I Don’t Want A Mate

First Day As Queen

Mila

I followed the simple directions the trio had given me, and ended up at a dark brown door. I wasn't sure if I should knock...or...

Before I could, Finn opened the door and smiled at me and gave me a little bow. Finn looked like a Lycan, tall, lean, with bright eyes, lighter hair...

"Welcome to your first day as Queen..." He said at normal volume, before leaning down and whispering...

"Good luck... he's in a pissy mood today."

"I can still hear you, Finn...weren't you leaving?" Said a gruff voice on the other side of the door.

Finn pulled away with a mischievous twinkle in his eye...

"See what I mean?...Yes, I was leaving."

The door shut behind Finn after he let me into Liam... I mean Durand's office.

"You should be nicer to Finn..." I said as I made my way to stand in front of where Durand was sitting while glaring at him. On his desk sat plans for something. Large scrolls with buildings on them.

Durand looked me up and down and frowned before turning back to his work.

Why the hell did he frown? I looked great... wait, why do I care? Let's change that, I don't care why he frowned. Nope. Don't care one bit.

"Are you early? I asked them to let you sleep as much as possible?"

He looked at his watch and frowned again...before saying,

"Damn, you're not early. This project is taking way longer than I would like. It's already almost ten."

"You say ten like it's late...am I early or late?" I asked, confused now, crossing my arms.

"What, you're neither. I've just been on this project since five and was opening to be further along than this."

He ran his hands through his gray and silver hair, making me again notice the similar color to his tattoos...he was dressed today in a simple black dress shirt and black dress pants. He had rolled the sleeves, which showed off his muscular forearms and the continuation of his tattoos...

"He's hot...like he could burn me alive and I'd be okay with it hot," said my wolf.

"You're not helping...and don't get any ideas."

She snickered, before retreating back into my mind.

He'd been up and working since five am? Goddess... does he sleep?

"Can I see the plans and what are you building?" I asked as I came to look over his shoulder. What I didn't consider was that this would bring me near his neck. His scent and the power of his hit me so hard. We both took a deep breath in and out. As if we both had similar reactions to each other. His scent was so...masculine. Almost slightly spicy, and the power coming from him made me want to challenge him and make him bow. It's almost as if the Lycan blood in me wanted to knock him down a notch and remind him that I'm queen.

The juxtaposition of both wanting to fight him...and f*ck him was... annoying. My body was having two opposite and strong reactions to someone I wanted NOTHING to do with.

Durand got up and went to the other side of his desk, putting a small amount of distance between us. Putting both of his hands on the table as he unrolled the other scroll.

He looked up at me, and his eyes looked brighter today for some reason...more blue even.

"I want to build a college. Our first college." The deep sound of his voice jolted me out of whatever state I was just in.

"Okay, what seems the problem?"

"Space. We have room for a small college, but I want it to be able to handle any of our students here and anyone else who wants to transfer here. We have plenty of room for the learning facilities, but not enough to house everyone and most of the apartment buildings in the area are full. The point of it is to bring in instructors and people of different cultures, different perspectives. Shifters and humans alike. I want there to be shifter specific classes, magic classes and regular classes alike. I'm hoping that it will help with some of the tension between all of us. We'll work together, yes, but only when we have a common enemy or else we are at each others throats. Maybe the next generation could grow up together with less prejudice if they had day to day exposure to each other."

I nodded in understanding..."So you want to build a co-ed college? Is there anything else like that?"

"No there's not. Sure, shifters and magic wielders will go to human colleges, but there is not much team work between all of them. They develop cliques purely for protection. But what if the culture is to understand one another...and there are classes where team work is required?"

"You can't force people out of being prejudiced..." I countered.

"No, but you can have a more open environment where everyone is welcome. We hope prejudice will take care of itself as education and knowledge increases."

"True..." I looked down at the plans and realized all the buildings were at most two stories.

"Why are these buildings so...short?"

"Because we keep all our buildings two stories and under. It kept a certain feeling of home here. I want it to keep an island feel, not a tech college feel. It also allows less damage when storms come through, and they're quicker to rebuild if we have to. Plus, they'll stick out like a sore thumb. All the learning facilities are on the coast."

I frowned at the plans for a moment and grabbed a notepad.

"Why don't you take these four learning facilities and turn them into two by building them taller..."

Durand looked like he was going to object, but I stopped him... by glaring at him...

"Let me finish, Goddess, so move the living facilities directly on the coast. I'm sure students will have to travel further to get into town, but we can easily make paths for them to bike or hell, walk wherever they need to go. By swapping buildings, you can include more living space and keep the coast looking pretty. It's not uncommon for colleges to be grand and tall beautiful structures, keep the island living in the classes that you provide and the schedule."

Durand tilted his head to the side and smirked at me.

"Are you sure you need my help? Because you are a natural at this."

"I'm a natural at this, building things because that's something that I'm good at. I like knowing how and why things work the way they do. I like building things..."

"That makes two of us. So what are you not good at?" He said with a small smile at me.

"The rest of it. I'm clueless about whatever goes into running a kingdom. I'm a fast learner though, and I'm eager."

"Oh I can see that..."

See what? That I'm clueless or eager? But I don't get the chance to ask before Durand comes around and we awkwardly change places. He sits in his chair, and I stand where he was standing previously. We both avoid each other like fire and kindling. As if we got too close, we'd catch flames.

He opens up and emails and starts to send someone all my notes.

I looked around his office. It's full of blues, both light and dark, and wooden colors. The windows are covered in long white curtains, and there is even a grand piano on the other side, with a floor to ceiling bookshelf behind it. There is a small table and chairs for meetings, and even a sofa. Warm, regal, homey...and his scent clung to literally everything as if he was here a lot.

I walked over and ran my fingers over the keys to find the piano perfectly in tune.

"Do you play?" asked Durand as he continued to type furiously.

"Uh no, do you?"

He pauses a moment before saying "Not as much as I'd like."

I frowned his way a bit. The dark, semi-brooding persona I'd seen didn't fit the personality of a pianist. Plus, his hands were huge... compared to mine. I almost wanted to ask him to play for me, just to see how he managed it.

I was a little too warm for this jacket and set it on a chair by the window. I watched outside as it seemed there was a storm brewing, causing the ocean below to be dark. Maybe it was a good day for these lessons after all.

"I was thinking for your lesson today, we'd go to the heritage hall..."

I nearly jumped out of my skin, because I had not even heard him move. Either I was way too lost in my own thoughts or he was quiet as hell. I glared at him and found him dangerously close to me. Or maybe it wasn't dangerous, but it sure felt like it.

"Oh the hell, are you so tall, but so quiet?" I asked, while crossing my arms over my chest.

His lips twitched in amusement...

"I had two full-blooded Lycan parents...How are you so short for both a werewolf or a Lycan for that matter?"

"I do not know...I blame it on being a twin. Can we go now?"

Durand turned and opened the door of his office and held it for me. I raised my chin a little and walked out.

"How...Queenly of you."

"Shut up..."

We walked along in semi-awkward silence. Durand walked with his hands behind his back and seemed completely unbothered. Unlike me.

"Do you have any college experience?" asked Durand.

"Well, no. This war has kept me busy for almost three years now. I'm glad I finished high school a year early, or else who knows if I would have finished."

"If war didn't exist, what did you want to go to college for?

My lips twitched up in a smile as I thought of my young dreams and the timing of our previous conversation.

"I wanted to be a...architectural engineer"

"You still can..." Durand started...but I stopped him.

"Let's focus on teaching me how to run a country... first, yeah? Anyway, what did you go to college for? Or did you go to college?"

"I did... mostly online, but I did have to fly in for performances and practices, but I was gifted...and a prince of a country. So they gave me more leeway."

"Wait...performances...what was your degree in?"

"I have an undergraduate in performing arts, specifically piano."

This made me halt in the middle of the hallway.

"You... have an arts degree?"

"Yes... it's a big part of our culture here. Arts and music seemed like a way to connect with my people...and my mother was a pianist. I grew up listening to her play.."

Before I could, respond and ask what happened to his mother...We came to a door, and I heard the rain before we even reached it...and I was in a cream top and left my jacket in his office. Great.

Without even missing a beat, Durand reached forward and grabbed an umbrella from a small closest by the door, and opened the door for me, again with the umbrella open. It was barely big enough for both of us, so most of him would end up getting wet. We walked along a light stone bath leading to another building on the property.

I reached the door first and quickly opened it. Durand came in behind me and shook out the umbrella before closing the door.

"You...got soaked." I said as he turned back to me.

He simply shrugged.

"The umbrella was more for you than me, anyway. I'm in a dark top...you're not." As he said this, eyes went to my waist and slowly went up my body...making me hold my breath.

Durand stepped back and flipped on a light. All around this room there were pictures. Some older and black and white...some were painted. Each one has a name and a small summary of the person in the photo.

"This place houses anyone who has ruled or contributed something notable to our society. It's considered a great honor to be here."

The first thing that caught my eyes were the larger painted photos on the other side of the room. Our original ancestors. The seven queens, the original seven daughters of the Moon Goddess.

But as I turned to head that way, another photo, a newer one, caught my gaze, and I felt like someone hit me in the stomach. All the air went out of my body as I sprinted across the room to double check it.

I'd recognized the high cheek bones and the soft shape of those eyes, because I saw them everyday in the mirror....This was a photo of my father when he was not much older than me.

My father wasn't an Alpha wolf...he was a Lycan...and he had grown up here.