“You’re serious,” I said, more a statement than a question.
“When I was your age, I was stupid.” The fire in his voice had faded, and he now sounded tired and sad. “I believed all that stupid shit. Honor, power, control. I came here with your grandfather to a brand-new world and fought and warred and tried to assert my dominance. It cost us the respect of the other shifter races and the numbers of our people. It nearly cost me my soul. I’m different now, but I am still paying for those mistakes. All I’m saying is that I don’t want you to make the same ones I did.”
Something deep and buried twisted in my chest, tugging at my heart. I pulled my father into a hug. He grunted in surprise as he wrapped his arms around me. For a long time we sat like that, father and son, embracing in a way we never had before.
“You’re a good man,” I said.
He patted my back. “Thanks. I think you’re a better one. And to me, there could be no greater honor. Knowing that you’ve raised a child who’s better than you? What more can a parent ask for?”
We released each other, and I dabbed at my eyes and cleared my throat.
“I need to head to the castle,” I said. “There’s something I need to do.”
Dad’s grin returned, and he squeezed my shoulder gently. “That sounds like a good idea.”
Giving him one last smile, I hurried away.
I needed to find Elle.
BRIELLE
Ipractically ran toward the castle, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that Aurelius and the king were watching me go. My face still burned from being caught in such a compromising position. It could have been worse, of course. At least he hadn’t come upon us naked.
Once I was inside the castle doors and out of their line of sight, I took a breath and relaxed a bit. The place was teeming with activity, and that noise and chaos helped mask any lingering shameful thoughts bouncing around in my head. Things were busier than ever with noblemen, servants, and the Hikshil. I actually had to bob and weave around people to get upstairs. Was this how the castle had been all those years ago when the dragon numbers were bigger? Most likely. It made me sad to think how far they’d fallen over the last few centuries.
When I burst into my room, Delphine gave a gasp of surprise. She must have just gotten out of the shower because she was dressed in a robe.
“What are you doing back here this soon?” she asked, looking a little disappointed.
Breathless, and still red-faced, I crossed the room and flopped onto a couch. “Aurelius and I were interrupted by the king.”
She rolled her eyes and heaved a dramatic sigh. “Men. They always know the worst times to interrupt.”
“It wasn’t his fault,” I said. “It looked like he had something important to discuss with him. That’s all.”
“Uh, huh,” Delphine said, eyeing me suspiciously. “He caught you being naughty, didn’t he? I can tell by that blood-red face of yours.”
The blood-red face turned a shade or two darker at her words, and I carefully studied my nails.
“We were…wrestling,” I said judiciously.
“With clothes on?”
“Holy shit! Yes, with clothes on. We were training. It’s not like Aurelius was gonna bang me on the yard out front of his house in broad daylight.”
Even as I said the words, a mental image of exactly that played across my mind. Me face down, fingers digging into the grass as Aurelius slammed into me from behind. I blinked away the thought as fast as I could.
I chewed on my lower lip. “Do you think the king knows? About, uh, us, I mean?”
“Oh, sweetie,” Delphine said in an almost condescending manner. She took a seat beside me and patted my leg. “Everyone in the castle knows.”
“What?” I hissed. “What do you mean, everyone
?”
She clicked her tongue. “Dear girl,” she said, giving me an even more condescending look than before. “You two weren’t exactly that quiet the other night in the butler’s pantry, or the other afternoon in the west wing library. I hope you at least locked the doors both of those times.”
I buried my face in my hands. “Oh my god.”
Aurelius and I had been much more physical since his return, that was true. I’d been so sure I’d lost him that I wanted to take every opportunity to be intimate with him. I guess we’d gotten a bit too overzealous. Now I was mortified.
“I mean, it wasn’t like you were heard through the whole castle, but it was loud enough that a few heard, and words spread.” she patted my back gently. “It’s not that big a deal.”
“You’ve got to be shitting me. You’re saying everyone in the castle knows I’ve been having sex with Aurelius, and that’s not a big deal?”
She shrugged. “You’re both consenting adults. Who cares? He’s the prince. Some of those Hikshil folks have different ideas about things like that, which means they could probably care less anyway. It’s fine. You shouldn’t worry about it.”
Suddenly, a more horrifying thought occurred to me, and an icy cold fist squeezed around my heart.
“Do you think that’s why Cassius came down?” I asked. “To talk to him about our relationship?”
“I doubt that,” Delphine said, sitting back and cinching her robe tighter. “He has bigger things to worry about than who his son spends his evening with, right?”
“But his son is the future king. I’m a nobody from a wolf shifter family, who can’t even shift. I’m not exactly the best match for a prince.”
Anger flashed in Delphine’s eyes. “Enough of that.
Stop. It always breaks my heart when you talk about yourself like that.”
Chastised, I lowered my eyes. Part of me knew she was right. The negative self-talk was not a great way to spend my time. It was a one-way trip to mental health purgatory. Part of me had always wanted to wallow in self-deprecation and feelings of inferiority. Much as I didn’t want to think about it, that small corner of my mind tended to be pretty willful when it came to pessimism.
“We touched on this earlier,” Delphine said, “but if you care for him, then who cares about anything else?”
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