Last night Cade took my phone so it could have service here. I just finished getting ready for my tour of the kingdom. This morning he sent me a text saying they’d be waiting out front for me. When I found them, I noticed Stewart was with them. It was nice to see a second familiar face. With them were another girl I never met. “Stewart said you met last night, and this is Arma,” Cade introduced us.
Arma shook my hand. “I work in the garden.”
“That seems fun.” I was trying not to make it too obvious that I was nervous. All the friends I had back home made it difficult to socialize with.
“We’re going into the city by flight, do you know how to fly?” Arma asked.
Cade answered for me. “Don’t tell any of the other workers but her shifting abilities are sealed for now. She can ride on my back. I’m serious about secrecy.” He looked at me. “Everyone here is obsessed with gossiping, try to keep a low profile,” he warned me.
“You don’t have to tell me twice,” Stewart reassured us.
Arma joked, “You keep secrets up the ass, but you also gossip like the rest of them.” I’m sure Arma was included in that too.
I took this as an opportunity. “Like the secret you’re keeping about what Lexus was really doing last night.”
Arma gasped. “What secret are you keeping for Prince Lexus?? I tell you all my secrets.” She looked at Cade before continuing. “He’s the only one I tell secrets and I don’t tell him yours,” she cleared up.
Cade rolled his eyes before shifting into his dragon form and we ended up all climbing on. “Well Lexus was just sitting outside your room while I was cleaning,” Stewart reluctantly muttered. “He wasn’t really doing anything so I wouldn’t think anything of it. He told me not to say anything or I’d be fired so you guys can’t say anything. If you do, you’ll be risking my job which means I’m back on the streets or in the skies.” I guess this job was doing a lot for him financially.
“Aqua, don’t get involved with Prince Lexus,” Arma advised. “Just in case he was sitting out there waiting for you to make a move or something just don’t bother pursuing it.”
Her advice led me to believe maybe he had done this before. “It’s okay, I’m probably not his type anyways… I work for him now and he has his fiancée.”
Arma didn’t seem very convinced by her expression. “Hasn’t stopped him before.”
I wanted to respond but we dropped so quickly I was afraid we were crashing instead of landing. We climbed off quickly and I was practically sliding down. Cade spoke as soon as he shifted back to his human form. “Aqua don’t listen to Arma okay? Prince Lexus is my best friend, he loves Sadia so don’t buy into any thought you might have of him being interested in you. He wouldn’t be interested in someone who works for him. I might sound harsh, but I don’t want possible feelings to get in the way with our family’s work.”
It might have been already getting in the way. “Don’t worry I get it. I once dated a girl I worked with and it didn’t work out. I know how feelings can fuck up work.”
“You don’t just work with Lexus; you work for him.” If Cade took his work so seriously, why did he have a close friendship with someone he worked for.
I shrugged. “I get that too. I’m not even looking to be with anyone since I’m still trying to get over my ex-boyfriend.” I’m not sure how true that was anymore because I was over him. He was nothing compared to Lexus.
“Let’s stop all the lecturing and show Aqua around.” Stewart took the lead. “I love this kingdom, and this is just the central city. We can’t show you much today but we’ll start here.”
I looked around and noticed one big difference between the human world and the dragon world. Their buildings were all huge. They were all the sizes of the dragons; they could just walk in through the doors in dragon form, but the castle doors weren’t as big. “The first king and queen who designed the castle didn’t think we should enter in our dragon forms. That’s why the buildings are so wildly different. There was a time when our dragon form was seen as informal.” Cade answered my unasked question. “That’s what most outsiders wonder when they see the difference between the public buildings and the castle.”
I felt so small in this world, but I was small in comparison. I couldn’t shift and it drove me crazy. Shifters were walking side by side with some in their human forms and others in their dragon forms. “Why didn’t Vella come with us? Did you invite her?” Arma asked.
“We got into a big fight last night.” Cade looked away with a frown. “Things have just been weird lately.”
Arma put her hand on his shoulder. “Maybe you should consider breaking up with her.”
Cade pushed Arma’s hand away from him. “No, it’s not that serious Arma. We should be able to have better conversations about what's been going on. You don’t break up with someone because of a little arguing.”
We all sat down on a bench. “I wish we still had chosen mates; it would make relationships easier, but we’ve been abandoned.” Stewart hung his head.
Cade glared at Stewart. “The moon goddess would never abandon us, Stewart.” His expressions softened. “Times are just different now so we can find our own love.” Lexus found his own love, but he also was given me as a mate. The irony is cruel.
Arma elaborated, “The last generation who had mates had a forty percent rejection rate. So many of them found that they wanted to be with people who weren’t chosen for them, so Diana stopped choosing.” Until now and speaking of mates I started to sense mine was nearby. My palms felt sweaty, and I was a little embarrassed about the oversized clothes I was wearing since I didn’t have time to bring my own.
I looked around for Lexus as I spoke, “What if someone did have a chosen mate? Then what?”
“It’s up to them but everyone’s been used to choosing themselves.” Cade answered. “Who knows if anyone else would even believe them. The only proof they’d have is to mark each other and finish the mating process. Marks of true mates look different from the marks we get from the mates we choose ourselves. The only other way is if they rejected each other because then we’d all seen an X that stands for the rejection in the place the mark would be. When mates we choose reject each other the mate more just go away with no X.” Those two things haven’t been seen on someone’s shoulder since the last generation of chosen mates.” That’s what Lexus was talking about, I can see why he wouldn’t want it now.
Cade looked in the direction of Lexus who we all had noticed walking this way. I didn’t expect to see him again so soon. “I doubt we’d see someone having a mate any time soon though,” He ended the conversation. He stood up once Lexus approached us. “Is something wrong? You never come into the city.” Lexus glanced at me then looked back at Cade. “You could’ve invited me.” His tone gave off that he was annoyed. “We usually hangout on Saturdays anyways, I don’t mind the city too much.” Cade chuckled. “You’re right about that. Sorry for not inviting you. We just wanted to show Aqua around, I thought you’d find it boring.” Lexus eyes were fixated on me since Cade shifted the attention my way. “Oh, that’s kind of a waste of time.” He looked me up and down. “What with the outfit?” I frowned. “I don’t have my own clothes yet and it’s not a waste of time.” I looked around. “I’ve never seen a place like this before.” The beauty alone was enoug
I pulled away after we kissed. He stared down at me. “What?” I asked. I stared at his engagement ring and my chest got heavier. All I could do was be mad at myself. Lexus looked at his ring when he noticed I was. “It’s not your job to worry about it.” “Did you tell that to the last girl?” My eyes were watering up which made me even more mad at myself. Lexus sighed of annoyance. “No, I told her I’d kill her if anyone found out.” He rubbed the back of his head. “It was a different situation that I regret Aqua. Are you guessing or did someone tell you?” Maybe I shouldn’t be repeating what Arma, Stewart or Cade tell me. I don’t want to get anyone in any trouble. “I…” “It wasn’t Cade right?” Lexus changed his question. I shook my head. “No, no.” It wasn’t a lie since Arma implied it and not Cade. Cade was the one convinced Arma was wrong. “It was mostly a guess; they didn’t say anything with detail. You’re not going to follow through
The week of adjusting went by and I hadn’t seen Lexus at all. Maybe this was going to continue, and I wouldn’t have to worry about running into him. If I stay away from him then we’ll have no problems. Arma and Stewart made some time in the past week to hang out with me. They showed me around more so now I was more familiar with the castle and the city. They’d argue a bit sometimes, but I could tell they were close friends.I made sure to take my meds today since I forgot to take them yesterday. I needed to be able to concentrate on my new work. I don’t want to make a bad impression on my first full week of work.Today was my first day on the job and I had to meet Konn in the castles lounge. I guess I spoke too soon because Lexus was there. I did work for him so of course I’d have to see him on a regular basis. I had to ignore the pull of the mate bond. Cade was there too. “Morning Aqua.” They greeted me.“Mo
We flew to the pack house on Lexus’ back. During the ride I told Sadia about my intuition and abilities to see things happening on the physical plane in the present time. She was excited and named all the things she’d want me to do for her with my abilities when she becomes queen. They consisted of spying on people, light revenge, and a few harmless things. Oddly, they had nothing to do will running the kingdom but maybe she was just excited and getting ahead of herself. When we got there, I had an odd feeling. Something didn’t seem right. The house was huge and in the forest. “This is where you live?” I’m not sure how I’d react from seeing a werewolf for the first time in real life. I had seen some on tv and when I was younger dreamed of them a lot. “For now, but thankfully when I marry Lexus I’ll move into the castle.” She said as if she was counting the days. I don’t blame her… I would too. Lexus looked annoyed and I could only assume it was because
Lexus’s POV from earlier in the day After I left Sadia and Aqua together, I instantly regretted it. They already spend time together shopping, and I didn’t need them spending even more time together. If they got close, then that would mess up any chances I had with Aqua. Aqua asked me if I loved Sadia and if I were being honest, I would have told her I didn’t. I haven’t told anyone how I actually feel about Sadia, not even Cade. There’s no point because either way we’re staying engaged regardless about how I feel. Cade understands my relationship with Sadia but not how I feel about her. When we got to the conference room I was annoyed to begin with. “Let’s make this quick.” I sat down at the long table. “What else do you guys want Ruben?” Ruden was the son
Aqua’s POV After I learned that I had a second brother yesterday I decided to confront Konn. We met in the same place as yesterday morning when he assigned me my job. “Okay, Cade is assisting Lexus today, which mean-” “I’d like to spend time with you today,” I cut him off. Konn raised his eyebrows. “Alright, you can shadow me for the day. I’ll assign someone else to assist the princess today.” He wrote notes down on his clipboard. “Follow me.” I started to follow him down the hall. “I heard you have another son.” I thought it was weird he never mentioned it to me and neither did Cade. Konn kept walking without saying anything for a few minutes. “I do have another son. Gray is my youngest child. I didn’t mention him because I haven’t told him about you yet.” I think him not telling Gray about me was weirder than him not telling me about Gray. I had so many un
I stayed up late thinking because I felt like I had so much unresolved. I looked at my phone when it started ringing. It was an unfamiliar number, so I let it ring. I stared up at the ceiling thinking about my birth parents. I wanted to spend more time with Konn and learn more about my mother.I didn’t even know her name yet. When my phone rang again, I couldn’t ignore it, so I answered. It might have been important since they called twice in a row. “Hello?” “It’s Lexus.” I wasn’t sure how he got my number. I wouldn’t be able to believe he asked someone for it. “And? Why are you calling?” “I need a place to sleep.” He was asking to sleep in my room. That would be the comp
Monday came around sooner than I expected which meant I couldn’t avoid Lexus anymore, even though I was only successful avoiding him Sunday last weekend. I waited by his room so I could assist him. He might have been sleeping in since his first class didn’t start for another two hours. “Hey get back here!” A little girl yelled at another child who was running and slighting flying in his dragon form. Children were a lot smaller in their dragon forms but still a lot bigger than in their human forms. They were small enough to fit in the castle in their dragon forms unlike adults. “You can’t shift in here!”They still weren’t allowed to. Another girl came running from around the corner out of breath. “You guys wait!” She put her hands on her knees and panted. “You know I’m not as fast.” The first girl turned to her. “If I slow down for you, he’ll get away!” She continued chasing the boy. I watched the boy as he tripped and tumbled. He shi