“I’m working on it,” I said, trying really hard not to glance at my guards.
“The sooner you have a mate, the sooner you will be safe. My offer is still open.”
“Please,” I begged him, “let’s not open old wounds.”
“What do you think happened as soon as I saw you,” he whispered into my ear. He kissed my cheek and vacated the chair beside me. I watched him leave, going to a table with Thor, Tobias, Lorenzo, and a few others I did not know.
“What was that about?” Deryn asked.
I looked at him and was shocked to see that he wasn’t mad, but curious.
“Nothing,” I whispered and clutched at my chest. Ezio had been the best friend I needed after Martin. We would have mated, but I wasn’t ready at the time. Plus, he had gotten hurt protecting me and I had left before he was killed.
I tugged on each of our four bonds, reassuring myself with their metaphysical presences since we couldn’t touch.
They relaxed a bit and we all turned to watch the kings and elders walk in. There were a few other older males I did not recognize with them, and all eleven took seats at the long head table.
Dan’s eyes roved across the attendees before stopping on me, a smile replacing his scowl.
The older male in the center stood and the room silenced.
“That’s Amos,” Deryn whispered. “He’s the Leader of the Summit.”
“Welcome to the Summit. Thank you, representatives, for attending. This year marks our two thousand five hundredth Summit!” Amos announced.
Everyone clapped.
“We will convene on business for the first three days, then we will hold our tournament. This year, the prize is extremely valuable, one that I know our strongest will be fighting for. However, I won’t announce the prize until the first day of the tournament. Now, let the feast begin!”
Servants brought out silver platters of food and set them in front of us, making us wait a beat before they lifted the lid and showed us our meals. Prime rib, cheesy mashed potatoes, broccoli, and pesto pasta.
“It smells amazing,” I drooled, and ripped a piece of meat off, tossing it in my mouth. “It tastes amazing.”
We didn’t talk as we ate, and I surprised the guys by asking for seconds when they ordered theirs. Not only did I order seconds, but I finished them.
Dessert came and I enjoyed my chocolate pudding slowly, letting it melt in my mouth.
“This is the longest she’s ever been quiet,” Nico said with a playful smile.
I continued my quietness until I finished my dessert. All I wanted was to curl up and take a nap now. However, I didn’t get that option since it was now time to dance.
The tables disappeared and before they could discuss who was dancing with me first, Martin pulled me out onto the dance floor.
“When was the last time we danced?” he asked me.
“Senior prom,” I answered with a smirk as I recalled that night.
His smile slipped and he whispered, “You know that I only agreed to the witches’ cost to save you, right? That I loved you-”
I put my finger over his lips. “I know. And I’m happy for you and Sharla. Plus, I love them,” I said, knowing he would understand that I meant the princes.
“I can tell,” he said, pulling my hand away from his face.
We spun around the dance floor, two friends enjoying each other’s company and having a wonderful time.
“My turn,” Nico said, grabbed my hand, and spun me away.
“Hello, sparkles,” I said with a wide smile.
He shook his head. “If you weren’t so pretty, I might get offended.”
“My looks have nothing to do with it.”
“Rhys had to leave to cool down,” he whispered.
“Why? What happened?” I asked, worried about my dragon.
“He couldn’t handle how Ezio and you interacted. Deryn left too. The love in his eyes…it is hard to see our most feared and violent fighters fawning over you and professing their love.”
“I-”
“You haven’t done anything wrong. Though, perhaps next time you should let us know the extent of your previous relationships.”
“Jo,” Yukio gasped, releasing the hand of the female elf he had been dancing with to grab mine and pull me away from Nico. “Jo, is it really you?”
“Hey, Yukio. It is me,” I said and hugged him.
“Who is this human?” the female elf asked, annoyance obvious.
“Princess Jolie of the Four Clans,” I said in introduction with a smirk.
“Oh, now you use the title,” Nico mumbled behind me.
“Dance with me,” Yukio ordered, pulling us into the flow of dancers without waiting for my agreement.
“You look well,” he commented.
“As do you.”
“Become my mate,” he said, making me stumble.
“What? This is the first time that I have seen you in a decade.”
“Does it feel like we have been apart that long?”
No.
“I can’t. I-”
“You aren’t worthy of her,” Zelphar hissed, stopping us in the middle of the dance floor.
“Zelphar!” I gasped.
“You think you are worthy of being her mate?” Yukio scoffed.
“Neither of you is taking her as a mate,” Ezio growled, abandoning his dancing partner to join the argument.
“Neither are you,” Deryn growled. Rhys, Nico, and Fox stood right behind him. When had Deryn and Rhys come back?
They started closing in on each other, fists clenched, tension thick.
“Guys!” I yelled, getting all of their attentions’. “Stop this right now. You know I hate this shit. I’m not a commodity and I make my own decisions.”
All looked cowed, thankfully.
“Martin!” I called. “Thor!”
Both appeared next to me.
“Yes, Princess?” Martin asked.
“Thor, keep them from fighting over me.”
“As you wish, Princess,” he said and bowed to me.
“Martin, take me to my room.”
He held out a bent arm and I put my arm through it.
“Good night, gentlemen,” I said and marched out of the ballroom with my head held high.
Once we stepped out into the hall I whispered, “I need to get word to Tobias to come to my room to talk to me. He seemed really nervous and like it was important.”
“You sure about that?” Martin asked.
“Why wouldn’t I be?” I asked.
“He’s one of the craziest fighters I know. He’s known for his viciousness.”
“He won’t ever hurt me. Plus, he asked to talk to me and I promised I would talk to him,” I explained.
“Fine, I’ll have someone find him and send word to come see you. I’m not leaving the room with him there, unless one of the princes comes,” he told me with a tone that held no room for bartering.
“Fine.”
Once in my room, I changed quickly into comfortable pajamas and put some socks on to keep my feet warm. Martin sent word via a servant and then we waited in the room together.
“You sure caused quite the raucous. I don’t think I’ve ever seen fighting at the feast before.”
“I didn’t do anything. Those idiots did it by trying to stake a claim to me when they didn’t have one,” I grumbled.
“We don’t have one?” Rhys asked from the doorway.
I sighed loudly. “I wasn’t talking about you four and you know it.”
They could be so frustrating sometimes. Obviously, they knew I wasn’t talking about them. Plus, we had to keep our relationship a secret, or this would have been easily fixed.
“What are you doing?” Deryn asked me, stopping in front of my chair.
“Waiting for Tobias to come. He wanted to talk to me,” I explained.
“And you don’t know what he wanted to talk to you about?” Deryn asked.
“No. He jus
t made me promise to talk to him tonight.”
“You seem worried,” Fox commented.
“He was acting scared or nervous. Tobias never acts like that,” I explained.
“She’s right about that,” Deryn agreed.
“How did you tame the twins?” Rhys asked.
“I didn’t tame anyone,” I snapped.
“You had our most terrifying males ready to fight over you,” Fox said.
“That’s because they are stupid and as stubborn as you all,” I argued.
“I’m going to find Tobias,” Martin said, leaving quickly.
“They are all in love with you, still,” Deryn said.
“I made it clear when I left them, that it was over.”
“What offer was Ezio talking about?” Nico asked.
“That’s personal.”
“You are supposed to be open and honest with us,” Fox reminded me.
“You want to be open and honest? Fine, I want names of every female you have been with, especially if they are here,” I ordered them.
That shut them up.
“You’ve got my list, so give me yours.”
“Do you really want that?” Rhys asked.
“Yes, I want to know which of those females you’ve slept with so when they touch you, I can plan their slow and painful death.”
My teeth had changed, my canines lengthening and thickening.
“Easy,” Deryn whispered to me.
“You think I am,” I snapped, my anger continuing to grow out of control.
“Jolie,” Fox whispered, using his power on me.
Why was I so mad? Sure, the situation was irritating, but I was pissed, way beyond what I should have been.
“None of us is mad, right?” Deryn asked the guys, who all just looked shocked. “Didn’t think so.”
I paced across the room, trying to calm down. Rhys reached out for me, but I jerked away from him. “Don’t touch me right now.”
Thor knocked and then walked in, his eyes focused on me. “Jo.”
“What?” I growled, facing him.
He shifted and rubbed against my legs like a cat.
“No,” I snarled, pushing him away.
He tackled me to the ground and licked my face. I growled at first, but as he continued doing it, something in my chest loosened. I relaxed beneath him with a sigh.
He lay down on me, pinning me with his body and huffed loudly.
“Sorry,” I whispered.
“What was that?” Deryn asked.
Thor looked up at him and communicated with him through their pack bond.
I ran my fingers through his fur as he talked, content to relax now.
“How often do you have these anger episodes?” Deryn asked.
“Once a year,” I admitted.
“What did you do when you didn’t have a werewolf with you?”
“I just need an alpha of any race, or a werewolf. If I don’t, I just let the anger out until I pass out.”
“When did this start?” Rhys asked.
“She’s always had it,” Martin said as he came in. “Those from my pack are more attuned to it because we had to help her often.”
“Where’s Tobias?” I asked, pushing Thor off of me to sit up.
“He’s sick,” Martin said with furrowed brows.
“What? He’s a werewolf. You don’t get sick.”
“They quarantined him because of it,” Martin said. “I talked to him though and he said he wanted to warn you about the tournament prize.”
“What about it?” Rhys asked.
“He got sick, throwing up, before he could tell me and they ordered me to leave.”
“What could make a werewolf sick?” I asked aloud.
No one answered, which was answer enough. There wasn’t anything that should be able to make a werewolf sick, except a curse of some kind.
And why was he trying to warn me about the tournament prize? I wasn’t participating. It didn’t matter to me what the winner got.
“Are you guys participating in the tournament?” I asked them.
“Yes.”
“It’s mandatory.”
“We always do.”
“Why wouldn’t we?”
“What’s the prize usually?” I asked. Maybe we could figure out what this year’s would be.
“It varies every year,” Rhys said. “Last year it was cash. The year before it was a house.”
“A house? Someone won a house?” I asked.
“I did,” Fox said. “It’s here, in the center of downtown. We could visit it, if you want,” he suggested.
“You own a house here?”
“We can come back for a vacation sometime,” Fox promised.
“So, what could this year’s prize be that Tobias would need to warn me about?” I asked them.
“No idea,” Deryn said with a shrug.
Chapter 7
Martin and I spent the next day playing card games and cuddling together while he was in wolf form. He was really drowsy, abnormally so, and when the guys came back, he rushed off to the bathroom.
“Oh no,” I whispered and started to move towards the bathroom, but Fox grabbed me and stopped my progression.
“Get the healers,” Fox said.
Someone left, but I didn’t see who.
“Let me go,” I ordered Fox.
“No, I can’t let you get near him and catch what he has,” Fox told me, pulling me farther away from the bathroom.
“I was already touching him, all day,” I reminded him.
“Hush,” he ordered me.
A stranger came in, I assumed the healer, and he took Martin away.
“Is he going to be okay?” I asked, trying to follow them, but not getting anywhere because Fox still held me.
“We’ll make sure he has the best healers on him,” Fox promised me.
This was not good. I couldn’t let anything happen to him. If something happened to him, Sharla and the girls would never forgive me. I would never forgive me.
“What am I going to do now? I don’t have a guard,” I whispered, leaning back into Fox.
“We’ll figure it out,” he whispered and kissed my cheek, his power soothing me.
“Fox, come outside,” Rhys ordered them. “Jolie, stay inside please.”
“No secrets!” I growled.
“We’ll be back,” Rhys said and shut the door behind him, shutting me inside.
“Rude!” I yelled.
They came back an hour later, but thankfully they brought food with them.
“So?” I asked as I ate.
“Thor is going to guard you,” Deryn told me.
“Really? You’re going to let Thor guard me?” I asked him with folded arms.
“Yes. We need you protected tomorrow and while we are in the tournament,” Rhys said. “Thor is one of the strongest werewolves and one of the few who knows the truth about our relationship, so he won’t actually try to mate with you.”
“The others wouldn’t either,” I muttered. “They’d try, but stop when I said no,” I told them.
“He’ll be here tomorrow morning to guard you,” Deryn said. “And we are going to finish as fast as possible so we can get back to you.”
At the end of the day, I was beyond bored. Thor had finally agreed to take me out of the room and on a tour of the castle. The castle was simply amazing. There was so much to see.
I waited outside of a bathroom for Thor to come out, when I heard King Johann talking to someone. Slowly, and quietly, I walked around to the entrance of a small courtyard. The courtyard had a single tree in the center with a circular bench around it. Sitting on the bench was King Johann, King of the Mages and Nico’s dad.
What shocked me most, was the person he was talking to. Justina. Justina was a dhampir who had been my coworker for a bit before she joined my father and helped him use me to make the guys attack the President. Thankfully, they had overcome it without actually killing the President. Just
ina hadn’t been with my father at the final battle, the one where he was killed. I hadn’t really thought much about what had happened to her, but now I was very curious about what she was doing with the Mage King.
“Will you agree to my deal or not?” Justina asked him.
“You aren’t giving me much negotiating power,” he scoffed.
The stone I was leaning on moved, making my presence known to them both, so I walked in confidently, like I hadn’t been snooping.
“What the fuck are you doing here?” I demanded of Justina.
She hissed at me and then ran off, leaving me with King Johann.
“You won’t tell anyone about this,” King Johann told me. “Do you understand? If you tell anyone about this meeting, I will make you regret it.”
He was threatening me! Wow. That was not something I expected.
“What were you trying to make a deal with her about?” I asked him. “What could she possibly have for you?”
“That’s none of your concern. You would do well to learn to stay out of things that aren’t your business and keep your mouth shut. Now, you get out of here before one of your guards comes in,” he ordered me.
Asshole. I obeyed, though, knowing I needed to get back to Thor. I stepped out of the courtyard and Deryn and Thor stood there, scowling at me.
“What?” I asked softly, walking by them toward our rooms.
“We heard,” Deryn told me. “We heard everything he said.”
“If you say anything…” I started, not sure what the Mage King would do. Would he have me killed?
“Don’t worry about it,” Deryn said and pulled me into his side with an arm around my shoulders. “I’ll take care of it.”
Thor didn’t say anything, just walked on my right side with a scowl on his face. He looked ready to punch someone.
“Why are you mad?” I asked Thor.
“He threatened you,” Thor snarled. “That fucking asshole threatened you.”
Yeah. He had. I was shocked too.
Deryn’s grip on me tightened and he didn’t let up until we were in my room.
“Nico,” Deryn growled. “We need to talk. Now.”
“I didn’t do it,” Nico said, but when Thor, Deryn, and I didn’t crack a smile, he walked out with Deryn.
“What happened?” Rhys asked.
“If he tries to touch you, I’ll fucking kill him. I don’t care if he is a king or not,” Thor told me. “I’ll tear his fucking head off.”
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