeze. My other bond mates aren’t stupid, they know how I feel about the tiger. I try my best not to let it affect how we work, and I’ve been mostly successful until now, but Gryffin’s obsession is affecting us. I’m certain it’s part of the reason we haven’t been gifted a mate yet. We’ve been a group for ten years now, which is the longest a bond group has gone without finding their mate. I feel like we are being punished, but for the life of me, I can’t figure out why. Something has to give, or the five of us are going to splinter irrevocably.

The two of us are silent as we walk toward the incident room, but a sudden shout has us exchanging a glance and picking up the pace.

The incident room is wide open, and I find Hunter and Brodie with General Bryson. Hunter is arguing with his father.

“We don’t have time to chase around after some human. We are still trying to locate the other missing children and deal with the uptick in feral occurrences. Assign a different team the task of babysitting.” Hunter’s nostrils smoke, and his eyes shimmer with his dragon’s annoyance.

Brodie is leaning against a wall with his arms crossed, watching the two with amusement. Liam and I join him.

“Hunter didn’t take the news well, I see,” I comment quietly.

Brodie scoffs. “What makes you think that?”

“Hunter, enough. It’s a direct order from your king, and you will obey it. I have three other teams working on the missing shifter children.”

“What about the missing humans?” Brodie asks, and I turn my attention to the wolf.

“What humans?” I inquire. This is new information for me, and from the look on Liam’s face, him too.

Bryson leans against the table and hangs his head, and I can see the weight he carries from being in charge. I’m glad that’s not me. He sighs heavily then visibly gets his shit together, throwing his shoulders back and straightening.

“In the last two months, humans have been going missing on a semi regular basis after visiting the neutral zone. We were originally unaware because the missing people were being reported to the human authorities. They have recently read us in on the reports.”

“Why did it take them so long to let us know if they went missing after visiting this zone?”

Hunter scoffs. “Petty jurisdiction crap.”

My mind processes the information swiftly, and my shoulders slump as I put two and two together. “Fuck! Are we assuming the missing humans are the ferals?”

Brodie hip bumps me before pushing off the wall and taking a seat at the table Hunter and Bryson have between them.

“Yup,” he says dejectedly.

“But how? And why so many? Most shifters know it’s their life and the human’s if they get caught changing humans without permission. Who would damn someone to that existence?”

Bryson’s jaw clenches, and I brace myself for what is about to come out of his mouth. “We think that maybe whoever took the missing kids is using them to bite the humans.”

Shock hits me like a two by four to the face, and I see Liam flinch. Brodie’s and Hunter’s shoulders sag, so I know this is not the first time they are hearing this, but as the information computes in my mind, it all makes sense.

“Of course. Scared children would lash out and bite if cornered, even though they are taught not to, and without an alpha command, they are stuck in animal form, unable to change back. But why?”

“Are they creating an army? That seems a little shortsighted when ferals are notoriously hard to contain. What could the benefit be? And who?” Liam asks Bryson who looks dejected.

“We don’t know, and we have no leads. This couldn’t come at a more inopportune time. The royals are distracted by the change of leadership. Hell, the new royal hasn’t even been found yet, so I haven’t wanted to add to their worries,” Bryson admits, pulling out a chair and sitting down as well. He picks up a remote and turns on the screen on the wall. It’s a map of Aramis showing all three zones. There are red dots all through the shifter zone, and I know they are the locations of the ferals we put down. There are also green and blue dots all over the map as well.

Hunter steps up and points to the green dots. “This shows the three children who are still missing and where they were taken from as well as Archie.” He points to the green dot over the palace. “As you can see, they are all from a densely populated area, which makes it harder to figure out how they were snatched up.”

“You would think there would be more witnesses,” Liam comments, and Brodie shakes his head.

“They were all taken from a busy mall or just when school was let out. There were a lot of people around to add to the confusion.”

“What are the blue dots?” I scan the map. There are a lot more blue dots than green.

“Those are all the missing humans,” Bryson says, and I purse my lips.

“Holy crap, that’s a lot of missing humans. Way more than the amount of ferals we have put down,” I point out, feeling sick to my stomach.

“Yes, it is,” Hunter rumbles his agreement, his dragon close to the surface.

“To answer your question, son, yes, I have teams tracking all the humans as well. They were all visiting the neutral zone when they disappeared.” He presses a button, and more dots appear on the screen in clusters around the neutral zone. I lean forward to get a better look at what they are clustered around.

“These are all hotels or entertainment venues,” Liam says, coming to the same conclusion I do.

“Yes, we think that someone is deliberately targeting them. I’ve scheduled extra round-the-clock patrols in these areas, pulling shifter only teams from the shifter forces. I’m hoping the extra presence will make it harder for anyone else to be snatched.”

“What about restricting human visitors in the neutral zone until we can get to the bottom of this?” Brodie suggests, and Bryson rubs a hand across his forehead like he’s trying to ease a headache before he nods.

“Yes, that is a last resort. The businesses would suffer, so we would like to avoid that if possible, but it may come down to that.”

“That’s not going to protect the humans who live in the neutral zone though,” Hunter points out.

“No, but it would limit the casualty count.” Bryson sighs and stands up. “But none of you need to worry about that. Keep fielding the royal tip line, and the minute the new royal appears, you stick to their ass like glue. Until they gain their magic, they are at risk. The last thing we need is for whoever is responsible for the ferals to get their hands on the new royal. It would be a disaster if they turned feral before they could gain their crown. It would throw the shifter kingdom into chaos.”

Holy fuck. Bryson’s words bring a rush of dread to my body. I had never even considered that may be the game plan. I can tell by the look on my bond mates’ faces that they are thinking the same thing.

He doesn’t wait for a response, leaving the silent room that’s heavy with the new knowledge.

“Fuck, I don’t know about you guys, but I need to eat.” Brodie pushes his chair back and stands up, stretching.

“How can your stomach be hungry in light of all that?” Liam asks incredulously.

Brodie shrugs. “It isn’t really, but seeing that pretty little human baker is just the thing I need to brighten this miserable day.”

“Brodie,” Hunter growls, and our wolf glares at him.

“Hey, don’t even pretend you didn’t go there yesterday to grab lunch.”

Hunter grimaces, looking slightly chagrined. “The food is good, okay? And my dragon is a pushy fucker and insisted we eat there for some reason. Anyway, she isn’t there. They said she was out on holiday for a couple of days.”

A burst of laughter escapes my mouth before I can help it. He sounds so disappointed, it’s comical. “And you happen to know that how?”

“The shifter girl who works there, Violet, goes to school with my brother and sister. I just happened to strike up a conversation with her, and she’s a chatty little thing,” he admits sheepishly, and I can’t help laughing at his audacity. I never would have thought either of them would be interested in a human, but Brodie is right, she is a pretty little thing. She smelled good too, like cupcakes and frosting. My phoenix most definitely has a sweet tooth and would have happily rolled around in her scent.

“And you guys think I’m bad messing around with Gianna. Being interested in a human is ten times worse,” Liam scolds them. Brodie just grins, but Hunter looks ashamed.

“Well, there’s nothing that says I can’t enjoy a view with my lunch. Come on, I’ll buy you a hot chocolate. Yesterday, they had polar bear marshmallows,” he cajoles Liam, whose eyes brighten at the idea of marshmallows in the form of his animal.

“Fine, but you’re paying,” he replies as the four of us leave the conference room and head for the doors.

“Hopefully we can finish our meal without another ridiculous false lead on the new royal,” Hunter grumbles. “We’ve already been out to two false alarms this morning.”

“The sooner they find them, the better,” I agree, knowing that Gryffin will have to return home to complete his father’s orders. I hope that will be the last time he disappears on his wild goose chase.