Breakfast is a casual affair. A buffet is placed on the side of the room, and we all help ourselves before taking a seat at the table. Liam and Brodie head directly to the food, but Hunter stops to say hello to his mother, and I do the same.
“Ah, Gryffin, there you are. We missed you last night,” my mother scolds me as I place a kiss on Evie’s and Mia’s cheeks before doing the same to her.
“Sorry, but it couldn’t be helped. I’m here now.” I look around the room, but I don’t see anyone unfamiliar.
“Uncle Gwiff!” Archie calls and waves at me. “You’re here! I want to introduce you to my sidepiece,” he shouts, and the table chuckles. Adam chokes on his juice he had unfortunately taken a sip of.
“Archie, you can’t keep calling her that,” he scolds his son who ignores him. I ruffle his hair, and I’m about to ask him what he’s talking about when Dad and Bryson enter the room. Brysonjoins Liam, Hunter, and Brodie at the buffet, but my father beelines it toward me.
“Good, you’re back.” He hugs me quickly. “We need to start work with the new queen immediately. Your mothers and I will instruct her this morning, but your bond group will take over this afternoon and work on self-defense, shifting, and gaining control of her magic. It is a priority. Leave the missing shifters to the rest of the watch for now.”
He gives my mothers absent kisses before moving to the buffet without waiting for a response from me, but I guess there’s nothing left for me to say.
“Did any mates show up this morning?” Gretchin asks as I give both her and Gracelin kisses on their cheeks before heading to grab some food.
There is an awkward silence that has me looking around to see what’s going on. My three mothers have frowns, and Mia shakes her head. “No, not yet.”
“Maybe the magic did go wrong,” Evie says quietly, and I frown.
“What are you all talking about?” I ask, but before I can get a straight answer, the steward makes an announcement.
“Queen Colbie Karridge, Lady Violet, and Prince Jeremy Saunders.”
I smirk with amusement. The guys all got prince titles when they bonded with me, but they hate the pomp and ceremony.
My smirk soon drops, though, as the doors open, and Gem enters. On his arm is the gorgeous creature from last night. Holy shit, is she the new queen? Something inside me shrivels with misery. I’m never going to have a chance.
Chapter
Twenty-Seven
Colbie
The dining room is bright and cheerful this morning, and the smell of breakfast makes my stomach groan loudly. I put a hand over it and feel my cheeks warm with embarrassment when Gem chuckles next to me.
“You must be starving. You used a lot of energy shifting last night,” he says kindly, and I try to ignore everyone’s attention on me.
“I really am. I feel like I could eat a horse,” I tell him then wince with guilt. I’m not sure I should use the phrase now that I can shift into one.
“I’ll fix you a plate,” Violet offers, brushing past me and heading toward the breakfast buffet. I watch her to make sure she’s okay. She was nervous this morning about how she’s going to fit in, but I don’t think she has anything to worry about. Talon and Ember, Hunter’s siblings, both greet her warmly, as do the two princesses. Brodie gives her an empty plate when she approaches the buffet, and I let out a sigh of relief. I think she’s going to be fine.
“Ah, Colbie, there you are,” Lucas says as we approach the table, my hand still tucked into Gem’s arm. He knocked on our door this morning and asked if he could check me over. He explained that he is a phoenix shifter with the power of healing, and I couldn’t really argue with that. His powers felt like the comfort of a warm fire when he ran his hands over my body. He was very professional about it, but I couldn’t help wondering what his hands would feel like if he wasn’t being so professional. “How did you sleep? I’m assuming Gem has checked you this morning?”
“Yes, I did, and she is a little low on energy, but nothing that a good meal won’t fix,” Gem answers.
He’s right, I am exhausted, although my body seems to be in one piece with no aches or pains, just a mild headache, and I think that probably has to do with my lack of sleep. When I finally regained consciousness last night, I was in my bed, and Violet was asleep in a chair next to it. I didn’t bother waking her. Instead, I ate the plate of fruit and crackers that were on my bedside table and tried to go back to sleep, but my mind wouldn’t let me. I just kept replaying everything that happened a few hours before. The memories of shifting into a hydra, then a wolf and a pegasus played through my mind over and over, as did the jumbled sensations of unrestrained magic burning my nerve endings. The whole thing was really weird. Instead of different consciousness every time I shifted, it was like it was the same, but our form and abilities shifted, the inner thoughts remaining unchanged. I was so tired, though, it was like I was just along for the ride. I couldn’t communicate or make heads or tails of anything.
Finally, I gave up on sleeping and went for a walk. Violet didn’t even stir, and there wasn’t any palace staff to be seen as I traipsed through the hallways, looking for a way out. I needed some fresh air. I was having trouble catching my breath withmy anxiety. Once I found a door and stepped outside, the sight of the stables made me smile. I remembered Archie’s excuse that he wanted to play with the stable kittens, so I went in that direction. Despite my violent interaction with Stormheart, Nox’s rabid beast, I actually love cats, and it was exactly the distraction I needed at the time.
I was finally relaxing for the first time, my thoughts on nothing but the adorable bundles of fluff in front of us when I felt an intruder. The magic of my animal inside me perked their head up and started rolling around inside me in excitement. There was no fear or aggression, just pure joy as a fucking huge white tiger crawled its way into the stables. I couldn’t believe my eyes, and if the kittens hadn’t scattered, I would have thought I was asleep and dreaming.
His deep, ocean blue eyes connected with mine, and he chuffed as he crawled a little closer and laid his head in my lap. I didn’t know what to do. Somewhere inside that huge creature was a human, but I think his animal was firmly in the driver’s seat. What self-respecting man would act like that? Then it occurred to me that maybe he was one of my mates, but didn’t want to scare me off, so he chose to show himself in his tiger form. With the way my own animal was reacting, it wouldn’t have surprised me, so I just went with it, giving him a belly scratch and holding still when he decided to nap on me. My eyes closed as I listened to the sound of his heavy breathing, almost like a soft snore, and my mind finally felt empty. I’m not sure how long I dozed, but eventually, I had to get up. I shuffled my body, supporting the cat’s head with my hands so I could move out from under it. It cracked its eyes open, yawned, and went back to sleep, so I left it there and hurried back to my room.
I stripped off my dress, which was covered in tiger fur, and threw it in the laundry before digging through the closet for a T-shirt to wear, then I climbed back into bed and fell asleep quickly after that.
“Colbie?” Lucas is looking at me with concern, and I realize I didn’t answer him.
“Oh, sorry, yes, I’m okay. A little tired, but I’m really hungry.”
