150. Alaric

CHAPTER 150

Alaric

It's such a strange homecoming, returning to the castle of my birth. My friend, the Duke, addresses me as King even though he knows that my title is King Consort. I don't mind the difference in titles; after all, it is just a title. I am not of royal lineage nor of noble birth. My father had stolen the mantle of king, sending Aurora's mother to an untimely death because of his betrayal.

I watch my mate conduct herself around the others. It's definitely a huge change for her to be acknowledged as a ruler in an actual palace that doesn't hold bad memories. Well, not as bad of memories as the ones in her mother's palace. She moves our children swiftly into the palace and up to our suite. The fun memories of things that have occurred here, I can only hope we get to relive some of them again.

Apparently, during my inner monologue, I lost track of where my mate currently is. I go searching around our room, trying to see exactly where she had gotten herself off to. I start to hear the splishing and splashing of the bathtub and the giggles from our children. Bath time has always been one of our family's favorite times. Not only do the children get bathed in their human form, but they also get bathed as their animals.

To start off, Aurora has Tiamat and Ladon in the tub with her. She's scrubbing the children's bodies one by one, making sure that they are completely clean. Tia and Ladon's hair is a few shades lighter than mine but still darker than their mothers. If I had to give Ladon's hair color a name, I would say it's a medium ash blonde, whereas Tia's is a light ash blonde. Where Tia has curls, Ladon's hair is straight while her eyes are grey-blue. His are a grey-green like mine.

Once their human forms are completely cleansed, Aurora has them shift to their animals. Ladon's dragon, now about the size of a german shepard lays on the steps waiting his turn. While Tia's dragon lazily floats around the pool, slowly wiggling her way away from her mother. Aurora giggles while chasing after Tia with the scrub brush loaded with soap. She finally gets a hold of our wayward daughter and begins to preen her scales with her talons. Aurora has a small pile of dead scales on the edge of the tub that Jayce promptly takes away.

Furiously, Tia is scrubbed and then allowed to dunk under to remove the soap from her scales. Shortly after, she trades spaces with Ladon. He just lays there and lets his mother do whatever she wants to him. I know I personally enjoy it when my scales get preened. His scales were not as bad as Tia's since he recently had gone through a growth spurt and had all the dead ones removed. Aurora scrubs them and then dunks him under and sends him off to exit the tub with his sister.

The process is repeated a little faster with Odette and Kirra. Both little girls love bath time. Odette has honey brown hair that has a wave to it like her father's and warm hazel eyes, also like her father's. Whereas Kirra has the same ringlets that Tia has, and her hair is a light brown with a few streaks of white similar to her mother's hair color. Both little girls enjoy their tub time and get bathed as humans and as their animals. Once they're done being washed, their animals climb their ways out of the tub and go to sit by the hearth to dry off.

The last one is always the most skittish, poor little Luna. For this, Jayce strips and gets into the tub with Aurora and Luna. While one parent holds the child, the other one washes. The poor little girl is so frightened. It must be tough being an Omega, always afraid of something happening, always concerned that things aren't just so. Aurora must be noticing my thought process, and she growls lowly at me. Through the bond, she tells me that the way I'm staring must make Luna uncomfortable. I walk away slowly and return to the main part of the castle finding Nicodeamus and his mate sitting at the table already beginning their dinner.

I take a seat not far for them, and the young man comes out and takes my order. "So, Father?" I say softly to Nicodeamus. "Anything you notice that may be slightly off here?" I ask in a low enough tone not to alert anyone else to where my thought process is going. He looks around and then back at me.

"No, not yet. Then again, we also just arrived," he says low.

Helle waves her hand slightly to get my attention, and I give her a little bit of a nod, letting her know that I'm listening. "It looks to me like the staff has diminished greatly." I start to ponder what she said as I look around, and I'll be damned. For someone that's never been here, she hit the nail on the head. We are definitely short some staff members.

"I see what you mean," I say to her. "We're going to have to investigate that a little further don't you think, Dad?" I say to Nicodeamus.

He nods slowly and then looks around the room. "Definitely a little bit of an oddity but not uncommon. Quite often, when there's a power shift, there'll be a change of staff. Some very loyal to the original people that held power in the house will leave others hopeful or thankful for the change will remain. I wouldn't bother seeking out those who left, to be honest," he says as he swirls the amber liquid in his glass.

"You want only those who are going to be loyal to you and to your mate left in this house. Not those that could possibly be a potential problem," he states flatly, leaving no room for questioning or argument. Although at this point, I would tend to agree with him. We don't need anybody to start problems, especially with all the children that we have now.

"I thank you, Father, for your wisdom and guidance. It's proven yet again to be most invaluable." My statement makes Nicodeamus smile broadly. Proud that he was able to help and that I'm taking his word seriously. "I will, however, have to go tell my mate about this," I state softly. It always concerns me having to bring up matters of state with her. Sometimes she becomes like the red Queen from that children's story and starts yelling "off with their head."

It doesn't take long before Aurora and the rest of my bond mates arrive for dinner. Through the bond, I fill everyone in as to what Nicodeamus and I and his mate had discussed. You can watch the random emotions flicker over Aurora's features as she takes it all in. Thankfully, I do not see any form of anger; it's more curiosity and questioning than anything else. This is great progress for her. Usually, I'm concerned about her wanting to destroy everything and pick up the pieces later.

She taps her finger on her chin before looking between myself and her father. "Oberon is due to arrive here in a few days. Upon his arrival, we will throw a banquet so that anyone and everyone who is part of the Dragon Court will be present in one place." Aurora lightly taps her fingernails on the tabletop as she sorts through what she wants to say next.

"Once gathered, Oberon should be able to tell us who is and who is not loyal to our cause," she says definitively with the firmness not normal in her tone. She looks back over at her father, locking eyes with him; he nods slowly, agreeing with her statement. Her eyes drift slowly to each of us, just seeing where we all stand with her proposed idea. One by one, we each nod in agreement with her. Her thought processes are sound, and with the aid of Oberon we should know who the betrayers are in a matter of moments.

"Personally, I hate relying on him for everything," Aurora says with a slight huff. "But on the other hand," she says and flourishes her hand shifting it immediately to her gauntlet staring at her talons.

"I'm quite thankful that he is doing this, and we're able to resolve the issue peacefully." She shifts her hand back to normal and then looks up at us. "Contrary to popular belief, I do not enjoy killing, nor do I like taking lives that could have been spared," she says and smirks.

"Then again, some of them were fun." She coughs and says, "Sebastian." Then continues to cough, trying to cover up that she said his name.

Most of us laugh at her antics; only her father appears to be a little concerned. "Daughter? Why was he the most entertaining?" he asks, puzzled by her actions.

"That's quite easy, Daddy," Aurora says sweetly, then stands and walks over and leans on Dimitri's shoulders. "So, you see, It was me, D, and the twins going into the throne room. There's Bash and all of his false swagger trying to look like he's Mr. GQ and all that."

She smirks and starts laughing. "How I was ever attracted to him, I have no goddamn clue," she says and shrugs and runs her fingers over Dimitri's shoulders.

"Anyway, the first words out of his mouth was him asking if the baby's his. Then, of course, my big teddy bear here," she says and hugs Dimitri's shoulders. "Takes full credit for the paternity of Alaric's babies." Aurora starts to laugh.

"The look on his face was absolutely priceless,'‘ she says as she stands up to her full height and does what I can call jazz hands in a dramatic flare. "So, you know, of course, me being me, I just had to kiss D in front of him." Aurora smiles broadly. I can only imagine the over the top kiss that she did with Dimitri to set Sebastian off.

"So now he's all messed up in the head. Dimitri's happier than anything, and I'm just sitting back here wanting to kill him," she says and shrugs her shoulders lightly.

"So you guys know me," she states. "I suck at being patient,'‘ she says flatly with a roll of her eyes.

"I had to wait for that idiot to think that he had a shot at me again. But to be perfectly honest, it really didn't take that long." She shrugs her shoulders and then picks up a glass of wine and takes a sip. Now she's starting to pace around the table as she tells her story, and it's getting more interesting by the minute.

"So by this point, I already sensed that he had some more men behind one of the hidden passageways. So I reached out to you," Aurora says, then runs her hand over Nicodeamus's shoulders.

"So daddy dearest if you remember you go on your mission to take out the assholes that are looking to take me out. Definitely an excellent and solid plan." They high-five and share a good laugh.

"Dominik and I had watched the movie "300." When I killed Sebastian, I was thinking about that epic scene where the bad guys were at the pit. So I ripped out his heart, cut off his head, and then kicked his chest, knocking him backward. I kind of wanted to yell that same battle cry from the movie, but we're definitely not in Sparta." Aurora continues to laugh as she walks over to me and then climbs into my lap.

She stares up into my eyes and kisses my cheeks several times. "I think you would have been laughing hysterically," she says softly as she nuzzles my cheek and neck. I wrap my arms tightly around her and hug her flush to my chest.

"I absolutely would have, my love. It must have been an epic sight the way you dispatched him." I run my fingers gently through her hair as I now look up to her father. "We need to get together later and make a list of the local nobles that we should invite here for the banquet. By my guesstimate, Oberon should be here in two to three days. So in about five to six days, we should have the banquet."

"Son, I agree," Nicodeamus says as he strokes his beard. "I believe we should probably set my mate with your children and the two War Dragons in the playroom for the banquet," Nicodeamus states as he looks between all of us gathered. Aurora starts to shake her head no.

"We need your mate present, Dad. I will send Marco, Edgar, and Dante to watch my children. Not that your mate is incapable of protecting them, but she is your mate and should be seen at the gathering." Aurora crosses her arms over her ample chest, looking at her father, expecting him to argue with her. I run my hand over her lower back, trying to soothe the tension I feel building.

Nicodeamus rises from his seat and walks over to where we are sitting. He drops down to one knee in front of his daughter and places his forehead on her knees. "I agree with you fully, daughter, and I am sorry to have started making arrangements without your input." Aurora smiles softly at her father and runs her fingers through his hair. Lightly, she reaches under his right arm and pulls so he will stand.

"Daddy, there's nothing to forgive; you are so used to being in control of everything that your council is most valuable." She smiles at her father and then stands and embraces him tightly. She bounces up and kisses his cheek and then pulls back to look at him. "Besides, who else would I want by my side if we have to torch the entire banquet hall?" she asks with a wicked smile and a slight giggle to her speech. It's moments like this I can't tell if she's joking or being serious. By the look on Dimitri's face, I'm pretty sure she's serious.

The rest of the meal goes off without a hitch, and no more discussions of plans occur. We share a few good laughs at each other's expense and prepare to retire for the evening. Tomorrow should be a rather interesting day, to say the least.