6

I waited until the room was cleared as much as possible. "Julian and I are getting married this weekend. We were going to elope, but apparently that's not allowed, but it is a very small, quiet ceremony. Even if I have to toss a dragon queen in the ocean."

I ignored the snickers or sighs at that last part.

"As such, part of our filing is to officially remove Mary Craftsman from the Craftsman family," I told them, nodding when people couldn't hide their shock. "I and all of my advisors want the connection cut. She can go back to her maiden name—whatever the legal side is. But she cannot be the legal parent of or tied to the future prince of Faerie."

"We want to make it clear that she will not be allowed the niceties of being the mother-in-law of the Queen of Faerie," Shael added. "Plus, any legal issues that could arise later from their possibly having children. We all know that she is a threat and would throw a fit, maybe even try to sue for custody of their witch or warlock child.

"She is already banned from Faerie, but—this is all preventative and understandable given she attacked our heir. No matter the reason—she's lucky our princess is kind and showed mercy. It's a death sentence. The people of Faerie are very accepting of Dr. Craftsman and the love he has shown for the princess as long as his mother is removed from the equation."

One councilman who very rarely spoke cleared his throat. "I'm sorry, but are you sure this is what you want, Dr. Craftsman? I must—in good conscience—check that you are not being forced to do this."

I moved my hand to Julian's arm when I immediately felt his rage. "He should check, Julian. He's doing his job to protect you, not insult me. The fact he just risked pissing us off to make sure this is your choice means he's the right person for the job. His job is to protect you and he just did."

Julian blew out a slow breath and nodded before kissing my hair. "I'm so used to everyone just taking any chance to kick you that it's a knee-jerk reaction now." He faced the councilman and nodded. "But my mate is right, and I thank you for checking." He swallowed loudly. "Yes, I—well, I would have wanted my mother to love me more than her own…"

"Idea of what you should be," Anya said for him. She gave him a kind look when he nodded. "You've come so far, Julian. I'm glad you recognize the burden your relationship with Mary is instead of the love you needed. You always deserved better than that family, and part of me hoped you would just walk away from them. But we needed you to keep them in line."

"And he still will," I promised. "Our witch or warlock child will. It's in the new charter, and they will have the Craftsman name as a middle name. Whoever pops out first will be the heir and always keep that family in line. Or the next one if one doesn't want it."

"Not for many, many years," Julian comforted, chuckling as I probably turned a bit green at even talking about having kids.

Most definitely did.

"This is my choice," Julian confirmed. "Even if it wasn't Princess Tamsin as my mate, this is a move I would make. I agree with Commander Shael that my mother has lost her way and maybe was broken in a way that cannot be fixed after my father died. I don't know, but my fear is she would try to sue for custody of my child no matter the mother."

"If you ever have children with anyone else, you are going to meet the sharks of Faerie," I warned him.

"It's a hypothetical, my sweet mate," he chuckled.

"Yeah, well, add ‘not that it will ever happen' next time." I elbowed him when he tried to hug me. Stupid warlock.

The council approved the new Craftsman charter, already having reviewed the document. The one main problem councilman had tried to make a few objections but was overruled. It was all fair and Geiger had done an amazing job.

They also approved our request and Mary Craftsman would go back to her maiden name, stripped of the Craftsman name by the head of the family. Julian had that right.

He was basically disowning his mother.

"What changes with her sentence?" Anya asked. "I'm still in charge of that, so we can talk later or discuss how you want to proceed since she won't be at the Craftsman estate."

"We bought her a nice cottage in the English countryside," I answered, letting them all hear. "She'll have Guardians to watch and protect her, but—maybe she can find peace. Have her garden and heal. She tried to get in touch with the media to slander me the moment she was feeling better, so she's lost her internet and phone. If she ever cuts the shit, she can have it back."

"That's more than she deserves after all she's done to both of you," one councilwoman said firmly. "Retire in peace or she goes to prison. If she's not an absolute bitter moron, she'll choose the first."

I gave it a fifty-fifty shot. She really hated me still and probably thought she would forever be a stain against me if she rotted in prison.

She wasn't important enough for people to really care. Most heard she attacked me and wrote her crazy ass off.

I had several messages from Sasha after the meeting apologizing profusely. But she lost it when Julian was an idiot man and cut her off and didn't listen to what she was trying to say… And please listen to her because it was important and significant.

After listening to what she had to say and promising to think about it, I had my first snowboarding lesson.

And fucking loved it.

Practically everyone had to remind me to pretend to act human better and slow the fuck down and behave. I thought Iolas was going to flatten me for the first time ever when people whipped out their phones again. He promised to take us to the mountains in Faerie and let me go nuts, but for the love of the gods remember that I set the example and behave.

"You need to chill," Hudson told Iolas in a tone that made it clear he might eat the fairy. "She always is the perfect example and sets the standard. She just wants to have a bit of fucking fun and people know she's an extreme athlete. She's not being that crazy and she needs the fun. And if you lecture my mate like a child again, I will fucking eat you."

"Love you, beastie," I said under my breath, knowing we did really have a lot of eyes on us. "But I do need to chill. I get it. I didn't realize it was so out of—I've never really watched much snowboarding or know what's normal. This is my first time with all of this."

"And clearly, you needed the fun, but you need to be seen face-planting now, Tams," Lucca told me. "You're doing too good for someone new. That can be explained from the kitesurfing to some extent, but—remember how tiring that was the first time?"

It made perfect sense after that. Even if I was a strong athlete and trained a lot, this was a new sport to me, and that meant using muscles unlike I was used to.

Unfortunately, my fiancé to the world apparently sucked at snowboarding and hated it. I winced when Darby wiped out again and I saw him about lose his patience.

I hurried over to him and plopped down in the snow. "Love you."

He huffed and then yanked off his goggles and hat. "I never just get to be cool to you. I'm not the athletic one. I'm not the smooth one. I can't ever—why the fuck do you even love me, agra? "

I leaned in and kissed him. "I wouldn't love someone for their snowboarding skills, my prickly pear. And you are athletic. You're fucking part fish the way you swim and swim. Plus, you navigate complicated books and subjects easier than we do mountains. You have a lot of great everything to love."

"Julian's smart and still doing fine," he grumbled and then gave me a pout.

Seriously these men were too much and it killed me.

But it was great fun, and we ate our weight in food once we were done.

Later, I was sitting in the hot tub with all five of them when I decided to bring up what Sasha wanted.

"She left off the part where it was a gift," Julian grumbled.

"I heard her say it, but Mother was being overbearing and you'd had enough," Hudson interjected. He met my gaze. "I'm not pushing."

I nodded. "But?"

"But you need to know that dragon royals doing this—giving this gift for any mating is a big deal. And they're offering for your marriage. It's like you approving the Royal Performers singing at a wedding. It's more than a gift, it's a blessing almost. Their blessing and hope for your prosperity and like a—adding to the royal family is dangerous .

"Especially after knowing it was Alec's mate's sister who set up taking down the Australian royals. It's like a blessing from other royals that this will be a safe match and your knights—or guards—understand their importance. You see how well we treat the Rothchilds. We live safely because of them. That's the tradition they want to share."

Julian blinked at Hudson and cursed several times. "Next time, you are the one who explains or handles this. Your mother—I've dealt with a lot of bullshit, Hudson. I'm in therapy to work on my communication. I know I'm tired, and I know she'll probably say I'm a stupid man, but she kept repeating it was a blessing—"

"Like you were blessed she would consider it for your wedding when it's not even a mating and like she was reminding you of your place," Neldor said for him. He sighed and gave Hudson a look when the dragon looked ready to explode. "Your mother is not the normal royal, but she literally looks down her nose at some of us. She's good at it."

"Exceedingly," Darby grumbled.

That shocked me. Sasha never seemed that way to me but then again, we'd seen sides of each other that most hadn't.

"She's got a couple inches on me before her high heels," Neldor continued. "And her armor is so thick from all they've been through that her cold royal demeanor can absolutely have the wrong intended effect on someone there's been issues with. And there has been with Julian and your parents. Since he decked you with Tamsin's magic."

We all winced.

"I forgot about that," I mumbled.

"His parents haven't," Julian confirmed but let out a slow breath before looking at Hudson. "Mostly, your mother has never behaved that way with me. Maybe some of this was my own wounds, but her wording choice sounded very much like my aunt or people in my circle that I was just a branch member of the family so shut up and be grateful for what was offered. I felt that."

Hudson gave a nod. "Mother isn't ready to fully switch gears yet and ease back, especially after her issues with my father, and everyone is ready to pounce on tearing apart their mating. She's got her armor up and ready. The only time she gets like you saw is when she feels she's being dismissed and ignored. So I think you both poured salt in each other's wounds then."

Julian nodded and looked at me. "I know this keeps getting bigger and bigger, but saying it that way—I don't think we can turn down the gift, my sweet mate."

"I wouldn't want to. They want to gift food and drink for all the bottomless pits for our wedding. That's a very generous and amazing gift." I snorted. "I don't think they realize just how many Faerie Guardians there are or how much they fucking eat."

Hudson frowned. "How many are there?"

"Over a million," Neldor and I said at the same time.

Everyone couldn't hide their shock, but Darby snapped out of it first. "Tams, that's like half the amount of the US military and—you don't have over three hundred million fairies, right?"

Neldor and I shared a look, but I responded. "We don't give out the number, and we don't have an accurate number after so many died in the last war. But our military isn't just our military."

"It's your police, secret service, FBI, and everything else," Lucca muttered, bobbing his head. "That makes way more sense."

"And we do have a lot of citizens," Neldor muttered before taking a sip of his drink. "We're a whole world. You shouldn't think of us in terms of one country."

I shot him a nasty look… Which alerted the others to something big.

"Baby doll, Julian is already a citizen of Faerie and the others are your mates."

"Yes, but even I agree with this rule, Nel. They're still dragon, shifter, and…" I glanced at Darby, nodding when he snorted. He'd never been vampire first.

"You guys don't seriously have over the US in population, right?" Lucca checked. "That would be more than all of the supes around the world, right?" He looked at Hudson. "I mean, right?"

"Maybe not around the world but definitely more than any one species or even all shifters combined," Hudson muttered. "And that would worry a lot of people. Even if it wasn't logical."

Meaning we wouldn't need even a fraction of that amount to handle all the supes of the world if we needed to.

Or the humans.

"I fucking feel safer," Julian chuckled, Darby toasting with his glass to agree.

I was glad but confused.

"They're raised to be afraid of humans ever finding out and the threat they could be against them," Neldor explained. "Dragons and shifters are different. Dragons are protected by our magic on their mountains that humans can't really just get up around or near. And shifters can hide among animals. They're taught other supes are the biggest threat. We're included in that."

"If you have hundreds of millions of fairies, I never have to worry about crazed humans chasing after me with stakes again," Darby said with a dark chuckle. "Fuck, I was terrified of that as a kid. My da used to tell stories like it had happened to him, but then I learned he was fucking with me, but… We're taught we could get everyone killed."

I met his gaze. "Don't ever have that nightmare again, my mate. I swear to you it won't ever happen. Now that my people are up to speed—it won't happen."

He frowned but then he threw back his head and laughed.

"I'm lost again," Lucca admitted.

"Tamsin is paranoid and distrusting," Neldor drawled. "She's got dirt and the secrets of every leadership you know. Do you really think she stopped at supes? "

"There are a lot of countries with nuclear weapons that aren't supposed to have them," I purred as I narrowed my eyes at him. "I'm only paranoid if I'm wrong and I wasn't. I was off by one , and I bet we'll still find another one hiding at least one bomb for me to win that bet exactly."

"Okay you get even more passes anytime you're upset, my sweet mate," Julian whispered. "You have so much more on your shoulders than even we fucking know, and we pay attention. Holy shit. Now you're taking on the job of the UN? Yeah, all the passes."

I snickered. "I used all of them during my new period womb alignment thing. Even I'm still annoyed how big of a pain I was."

"I thought you were cute," Lucca said with a shrug. "I like belly rubs too."

I splashed him but smiled which had obviously been his goal.

But we still had to deal with the problem. I called Sasha to thank her and told her that we would accept the gift, but we would help or the gift could bankrupt their family. She seemed affronted because it was going to be all of the royal families, but when I asked her how many Guardians she thought we had, she was off by more than half a million.

She accepted my offer.

Gladly.

"Can we talk?" Neldor asked when I was heading to bed and he caught me alone.

"After tomorrow," I answered after a moment. "I saw what happened in a dream, and I know Xavier talked to you, but—I just need to get through tomorrow."

"Okay, whatever you need, baby doll," he agreed, his voice pained.

Yeah, well, he'd had a while to figure out what was going on and not brush me off. I'd tried to talk to him about this.

And he hadn't been—he'd been dismissive. That was what I'd been worried about when we'd agreed to be together even just sexually.

The next morning, I woke and fought against the need to roll over and just go back to bed. I saw Neldor sitting up from the couch and looking as wrecked as I felt. He was focused on nothing and scrubbed his neck enough that it was red and looked like he was missing a layer of skin.

"You both have got this," Darby comforted as he came out of the bathroom freshly showered. "You've taken on councils, dirty supes all over, Alpha dragons—this is nothing."

"Which is normally when shit goes wrong," I grumbled as I rolled to my feet to get ready.

Unfortunately, I was right. Clearly, Neldor and I knew something was going to happen with our magic. It was the only way to explain both of us acting as we were when the day should have been simple.

The public trial of the first general of the Underground was beginning. We had invited one elder or royal from every species to sit in on the trials, and we were allowing all of the news networks there. We had nothing to hide, and while we would protect the names of victims and private information the public didn't need to know, people were entitled to see the truth on the rest.

Instead, one of the news networks that hated me aired an interview with my relative at the same time.

I refused to refer to him as my uncle simply off his word.

The questioning had just started when notifications and more started blowing up everyone's phones and portals opened. When I learned what was going on and how it was trying to upstage all our hard work, I blew my lid.

And teleported right to the man interviewing my relative.

The "live" interview everyone was—rightfully—freaking out about was delayed. The moment I showed up, he opened a portal and escaped.

Well, most of him.

I chuckled darkly as his pinky and part of another finger fell to the ground. I'd been ready for him to try that and immediately called the magic of the portal to me and shut everything down. I hadn't been fast enough to get all of him.

But he didn't leave with all of him either.

Bastard.

No pun intended.

I opened a portal to Shael and she came in with a team. "Arrest them all."

"You have no jurisdiction to do that," the media personality blasted me.

I narrowed my eyes at him. "I do actually. That man is an enemy of Faerie, and we made that clear with all of your leaders. Also, if any of their people gave him shelter or aid, we would punish them just like it's illegal to aid a criminal under human law."

"You cannot just declare him an enemy of Faerie and a criminal because—"

I was on the guy before anyone could stop me, fisting the front of his suit. "He almost killed one of my people, asshole. Yeah, that makes him an enemy of all Faerie. Commander Stefanie could have died. He knocked out my people. He made it clear he killed a queen of the light realm. Are you like fucking stupid?"

I shoved him to the ground before I did something I might regret and with witnesses.

It also wasn't lost on me that this was the network that we'd embarrassed by arresting their five "news" personalities before and then started our own network with that scoop.

Everything was handled and I went back to the trial and made a statement to the press already there.

"That man, no matter who he was born to or under what circumstances or crimes committed against him, is an enemy of Faerie. The people of Faerie understand the depths of what he's done and why. Others do not need to, but they simply need to listen when the leader of Faerie says he's a threat.

"Anyone who associates with him, is involved with him, or gives him aid will be arrested. He is a terrorist to our world for trying to arrange a massive prison break and more. He has repeatedly tried to kill the only heir of Faerie and cripple the defenses of our world because I am the strongest as the gods want."

I let out a slow breath and tried to calm down. Needing a second one to manage it.

"You can hate that only women can rule in Faerie. You can object to our ways. That's your right, but the law is the law. It is against the law to have a king . Only a queen ruler is allowed. The law is the oldest female of the queen. My mother was queen. He was never an option. As a member of the Vale family, he would have been the head of our family lands, Theripolis.

"That is now moot because he is a criminal. He tried to kill me and almost killed one of our most decorated and strongest commanders. She threw herself in front of me, knowing she would probably die. I will not let that go unpunished, and I will punish any who help him. I don't understand how that is too complicated for some people to understand, but it shouldn't be."

Someone tried to lead me away, but I knocked off their arm and ignored the tears streaming down my face.

"You made a mistake touching my people, Mario. Not just Stefanie but even the guards you knocked out. You should have kept your focus on me and trying to kill me if you could which we both know you're not powerful enough to do. You shouldn't have tried to breach Faerie that I protect. Enjoy your remaining hours because that's all you'll get."