Xander’s silver eyes rounded. “Me? I’m hardly the one. I’m still not sure how I got invited. You’re better off asking Yosef.”
I scrunched my face, not liking that option. “I don’t know if that’s a good idea.”
“It’s because you called him a turd who walks around all day with his butt cheeks clinched.”
I raised a brow. “Is that what I said?”
Both Xander and Aaron nodded, smirks on their faces.
I had no clue why I would have said that. Although it made sense. “Well, it’s true.”
Aaron turned to Jalisa. “Maybe you should ask?”
She nodded. “I don’t need to go through Yosef. I can ask them when we do the greeting.”
I shrugged, unbothered by the whole exchange. “Fine, let’s get this over with so we can go to the after party.”
“Okay, oh, by the way,” she began, casually looking over to Melina, “did you already get an invitation to Xander’s house party?”
Before I could tell my wife to let it go, Melina replied. “Yeah, they told us about it yesterday.”
We both turned to the liar Xander who quickly spun around. He turned his head to the side so that we could only see the profile of his face. “It was only because earlier Yosef wasn’t too keen on Ivan coming. I only recently got his buy in.”
Before I could say something that would get us disinvited, Jalisa grabbed my hand and waved goodbye to the others. We weaved through the crowd until we got to the long line to meet the king and queen. This felt like torture. Fortunately, by the looks on our rulers’ faces they were in no mood to talk to random fae all night, so they were making the chats quick. When we finally got to the front of the line, Jalisa did a curtsey, and I took her que to bow.
King Obram studied us with curious orange eyes. He was powerful, I could feel the magic brimming off him in heated waves. Although he still looked older than us, maybe fifteen or twenty years visually, I knew he was much, much older. Fae lived long lives, and we were practically children when compared to the ages of the king and queen. He was bald, his nutmeg complexion glistening under the floating orb lights, but I suspected that was by choice. He still looked imposing in his tailored threads with jeweled embellishments near the collar of his dark orange suit and his tall golden crown perched on his head to ensure his presence was taller than anyone around.
His wife, Queen Tunisa, looked equally as regal, her wise blue eyes squinted as she smiled. Some would say she looked friendly. I knew better. She could be as ruthless as her husband. Neither were more powerful or more in charge than the other. They were true equals. She sat back on her throne and crossed a leg. She matched her husband’s style in the same color, her gown falling off her shoulders and flowing out wide beyond her throne. I didn’t know much about fashion, but I could appreciate how the color seemed to glow against her onyx complexion. Her hair was hidden behind a colorful wrap that complimented her dress andreinforced her regal appearance. No one would mistake her for anything less than a queen.
High on their thrones, which sat on a platform, looking down at us, I had to admit they did look a bit intimidating. King Obram leaned an elbow on his arm rest, resting his chin on his fist. “The newlyweds. Or should we say, the reunited lovers. I must say, while we were hoping for another arranged marriage to strengthen our treaty, my wife convinced me that we shouldn’t stand in the way of long-time love.”
He paused and stared at both of us as if he were inspecting us for dishonesty. He wouldn’t find anything because I agreed with him.
Queen Tunisa tapped her long nails on her arm rest, her smile still in place. “Of course, if this were not to workout, you’d both be immediately assigned to our arranged marriages, for the good of the kingdoms, of course.”
I chuckled nervously. “Well, I guess our marriage better work out. Although I have no intensions of leaving my wife. After losing her all those years, I’m going nowhere.”
Jalisa squeezed my hand, her grin tight and not at all natural. “Yes, being reunited has been a dream. Thank you so much for allowing us to be together again. Your mercy will never be forgotten.”
Queen Tunisa gave a nod of her head. “I must ask, why have you not been claimed? Most alphas and omegas who choose to marry each other bond the night of their wedding. Yet, it’s been weeks, and from your distinct scents, it’s clear you two still have not bonded.” She looked at me with a raised brow. “Is something wrong with your teeth, dear?”
That felt like an insult of some kind. And could they really sense we weren’t bonded? Did they know our scents to tell if anything changed? Was that how it worked? I’d thought our scents had mingled enough from all the sex we’d been having,but perhaps that wasn’t the same as a claiming scent. Or maybe this ridiculously powered leadership just could sense claimings with their magic. It didn’t matter, the more pressing point was that I had not claimed Jalisa. What explanation did we have for two recently reunited lovers who asked to break a treaty engagement so that they could get married to not be bonded yet?
Jalisa cleared her throat. “We didn’t want to rush everything into one act. First marriage and then claiming.”
King Obram looked more than bored, and I feared that we were losing them. We still had to ask for permission to use the portal to get into the human realm. It was already a long shot since we were Nodoorians.
“What’s the wait for?” he asked. “In fact, I’ve been told you two have had a bit of trouble with being victims of attacks. Claimings would strengthen you. Heighten your chances of survival until we can catch these culprits. It worked when our past treaty marriages were under attack by those wretched dissenters.”
“Yes, you’re right and we will make it a priority,” Jalisa began. “But speaking of attacks, we’ve had some health concerns as a result of them, and our doctors can’t seem to help. We were hoping to gain access to the human realm to visit a witch coven who could help us. I’ve been to the human realm before and don’t plan to do anything inappropriate. We just need to cure what ails Ivan. He’s one of your best soldiers and moved here to support the integration of our lands.” She knew that was a lie. I wasn’t so honorable. However, I didn’t think telling them that I moved for the hopes of finding her would move them as much as my dedication to being loyal to their cause. My omega was savvy. “I know we aren’t originally from this kingdom, but we have been and will be devoted to this court. We also have connections to the human world. We are friends with Lila, the ice mage. Her people in the human world would be our sponsors and keep eyes on us to report back here if you desired that.”
My wife knew the right words to say. I was mildly impressed with her ability to navigate around the higher ups. King Obram raised a hand to silence her. “We appreciate both your willingness to commit to our new order and your roles in our new society. It is very unfortunate what has happened to you both, and our authorities will continue to investigate the matter. It’s quite probable that the first attack entailed witch magic if our people can’t resolve what’s happened to you. We know your kind, the Nodoorians, have worked with witches before. Have you thought to visit your kingdom?”
This time I replied. It annoyed me still that my former leaders had engaged in working with dark mages and witches only to ultimately lose the war. Not only that, but we’d also kidnapped innocent fae so that those witches could strip them of their power and kill them. As much as I hated to admit it, our kingdom was on the wrong side of history, and many innocent Nodoorians paid the price. “It was my understanding that all the witches were killed or banished from our part of the realm. I would be one of the last ones to know if any were in hiding.”
Queen Tunisa placed an elegant hand on King Obram’s arm. “Sweetheart, I think we should grant this request. Within reason. It won’t be open ended. You’ll have one-month, human time. If you return any later, we may have to take measures against your family.”
The king bowed his head in agreement with his wife. Color me unsurprised. Of course, they would threaten our families if we didn’t come back. Sure, our parents weren’t the greatest but being punished for any transgressions we made was ruthless. I knew the king and queen were vicious. They had to be to come up with those forced marriages. They didn’t care about their people. They cared about going the best route to their complete domination. Blending our kingdoms wasn’t for peace. It was for growth and assimilation. I wouldn’t be surprised if in a fewyears, maybe decades from now, we’d go to war with another kingdom to expand. However, that was a worry for another time. Right now, I had to play nice.
