7
Sagan
The last thing I wanted to do was get up and face the “guests” at breakfast—especially when I couldn’t seem to focus on much besides how my body felt after amazing sex.
Amazing sex I didn’t remember.
Only that it was amazing.
No, I didn’t understand how that worked either. Awesome.
The first vulture descended the moment I walked into the ballroom. An elder slipped me a message from Hardin demanding I remove the castle ban on him. I also received a lecture from that elder. I let him ramble while I fixed my coffee before gesturing to the guards at the door I’d barely stepped through.
“Please remove the elder from myhomeand let Benson know there will apparently be a list of those banned for not behaving appropriately,” I told them. I met the gaze of the pissed-off elder with one of my own. “Being allowed to stay in the royal family’s castle is aluxurythe elders are afforded, not a right. You are not lord and master here. I suggest you remember that going forward.”
“Your parents never—”
“You did not seriously bring up her deceased parents the morning after they were entombed, did you, Elder?” Treena asked as she moved next to me, not hiding the disgust in her tone. “I wonder how King Rhys would have handled such disrespect and blatant manipulation?”
“Not well,” a deep voice said from somewhere off to my right, sounding a bit too amused.
“About as well as he would deal with a guest from a foreign nation interjecting herself into dragon business,” another male voice drawled.
That one I focused on, meeting his gaze with a raised eyebrow. “And you think it’s any better to promote yourself to be the keeper of how guests behave in my castle? Especially myadvisor?The heir of the Bodach throne? Apologize to Princess Treena this instance or there will be consequences you will not like.”
Shock and then a bit of anger flashed in the man’s eyes before he dipped his head to me. “I apologize, Your Highness. I was ignorant to who she was and her being your ally. I heard it as judgment that your house wasn’t in order.”
No, no, he didn’t, but it wasn’t a bad save and one that wouldn’t be worth trying to argue.
He gave a full bow to Treena. “I apologize, Princess. Thank you for being a friend to our future queen. I shouldn’t have spoken without knowing the full situation.”
“Apology accepted,” Treena chuckled darkly. “You were simply trying to have your future queen’s back as well. Good on you for that when apparently the vultures will descend within hours of her worst hell becoming reality.” She looked at me. “Isn’t there a rule of mourning where no one can be horrid to you at least?”
No, no, there was not. While I appreciated her support, she was going to make every enemy if she kept jumping in as she was, and that was dangerous for her.
Dangerous for her future since she would be queen ruler of Bodach one day.
Three more elders were given a time-out before breakfast was over and I was so on edge that I was ready to explode. And that was before I overheard Kole bragging about theperksof the castle and how he needed to speak to a few people about his accommodations.
Several Alphas were more subtle, but they made it clear that they didn’t want to come all the way back to the castle to have the needed meeting… And they didn’t feel it was a meeting that should be held over video given what had happened.
Fools.
Absolute fucking fools. They thought they were getting something out of this besides pissing me off when they were kids playing checkers.
With someone who was aces at chess and playing multiple games of it at the same time.
I didn’t say much and let them walk right into what I wanted them to say… That the elders overstepped by trying to pressure me into mating.
Even if it was mostly because they had someone better for me to mate. Their relative would be a much better fit and blah, blah, blah. But never to force it and that was so far over the line that they agreed the elders needed to be checked.
I was at my limit with all of it, and when someone else tried to grab me, I sidestepped them with barely a civil dismissal. His eyes flickered lighter than his normal deep blue and I had a flash of last night. I turned back, but he was already walking away and Treena realized she needed to get me out of there.
“What is going on with you?” she hissed at me when we were alone outside. She sighed when I snorted. “Yes, of course, but you were…”
Better yesterday.
I let out a shaky breath. “You called it about the vultures not even giving me a fucking day,” I admitted as I headed for the back garden. I nodded to her detail as they materialized from nowhere but then turned to her. “I think we need a run and we need rules about what they’ll overhear. I know there’s much they’ll report to your father, and that’s fair, but…”
