Chapter 35
We paused outside the doors to the meeting room, Rafael pulled me closer and leaned down and kissed me, making my head spin all over again.
The door opened and Quinton stood there. “Never mind, he’s right here.” He looked at me, then to Rafael, “and from the moony eyes Kara’s giving him, he’s bewitched her.”
Rafael chuckled and pulled me into his side and brushed past Quinton.
“I’d say it’s a bit more than a bewitching by the mates marks covering their arms.” Chase said with a big grin on his face.
I looked over to see Bethany and Paisley with huge grins on their faces.
Crissy streaked across the room and threw herself at me. “Welcome to the family.” She squealed.
I hugged her back, very thankful I’d remembered to turn on my bracelet.
“This is wonderful.” Alona said, then raised her eyebrows at me, “you will have to share details, as we like to discuss which brother outdoes the other, and who we place on the Neanderthal list.”
Rafael kissed the top of my head, then headed straight for the coffee pot.
I went over to the table and looked at Autumn, “he proposed.” I said feeling my face get hot when I thought of after the proposal.
“Excuse me what?” Daxx shoved by Troy and gave me a wide-eyed look.
“Oh my.” Alona said with a big smile.
Leone rubbed his hand over his face and looked at Rafael. “You really did?”
Rafael went over to the fridge at the end of the room and opened it. He gave Leone a huge smile. “I really did. I made sure she knew what I was asking.”
“Shit.” Leone said under his breath.
Troy and Chase exchanged a look, then glanced to their mates.
Rafael came toward me, coffee cup in one hand and a glass of chocolate milk in the other. “Told you guys, I watched your disasters and wasn’t going down that path.”
Quinton grinned and shook his head, then turned to look at Michael. “Little brother made you all look bad,” he gave Troy a long stare.
Chase waved his hand around. “Impossible. I never look bad.”
Rafael set the glass on the table, then pulled out the chair and turned to me. He gave me a heated look.
I went over and sat down in the chair.
Daxx smacked Troy, who jolted, then he pulled out the chair for her.
Victor stood, his arms crossed over his chest, chuckling. He pulled out his phone and looked at it. “Prince Bastian will be here momentarily.”
We had all barely gotten seated when Ira brought the prince into the room.
“Well, well, back in the palace.” He looked at the thrones at the end of the room. “I haven’t been here since I was a child and your,” he looked at Troy, “grandfather sat on that gilded throne.” He looked at each person in the room, I figured he was doing whatever he did with souls. When he reached me, he cocked his head to the side and smiled at me, “I see your soul is very thoroughly bonded with your mate’s, princess.”
Putting his arm over the back of my chair, Rafael motioned to the empty chairs. “Grab a seat.”
Bowing his head, Bastian sat down. “I’ll get right to the point then.” He ran his hand through his already messy hair. “It’s been one of those days.” He looked at Troy, “Your Willis Hubert is a tricky one to track.” He sat back and crossed his arms over his chest. “I found him a few times, then lost him—” he shook his head slowly, “mostly due to incidents that are out of my control.”
“How do you know it’s his soul?” Leone sat forward, resting his arms on the table.
Bastian looked at him for a moment. “It’s hard to explain, but souls have a color,” He motioned to Quinton and Emil, “Prince Quinton’s is pure Alterealm, so its grey and silvery.” He nodded, then motioned to Emil again, “Prince Emil’s has that same color, but there’s human’s white brilliance mixed in.” Looking down the table, back to Leone, “age changes the color somewhat, older souls and all that, as well as…” he motioned in the air, “I don’t know how to describe it, people of bad heart and intention are different…”
“Auras have colors too.” Crissy blurted out. “Yours is,” she bit her lip, “interesting. I wonder if it’s different because of where you’re from or…”
Bastian smirked, “that’s very intriguing.”
“Perhaps you could discuss aura colors at a later date, Crissy.” Daxx suggested.
Crissy nodded. “Yes. Sorry, it’s just fascinating that souls have a color.” She looked back to Bastian. “What color are souls from your realm?”
“Clear,” he gave a slight shrug, “mostly.”
“So, you’ll be able to find Willis again?” Michael asked, a no-nonsense look on his face.
Bastian nodded, “yes. I need to set up a quick way to reach you, because as I said he’s a tricky one, I may not have a long enough window to draw a map or wait.”
Troy looked to Victor. Victor nodded, “we could set up a group call, then you would reach all of us and whichever one of us is able to react the fastest could get there.”
Bastian nodded. “That would be best. I’m on my off schedule for the next day, so I have time to do a little hunting,” he grinned, “between other things.” Turning he looked at Rafael, then to me, “of course if we leave off the newlyweds, I’m sure no one will balk at it.” He winked at me.
Victor cleared his throat and then looked at Paisley, “could you set up another…”
Paisley nodded as she did something on her phone, “working on it now,” she glanced up at Bastian, “I’ll need your phone.”
Bastian stood up and walked down the table, he handed her his phone. “Have at it, Princess.” He tucked his hands in his pockets, “if you could figure out how to block my brothers while you’re there, I’d be eternally grateful.”
Paisley smirked and shook her head, “I don’t get involved in sibling issues.” She glanced down the table, “or I’d be too busy.”
“Ah, fair enough.” He turned and looked around the room, “I like your style, Whitham Royals, no stuffy thrones and constant ceremony.” He turned to Chase, “I might have to acquire vacation property here.” Paisley handed back his phone. He looked at it. “Whitham group.” He shrugged, “good enough.” Saluting, he turned toward the door. “Talk soon.”
~
I looked around the room again.
“It’s huge isn’t it?” Bethany said across from me.
I nodded.
We were having our first dinner in the dining hall. It was four times the size of the dining room in the chambers, with carved arches above our heads, matching the window frames. There wasn’t a lot of decoration, but the room was still elegant and fancy.
“Dare you to come in here and set dirty swords on this table, Raf,” Leone said grinning.
Rafael shook his head, “I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t survive if I came in here in battle garb covered in,” he waved his fork around, “stuff.”
Chase laughed, “I think we should dress for dinner from now on.”
Daxx glared at him.
Michael shook his head, “you’re the only one out of all of us that loved that era.”
Chase shrugged, “could be worse I could love the seventies.”
Alona laughed, “no one loved the seventies, not even the people living the seventies, they were just too stoned to know it.”
All of our phones rang at once.
Daxx held up hers and then set it on the table and hit the button.
I hit the red button on mine.
“Bastian?” Troy leaned forward and looked at the phone.
“Yes.” There were some sirens in the background that faded. “I need you to get here now. I-I don’t know what I’m seeing.”
“What do you mean?” Victor stood up, leaning on the table.
“I’ve found one of yours, who is up to no good with one of mine.” There was noise in the background, “but that’s not what I’m concerned with, there’s a mixed soul here—staying hidden, that I’ve never seen before—ever.” He hissed out a breath, “oh and there’s humans, mostly, in some sort of dangerous predicament and need aid.”
“How many are we against?” Michael stood up.
“Fifteen, roughly. Just…how is that possible? It shouldn’t be possible…”
“Bastian,” Daxx stood up, “where are you?”
“Oh, this soul is definitely not for me—”
“Bastian? Where?” Quinton wasn’t quiet.
Rafael took my hand and stood up, he nodded to Leone, who was taking Beth’s and standing up as well.
“Can I ping it on here? Damn technology, I love it. Ah, yes, I can. Incoming. I’m on the top level. See you soon.” The line went dead.
I didn’t know what was going on, just that I was going to need my bow.