“Well, being best friends with royalty now is certainly going to help my social game,” Harper added dryly, though affection colored her tone.
They accept her just fine. They see what I see.
Lisa’s voice was softer, weighted with years of regret. “I owe you all an explanation.” Her hands twisted in her lap as she looked at her children. “I knew your father had dormant dragon DNA. I knew you and Liam carried it too, but after Jerry died...” She swallowed hard. “It seemed easier to stay distant than explain something I didn’t fully understand myself.”
The pain in her words resonated through Draven’s own grief over his mother’s death.
Secrets born from loss. I understand that burden.
“Fate has a funny way of revealing the truth,” Gerri interjected, her tone light but knowing. “Some things can’t stayhidden forever, no matter how hard we try to protect ourselves from them.”
Lila reached across the space between their chairs to grasp her mother’s hand. “It’s okay, Mom. I just want us to start fresh and build a better relationship.”
Lisa’s eyes filled with tears. “I would love that more than anything in the world.”
The raw emotion in the exchange stirred Draven’s protective instincts. His queen deserved this—deserved the family support she’d been denied for too long.
“Lisa,” he said, “you can stay here as long as you want to support Lila and work on healing your relationship. The castle has more than enough room, and it would be my honor to have you here.”
She needs this. They both do.
The gratitude that flooded through the mate bond nearly overwhelmed him. Lila’s eyes shimmered with unshed tears as she looked at him, and he felt her love like sunshine warming his soul.
“Thank you,” she whispered, the words carrying so much more than simple appreciation.
Draven glanced at the ornate timepiece mounted on the wall—forty-seven minutes until the coronation ceremony began.
Forty-seven minutes until the entire kingdom acknowledges what I’ve known from the moment I touched her hand.
“We should eat quickly and get ready,” he announced, his alpha authority bleeding into his tone. “I want today to be the best day of Lila’s life.”
TWENTY-THREE
LILA
The crimson silk of Lila’s coronation gown pooled around her feet as Harper wielded the curling iron with surgical precision. The dress itself was a masterpiece—deep red silk that caught the light and threw it back in shimmers, and a bodice that fit perfectly to emphasize her curves before flowing into a dramatic skirt.
“Hold still, Your Majesty,” Harper teased, wrapping another section of Lila’s dark hair around the heated barrel. “Can’t have you looking anything less than perfect for your crowning moment.”
Your Majesty.
The title still sounded foreign, though warmth spiked in her chest every time someone said it. She looked at her reflection in the ornate mirror—her eyes bright with excitement and nerves, and her skin glowing with that mysterious Nova Aurora radiance.
“I still can’t believe this is really happening,” she murmured, watching her mother arrange the delicate necklace that would complement the tiara Draven would place on her head.
Gerri perched on the edge of the velvet settee, her eyes sparkling with that familiar mischievous energy. “Oh, darling,I knew you were special from the moment I saw you at that trauma clinic. You had that inner glow about you—the kind that says ‘this woman is destined for greatness.’“
If only I’d known then what I know now.
“Speaking of greatness,” her mother said softly, her fingers gentle as she adjusted the neckline of Lila’s gown, “I want you to know how proud your father would be. He always said you had the heart of a leader.”
The mention of her father sent a bittersweet pang through Lila’s chest. “I wish he could be here to see this.”
“He is here,” Gerri said with conviction, her blue eyes flashing briefly gold. “Trust me on that one.”
Harper stepped back to admire her handiwork, Lila’s hair now cascading in perfect waves over one shoulder. “There. You look beyond beautiful. Though I have to ask—where exactly is your brother right now? Please tell me Liam isn’t regaling your dragon king with embarrassing childhood stories.”
Oh God, he absolutely is.
