Northern Realm Royal Dragons Shifter Boxset Bks 2-5

by Lisa Daneils

  Greyson shrugged, “The world can’t be populated with just weak humans. I haven’t been silent on the fact that I’m not one of you.”

  “Then what are you?”

  “I’m a shifter.”

  There was a collective intake of breath around them, but Greyson kept his eyes trained on Clark.

  “So you are now openly admitting that you are one of those… things. Is this a trap that you set up for us?”

  “No, you intellectually stunted bipedal mayfly. I’m a shifter, not a shape shifter. There is no part of me that is or has ever been human. Thank the divines.”

  Clark’s horse moved around uncomfortably as he tried to near Greyson. “I don’t know that there is a difference between them and you. You have already admitted you aren’t helping of your own volition.”

  Cinthia had moved her way up to them. “Um, Sir Newman… has anyone told you who you are talking to?”

  Trying to keep calm and hide his annoyance, the knight turned toward her. “Please, Lady—”

  “That’s Prince Greyson. Of the Golden Kingdom. The dragon shifters who have agreed to marry humans. You know, they already are helping us. He’s just being even kinder by helping us directly. What his reasons are is really irrelevant, right?” She smiled at him sheepishly.

  Clark’s expression was blank as he looked at her. It was obvious that he had no idea, and was now beginning to understand the condescending tone Greyson had been using. Getting his horse to back up a few paces, he bowed low from the saddle. “My most sincere apologies. I did not know. My attention has been on—”

  To Rhionnan’s surprise, Greyson waved it off, “It’s fine. Had I been a little less quick to take offense, I would have better explained who I am. In a way, that is a little less embarrassing,” he threw a look at Cinthia. “I wouldn’t expect the queen to take the time to explain who I am either. She’s too ashamed to admit she knows me. I should have realized sooner that she was trying to pretend this was all some horrible dream where she was once again forced to rely on me. It must be the worst thing she’s ever faced. Now, if you will excuse me, I’m going to keep monitoring their proximity to you.”

  “What was the recommendation you wanted to make?”

  “Keep your eyes open and walk in a diamond formation with the two ladies placed at the inner corners on the side. That will space out the men in a way that will confuse their feeble brains when they are in another form.”

  “Thank you, Prince Greyson.” With that, Clark began to command his men. Greyson walked away from them, disappearing over the hill before shifting and taking off. Rhionnan knew that he did that to keep from scaring the horses, a consideration that he originally had not understood until she explained it.

  Now here they were, the prince showing so much maturity and care, while she couldn’t even properly explain things so that they wouldn’t fight. Then she had left the role of peacemaker to Cinthia. Pulling out her journal, the queen opted to look like she was writing to discourage any of the men around her from talking as they moved forward. Her own inadequacies were getting clearer by the hour, and Rhionnan had no idea how to correct her current path.

  Chapter 6

  Losing the Thread of Rationality

  The rest of the day’s journey was uneventful. Greyson did not appear again, and the queen kept all discussions short, telling the men to stay focused on watching for their enemy instead of chatting. Though they had only been trying to comfort her, Rhionnan didn’t feel that she deserved it. With nothing productive to say, she felt it best to keep her sour thoughts to herself.

  They found an inn and the night passed without any further incident. To Rhionnan’s surprise, Greyson had actually gotten a room, but he did not spend any time talking with the humans. He barely looked at anyone, though he was far less insulting than he had been.

  When everyone else was busy unpacking and tending to their tasks, the queen went to his door. With a gentle tap, she kept looking around her, as if she didn’t want to get caught. She would have laughed at herself, but the thought of talking to him alone was creating mixed feelings. If nothing else, though, she wanted to thank him for assisting them, no matter what his reasons were.

  After knocking several times, she realized he was not going to answer. Then again, it was possible that he had left already too. Sneaking out of the inn, Rhionnan climbed up a small but sturdy lattice that was next to all of the windows at the back of the inn. His window was open, and she could see Greyson sitting at a desk, his back to her. It was clear he was deep in thought, and she hesitated to interrupt him. Deciding that it was better to disrupt him than to try to talk to him in front of people—she knew that he would already be emotionally hardened preparing to deal with them—the queen gave a light rap on the side of the window.

  Greyson looked to the door, giving Rhionnan a view of the side of his face. Instead of the anger or annoyance she expected, there was something more like pain on his face as the prince clearly knew who was trying to talk to him.

  Giving a shake of his head, he muttered something that she couldn’t quite make out beyond the word “best”, giving her no clue as to what he had actually said. Uncertainty gripped Rhionnan as she continued to watch him. She had wanted to thank him, to force the dragon shifter to understand she was grateful for his help even if he hated her, but looking at him now, Rhionnan realized that she was being selfish. She just wanted to see him; everything else was just an excuse to do that.

  Deciding it was best to leave him alone, the queen began to make her way back to the ground. Just a few feet from it, part of the lattice broke off in her hand, causing her to lose her balance. It wasn’t much of a fall, but she landed at an angle that caused an immediate pain to shoot up through her ankle.

  “Are you alright?” The concerned voice was like something from one of her dreams, and Rhionnan looked up into those beautiful, fiery eyes. The expression of concern quickly morphed into one of disdain. “Gotten so old or pampered you can’t climb anymore, huh? Maybe you shouldn’t be trying to spy on people through their windows.”

  Pushing herself off the ground, the queen retorted, “Well, you weren’t answering your door, which didn’t leave me much choice.”

  “If someone isn’t answering their door, it means that you should leave them alone.”

  “I couldn’t think of any other way to thank you since you hardly even look at me now.”

  “To thank me,” he sneered. “Oh, you have no need of doing that. Nothing I am doing now is for you.”

  “I know. But I wanted to thank you anyway. For protecting my men.”

  Greyson looked down at her, his expression difficult to read. “You’re welcome,” he finally responded.

  The queen began to push herself up from the ground, but toppled over when she tried to place her weight on her ankle. Before she hit the ground, a hand caught her. Greyson lifted her up, muttering, “Just as helpless as ever.”

  Rhionnan was frozen as he carried her to a chair and placed her carefully down on it. Before she had a chance to thank him, Greyson turned, shifted, and left.

  It was the second time in a few days where she had seen him in his dragon form, but this time she was able to get a better look at him. If she had thought that her mind had made him more impressive than he was, this second encounter reminded her that her memories simply had not done him justice.

  As he left, Greyson had stomped the ground, something that Rhionnan could not remember him doing in the past. He was just out of sight when a few of the men came running. The queen was quickly forced to come up with an excuse for why she was there and to try to find a way to get up without her injury being obvious. When Cinthia showed up, they sat outside and chatted for a bit before the lady-in-waiting suggested that they all dine outside.

  As the men seemed to be enjoying the evening, Rhionnan kept looking at the sky, wondering when Greyson was going to return. Fearing that she had driven him off, the queen could not enjoy the evening, so she excuse
d herself early. The men were having such a good time that they did not notice her slight limp.

  When they were preparing to leave the next morning, Greyson was nowhere to be seen.

  “Do you think we should go looking for him?” Clark asked. He looked around as he said, “I was told that he checked out last night. Since he didn’t join us for the gathering last night, he won’t know about our planned departure time.”

  Rhionnan immediately replied, “No. He isn’t here because he has gone to scout ahead.”

  “Did he tell you this?” There was something in the knight’s voice that sounded strange, but Rhionnan couldn’t quite figure out what it was.

  “No,” she said, stopping to look inquisitively at Sir Newman. “That’s just how he operates.” Hoping to keep the discussion short, she turned to leave, only to hear her knight trying to voice a question he had clearly been mulling over since Greyson had appeared.

  “Do… would it…” He was clearly itching to ask, but the knight ultimately was unable to ask the question that Rhionnan knew was on his mind. “Actually, now is not the time for that discussion. If that is what you believe, we should get moving. Perhaps we can speak later about some of my… concerns.”

  “Yes, of course.” Rhionnan had no desire to talk, but there were plenty of ways to keep the conversation from going where she did not want it to go once the knight tried to bring it up again. After all, they were in constant danger now, so there was plenty of room to keep the conversation away from her history with Greyson. “How long until we can leave?” Though her ankle was sore, she was able to walk almost normally. The tight boots also helped to keep her ankle from giving her too many problems. The real trick was going to be in mounting the horse; putting that much pressure on the ankle was going to be tricky without giving away the fact that she was injured.

  “It should only be a few minutes. I think Cinthia was trying to say goodbye to all of the animals in the barn.” His mouth quirked up at the excuse.

  Rhionnan covered her mouth to hide her laugh, “That woman just befriends everyone, doesn’t she?”

  “Indeed she does. If you would like, we can go ahead and mount. That way, when she is done, we can take off.”

  The queen allowed Sir Newman to help her onto the horse, successfully hiding the fact that her ankle hurt. Not too much later, the rest of the men and Cinthia had returned and were mounting their own horses. The group took off without any mention of Greyson, though Rhionnan noticed Cinthia looking around as the inn disappeared from sight. Clearly curious, the lady-in-waiting did not say anything about his notable absence.

  They were about an hour down the road when Greyson appeared in front of them. Sir Newman hurried his horse forward, something obviously on his mind. When he reached the dragon shifter, he dismounted and bowed low. “I am most sorry for my recent conduct, Your Majesty. Even if you were not a prince, you are only here to help us, and—”

  “Yes, yes,” Greyson muttered dismissively. “You already apologized yesterday.”

  “No, I want to give a proper apology. When I tried to talk to you last night, you did not answer the door.”

  “Yet that was not enough of a hint to tell you that I was not interested in talking.”

  “I deserve your coldness, but I would—”

  Greyson held up a hand, “I have no need for your apologies and really do not care. Right now—”

  A firm female voice cut through Greyson’s words, “Prince Greyson, this is no way to treat someone who is earnestly sorry for what has happened.”

  The prince almost snarled, “Cinthia, this has nothing to do with you, so do not get involved.”

  “It has everything to do with me, and you know it.”

  Greyson gritted his teeth, “Are you really wanting to say more? Right here? Right now?”

  There was a hint of something dangerous to his voice, but it was the sound of shrieking that caught everyone’s attention.

  Greyson’s hands balled into fists. “Because the only reason I am here in front of you is to warn you that you are about to be attacked. Save your apologies and scolding for a more appropriate time.”

  Turning, he shifted into his dragon form and pushed off the ground, his large wings easily lifting him up into the air. He was no sooner level with the tops of the trees than a shape shifter appeared. Greyson changed his trajectory so that it looked as if he were playing chicken with the creature. It shrieked at him, then tried to turn, enough of its mind still present to know that it would not win. Though it managed to miss him, the creature was right in the path of Greyson’s tail. He swatted the thing out of the sky, sending it bouncing across the road behind the group. Greyson swooped down and picked up the creature in his mouth. Turning, he aimed at a couple more flying in, knocking them out of the sky before they could breathe fire on the men.

  Suddenly, a few forms ran over a small outcropping on the other side of the road, heading straight for Greyson. As he turned to face them, figures dashed out of the woods, charging at Greyson from the other side. They were human when they emerged, but as they ran, their bodies contorted and shifted, horrific cries of anguish issuing from their mouths. Several turned into bears, and they bit into Greyson’s tail. A deafening roar vibrated the ground as he began to move his tail to shake them.

  Rhionnan knew that he was being careful with his movements to prevent knocking any of the creatures at the men. Realizing that he had wanted to clear the area so that he would be able to fight them off, Rhionnan shouted to the men, “Move forward! He doesn’t have enough room to fight. Move forward!”

  Sir Newman watched the action, his eyes wide at Greyson’s calculated maneuvers as he took on more than a dozen shape shifters. Shaken back to the present, he turned to the queen as her horse dashed forward. “We should help him!”

  “He’s a dragon. All you will do is get in the way.” Her eyes were trained ahead of her. “Call them to follow. If there are any shape shifters lying in wait ahead of us, we will take them.”

  As much as he wanted to argue, Clark couldn’t let the queen go forward on her own. Calling to the men, they charged forward, giving Greyson a wider berth to fight. The knight caught up to the queen and tried to reason with her, “I don’t like abandoning an ally like this. What if there is another wave?”

  “All the more reason for us to put distance between us and him. The prince wasn’t able to react as he should have because we were too close.”

  The knight slowed his horse, and to his surprise, the queen came to a complete stop. She said, “Keep your eyes out for more of them. The prince may be taking the brunt of it for now, but that doesn’t mean that we are safe.”

  “Yes, Your Majesty.” With a quick bow, he began to issue orders to get the men in a formation that would make it easier to counter attacks from either side.

  Cinthia stayed at the rear of the men, her eyes never leaving the fight. She was muttering something to herself, but Rhionnan could not understand what she was saying because of the commotion around them.

  Once they were out of the way, the fight didn’t last 15 minutes. Greyson blasted several of the shape shifters with a stream of fire, then smashed them with his tail to keep them from running off and setting fire to anything else. After making sure that all of the attackers were dead, he shifted and approached Sir Newman, who had spurred his horse forward. Rhionnan, Cinthia, and several of the group followed him.

  Disheveled-looking, Greyson gave a quick bow. “I apologize, knight, for having been so stubborn in my response. Instead of picking a fight, I should have started with the fact that the enemy was nearby. If you will forgive my habit, I am accustomed to chastising and ridiculing more than working alongside others.”

  Before Clark could speak, Rhionnan cut in, “Well, at least you recognize your faults now.”

  His eyes stayed focused on Clark as he said, “Yes. It’s nice to know that I still have that over you too. Knight, if you would please have the men—”

  Rhi
onnan tried to bite her tongue but found it impossible. “If you had been present this morning for—”

  “If I had stayed at the inn any longer, who knows how many other of you humans would have come knocking on my door. I left because I didn’t want you to get further injured continuing to try to climb into my window.”

  Rhionnan’s face turned beet red. “Why are you bringing that up?”

  “Did you even ask for help after I left? Or did you pretend you were fine? Judging by that glare, I would say that no one here even knew about your sprained ankle.” His eyes were flashing as he turned to face her. “Don’t worry, I will be out of your kingdom soon enough, so you won’t be tortured by my presence too much longer. But I would appreciate it if you wouldn’t seek me out as I’m simply trying to abide by what you wanted as much as possible. If you seek me out again, I will not promise that I will behave as kindly as I have up to this point.”

  “You will not threaten the queen,” Sir Newman had his horse walk between them.

  “Ah, yes, her literal knight, come to save her from her own stupidity. You have my blessing, sir knight. And in return, please keep your human queen away from me if it isn’t absolutely necessary. I have my own problems to contend with, and I don’t need to be dealing with yours.”

  With a stiff bow, Greyson began to turn.

  Before he shifted, Rhionnan noticed a tear in his royal coat, something that was next to impossible given how strong the material was. It was made to be as tough as a dragon’s hide. If that were torn…

  “Greyson, you are hurt,” she said.

  The men around her reacted, and a few questions were whispered behind her.

  The prince didn’t even turn. “Don’t worry, human, this kind of wound isn’t fatal to my kind.” With that, he shifted and took off.

  Rhionnan and Clark watched him disappear over a hill, their minds replaying the recent events.

  A soft voice broke into their silent reflections, “It looks like we are all treating him badly now. However, I recommend that you don’t go to him to unburden any more of your guilt trying to apologize to him. With those wounds, he needs to rest, which is impossible if you guys keep thinking about yourselves first.” Cinthia was looking into the distance, her expression entirely serious. Finally looking at them, she said, “Well, let’s go. There’s no point in sitting around here creating more work for him. Move it.”