by Ford, Rinna
“Hi, Irna,” I grinned and opened the door wider, allowing her inside. “Come on in! We’re almost ready.”
Before she had a chance to step a single foot over the threshold, Xan was walking out of the bathroom with a purpose. He pushed the sleeves of his black henley up his corded forearms and gazed upon our guest with speculation. Even being sweet, Xander Liu was an intimidating man, but when he was in full protection mode, he was downright scary. Poor Irna didn’t stand a chance with Xan’s constant state of distrust he had going on.
I smacked him with the back of my hand and gave him a ‘knock it off’ glare before stepping in between him and Irna, effectively cutting him off. I gently pushed her out the door and looped my arm with hers when she turned to walk down the hallway. The bedroom door closed and Xan got in step behind us.
“So tell me, what can we expect down there?” I pointed toward the stairs with my head, indicating I meant the gathering of people on the floor below us. “Will it be a lot like dinner last night?”
As the words slipped out of my mouth, I realized Irna wasn’t at dinner the night before, at least not at the dining room table. Where was she?
“Huh?” She stopped and looked at me questionly. “Oh! Yeah!” Her face lit up with recognition, and she started walking again.”Everyone will eat together at the big table, but you’ll need to help cook or clean. That’s why I came to get you two early. You need to decide how you’ll help out at breakfast.” Irna suddenly looked nervous again as her eyes drifted down to the floor in front of her. “I mean, they don’t assign chores, but everyone is expected to help out.”
“Uh, cooking?”
I smiled at her, hoping to lighten the mood. Xan snorted a laugh behind us. He never got to witness my spectacular cooking disasters, but he knew of them from my uncles. I could burn water. Seriously. It was tragic.
“Yeah, why?” Irna looked back and forth between Xan and me. “You don’t know how to cook? You’re a caster, right? You’re Devlin’s niece, so you have to be. Most casters are incredible cooks since one of the skills they possess is the ability to make potions and such.”
I glanced back at my mate and took a deep breath. This was my chance. My chance to tell someone here who I truly was. Dev spoke highly of her when he mentioned her before, so I hoped she was trustworthy. Either way, she was a good person to start with. At least, that was what I hoped.
We reached the top of the stairs, but instead of walking down them, I pulled Irna to the side and looked at Xander again. “Give us a minute?” I asked him.
Irna was already a little nervous and I thought my best chance was to tell her who I was would be without Mr. Intimidating looming over her. He raised his eyebrows in question, then they lowered when, I assumed, he came to the same conclusion.
He cupped my upper arm and leaned in, kissing me on the forehead. “See you at breakfast.” Xan then walked down the stairs, giving Irna and me some privacy.
“What? What’s going on, Emelia?”
Irna gently pulled out of my grasp and backed away a step.
“Nothing bad. I swear!” I held up my hands in surrender. “I just thought you’d talk to me easier without him hanging around. I love the big dragon, but even I think he’s a bit terrifying.” I smiled, trying to reassure her, which seemed to make her relax a bit.
“Okay. What do you want to talk about then?”
I opened and closed my mouth as I tried to figure out the best place to start. “My uncle mentioned you once,” I began. She automatically stiffened, but I continued. “He told me of the mate fate sent him and how she was gracious enough to know it wouldn’t work out. He only said good things, Irna, so I’m going to trust you with something important.”
She scrunched her eyebrows, but nodded her head once.
I shifted my stance, knowing this was it as anxiety hit me full force.
“I’m not exactly what you think I am, Irna. I mean, yes, I’m a caster because my mother is a caster, but I’m also something else. A dragon shifter. My father was a dragon like Xan.”
She began shaking her head and backed all the way far wall.
“Mento menilla.”
I spoke the incantation out loud, letting Irna see the different colors of my aura. She stared at me with wide eyes as she tracked the different aspects of me. As it sunk in, she started to full-on panic.
“That’s, that’s impossible, Emelia! You can’t be both!” she stuttered.
I took a step forward and held my hands out. “But it is true. You can see it for yourself.”
She began pacing back and forth in front of me.
“You don’t understand, Emelia! It, it’s medically impossible! Paranormals from different species are unable to reproduce with one another. They’re not, not compatible! Your existence goes against everything I’ve learned up to this point! Even with...”
Her words died off and I took a deep breath as her words sunk in, filing them away to think about later, and held both of her shaking hands in mine.
“Irna, you need to calm down,” I told her.
“Calm.” She nodded her head slowly and took deep breaths in and out, relaxing herself as much as possible.
More and more voices were drifting up the stairs from the first level of the house, indicating it was breakfast time.
“We need to go,” she told me, “but I want to know more. I want to know everything! Emelia, I need to study you! You could be the key to helping mixed supernatural couples conceive. You could be the key to everything!”
I took a deep breath. Did I want to be poked and prodded in the name of science? No, not really. But what if I could help bring about a better system in the supernatural community? What if the races could not only coexist peacefully, but have the freedom to love whomever they choose? It could be the key to getting my own happiness as well. How could I say no to that?
But it wasn’t just me I needed to consider. Xan… and Ronan were a part of this too. Also, any children that were conceived from a mixed pair could end up like me with two mates. On a good day, the idea of juggling more than one mate was difficult. What would other people think?
I looped my arm through Irna’s and began leading her down the stairs.
“I’ll think about it,” I informed her. “I mean, I’d be happy to tell you more, but I’m not sure I want to be studied like a lab rat.”
“That’s not what I mean at all! I’d take a little blood, but that’s it!”
“Irna, I’ll think about it. Okay? I’m sorry, but that’s the best answer I can give you right now.”
She sighed and nodded her head, but I could see that she wasn’t going to give up. Maybe picking her to be the first person I told about myself was a mistake.
We found Xander picking up a couple of platters of bagels to take into the dining room. I separated myself from Irna and approached him, giving him a quick kiss. When I turned around, she was nowhere to be seen.
“How did it go?” he whispered to me.
I shrugged. “Well, she believes me.”
“And?”
“She’s a genetic scientist, Xan. She wants to study me.”
“I hope you told her no. You did tell her no, right?”
He gazed down at me with worry. I picked my hand up and smoothed his forehead with my thumb.
“I told her I’d think about it. There’s a lot to consider, but I think we should talk about it later.”
I cut my eyes around the room and saw there were several people milling around. I felt like I may have made a mistake telling Irna about me, so I was beginning to second-guess my plan to tell others in the house about me.
Xan nodded, understanding my hesitancy to talk more out in the open and leaned down to give me a kiss.
“Let’s go eat. We’ll talk more later. Yeah?”
I nodded my head and he kissed me one more time before turning and walking out of the kitchen.
“Hey, new girl!” I whipped my head around, stopping in my tracks and s
aw a guy I recognized from dinner the night before. He didn’t appear angry or snotty, so I raised my eyebrows in question. “You helping, or what?” he then asked. He gestured toward a couple of pitchers of juice.
“Oh!” Realization hit me. He wanted me to take them into the dining room. I scooped them up, one for each hand and smiled at the guy before carrying them to the massive table.
People were already seated around it, Di being one of them. However, Irna was nowhere to be seen.
I gave Di a weak smile as I put a pitcher down on each end of the table before sliding into an empty seat next to Xander. He was already filling up his plate, but I wasn’t hungry.
He scooped up a forkful of eggs and stopped it halfway to his mouth when he saw I made no effort to add food to my plate.
“Eat, Emi,” he told me in a low voice. “You’ll need your strength in case we have to jet out of here quickly.”
I rolled my eyes, but leaned forward and took an orange out of one of the fruit bowls. I hated to admit it, but he could be right. There was a fifty-fifty chance it could all go completely sideways if Irna continued with her need to study me, or if the others in the house didn’t accept me.
Not wanting to think about it, I robotically began peeling the orange and I let my mind drift. I began to think about Ronan and what he’d said the last time I saw him. I thought about him a lot along with the messed up situation we were in.
Pieces of orange peel dropped gently to the plate while I played his words over and over in my head. Was he really on my side? Would he choose me over the Council? His life’s aspirations? My heart hurt, like it did every time I thought about my caster mate.
I stared off absently and realized there was nothing left to peel. I looked back at Xan and saw he was watching me with a somber expression. I smiled up at him, trying to convince him I was okay, even though I wasn’t. I would never be whole without both of my mates beside me. I knew it was unfair to him, so I kept it to myself. At least, I tried to. Sometimes I felt like Xan understood my feelings almost better than I did, by the way he always seemed to be attuned to them. Especially in those moments when I wanted to keep them to myself.
I nudged him with my elbow and broke eye contact, my attention shifting to the orange in my hands as I peeled off a piece and popped it into my mouth. I ate every bite of my orange, as well as the food that somehow magically appeared on my plate when I wasn’t looking, thanks to the giant dragon sitting to my left.
Unlike dinner the night before, breakfast was a quiet ordeal. Even Di seemed to keep her mouth shut while we all gained our energy for the morning. It was as if everyone knew I was already at my limit for the day, even though it had just gotten started.
But I knew the peace brought by the first meal of the day wouldn’t last. After all, I hadn’t had a single peaceful day since becoming myself again. What would make me think this day would be any different?
Chapter Six
Breakfast clean up was just as awful as I imagined it would be. I mean, it could have been worse, but no one enjoys washing a bunch of dirty dishes, especially when they only dirty one or two, at the most, themselves. But until my path became more clear, I’d have to live with the dishes and the constant pruny hands that came with doing the stupid chore.
Xan thought the whole thing was pretty funny, chuckling and smirking at me as I groaned every time someone brought me another dish to wash. Since he helped put breakfast together, he didn’t have to clean up, but it didn’t mean he didn’t want to park himself on a stool by the kitchen island and watch me suffer through it.
After what seemed like an endless supply of dishes washed, my mate and I walked out to the backyard to try and explore. We didn’t get much of a chance the day before, and we both wanted to get the lay of the land, so to speak. You know, in case we needed to make a quick exit.
“Xander! Emelia!”
We had only gotten a few feet off of the patio when we heard our names called out. Xan and I both turned around to see Grayson come out of the back door followed by two others. Shifters. But what they were exactly, I couldn’t tell.
“This is Benson and Trey,” he told us, motioning to the two shifters behind him.
“Hey guys,” I smiled, trying to play nice. Xan just nodded his hello to both men but otherwise stayed silent.
Sensing the uncomfortable situation, Grayson cleared his throat. “Uh, how are you guys settling in?”
I held up my hands to show him my pruny fingers and he and his friends all chuckled.
“It does get better,” Benson smiled. “I promise.” He almost purred as his eyes raked over me in a more than friendly way.
Xan slid in front of me and growled menacingly, making the three in front of us back up.
“Easy, man,” Grayson held up his hands in surrender, then elbowed his friend behind him. “Ben, knock it off! They’re a mated pair, dumbass!”
“What? How? I thought you said she was Devlin’s niece!”
Grayson turned his attention back to me as I stepped out from behind Xan. He was silently asking me what he should do. I shook my head toward him, because I didn’t want someone else telling others about me when they didn’t know the whole story. I needed to handle it on my own terms and then let the chips lie.
Xan grabbed my hand and squeezed it gently, letting me know he understood where I was at.
“I am Devlin’s niece,” I told him. “I’m a caster like my uncle and my mom, but I’m a shifter too. My father was a dragon shifter, so I’m both.”
I raised my chin and kept my eyes on Benson, showing I was telling the whole truth.
He laughed and Trey joined in with him.
“Nah. That can’t be right,” Benson smirked. “There are no half-breeds.”
I shrugged my shoulders and took a step forward. “Believe what you want. I really don’t care.” I looked at Grayson than up to Xan. “Excuse me, guys. I need to work on shifting at will, and my mate needs to help me.”
I turned and began walking, tugging Xander behind me.
“That bitch has to be lying,” the shifter with a death wish said a little too loud.
Xan stopped walking and tried to turn around, but I kept pulling him forward.
“Would you shut the fuck up?” I heard Grayson reply to his friend. “I know for a fact she’s not lying, man. And now you’ve gone and pissed off her big dragon mate with your stupidity.”
There was a beat of silence then I heard Benson’s annoying voice from a little further away.
“What do you mean you know for a fact? How do you know?”
“Shut up, Ben!”
That came from a different voice, probably Trey, as the three walked back into the house.
I took in a deep breath and let it out, letting the stress flow out of me once we met a large cropping of trees next to the rocks that overlooked the rolling waves below us.
“You didn’t have to tell them,” Xan turned his penetrating gaze on me. “Why did you do it?”
“Because, like you said yesterday, the more people who know a secret, the harder it is to keep. A few people here already know at least part of my truth and I wanted to control the narrative. If people are going to talk about me, I want it to be the truth. They’re already scared of us, and I still believe we need help. More now than ever.” I wrapped my arms around his waist and looked up at him. “Please tell me you are still with me. I need your support as much as I need you.”
He moved his hand from my waist and flicked me on the arm. I winced and backed away from him, rubbing the sore spot on my bicep.
“Fucker! Why did you do that?”
He leaned back against a tree and crossed his arms, annoyed. “Oh, that hurt, did it?”
“You know it did!” I was getting pissed off.
“Don’t ever ask me if I’m still with you ever again, you hear me? That shit hurt more than my flick on your arm. I don’t deserve your doubt. Not now or ever.”
My anger simmered when I reali
zed what I had said with my question. I didn’t mean it like it sounded. I never really doubted him. I just needed reassurance.
I looked down at the ground. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it the way it sounded. I know you are with me. I, I just, I don’t know. Honey, I’m scared, terrified even. I just wanted to hear you say it out loud so your words could help me feel better. I’ve always been alone. It’s hard to get used to the fact I have someone who loves me unconditionally, and I needed reassurance. I won’t ever ask again, okay?”
I peeked up at him and saw his expression had softened.
“Well then, I’ll make sure to tell you how much I love you every chance I can then. Does that sound good to you?”
I fell into his arms and nodded into his chest. No crying because I was done with crying, but the emotion sat heavy between us.
He loved me. He loved me. I kept repeating the words over and over in my head, hoping they would sink in and I would just believe it.
Several minutes passed as my mate held me. Neither of us spoke or even shifted our positions as the wind whipped around us.
“Do you really want to work on shifting?” he then asked. “Because I’d be more than happy to help. I know how much your dragon likes me.”
My dragon nudged against my subconscious at our mate’s words and I lightly laughed. She really was a big softie for him. She snorted at me, but I knew there wasn’t any heat behind it. She knew I was being truthful.
“She loves you almost as much as I do,” I smiled. She began rumbling in my chest at the almost part and I laughed out loud.
“I bet she loved that you just said that, huh?” He laughed with me.
“Oh yeah. But I don’t think fully shifting is a good idea right now, do you? Besides, I think I have that down. Can you help me partially shift? I haven’t done that before.”
He chuckled again. “Yeah, I can do that.”
