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Hey, they’re your mates! I don’t mess around with taken guys. But you can’t blame a girl for enjoying the view.She added a winking emoji.Are you handling it okay? Is there anything you want me to send fromhere?
I considered, but we’d only just moved into our apartment. I hadn’t exactly accumulated a lot of possessions during my years living on the streets. Part of me longed to snuggle up under the crocheted blanket we’d spread on the back of the used couch we’d scored and feel that familiarity of home again. But I had other things to take care offirst.
It wasn’t just the avian estate up ahead. The fae monarch’s domain lay nearbytoo.
I hadn’t told Kylie about that part of this trip. Hadn’t even told her what I’d seen of my mom’s death, only that I’d seen it. If she knew I was about to go confront a bunch of murdering magical beings, she’dreallyfreakout.
What was the point in worrying her when she was too far away tohelp?
“Are we there yet?” Marco called from the seat ahead of me with a mock-childish voice. I gently kicked the seatback, and he shot an amused smile myway.
Aaron chuckled where he was sitting at the front in his usual spot as navigator. “Almost. Why are cats always sorestless?”
“Because we know we have so much to contribute to the world, and can’t stand to be held back,” Marco declared. He propped his feet against the driver’s seat in front ofhim.
Nate, who was sitting in that seat, made a gruff sound of dismissal. “I don’t remember you contributing a whole lot tothistrip, other than picking out the most expensive dishes at the restaurant lastnight.”
Marco waved him off. “I just spent a week on a mountain eating non-perishables. Including food that was outright poisoned. Wealldeserved a good meal afterthat.”
No one looked at me as he said that, but I felt the shift in attention all the same. All of the guys except West had offered to keep me company in the back seat, but I’d told them I wanted a little time to myself to think and chat with Kylie. I knew they were still worried about my reaction to finding out about Mom’s death. I hadn’t wanted to eat a whole lot in the restaurant, true. I just wanted to get out here and see some justicedone.
As if he’d picked up on that thought, Aaron directed his voice toward me. “As soon as we arrive, I’ll send one of my people to arrange an audience with the fae monarch. It shouldn’t take long for her torespond.”
“And I’m sure they’ll be so happy to entertain us,” West grumbled where he was sitting besideMarco.
I ignored him. “Thank you,” I said toAaron.
The salt smell in the air thickened. The SUV pulled up to a wrought-iron gate set in a high stone wall. My pulse kicked up a notch. Instinctively, I slipped my hand into my pocket to squeeze Mom’s locket. The solid metal made me feel slightly moregrounded.
I think I’d better say my good-byes for the moment,I texted to Kylie.It looks like I’m just aboutthere.
Go be the best dragon shifter queen they’ve ever seen!shereplied.
I smiled, but as I put away my phone, I didn’t feel at all queenly. I was wearing a tee and jeans and no make-up, my body was still sore from all that hiking up and down the mountain. I had no idea what to even expect from a shifterestate.
Aaron had explained that the kin-groups each had a sort of center of operations, the avians in the northwest, the canines in the northeast, the felines in the southeast, and the assorted group Nate ruled over in the southwest. The alphas traveled throughout the country as they needed to, but they met with their advisors and kept their records on the estate. Any shifter who needed help could always show up there and know they’d be taken careof.
The dragon shifters had an estate too—one that had been left vacant for sixteen years. Right smack in the middle of the country, so it didn’t favor any of the kin groups over the others. That was where my entire family had been when the rogues had launched their firstattack.
My gut twisted at the thought of going back to that place. I had happy childhood memories from my first five years, growing up there... but my last memories of the house and the grounds around it were full of violence andpanic.
Trills of music filtered through the sides of the van. I peered out the window. A huge mansion had just come into view up ahead. All its windows shone with inner light amid the deepening evening. White marble columns framed the double doors, and sculptures of bird-like figures clustered along the eaves of the angledroof.
The trees lining the drive leading up to the mansion were strung with sparkling lanterns. A massive courtyard lay between the forested grounds and the mansion’s broad front steps. In that courtyard, a swarm of figures had gathered. They were whirling in time with the music, swinging lights of theirown.
Then someone must have caught sight of the SUV. A cheer rose up. The dancers stilled to watch ourarrival.
Aaron glanced back at me. “My kin are all looking forward to meeting you,” he said. “They wanted to make your first visit herespecial.”
I hugged myself, trying to contain my nerves. These shifters wanted to like me. I was their alpha’s mate. But stepping out into this excited crowd was a far cry from being questioned and pawed over by a small group of villagers in the shifter town we’d stopped at on our way to the mountain. There had to be hundreds of people gathered together beforeus.
“I don’t know what to say to them,” I said. “Or what to do.Or—”
“Just be yourself. Be our Princess of Flames.” Marco aimed his sly grin at me. “No one could ask for anything more thanthat.”
I wasn’t so sure about that. But as Nate drew the SUV to a stop at the edge of the courtyard, I pulled my back upstraight.
This was it. This was the start of the whole rest of my life, as the dragon shifter who held the four shifter kin groups together. I’d fought to be here. And now I was going to damn well make as much of it as Icould.
