3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Ruya

I took my place at the kitchen table as the others filed into the room and got comfortable. A soft thud told me someone had set something down in front of me, and I was greeted with the tantalizing scent of Yukio's hot chocolate. "Thank you," I murmured to whoever had brought the gift, reaching out to find the warm mug and bring it to my lips.

Decadent, creamy chocolate with a warming bite of spice burst on my tongue and I sighed in pleasure. My life might seem somewhat strange to an outsider. There was definitely an air of uncertainty and risk that hovered over us all as our princess drew the court closer to the moment of her revenge and the inevitable fallout that would incur. But that didn't stop me from feeling like the luckiest woman alive.

A warm hand touched my back in response to my words, rubbing light circles between my shoulder blades. Of course, Cicley spoke directly to my mind as he took the seat beside me.

A soft, haughty meow warned me a second before my cat friend, Lily, jumped up into my lap. I grinned at her tirade. While everyone else probably just heard mews and chirps, I understood everything she said, thanks to my strange magic. "The meeting can start now," she said as she settled into a sitting position in my lap, "now that I am here to preside over things."

Someone else nudged my elbow on the side not occupied by Cicely, and I pulled my arm back, only to hear the unmistakable sound of a plate sliding across the table. "Ginger cookies," Martina informed me, a smile in her voice. She took my hand and gave it a squeeze before guiding it to the plate.

Lily chirped, and I opened my mouth to translate, but another faint click told me Martina had placed another plate on the table. "And one for the cat."

Lily let out a little sneezing chuff sound. "Tell our subject she may refer to me as Queen Cat."

I laughed. "The Queen part was implied," I informed the cat with all the seriousness I could muster. "I'm sure."

Sometimes it was surreal how much my life had changed. Like a strange dream I was afraid would vanish when I woke up. Once upon a time, I had been locked up in a tower in a pocket world. The Order of the Triple Moon had kept me for my powers, using me to heal the people they chose so they could make alliances. They had kept me far away from animals once they realized I could speak with them. They kept me secluded from others, cut off from the outside world. They had cut my hair and nails down to nothing, selling pieces of me on the black market for spell components. The woman in charge had called herself The Mother, and she had sold me the lie that she was my actual mother.

For most of my life, I thought that was my purpose—to be a secluded priestess who only lived to serve the order—and I thought those people were my family. I thought that was how I was supposed to be treated, that it was normal. The way the rebel court treated me now was still slightly disorienting sometimes. It was strange to realize how drastically my situation had changed. And how wonderful it felt when I let myself accept the fact that this was how a family should treat those they loved.

Once they got past their initial suspicion, Robin's court went above and beyond every day to make me feel special, treasured, doted upon. It had been hard to accept at first, but now I soaked it up hungrily and basked in the warmth their attention brought. The warmth I had been missing all my life.

"Good evening, Ruya," Josh said from beside and slightly behind me. I turned in my chair to smile in his general direction and he chuckled. "You look beautiful today. You're practically glowing." He took my hand and kissed the back before adding. "It suits you."

Someone made an exasperated noise, but I ignored it. "Thank you, Josh," I said happily. "It's all due to the company I keep these days."

The human patted my shoulder and moved away, probably afraid to push his luck any further.

Things had gotten slightly less strained between Josha and Sadavir and the others since I stole my new friends from the syndicate's vampire coven, but there was still some friction between the newcomers and the rest of Robin's loyal court.

And on the heels of that thought, Sadavir arrived and proved me right. Most of the friendly chatter and banter around me quieted as the alpha naga prince entered the room. I couldn't see them, of course, but I imagined everyone was probably giving him wary looks. Either that or pretending to ignore him while watching him out of the side of their eyes. For the longest time, this court had one dominant alpha. Robin ruled them, and she was a force to be reckoned with. Martina willingly fell in line with the others even though she was an alpha herself, not wanting the burden of leadership after all she had been through. But Sadavir upset all of that, his power and his allure something that the instincts of the alphas and betas around me hated in their carefully balanced group.

And that was before taking into account that my strange omega urges insisted that both Sadavir and Robin were my potential true mates.

I really had upset Robin's tight-knit court. But I couldn't find it in me to feel bad about that. Josh and Sadavir had needed me—needed us . And I would never regret that. Even if it did occasionally make things awkward. Big, warm hands squeezed my shoulders, massaging and comforting as Sadavir's overwhelming alpha aura washed over me, beckoning, offering the promise of steady, unconditional love and devotion. I couldn't hold back the little sigh that escaped my lips as I let my head drop back, my eyes fluttering closed in pleasure.

I hadn't been intimate with Sadavir since we returned home from the vampire coven. Merely hugging him or kissing him was enough to set off all of my overprotective fellow court members, and I didn't want to cause a fight. But I wanted him. By the goddess and all the magic in all the realms, they had all better work out their differences soon. Because I knew Sadavir was mine, just the same way I knew Robin was mine. I was becoming more confident in asserting myself every day, and that led to only one conclusion. The alphas were going to have to learn how to share.

A soft, deep chuckle told me that Sadavir had some sense of what I was thinking. Maybe he could scent my arousal in the air. I wasn't near my heat right now, but I had learned that hiding these things was impossible in a room full of shifters.

Robin's fiery dragon aura entered the room, and I felt Sadavir stiffen. To his credit, he didn't growl or issue a challenge, but he was slow to remove his hands from my shoulders, dragging his fingers over the exposed skin at my collar in a sensual slide that promised we weren't finished. I smelled smoke and I rolled my eyes.

"Don't start," I warned them both.

Sadavir moved away, and Robin's husky voice was light and flippant, as if she wasn't over there huffing and puffing because another alpha had touched her omega. "I have no idea what you mean, Ruya darling," she informed me. A chair scuffed across the floor, and she continued. "Sanka, let's hear what you found in the forest."

I suppressed a smile at the way she snapped into business mode. The way Robin moved seamlessly between princess and boss was always a wonder to me. Despite what the cult had tried to instill in me, here was proof that a person could be both a very feminine woman and a strong person at the same time. In my previous life, being both of those things was not allowed. Unless you were The Mother. None of the rules had ever applied to her.

"Right," Sanka said, getting down to business. "It was pretty much as I expected. Standard wards and alarms, but beefed up a bit, the way only a paranorm with money could manage. It probably took a few strong sorcerers working together to set everything up. And as far as I can tell, there's just one magic user's signature that's recent—probably whoever refills and maintains the wards."

Wish you could see this, Cicely said in my mind as I sipped my cocoa and nibbled at a cookie. Something happened in the woods.

His mindspeak was getting stronger and clearer the more he used it, and he was getting better at forming full sentences. I pondered his words for a moment while Sanka went into detail about the magic protections around the emperor's pocket world. Something happened in the woods?

I nudged my knee against Cicely's under the table. I couldn't really send words to him, but I hoped he could feel my curiosity.

Snake keeps watching Yukio. Grumpier than ever. It's amusing.

I arched my brows at that. Yukio grumpier than ever? That was quite a feat. I wondered what Sadavir had done to get under the pixie's skin. Especially if it was bad enough for Yukio to actually show that he was upset.

I forced myself to focus on what Sanka was saying. But I would definitely be asking questions later. "We made sure to leave enough traces of magic around the area that the emperor will definitely know there have been both shifters and fae poking around there. But I'm confident that with the charms I crafted for us, no one will be able to say exactly who was there."

"Perfect," Robin said happily. I knew she was probably hoping the emperor would assume members of the syndicate were poking around and punish the shifters and fae under his control accordingly. "Can you break us in if the vampire bitch doesn't?" she asked calmly.

Sanka chuckled. "It would take a shit-ton of my power, and I wouldn't be much use for anything else, but yeah. I can get us in and out, if our plan to use the vampire doesn't work. And from what Yuko said, some of the wild fae in the area might be willing to help if it comes to that. But I know the vampires won't be smart enough to sense us. We'll get in without needing to bust through. It'll be a pleasure to watch you eat that bastard and end his fucking rein of stupidity."

Martina snorted. "You make it sound so easy, Sanka, but we all know that getting into the pocket world is only half the battle. I still think we should wait for him to come out and ambush him then."

I knew what Robin would say before she even spoke. Her revenge plans didn't just hinge around getting rid of the emperor. She needed to get her birthright back, and there was no way he would carry around such a powerful artifact out here in the real world where it could easily be stolen. Not to mention, we had no idea to know if or when he would leave. We would have to go inside the pocket world to find the object containing Robin's power. And to carry out the rest of her murderous plans.

"No," our alpha princess said, proving me right and making my chest ache for her. "We're not only after the emperor. I don't want a single one of his minions left alive to carry on in his image. Everyone inside that pocket world dies." She huffed. "I'd simply blow it up right now with him and all of his followers and sycophants inside it, if I didn't need to get my birthright back. This will send a message to the rest of the syndicate, though. It will have them clamoring in fear and at each other's throats. All the easier to get rid of them when the time comes."

I didn't comment, didn't speak up. Robin knew how I felt about her plans to annihilate everyone associated with the syndicate and its rulers. She would be slaughtering at least some innocents. People who either weren't aware of the depth of the emperor's evil or who were only there because they felt they had no other choice. Maybe people who had simply made a poor decision and deserved another chance.

She knew how I felt about this. How I feared that the guilt of her actions would darken her soul. Speaking up now, in front of her whole court and a couple of outsiders would only make her dig her heels in more firmly. If there was one thing I had learned about paranormal hierarchies since my rescue from the cult, it was that an alpha couldn't stand having any perceived weakness called out, especially in front of others.

No, that I would do behind closed doors. Because I was still convinced that I would change her mind and alter her course. Yes, the emperor and the leaders of the various syndicate factions needed to go. So many paranorms were suffering under their rule. Less powerful paranorms were literally dying in the streets because they refused to pledge allegiance to the syndicate, or because they had somehow offended the people in power and been ostracized. Someone had to do something about it. And it was clear that someone was Robin and her rebel court. But she didn't have to lose herself in the process. Didn't have to become as wicked as the people she was set on destroying.

Dream later? Cicely asked in my mind. His concern was clear at the forefront of the emotions he sent my way. For Robin? For me? Probably both.

I nodded my head in answer. It had been a couple nights since he visited me in my dreams, and I missed that connection.

"We will proceed at the next full moon," Robin was saying. This wasn't news. Robin already had a rough plan in place for infiltrating the emperor's hideout, now that we knew where it was. She had just needed Sanka to confirm that he could break us in if ambushing the vampire queen during her regularly scheduled visit to the emperor didn't pan out. "Sanka will need to focus on spell crafting until then. Martina, if there are any weapon or equipment needs, we can go over that when we're done here. Yukio and I will go meet with a few of our contacts to form a contingency plan in case anything goes wrong and we need to disappear." She tapped her long nails on the tabletop, and I smelled smoke curling through the room again. Her voice was a purr of anticipation. "If we can avoid calling in all of those favors we've accumulated over the years, all the better. We'll be able to call them in when we cleanse the rest of the syndicate. Time to end this tiring game of hide and seek."

I shivered at the menace and anticipation in her voice and rippling through her aura. At that moment, she was a predator with prey in her sights. Robin had waited decades, patiently planned and schemed for ages to get to this point. She had dreamed of avenging her family and taking back her power nearly all her life. It was difficult not to get caught up in the wild, heady energy that filled the room as the alpha dragon's heart's desires finally came within her reach.

I was definitely going to need some time with Cicely tonight.