Chapter 10

Ten

Trusting, Branson, and I stood outside the gates of our pack lands, dressed nicely and waiting. Kieran, Ambrose, and Sheila were also with us, the first ones outside of our pack to join the clan.

Caleb and Riddick walked towards us, wearing nice shirts and slacks, and making my mouth water.

"Are you ready?" I asked with a wide smile.

Caleb shrugged. "Ready as I"ll ever be." He stood before the symbol on the gate, and smoothed his shirt down. We had decided having the pictures in front of our symbol would be the best for posting.

Branson pulled out his phone, ready to take photos for our posts and to send to the media representatives that Jolie had set up.

Taking Caleb"s crown out of the box, I walked up to him, smiling wide, and said, "As your mate, I am so proud and excited to crown you as our king. By placing this crown upon your head, I hereby crown you, King Caleb Fireclaw of the Hybrids." I had asked Fox for Caleb"s full elven name to use for this event. It seemed appropriate as a hybrid to use our full names.

"I, Caleb Fireclaw, vow to do everything in my power to protect our people, provide a safe and welcoming clan, and rule fairly and justly."

Everyone clapped.

Riddick held out my new crown and Caleb turned to me, a huge, happy smile on his face. "As my mate, I hereby crown you, Queen Rubyhare Ember of the Hybrids."

"I, Rubyhare Ember, vow to rule at your side, provide you support, and do everything in my power to ensure the safety and happiness of our people." I'd spent so long agonizing over my response, but I still felt it wasn't satisfactory. However, it would have to do.

As soon as I said the words, I felt a jolt of power and then a warmth spread throughout my entire body. Immediately, I felt a new sense, one that pulled me towards our clan, and a sense of others farther away. I knew they were clapping, but I was too distracted by the new power to do more than blink.

"Can you feel them?" Caleb asked, seeing my wide eyes.

"This is how you sense other hybrids?" I asked, shocked.

He nodded. "Though, now that I've accepted the mantle, it is stronger."

"Whoa," I whispered. "It's … intense."

"You're also able to sense those in our clan when they are in trouble," Caleb said. "It's something all royals are able to do."

"We're going to head in," Sheila said. She and Kieran had been spending a lot of time together lately and it seemed Ambrose had begun joining them as well.

"Thank you for joining us today," I said. "It means a lot to us that you've joined our clan and support us."

"Always, Your Majesty," Kieran said and bowed. When he straightened, he gave a wink before the three headed through the gate and towards the house we'd built for him.

"Here, check the pictures I selected and let me know if they are good," Branson said and held out his phone.

Caleb and I looked so happy and the crowns did look amazing. I had to hand it to Jolie, she had great taste.

"These are great," I said with a nod.

"Okay, I'm sending to the journalists and to you all so we can all post to our socials," he said and tapped away on his phone.

"Oh, I, uh, don't have any social media," I admitted sheepishly.

All four turned to me.

"Well, we need to rectify that right now," Caleb said. He took my phone from Branson, downloaded a new app I hadn't previously had installed, created an account, then pulled me against his side, held the phone up at an angle, and said, "Smile." He took the selfie, then set it as my profile picture. "There, now your account is created."

"Here, I'll show you how to post," Branson offered after sending the photos in our group chat.

After a quick tutorial on the app, I had a decent handle on how to use it, since it was relatively easy. However, they set up two other apps that were slightly different types of social media.

I felt like I could get lost for hours looking at the three different places with pictures and videos.

My phone pinged: "You've received a friend request from Princess Jolie."

"So, you do have to be careful who you accept friend requests from," Triston said as he looked over my shoulder. "Sometimes it's fake accounts, so it's best to check their mutual friends and confirm they are who they say they are. That is Jolie, though, so you can accept that one."

"Why would anyone create a fake duplicate account of someone else?" It seemed like a waste of time and pointless.

"Oftentimes it is for malicious reasons," Caleb answered. "Someone posing as me was messaging people asking for them to support a project and donate money. Once it was brought to my attention, I advised people about it, but there were several who had been scammed out of the money already."

"That's awful!" I gasped.

"Oh, and you are going to get people saying terrible things to you. Just delete the comments and block the people," Riddick said. "We can help if you want us to."

"I'll see how it goes," I said, finished my posts, and locked my phone.

With time to kill, I changed into workout clothes and headed into the backyard where we had a grassy area, much like Jolie's, for sparring and practice. Over the past month, I'd been spending as much time as I could improving my fighting and shifting skills. I'd also started learning more mage and elf spells and abilities. With us never knowing what was going to happen next, I wanted to be at my strongest and most powerful.

Three hours later, sweaty, and covered in grass, I headed inside to shower. Shockingly, none of the guys intruded. I was only a little disappointed. I redid my hair and put my crown back on, so it was one less thing to do later.

Jogging down the stairs, I found them in the living room playing a card game. "Are we ready to head to the celebration?" Dan, Emrys, and Katar had insisted on holding a celebration party for our crowning, one that was going to be a full red-carpet affair.

"Yes, we need to get to my parents' early so you can get changed," Caleb said.

"Right," I sighed. The dress I had on for the ceremony was pretty, but not red-carpet worthy. Jolie and Leona had purchased a dress that they weren't letting me see until I put it on today.

"Are we getting picked up?" Branson asked.

I shook my head. "No, I'm going to teleport us."

"Getting pretty good at it, huh?" Caleb asked. "I think I'm going to have to step up my mage training to get on par with you."

"I think it's good to have varied strengths in our pack," Triston commented. "Helps ensure in any situation we have someone who can handle it."

"Yeah, but what if we get separated again?" Caleb asked. "Whoever saves the others may not escape or get lucky enough to have Kieran show up."

Folding my arms across my chest, I narrowed my eyes and asked, "Oh, are we fighting today? I thought today was a day for celebration and smiles."

He exhaled and kissed my cheek. "I'm sorry. Let's go. We can fight later."

Snorting, I waved them towards me. "Let's go."

Once all of them had a hand on me, I teleported us to my bedroom in Jolie's house.

"See you in a bit," I said and headed out of the room.

My walk was stopped as Caleb grabbed my hand, spun me around, and kissed me so passionately, my legs were instantly weak.

He pulled back, kissed each of my cheeks, and said, "I told you that you were my queen. That crown looks good on you."

"Such. A. Tease," I hissed at him, grabbed his head, and pulled him down for another kiss before stomping out of the room and to Jolie's.

She smiled when she saw me. "I knew that crown would look amazing on you."

"Oh, your cheeks are flushed. Did you have pre-party celebrations?" Leona asked with a sassy smirk.

"No, but Caleb felt the need to tease me just after I arrived. That's why I'm flushed."

"Apple doesn't fall far from the tree, obviously," Jolie said with a shake of her head.

"Did you post everything on your socials?" Leona asked.

I nodded. "And we created accounts for me."

"I added her as a friend already," Jolie said.

Leona gasped. "And you didn't send me a friend request, Ember? I'm hurt."

"I don't really know how to," I admitted. "They gave me a one-minute crash course."

"Phone," Leona said, held out her hand, and opened and closed it as she waited for me to hand it over.

Obeying, I watched as she sent friend requests to herself, her mates, and Jolie's mates, too. She also added the kings and queens, but it didn't look like they posted much on theirs.

"I'm surprised the kings and queens have profiles," I said.

"They have people post for them most of the time," Jolie admitted. "On nights like tonight, they will post photos from the event, though."

"Well, now that we've sorted that, let's get changed and ready for tonight. It is going to be one hectic event for certain," Leona said with a shake of her head. "The kings are so excited to welcome Caleb into the fold that they spent a ton on this event and it's going to be extravagant, to say the least."

"Are there going to be a ton of people?" I asked.

They both nodded.

"Just stay with your mates, and you'll be fine," Leona said. "Or us."

"Okay," I agreed.

"Your hair and crown look good as they are, so let's just switch out your clothes and do your makeup," Leona said.

I saluted her. "Yes, ma'am!"

She smirked. "You know, now that you are queen, you outrank me."

My mouth dropped. "Uh, what? Oh." I guess I did. Leona was mated to Prince Silverowl, which made her Princess to the Elves, while I was now a queen. Funny how that worked.

"Well, Your Majesty, if you'll please step this way, I shall help you dress," Leona said with a curtsy.

Snorting in laughter, I once again found myself so grateful for these fun and wonderful women now being in my life.

I hoped our friendship continued for decades to come.