Page 29 of Sanctuary with a Dragon
I’m right there with you, big guy.
His teeth are too perfect. Who has teeth that white and straight? my dragon muttered.
And his face is too pretty,I thought.
Clearly we need to eat him.
Clearly.
The Elemental King leaned closer to my mate and murmured, “Is it okay if I pet your feathers? They look really soft.”
That was a hard no. I got up, stalked over, scooped Everly into my arms, and sat back down. She squawked in outrage, and I briefly considered shoving her back into my shirt. I didn’t because I wasn’t a brute. I gave her a guileless look instead, like Who, me?I just wanted some Everly time. I definitely didn’t just snatch you away from him in a desperate attempt to keep myself from murdering the Elemental King.
From the venomous glare she gave me, I doubted she was buying it.
Asharien and Vylarin were outright laughing, Draven was smirking, and Garyyk was watching thebyplay between Everly and I as though we were primetime TV.
Ignoring my mate’s laser stare, I cleared my throat and tried to refocus as I looked around the table. “I’m here. What did you want to talk about?” I alreadyknewwhat they wanted to ask, but I wasn’t about to make this easy on them.
Draven, blunt as always, said, “We need you to become Prime. The shifter council has been running things while we searched for a suitable candidate, but with your health improving, it’s time.”
“You’re the strongest, Alaric,” Thessaly said quietly.
“It is an honor to serve,” Sylvara murmured absently, frowning down at her phone.
I sighed. I’d had a year. I would have been crowned right after my uncle and aunt had passed, but since I was expected to die within a few years, the Everlight Enclave had searched for a close second. Unfortunately, there wasn’t one. The closest was a dragon named Roarke in Moonhaven Cove, who’d refused because he’d finally found his mate—and quite categorically threatened anyone who came near her or his home.
I’d do the same, except…
Shifters needed me. There was so much reform needed, and they deserved a good king on the throne.
I had the training and the capacity, but I also knew the weight of the crown. I’d watched my parents bear it, and then my uncle and aunt. For some, the crown could be a millstone, dragging you down.
My gaze drifted to Everly. She was leaning against me with her eyes closed, still exhausted from her transformations. She would be my queen—a full queen—even if the others saw her as a partial shifter since she didn’t carry dual souls.
Even if she didn’t choose me, I needed to do this. I’d known the moment she appeared that this day would come.
But how did you explain to your mate, the one you were still hoping would choose you, that choosing you meant choosing a king and a people? That it meant becoming queen herself?
It was a heavy ask. And for Everly, with her health struggles… what if it was just too much?
I had to talk to her before I accepted.
I met the eyes of the council. “I need a moment with Everly,” I said, then gently scooped her up and exited through a side door to the outside. I walked far enough away that even Draven, with his elder vampire hearing, wouldn’t be able to catch our conversation.
“Everly,” I began softly, “I know you wanted some time to think last night, and I know this is overwhelming. I’m so sorry about that. But I need to know if you’re okay with this.” I didn’t know what I would do if she was absolutely set against it. My peopleneededme, but I also really needed Everly. I didn’t want to give her up. Surely there was a way that I could have both in my life?
Everly looked upset, and I had to keep myself fromoffering her comfort. I didn’t think she would want it right then.
“I know. It’s a lot. And I realize this doesn’t exactly help my case in asking you to consider me as your mate. It’s a really heavy ask.”
My dragon rumbled deep in my chest and mind, a low vibration that grew until the sound filled me completely. Then—light burst from my chest, and a smoky, wispy dragon head emerged, hovering nose to nose with Everly.
Everly gaped at my dragon.
I gaped at my dragon.
What are you doing? You don’t—we can’t—what are you doing?!I was completely stunned. Shifter counterparts did not burst out of their others’ chests in smoke form. That simply wasn’t a thing that could happen. I had no earthly idea what was going on.
