“Ugh,” the omega said, waving his hand in front of his face. “He’s not even pretty!”
Rad rolled his eyes. “Relax, Pearl, you’ll still get to warm his highness’ bed.”
His name was Pearl? And he willingly slept with the crown prince? I either hated or feared him now, or both. Pearl glared my way.Definitely both.
“I think I’ll go take a walk in the garden," I announced, fleeing the library as fast as possible.
Pearl’s scent had been altered by something fake, which made me feel sick to my stomach. I was definitely either getting sick or nearing my heat. Since I’d yet to have my first heat, I couldn’t know for certain which it was yet. All I knew was that as soon as my heat started, I would be bred by Lianthorn, and that was something I wished to avoid for as long as possible.
Rad was an alpha, but his scent was just… normal, I guessed. And I hadn’t been close enough to Lianthorn to sniff him, but I doubted I would enjoy his scent. I also couldn’t quite understand why I was there, just that I would be bred and they hoped to get phoenix babies.Mybabies. Would they be considered for the throne one day? Or would I simply be used as an experiment and my children treated poorly if they weren’t born as phoenix shifters?
I shivered from the thought alone. I’d never wanted children of my own, a selfish thing really. Although, after having to be a parent for my younger siblings, it kind of ruined the whole thing for me. Not that I seemed to have a choice in the matter.
The garden was my favorite place in the palace, mostly because I felt free out here. I’d contemplated shifting yesterday and flying off, but the whole kingdom now knew I belonged to the prince. It was embarrassing as hell, but I couldn’t do anythingabout it. I’d been sold. My family had enough money to build a bigger and better house and my siblings would survive into adulthood. That was the bright side of things.
The roses to the left had been magically changed to make them appear blue when I knew them to be red. I adored this sort of magic use, mostly because it was something used to just enhance their beauty and create something magical. Not all fae had magic, and most had very little. The only thing that showed they were fae, was their beauty and pointed ears. Those with lots of magic had enough to create wings, often having them out all the time to show off their power. The whole royal family had wings. Which was no surprise at all. They were pretty wings, but useless. Fae couldn’t fly, which made the wings nothing but decorative. I had to agree the wings looked mesmerizingly gorgeous, especially the queen’s.
I suddenly felt like I was being watched, which was a ridiculous feeling because I knew I was. The royal guards were always close by, making sure the prince’s property stayed inside the palace walls. But this feeling was more intense. I felt like prey as I looked around uneasily. My skin then started to sweat and more signs of my upcoming heat came forth, making me a little dizzy.
My curiosity forced my legs to move on their own, and I neared the fountain which stood in a proud circle lined by pink blooming flowers. I swore something glittered on top of the fountain, like the air stirred or something. There definitely had been movement there.
As I approached, the lovely scent of rain hit me, which had to be from the fountain. I laughed at my reflection in the water, recalling Rad’s excitement when my hair had remained red after they’d washed it. It had been mortifying, being washed by Rad, but he wasn’t at all interested in me. I could smell as much when he rinsed out the soap.
Something moved again, just out of my periphery and then a smooth voice spoke from above the fountain. “Hello there, omega.”
Chapter Three
River
My dragon roared with agitation as I circled our kingdom once more. The Teovarian Kingdom was named after my forefathers and was the best place to live in our world, according to me at least. But lately my dragon wasn’t as content here as it’d been before. My brothers and I were pretty sure we knew the reason why, which only made me even more agitated. I was an impatient alpha and knowing my fated mate was out there, almost ready for me to sniff out? It was torture.
Dragon shifters were the only shifters who still had fated mates. It was because of our old hoards, something dragons had back in the day. We evolved but our need to hoard and guard remained and changed into the mating bond. Our dragon would feel the call of our fated once they were of age and then we would fly wherever we were led and take our omega back home. That was why our kingdom was filled with all sorts of shifters and fae, because even fae could be our fated mates. After a thousand years of this, we were a thriving kingdom, all happy and safe here. And soon I would be a mated dragon.
I roared again, just because I could and flew back to the palace where my brothers waited for me. I gave the sea a longing look as I ventured inland, away from the call of my mate and the sea. As a water dragon, I loved all things water and sometimes flew over the waves to calm myself. It wasn’t often I needed calming. Although as a prince I did have to deal with a lot of stuff that could annoy even the most patient of people.
My clawed feet landed on the huge balcony overlooking our garden. Then I shifted into my human form and glided into the office, my navy blouse and pants pristine and clean as I met my brothers worried gazes.
“Is it time?” Midos asked. He was the second eldest of us after Ciris, who was the king.
I nodded and sat down on the couch next to our youngest brother, Reinos.
“When will you leave?” Ciris asked, handing me a glass of wine. We enjoyed having our royal meetings like this, on the couches with the fireplace between us, sharing some wine.
“In the morning,” I said, knowing I couldn’t put it off for longer than that.
They all nodded at that. “Do you want one of us to go with you?" Reinos asked.
I just smiled at him and shook my head. “I’ll do what we dragons always do and make the journey alone.”
“Do you think this means our fated mates will show up soon?” Midos asked, clearly just as excited as I was about finding my mate.
“Perhaps,” Ciris said.
My brothers and I shared the same calm personality, but our appearances were completely different from one another. Being a water dragon meant that I was blue in my dragon form, a dark blue but when the sun hit my scales, they turned light and gleaming. I had ice blue eyes to match with my dragon form and white hair.
Midas had blue eyes too, but his were just a tad darker than mine and with his black hair he looked like my opposite in a way. He was slender and tall where I was leaner with muscles.
Ciris was born with blonde hair but it changed to a brown tone with copper highlights once he was in his teens. His eyes were also the most unusual of us brothers, a yellow almost golden color.
