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“I’m sorry, Mother, but you know I had to.” Garrett’s voice pleads with her to understand, and I’m not surprised when she nods.
“I know, dear, I know. I missed her, too. So how about we keep track of her this time, huh?” she chuckles. Moving her hand to rest on his cheek, she turns his face from side to side, examining him.
“Twenty years?” Lyle questions, but the queen waves him off, turning to look at the rest of us now that she’s had her moment with her son.
“Time between the realms is different, but we’ll get to that later. For now, Nero,” she calls the guard’s name, and he’s before her in an instant.
Kiss ass.
“Go and let one of the ladies know we need clothes for our guests. Have them brought to the medical rooms. Also, let the kitchen know of their arrival and that they will eat with us for the foreseeable future.” Her voice isn’t harsh, but I hear the ring of command and the dismissal.
"But… I- your grace- the king—.” Whatever he’d been about to say is cut short by her glare.
“If the king has an issue with something, I have no doubt he will inform me. He’s a big boy,” she scolds him like a child, and I almost laugh as I watch his face pale. Pike does laugh, which earns him a glare, but Nero remains quiet.
“Apologies, your grace. I’ll see to that right away.” With one more dip of his head, he scurries off down the hall and out of sight.
“You’ll have to excuse Nero. His family has served us for over a millennia. He’s a great fighter but sometimes takes his job a bit too seriously,” she explains with a sigh as if she’s also exhausted by him.
“Can we see her now?” Storm asks. I hear the strain in his voice as he tries to stay respectful and polite despite wanting to rush to Serena and say fuck everyone else.
The queen turns to Storm with a smile that’s damn near blinding. “Of course, dear, who am I to stand between mates?”
Her question catches us all off guard, and I turn to look at Garrett. He doesn’t seem surprised, though.
“Mother sees auras and bonds, even those that aren’t yet complete, apparently.”
Huh. This realm really is different.
The queen laughs, and I swear it sounds like music.
Without another word, she turns and heads down the hall back the way she came, leaving us to follow. Storm doesn’t hesitate, quickly falling into step with Garrett behind her. Lyle, Pike, and I exchange a look, but what other choice do we have? Serena and Sol are here, and as strange as this place might be, it’s what we have to deal with now.
“Oh, those girls better hurry up. I’m not sure how long I’m going to be able to handle having this much ‘man’ follow me around.” The queen makes a show of fanning herself, and I have a feeling she is talking more to herself than to us. Shifter hearing makes it impossible not to hear her, though. Pike lets out a strangled laugh that he quickly chokes on when trying to cover it up.
“Mother,” Garrett scolds, but she seems unaffected.
“What? I’m old, not dead, dear.”
Garrett groans, and this time, we all laugh at her and his reaction.
The castle is massive. We take several sets of stairs, turn down countless hallways, and pass hundreds of doors before we come to a hall that leads to a dead end. I make a mental note to figure out the layout if we will be here for any length of time. There’s no way some of us aren’t going to end up lost.
A woman stands at the end of the hall with a stack of clothes in her arms, which I assume are clothes, and I hear Garrett’s sigh of relief. It’s funny that we could travel together without it being an issue, though I guess his mother has probably made it a bit awkward now. It doesn’t bug me any. Being naked is something we’ve all dealt with over the years while learning control, but I know it’s not the same for everyone. Sol and Lyle have never enjoyed the exposure, while Pike, on the other hand, would probably choose to be naked most of the time if given the option.
Garrett hands each of us a pair of pants, and we stop outside the door to put them on. The woman who was waiting scurries away the moment her arms are empty, her cheeks so red they rival a tomato.
I’m unsure exactly what it is, but I can feel her. I know Serena is just on the other side of that door, the same way I know my beast.
Storm wastes no time, slipping on his pants so fast that he almost falls over in the process. He barely manages to get both of his legs in the holes before he’s moving again. He makes it as far as to open the door, pulling them up as he goes, before stopping dead right there in the doorway.
“Shit,” I hear Sol from inside the room. Before I can move, Storm does something I didn’t even know was possible.
Storm stands frozen in the doorway, half man, half beast.
I’d seen Garrett do something similar earlier when he called on just his wings to get to Serena faster, but I thought it was something he was capable of because he was from here. Or maybe something special because he’s a dragon. I’d never heard of someone partially shifting before, and I sure as hell didn’t think it was something we could do.
There’s no denying it now, though. Storm’s hair grows darker, almost the same color as his beast’s fur. His face seems longer, too, his nose closer to that of his beasts, while his long, sharp teeth seem to grow before my eyes. His fingernails grow and sharpen to a point as he damn near doubles in size.
