Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Seventeen

The women’s quarters were quiet.

Almost too quiet, but then he hadn’t been here in a long time. Hell, it might have been back when he was a child. Back when Anola, a former nursemaid, had been in charge of keeping him, Meridous, and Vargla in line. He smirked and rapped on the door and was greeted with the surprised and trepidation-filled gaze of a woman shifter whose name he didn’t know. He’d seen her before, but of the hundreds of shifters that filled the castle, knowing each by name wasn’t his strong suit.

“Oh, Your Highness,” she squeaked, dropping him a deep curtsy.

He tried to gentle his smirk, but he wasn’t sure if he pulled it off. No matter, he was here for Anola. “Is Anola around?”

“Jazdon,” Anola’s voice came from within the great room, and he stepped forward.

Anola, graceful as ever even with her advanced age, came forward with her hands outstretched. No curtsy from her. She once told him she’d never curtsy to a man whose bottom she’d once diapered, and he’d laughed and agreed. He grasped her fingers gently.

“What brings you here?”

“I wanted to ask you about an old song.”

She smiled and drew him through the great room and into a smaller room that held padded lounge chairs situated around a small table. She released him and gestured to a chair and then poured them both a cup of the steaming hot brew on the table. Settling into the chair, he took the mug from her and sipped at the hot tea. She settled into a chair across from him and sipped at her own brew waiting for him to speak.

“It’s something Finn heard as a young boy.” He filled her in on what had transpired in the king’s chambers, but only what pertained to Finn’s shifter status sinxhe that was common knowledge. He didn’t need her to know that the Greengile king was an asshole—although she probably already knew.

He recited what little he knew of the lyrics.

“Yes, I don’t remember the exact words, but that old song is in the books,” she slipped from her seat and walked to one of the numerous book-filled walls and selected a song book that was as thick as his hand. Instead of searching for the song, she dropped the book in his lap.

Juggling his mug to avoid spilling, he settled the book face up and gazed down at it. It looked like she wasn’t going to help him with finding the damned song like he wanted. He swallowed the rest of his tea in a few gulps and set his cup aside.

A knock sounded on the door and then the same young woman from before poked her head inside. “Excuse me, but the girls are ready,” the woman told Anola who stood.

“I will leave that with you. Just be sure to return it here and not in the library as they have their own copy.” Anola stopped by his chair and ruffled his hair, just as she’d done when he was a child.

“Thank you,” he said dutifully, and she left him alone with a smile.

Gazing at the book for one more moment, he stood clutching it and strode through the great room and back out into the wide hallway.

He’d left Finn in his rooms with a promise to meet him there. No time like the present. With a sharp rap on the wooden door, he stepped inside to find Finn standing at the window with his back presented to the room. Setting the book on the small table near the door, he advanced across the red area rug. When he reached Finn, he closed his arms around the man’s waist from behind and set his chin to the top of Finn’s head.

“Troubling thoughts?” he murmured.

“Like you’d want to know?”

Jazdon stiffened and dropped his arms.

“Wait!” Finn turned quickly. “I don’t mean that the way it sounded. I just mean you don’t talk about your feelings very much.”

“I don’t?” He felt confused. “I thought I just admitted that I’ve fallen for you.” He corrected the young dragon.

“No,” Finn said a bit impatiently. “I know all that, it’s just that you and I are so different. It’s all cut and dry for you. Like take the Greengile king for instance. You want to remove him from the throne, don’t you?”

“Yes.” He wasn’t going to deny that.

“And you don’t like him.”

“He’s a fucking asshole, who treats his clan like shit.” He agreed.

“Yes, and yet…” Finn said and then stopped.

“What?” He growled.

“Don’t you want to know why he’s like that?”

“What difference would that make?” he scowled feeling a bit put out.

Finn’s smile softened and he reached up to cup the back of Jazdon’s neck and stepped closer. Now this, Jazdon could get behind, and he eagerly stepped into the man’s embrace. His head dipped and he swooped in to take Finn’s lips. The kiss grew hot, and he was just about ready to toss Finn on the bed when he drew back.

“You’re so macho.”

“Yes, I am.” he agreed, smiling proudly.

Finn laughed and then sighed. “I need to know why Daltor is the way he is. If it’s true that my mother was this princess, then I want to know why she was forced to leave. I have to know what happened.”

Jazdon nodded, silently agreeing with all of what Finn wanted to know. He had his questions as well, but he wasn’t one to sit around and muse over them and that kind of crap. He was a doer. He didn’t need to sit and think about shit. He acted.

“Here’s an idea,” he said. “Why don’t we seize the Greengile throne, toss Daltor out on his ass and then get the answers to your questions?”

Finn blinked up at him with that wide eyed gaze that tugged at his heart strings and sent blood pumping through his body right to his cock.

“Just like that?”

“Yes, come on” he reached for Finn and pulled him closer, gazing down into the shifter’s upturned face. “I’ll pass it by the king.”

***

His father gazed at them through slit lids.

Jazdon crossed his arms and planted his feet apart. Finn had kind of stilled at his side, not sure what to make of their standoff. The young blond royal was probably all up in his head about it too, but what Finn didn’t know was that this was the way he and his father communicated. His dad would give him the are you fucking crazy look and wait for him to say he wasn’t, and then the king would tip his head as if thinking about it and then he’d agree. Sometimes Jazdon wished they could skip this fucking part, but it was all due process.

“Finn will sit on the throne.”

“Wait, what?” Finn blinked up at him with shock in his eyes.

He frowned down. “Isn’t that why we’re here?”

“I don’t know anything about being a king.”

“What do you think will happen if we toss Daltor out on his ass?” His frown turned into a scowl. “I thought you were on board with this.”

“What part of me becoming king was in your earlier statement!” Finn tossed up his hands.

“Okay…though I don’t know what you thought I meant by ‘seizing the throne…’” Jazdon snapped right back. “So … what? We toss out Daltor and get your information and then what? Leave the Greengile without a ruler?”

“I…” Finn blinked at him and then shot the king a quick look. “Seizing the throne and tossing him out on his ass wasn’t my idea in the first place, you might recall. That was all you.”

“It sounds like you two have things to discuss.” The king stood and brushed a hand down his rich burgundy colored robe. “I’m late for dinner.”

Jazdon barely heard his father leave, his focus remaining on Finn.

“Just think about it.” He murmured. “I’m a prince and you’ll be king of the Greengiles. Our union will make us unstoppable.”

“Union … unstoppable?” Finn kept gazing at him like he’d lost his mind.

Jazdon squeezed his hands into fists. “I don’t know what you want me to say. I don’t understand you. I’m an open book.” He held his hands wide and then pounded a fist against his chest. “What you see is what you get. If this isn’t what you want, then you need to tell me now and I’ll stop.”

Finn’s mouth snapped closed, and Jazdon couldn’t get a read on him and that was frustrating as hell to Jazdon. He didn’t have any hidden agendas.

“Just tell me what you want.”