Fair enough.
Some sprinted ahead and then I could run between them when I needed to get more energy out. I managed to tell Treena the rest, and by the end of it we were back to the castle after having lapped the grounds several times.
And all of the guards were impressed. Not just by me but her as well.
“Is there a way to trigger a heat, Your Highness?” Davian asked before Treena could even help me figure it all out. He shook his head when I went to brush him off. “Please, I’m not gossiping—I’m here to help.”
It was my turn to mimic a fish. “I’m sure there’s some way to set one off or make it worse? I don’t really… Mine have never been that bad or…” It was hard not to flush, so I was glad they would assume it was the workout.
“Yes,” a few of the dragon guards answered, looking uncomfortable.
“This is why I didn’t want the extras,” I snapped, giving Treena an unfriendly look.
“This is why youneed themsometimes,” she sighed. “You’ll find the ones you can trust and are vaults. But this is—we’ve seen this trick before.” She nodded when a few of the wolves snorted. “It’s a running scheme people like to pull on the wolf royals. Other animal shifter species too.”
“But why?” I hedged, my mind too stuck and overloaded to see it.
“So you went to your lover as you did and needed him?” one of the wolf guards suggested. “Someone wanting to solidify his place next to you, especially if he has been upsetting you.”
“Thiswomanwho clearly wants to take your place in all ways,” another added, several of the wolves snorting when a few of the dragon guards looked uncomfortable. “And is obviously doing a good job of it.”
“That’s a bit much,” a dragon who hadn’t spoken yet snapped. “Elira has always been nice to all of us. She was good to the king and queen. She’snotan adopted daughter of the royal family—she’s misstepped but—”
“It’s all fake,” I told him firmly, no longer willing to hide it. I snorted when every dragon there couldn’t hide their disbelief. “Fools. Seriously.”
“Your Highness, we’ve spent more time with her and you’ve been…” that guard tried.
“Do you think Sagan a liar?” Treena snapped, pushing me behind her. “You need to listen to her or you’re no good to her. You’re picking a side and it’s nothers.”
“Even if it’s your best friend or brother, you are to always treat everyone as if they could be willing to harm the one you protect or you areuseless,” Davian seethed, all of the wolves nodding in agreement. “And we smell the amusement on that woman in times she shouldn’t be amused.”
I held up my hand to the dragons. “You do? When?” I sighed when they seemed hesitant. “Please, they don’t believe me. I’ve always known she was fake. She doesn’t bother with the mask with me and—I’ve always known. But…”
Treena reached over and rubbed my arm. “They gaslight you so much that you start to feel crazy in your own head.”
“No, never crazy, just hopeless that they’ll all pick her and I’m dead or they won’t care if I die because of her,” I countered, the dragons there not hiding their horror.
Yeah, well, it was how I truly felt.
Davian rubbed his hands over his head. “She was amused when you walked in and were lectured by different elders. She was—her emotions are too deep when it comes to you. She is a threat. It’s not about her grief. It’s jealousy and you getting everything she thinks she deserves in her deluded mind.”
“We’ve never seen anything like that,” a different dragon guard defended.
“Well, wake up or another of your royals could be dead because weimmediatelylocked on the threats right next to her and you’re still denying them,” he snapped, focused only on me. “My vote would be her. So you saw exactly what you did or you were found in the bed of someone you shouldn’t be. Who could you bed that she could discover you with and—”
“And make a mess for me?” I whispered in horror. Then I shook myself out of it. “I mean…” I sighed and wanted to look to the dragons for help, but they weren’t really on my side.
The one who had comforted me earlier about doing the same guarding protocol for my father stepped up. “We don’t really judge that as dragons. We understand going into heat. Yes, turning to anyone else when having a lover would be bad, but given the circumstances—no one sane would judge that.”
“Are many people being sane with your princess right now?” Treena drawled.
I was glad they accepted that and moved on. “Benson agreed to try and see her without the mask, plus he’s loyal. What would happen if the wrong people found out I was slipped a potion even if not poison?”
I nodded when all of the dragons around me went tense. Yeah, it would be bad.
I sighed though. “We need to come up with—I think it was just a normal heat that went—it wasn’t… I don’t know. I didn’tfeel magic or—each new stress was a new layer and I wasn’t ready.”
“I wouldsuggestyou find one of these kinds of potions and experience it so you’re prepared in the future and can make the decision if this is your new level of heat or if someone slipped through the cracks,” Davian said after a moment.
