Chapter 16

Aiden
Walking away from her in the library was excruciating. It took everything in him to not mark her where she stood. He hit the wall again. Cement particles rained down around him and the room shook. She said she didn’t want to be with him. How dare she? Doesn’t she realize what an honor it was to be mated to him? To the king of the Dragão Clan? How much better did she think she could do? Goddess! When she said that he wanted to choke the hell out of her! He didn’t sleep at all last night. Mikhail was up all night needling him to go to her. He didn’t care about anything except changing her mind. He hit the wall again. A knock on the door made him halt his attack on the wall.
“COME IN!,” he roared.
Kalani timidly peeked around the door. “I’m sorry to bother you, but I was wondering if you were okay?”
He looked down at his bloody, broken knuckles. “Yes, I am. Are you okay?”
“Just worried about you.”
“What are you doing today?”
“I was going to hang out with Sasha.”
“Would you be willing to go on a walk with me? I can show you an area where you and Sasha can go safely without being harassed.”
“Sure. I would love that.”
“Give me five minutes and I will be ready.”
She smiled. “Okay. Thank you.”
She left the room and he immediately went into the bathroom to get ready. He changed into jeans and a black wife beater. He flexed his hand, stretching the recently healed broken bones.
‘Thanks, Mikhail.’
‘When are you going to her?,’ he spat, pacing.
‘I don’t want to see her.’
‘Well, I do. She is my mate, too, and I want to figure out how in the hell she doesn’t know she’s a shifter. They both are. Kalani’s scent has changed. So has hers.’
‘She wants to leave us,’ he growled at the stupid reptile that inhabited his mind.
‘Get over it. Something is going on with her and we need to figure it out. I will not let you ruin this for us.’
‘Mikhail!’
‘AIDEN! I want our mate and I want her now!’
‘For fuck’s sake. If she doesn’t know she is a shifter, how much information do you think she can provide us?’
‘I don’t know, but we need to find out.’
‘She only wants our body,’ Aiden said, his agitation very evident in his voice.
‘Then use it to convince her to stay until we can make her fall for us.’
Aiden growled at him again and Mikhail answered it with one of his own. Aiden stormed out of the room, forcing his body to relax when he saw Kalani waiting for him. He gave her a false smile and held his arm out to her.
“Are you ready?”
“Yes.”
She took his arm and her excitement infected him. He led her down the private winding stone staircase to the lavish garden below. Her eyes widened and she dropped his arm to rush over to a bush that held dozens of pink roses. After sniffing each flower, she dashed over to a small tree. She sighed, before looking over her shoulder at him.
“Do you have a pole saw?”
“Pole saw? For what?”
She pointed to a drooping limb. “This limb is dead and if it is not removed it will make the sapling sick and possibly kill it.”
He pointed to a small shed in the shadows of the awning on the castle. “There are gardening supplies in there.”
He watched her in amusement as she came back, struggling to carry the pole saw, spades and a watering can. He laughed and she glared at him.
“What?”
His laughter ceased at the weak aura that came from her. He tilted his head to look at her. She shifted uncomfortably.
‘Well, that’s new,’ Mikhail murmured.
“What did I do?”
“Nothing. Are you good here for a bit? I need to go do something.”
“Uhmm, yeah. I will tend to your garden and then go find Aja.”
“Okay. Have a good day and if anybody gives you any trouble, notify me immediately.”
“Thank you, Aiden.”
He studied her for a second. “Who is your father?”
“We don’t know.”
“What is your mother?”
She shifted uncomfortably again. “Our mother was a witch.”
“Then why do you say you are human?”
“Sasha nor I received any powers. So, we are human.”
“Are you sure?”
She nodded. “All Sasha got were her visions of the future.”
He blinked in surprise. “What?”
She clipped the dead limb off. “Sasha’s dreams are visions of the future. She dreamed of you, you know? You have been the one thing that has kept her going through all the abuse she suffered at Tiffany’s and our mother’s hands. She wanted you to come take us away from all of it. She needed you to, but you never came. She gave up hoping that you were real.” She paused. “I still think she thinks you aren’t real. I think she is afraid you are going to disappear.”
Mikhail pushed forward and Aiden let him have control without hesitation.
“Why are you telling us this?”
His voice came out deeper, making Kalani look up at him curiously.
“Aiden?”
“I am Mikhail.”
Her face broke out into a huge smile. “Hi.”
He eyed her just as curious about her as she was about him. “You aren’t scared?”
“No. I met Dayan. Greg told me that if a dragon were to present themselves to me, to not be afraid, that there is a reason.”
“What did Dayan want?”
Her fingers moved over her wrist. “He wanted me to know that he would never let anybody hurt me ever again. He said I was his treasure.” She tilted her head as she continued to stare at him. “Is my sister your treasure, Mikhail?”
He laughed. “Your sister is my everything. She will be our queen.”
“She will fight you.”
He smiled at her. “And she will lose. If she runs, I will follow. If she tries to choose another, I will kill him. She is mine! She will be mine! I have already told her.”
“Can I offer you a piece of advice?,” she asked, pruning the tree expertly.
“Sure.”
“I wouldn’t order her around. She will push back and as confident as you are that you will win, she will hate you. And trust me you don’t want her to hate you. That’s worse than if she was just mad.”
“Why are you telling me this?”
“Because she has loved you for years and I want you to love her back. She deserves all of her dreams to come and you are the most important one she has. So, you should try to win her over the right way.”
“Alright. So, what do I do, besides not ordering her around?”
“She needs to know you are all for her and that you want her above all else. She needs to be confident that you will forgive her for everything and more than anything she needs you to be around. She needs you to be complete. I know she can be infuriating, but I promise you she is worth it.”
“Alright. Sounds simple enough. I just want to be around her all the time anyways.”
Kalani smirked. “Yeah, so does she. She almost killed your whore for touching you. I don’t know if you noticed.”
“What? She threatened her, because of you.”
“I’ve been slapped before and she has never almost killed the bitches. She beat their ass yes, as a warning, but her ‘aura’ has never been that strong. She wanted Lilac’s blood on her hands and that was because of you. So, that is just one more thing that you should be cautious about.”
“Understood. Thank you.”
He was almost to the door to the castle when her last words made him pause.
“She’s seen your death and now she is afraid she is the cause of it.”
He glanced over his shoulder and when she was absorbed in her gardening he forced himself to walk away. He gave control back to Aiden as they made their way to the dining hall.
‘Malcolm, I want you to go to Tursum and get me all the information on the new girls. I want birth certificates, hospital records. Everything.’
‘When do you want me to leave, Your Majesty?’
‘Right now.’
‘Understood.’
He walked into the dining hall and took his place on the throne. He ignored everyone around him eating to watch his mate push food around her plate. She was listening intently to the whispered conversation that Tiffany and Carla were having. Her lips drew back in a snarl seconds before her bowl hit the floor and she jumped to her feet.
“YOU ALWAYS THINK THAT EVERYONE WANTS YOU! STOP TRYING TO AIM SO HIGH IN YOUR CONQUESTS! HE WILL NEVER WANT YOU! EVEN ETHAN CHOSE ME OVER YOU!”
Tiffany glared at her. “Don’t you dare talk about Ethan. You have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“I know it was me he came to say goodbye to. I know it was me he asked to run away with him.”
Tiffany threw her fork down on the table to stand up, too. “WERE YOU FUCKING ETHAN BEHIND MY BACK?!”
“I didn’t have to fuck him to make him love me! Hell, I didn’t even want to be in a relationship with him. All of it was payback for you trying to drown Kalani.”
Gregory sat forward, growling. Aiden held up his hand effectively cutting off his growls.
“THAT LITTLE BITCH DESERVED IT! SHE STOLE FROM ME!”
“IT WAS FUCKING LIP GLOSS, TIFFANY! SHE DESERVED TO DIE, BECAUSE SHE WANTED TO BE PRETTY LIKE HER TRAMP OF A SISTER FOR ONCE IN HER LIFE? GODDESS, SHE WAS ALWAYS SO MUCH PRETTIER THAN YOU!”
Tiffany laughed. “The Goddess was right to make you blind if you thought that. You and Kalani were always outcasts. Nobody wanted you around. We all wanted you both dead.”
Sasha stalked over to her. “YOU WILL DIE BEFORE I LET ANYTHING HARM HER! YOU WILL DIE BEFORE YOU LAY A HAND ON HIM! SO, GET IT OUT OF YOUR HEAD!”
She laughed coldly. “Oh, this is too precious. Do you have a wee crush on the king, you trollop?”
Sasha recoiled. “No,” she whimpered. “I just.. He just… You’re just a slut. I wanted him to know.”
She turned around and ran from the room. The door swung shut behind her, but not before every shifter in the room heard her sobs. Tiffany smirked at Carla.
“Once a crybaby, always a crybaby.”