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Thad watched him with a mild expression and quirked eyebrow. He looked very much like a politician’s son, the way he was sitting in Remi’s armchair with his ankle resting on his knee, his blond hair perfectly in order in spite of the chaos earlier that night.
After a second, Thad let out a sigh. “I mean, you’re the crown prince, man. Why don’t you just order them to leave you alone?”
“Because they work for my parents,” Remi said, his voice half a growl. He tossed the lid over the third case and moved on to the fourth—his shoes. “And they’re unreasonable, overprotective assholes. One tiny kidnapping attempt, and they act like it’s the end of the world. It was probably just some dickhead who wanted ransom money, and it’s not like we couldn’t afford to pay it.”
Thad’s second eyebrow joined his first as he watched Remi load up his case with pair after pair of shoes. “So, uh, how long are you going to be gone?”
“Not long, if I have anything to say about it,” Remi told him. He glanced down, then flushed a bit and offered Thad a sheepish grin. “I don’t like to leave my favorite pairs behind.”
“Bro. I’m not judging,” Thad said, waving his hand. “My dad gets so pissed whenever we take our ski vacation because we need a whole separate car for all me and my sister’s crap.”
Remi managed a smile in spite of himself and the current situation. But hearing the word sister made him think of his own. The twins were barely four and completely helpless. He didn’t like the idea of being so far away from them, especially if someone was targeting their family.
He really did feel suffocated by his parents some days. As far as kingdoms across the world went, Midlona was fairly innocuous. They mostly traded in Siren Water, which gave most Supes a feeling of euphoria—nicknaming it love potion. Humans were barely affected, but they still craved the shit, and Midlona’s economy was thriving. The only real controversy happened long before Remi was born when his mom fell in love with a scholarly, second-born human prince whose elder brother had nine kids, which effectively removed him from ever taking the throne.
As Remi grew up, his dad had always told him he’d never wanted the crown, and it was only the love he had for his wife that changed his mind about taking on that kind of responsibility.
Remi used to dream about a love like that. Hell, he still did. He wanted to fall head over heels for someone who he’d willingly give up a kingdom for. But he’d only had the one relationship, which had been thrilling at first, considering that Oz was a TA and forbidden fruit.
He was also one of the only Supes on campus, which was why Remi was drawn to him in the first place. Ozias was good-looking and nice, and there was an edge of danger about him, considering he was Nephilim, and they were notorious for being both powerful and unpredictable. Remi assumed there was a hidden, tantalizing darkness under Oz’s quiet, nerdy façade.
And maybe there was, but it was obvious after six months that he had no plans to show that side to Remi. Ever. Remi did his best to antagonize him into hate sex, needle him into showing his power—anything he could think of to get Oz to come to bed with a little bit of edge.
Remi fantasized about those big hands taking him by the throat and putting him on his knees and…
Yeah.
Oz had just been… kind. He’d been sweet and careful with Remi, constantly checking in and never moving beyond second base. Remi wanted more though, and it was clear Oz had no interest in that.
Remi let his friends call Oz a freak and whatever boring, banal insults they could come up with only because he was frustrated, but the truth was, he was just afraid that everyone was going to be like Oz. That every person he fell for would see him as some weak, delicate princeling who needed protecting.
He was a Siren, after all—and only half at that. His single ability was a half-potent Siren Voice and Song that he wasn’t allowed to use outside of Midlona’s borders lest he start an international incident.
“Yo. Are you going to be okay?” Thad asked him, shattering his inner crisis monologue.
Remi looked up and affected a smile, hoping it looked like his usual lazy, smug grin. “I’m fine. Just annoyed, you know?”
Thad gave him a somber nod. “It happens to the best of us. Don’t stress about it. One time, my dad got this string of death threats against his entire family, and he made me miss out on homecoming week.”
“Shit,” Remi said. “Who did he piss off?”
“Oh, you know. The leftist assholes who think that every single being in the world should be able to walk around totally unchecked. But, I mean, you know me. You know I don’t have a problem with Supes. You’re my best friend.”
Remi nodded in spite of the uncomfortable sensation rising in his gut. It was happening a lot more with Thad lately, but he shoved it down because Thad and his fraternity brothers were his only friends and his chance to be fucking normal for once.
“And my dad’s just like me. I mean, we have tons of Supes working for our house. He just thinks there should be some legislation passed that protects people who can’t protect themselves. I mean, shit, imagine if Dragons were allowed to just walk free. Or Demons? Hellhounds, bro?”
Remi’s stomach twisted. He’d never met a Hellhound, but they had Dragons working for their personal security team. And there was no way in hell Thad didn’t know that Greg was a Demon after all this time.
“So yeah, those animal rights activists got all up in arms about his vote and started threatening my whole family. Obviously, it blew over,” Thad said, waving his hand like he didn’t have a care in the world. “Your parents will stop panicking eventually.”
Remi blew out a puff of air and glanced around his room. It looked trashed from the way he’d been packing, but whatever. He had a service to take care of it. The only thing that mattered was that he had his favorite things ready to go and that he would follow Thad’s advice and just wait until the storm passed.
Then he could get back to his regularly scheduled program of pretending like this wasn’t just a pause in his destiny before his role and his title took over and erased every chance he had to be just some guy.
2
SUNSHINE
