Page 61 of Bearly Yours
Roarke’s expression was full of tenderness and compassion. “Drakis is also a member of the Midwest Council. Draven’s people did some digging and discovered that your mom and Drakis met and got together before she met your dad. Your dad was Clan alpha over a large midwest bear Clan, and your mom lived in a neighboring bear Clan. Drakis and your mom dated for a bit. From all first-hand accounts, Drakis soon grew to be controlling, jealous, and violent, and your mom didn’t stand for it. She broke things off.
Months later, she met your dad, they discovered they were mates, and they mated and married immediately.” His arms tightened around me, and I knew I wasn’t going to like this next part. “Drakis hadn’t made any noise about your mom leaving him. He seemed to accept it, and those eyewitness accounts thought that he’d cooled down and had finally moved on. But then, shortly after your mom and dad mated, a sickness, in one night, wiped out your mom’s old Clan. Your grandmother and grandfather both died that night.”
I gasped. Horrified, I put a hand over my mouth, and gaped at Roarke, tears pricking my eyes. I shook my head. “I don’t understand.”
“It was the first of Drakis’ revenge,” Roarke said grimly. “Your parents were stuck between a feral dragon who was our dragon shifter representative, very powerful and very insulated, on one side, and their Clan and the news that you were on the way on the other. They knew, even without evidence, that it had been Drakis. That he’d somehow poisoned your mom’s old Clan. So, they hatched a plan, and they kept it quiet. They broke the Clan up, and the Clan scattered to different bear Clans across the world, and your parents came here, to Moonhaven Cove, to hide in a fairly small Clan, and get away from Drakis’ reach. If nothing else, they figured that I was here, and if Drakis came for them, they could petition me for help. They’d investigated me enough to know that I’m nothing like Drakis.”
Thank heavens for that! “How did you find out about all of this?” I asked, stunned.
Roarke rubbed my arm soothingly and kept me anchored to him with his legs while his other arm wrapped comfortingly around my back. “Your parents had two secret keepers, unassociated with the Clan. When Draven’s people started discreetly looking into things, the secret keepers came forward.”
I leaned into Roarke’s body, and took comfort in his warmth and gentle, soothing hands rubbing my back. I thought about everything he’d said, amazed at my parents’ bravery. It must have hurt their hearts to break up their Clan, but they’d done it for me, and for themselves, and for their Clan...because they had to have known that they would have been next.
Drakis didn’t seem to be playing with a full deck of cards, and with the amount of power he had, it would have been easy for him to make two bear shifter Clans disappear with no evidence leading back to him. I was sure it had been investigated, but with no evidence pointing to a suspect, there’d been nothing law enforcement could do.
And he would have done the same thing to my parents and their Clan. In fact, I’d bet that killing my grandparents’ Clan hadn’t been a warning at all, but a promise.
“And now, he’s after me,” I said dully.
Roarke pulled me back so he could see my eyes. There was a promise in his. “And now, we destroy him.”
Chapter 17
Emrie
Two nights later, Roarke, my Clan, and I waited to greet the visiting royalty in front of the lodge. I nervously ran a sweaty hand down my grey sweater dress. It had a mock turtleneck, and the style of the dress hugged my body down to my knees. I had no idea what I’d been thinking, because when I got nervous, I got sweaty, even without the added warmth from my dress—royalty really made me nervous.
“You’ll be fine,” Roarke murmured, entangling his fingers with mine again.
Me and my bear grumbled. We completely disagreed.
Mate confused, my bear said.
I sighed.He just has more faith in us than we do in ourselves.
My bear said mournfully,mateveryconfused.
I almost laughed. She sounded so completely bewildered.
Roarke turned to me, and his azure-opal eyes lit up from within. He looked into mine, and his dragon seemed to have a conversation with my bear because she grumbled.We have crazy mate who has crazy dragon,she said, and I laughed aloud.
Everyone looked at me and smiled, but Roarke was the only one who leaned closer and whispered in my ear. “What are you and your bear laughing about? I thought my dragon did a good job comforting her.”
I cleared my throat and avoided his eyes. “She said you and your dragon are crazy.”
He chuckled quietly.
A motorcade of cars pulled up: three limos, two black and one white, and a dozen other luxury vehicles in all black pulled up behind them. Guards got out of the cars and stood around the perimeter, facing outward, their sharp gazes taking note of every movement in the surrounding area. Next, three royals got out of the limos: Garyyk, the Troll King, Draven, the Vampire King, and Virion, the High Elven Prince.
We’d needed a Triad of three royals from three different species to rip Drakis out of office because he was so high up. Their vote was step one in our plan to destroy Drakis. The next step depended on Drakis’ reaction. I knew Roarke and my Clan were counting on Drakis not going down without a fight. That way, they could eliminate him, and it would all be tied up legally. Even the paranormal world had its laws. We had to,especiallythe paranormals. We were just too powerful.
I drew in a shaky breath, and Roarke squeezed my hand.
Go time.
We all adjourned to the conference room on the second level. Sullivan served at the wet bar and brought in a few trays of various fancy finger foods. Mateo, Mathan, and Alistair sat with Alpha Riggs at the end of the table, and then there was me and Roarke, with. King Draven sitting across from me, and the Troll King and Virion sitting next to him.
Two things struck me. One, I had never actually seen a troll before. They tended to insulate themselves from other paranormals. I’d known better than to listen to the humanstories about trolls, but I’d never imagined how utterly wrong people were about them.
