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I showered quickly, and a knock on the door announced the arrival of my too early breakfast as soon as I stepped off the heated tiles of my bathroom floor.
“Enter.”
The maid shuffled through the door with a silver tray in hand, her head bowed as if she worried she might catch an eyeful of my nakedness. Her salt and pepper hair gleamed in the gentle lighting, but she was well accustomed to my antics by now, despite being a relatively new hire.
“Just leave it in the kitchenette,” I told her, toweling off shamelessly. Without pausing, she informed me of what I had already felt earlier, my well-honed sixth sense fortified.
“Alpha, there is a tradesman here who insists on speaking with you. The guards are ready to lock him in the barracks on your order, Alpha?—”
“Is his name Saint?” I cut her off dryly.
The servant’s head cocked up, surprise coloring her expression. She was new enough that she didn’t know the longstanding relationship between me and the burly but ill-kept fae who was probably still detained at the gate.
He must be livid.
“That’s what he claimed his name to be,” she answered warily. “Do you know him? Have the guards made a mistake?”
I rolled my eyes and snorted. “I’d say. He’s always allowed here. He used to live in the palace. Let him in.”
“In?” she echoed, as if I’d uttered a profane word. “Inwhere, Alpha?”
“Here. Show him to my suite—although I’m sure he knows how to get here without any guidance.”
Clearly baffled, the maid backed out of the bedroom, bowing her head, her cheeks both paling and reddening in unison somehow. “As you wish, Alpha.” She hesitated at the door. “Should I send extra guards?”
Offended at the suggestion that I couldn’t take care of myself, and that Saint was a threat, I bared my teeth in response, and she hurried away to obey my instructions as I padded toward my huge, walk-in dressing room to find an outfit for the day.
There was a meeting with the Council of Ministers, but I wasn’t needed for that. Goldhaven would continue without my presence as long as Gullifer was there to serve as my proxy. Or at least that’s what he told me in the reports, and I had no reason to doubt them. There were never any issues under my watch. Or Gullifer’s—whatever.
I was free to live my days as I best saw fit, enjoying my life the way an Alpha King should. I never did understand why the other Fae Kings of Mystara drove themselves to the brink of madness working themselves to the bone. There was so much more to life.
Humming, I continued to dress, selecting an olive green button-down and casual but stylish black cargo pants. As Ibrushed my heavy, dark hair back in the mirror, a familiar voice called out from the doorway. “You don’t age, do you?”
I whirled around to find my long-lost best friend smirking at me from the threshold of the dressing room, his arms folded over his burly chest. Eyebrow shooting, I scanned his healthy form, imagining the scrawny maid’s son who had once snuck through the palace halls, hoping to peck a scone from my leftovers before it made its way back to the kitchen compost. It was impossible to believe he was the same being, and yet he was a kindred soul.
“And I wouldn’t recognize you if I saw you walking down the street,” I countered, stalking toward him, my arms extended to give him a hearty embrace. “Because I haven’t seen you in months.”
“Oh, don’t start with your guilting shit,” Saint grumbled. “I get enough of that as it is.”
“What’s been keeping you away?” I insisted. “I’m just saying we miss you around here.”
“Work,” he replied, returning my bear-like hug before stepping back to run a hand nervously through his thick, dark hair. If we were on another continent, maybe where no one knew who I was, someone might have mistaken us for brothers.
Our hair was almost the same shade of chestnut, and while he was much broader in the chest than me, our heights matched exactly the six-foot-three mark. His eyes blazed an intense emerald, but despite the darkness of my pupils, I was told they could show just as much fervor. Mish mashed twins in another realm, perhaps. Or at least that’s how I saw Saint.
My eyes narrowed, head cocked to study him closer, my senses heightened as I recognized this wasn’t a social call, particularly not at this hour of the morning.
“How long have you been banished to the front gates tonight?”
“Oh… just a few hours,” he replied lightly. “I did try to call, but your phone must be off.”
I glanced toward my charging cell on my nightstand. I hadn’t even reached for it as I typically did when I woke. I’d been far too distracted with the dream or whatever had roused me from an already fitful sleep.
“There’s been a bit of a staffing change,” Saint commented, following my lead toward the sitting area of the suite. “They didn’t seem to want to hear that I was welcome here.”
My breakfast sat untouched, and I waved my hand for Saint to eat it. I no longer had an appetite for anything but what he was about to say. “And you haven’t been around much for anyone to recognize you,” I added. “That doesn’t help matters.”
He gave me a reproving look. “Well, I’m doing what I can to keep myself afloat in the city. I have responsibilities, Jace.”
