Page 1 of Winter's Dragons. Frozen Flames
Chapter One
Unexpected Arrivals
Cheimon
"Terry, I understand your plight, but I'm sure this is all a huge misunderstanding. Your mate would have never cheated on you with your brother."
The young yeti gave me a mournful look and sort of half-collapsed in front of my dais. I wanted to rage-quit life simply because I'd been put in this ridiculous position.
Yes, I was the queen of this realm, but as far as I knew, that didn't include giving relationship advice to my heartbroken minions, especially when they were yetis.Gods, I hoped my sisters never found out about this. Pandora would never let me hear the end of it.
"She constantly rejects my attempts to couple with her," Terry explained through a series of moans and snarls that would've been incomprehensible to almost anyone else. "I am certain that something is very wrong, and I saw Abominable with her before his departure for the garrison."
Releasing an exasperated breath, I got up from my throne and made my way to Terry's side. I knelt next to him, patting his shoulder gently. "That is simply a matter of circumstances. I'm sure there is another explanation. Your mate loves you very much."
Behind me, I heard a choked little chuckle. I twitched in irritation, nowhere near as amused by the situation as my traitorous soulmate. "Perhaps Kerryn can assist you in clarifying the issue," I told Terry."His senses are very keen, and I'm sure he will be able to give you a clear answer on what is going on. Should your suspicions be confirmed, we will find a way to fix the problem. You are not alone."
Terry looked up at me with big, tear-filled eyes and launched himself in a sequence of grunts that roughly translated into, "Thank you, oh, Great Queen. You humble your most loyal servant through the gift of your attention."
Emmerich coughed and just like that, Terry seemed to remember his position. He shuffled away from me and shot to his feet with a speed that belied his massive bulk. "With your permission, oh, Great Queen, I will take my leave."
"Of course, Terry," I replied, already getting up and waving him off. "Go. We shall look into the issue most urgently and let you know of our findings."
On footsteps so heavy they almost made the walls shake, Terry retreated from the throne room, and the massive icy doors closed behind his hulking figure with a deafening bang. As soon as he was gone, I let out a sigh of relief. "Well, that was painfully awkward. And you all weren't helping in any way."
"Sorry, treasure," Kerryn said sheepishly. "I just couldn't help myself. Are you really going to make me investigate the love affair of a yeti? Because I admit, I didn't even understand all of that."
I arched an unimpressed brow at him. "And yet, you still laughed. Terry really is broken-hearted, you know. How would you feel if you believed I'd cheated on you?"
"You'd never do that, treasure," Emmerich answered, so insulted on my behalf that he barreled over whatever Kerryn had been planning to say. "But I suppose we understand what you mean. Sort of."
"It's not just that, though. I need to keep this incident from escalating. Abby might be guarding the bridge now, but that's only a temporary arrangement. When he comes back, their next battle might end in death. I don't want such a thing."
The two yeti brothers had been fighting on and off for years, with their most recent conflict caused by Jack prior to his exile in my sister's domain. In the past, the only lasting damage they'd done had been to my furniture, but this was different. It would have been far more reasonable for them to handle their own affairs without needing my interference of all things, but I could hardly turn Terry away when he had come to me for aid.
"That does make sense," Raijin offered, "although I must admit that when we came here, we didn't expect your job to involve dealing with yeti love triangles. We tend to handle such disputes privately. Leadership is very different in Chronikos than it is in Terra Dracones."
"This has never happened before," I admitted. "I wonder if I look more approachable now that I'm involved with someone."
Technically, I was involved with three people, not just one, but that was just semantics. I loved my dragons equally, so the unconventional nature of our bond didn't matter.
Our relationship had been a whirlwind from the very beginning, and we'd gone from being strangers to acknowledging a soulmate link between us within the expanse of a day. I had never admitted it to my dragons, but on occasion, I still had trouble with that, still asked myself a million questions about the validity of the decisions I'd made since meeting them. And yet, paradoxically, even if I sometimes felt that I was stumbling through the dark, I wouldn't have had it any other way. My dragons were precious to me, and if we made any mistakes because of what we shared, we'd just have to deal with them.
My brief moment of pause didn't go unnoticed. "Treasure?" Kerryn asked. "Is everything all right?"
The thick note of concern in his voice immediately made me feel guilty for letting my thoughts stray in foolish directions when I was with my soulmates. They worried a lot about me, and I could not blame them for it, not really, not after what they had been forced to face after Jack's enchantment. "I'm fine," I assured them. "I was just thinking."
Kerryn frowned, still looking just as concerned as before. Nevertheless, he didn't prod for more information. He knew better than to push me when I didn't willingly elaborate on whatever I was thinking about.
It was in moments like these when I struggled most with the conflicting emotions bubbling inside me when I wondered why I felt so reluctant to open up to my dragons despite the fact that they had been nothing but supportive. Honestly, sometimes, I was more exasperated with myself than I had ever been with my minions.
In any case, this wasn't the best place to discuss my personal problems or to express my less than generous opinions about the love lives of my yetis. Since I had no more audiences scheduled for the day, it was time to head back to my office and start making some progress on the huge pile of paperwork cluttering my desk.
I was getting increasingly tempted to just ask Emmerich to burn everything to a crisp, as the files kept multiplying faster than the entire population of my realm. As much as the idea appealed, though, I knew ignoring the problem wouldn't make it go away, and the paperwork, while tedious, was necessary for the efficient rule of the kingdom.
Leaving aside my little task for Kerryn, my dragons had their own separate jobs, important matters that required their attention as much as bureaucracy required mine. "January is probably waiting for you in the training ground," I told them. "I shall be in my office. We will see each other for dinner, yes?"
All signs of Kerryn's previous reluctance vanished. "Of course, treasure. Thank you for trusting us with this task."
