2. Secrets
2165 Words
Things moved fast after that, Xavier moving forward just as quickly as Kane did, the look on his face furious as he realized what had happened.
Faeries. f*****g faeries.
They were the one type of supernatural being he was least thrilled with after having been told what had happened years and years ago when one of his ancestors had been said to be mated to one. It was a secret only kings knew about, though he’d yet to tell it to Kane.
“Father, not now,” Kane scolded under his breath. “She’s chosen. Later. I don’t know why you are acting like this, but save it for now. Their first dance—look! They’re already playing.”
It was true. The first mellow strains of wind instruments and strings were being plucked as people moved away from the dance floor, letting the princess and her chosen take to the center of the marbled tiles.
Louisa was astonished. Never had she thought she would see Brighton again, much less have him give her a different name.
“Rionnag?” she questioned once she’d been able to will herself to speak.
“Yes, my love. It’s my given name at birth. It means star. It’s from the Old World. Gaelic. My last name means clear or bright. Bright star, hence changing my name to Brighton to fit in with the times. You can’t imagine how many people would look at me strangely had I given them my true name.”
It was understandable, and she could even comprehend why he hadn’t told her who he was at first. It would have felt most awkward to find out your high school chum was your mate and right under your nose the whole time. Since he had graduated a year before her, it only made sense as to why she never felt the mating pull before he left.
She suddenly sympathized with her sister-in-law, Eliza.
“You…you must be much older,” she cited, her voice quavering. “Why did you come to my boarding school then? Surely you were taught long ago at your kingdom by tutors and not in the human and shifter world.”
He sighed and closed his eyes as they danced slowly. Pulling her into his body, he inhaled the fresh scent of her hair and hummed low in his chest. It was a satisfied, lowing sound.
“For the fae, especially one as old as I, it is harder to be away from our ghràdháich—or mate—especially when one has waited as long as I.” He cleared his throat as people started to join them on the floor. “I had a ghràdháich once, but alas she passed on early.”
“How—”
“Hush,” he quieted her. “Not now. It’s a sad tale, and I want this to be a happy moment between you and I, not one marred by the memory of the past.”
She silenced herself, the words and questions wanting to trip off her tongue as easily as hot, melted butter onto popcorn. When the quietude lingered too long, she asked the one question she couldn’t stop.
“So, you knew all this time? Knew and never told me?”
His eyes flickered lighter, almost to the cold, clear grey of his father’s. “I wanted to tell you, but as you were underage at the time, it wouldn’t have mattered as we could do nothing about it. I warn you, though, the history between the fae and shifters of your kind is not a peaceful one, but we will get to later I’m assuming.”
When Louisa went to say something else, Brighton pulled her closer, and a shot of desire flooded her, making her weak in his arms as her knees wobbled and heat pooled between her legs.
“Tell me one more thing,” she murmured when she’d gotten her feet steady again beneath her.
“Yes, m ’aingeal?”
Louisa would worry about what that meant later on.
“Why am I mated to a faerie?”
He sighed and shook his head. “Yet another thing your father has yet to let you younger generation Reifenbergs know about. Have you not yet heard your lineage all the way to the beginning of the monarchy, my sweet?”
She shook her head in denial. He grimaced and ducked his head to lower his lips to her ear. “Your great, great, great grandmother ages ago, before there even was a Reifenberg clan, was a sorceress.”
“A-a sorceress?” Her eyes widened before she blinked.
“Yes, ghràdháich.” He spoken tenderly in her ear. “All will be revealed soon, I am sure.”
They continued to dance, more questions bubbling up for her to ask about later.
As Louisa glanced at her father’s concerned and angry face, she held Brighton closer, knowing that there was more to this surprise true mating than she could ever understand.
***
After all the other guests had long departed, Xavier, Louisa, Brighton, Kane, Lexi, and Alaric stood in the silver sitting room, Xavier pacing as anger thrummed wildly in his veins.
“No,” he pushed out. “I’m not having it.” He turned to Louisa. “My darling, isn’t there any other male at the ball you would mate with other than this—” He pointed a finger rudely at Brighton. “—faerie? Isn’t there another that caught you eye?”
Alaric sighed and stood from his chair. “You don’t understand, Xavier. They are mates. The first true mates the royalty has found in centuries. It was predetermined she would choose him.”
“Who the f**k invited him?” Xavier bit out to the room in general as his head jerked to Alaric.
Everyone shook their heads, not even Lexi admitting to sending out invites to the fae, not that she had a problem with their race as a whole.
Alaric shrugged his shoulders and cupped his hands, a flash of bright light blinding everyone in the room before he held a hand out, holding an envelope with the royal seal inscribed on it. Lexi came forward and took it from him, opening it before blinking and glancing back up at the fae king.
“It…it’s the right envelope, right invitation, exact script and stationary, but I didn’t send this one out,” she told them all, once again reading the exact words she’d had penned by the print shop.
“We’re fae,” Alaric reminded her. “We are magic down to our souls. I could have summoned up a thousand envelopes with names you didn’t invite if I wanted to. I only needed to be assured my son would be here and placed a charm on your wolves that would allow them to see both of us on the guest list.”
That explained it, but it didn’t make Xavier any happier.
“I won’t have my daughter mating with a f*****g faerie.” Xavier’s voice was a low snarl. “Too much f*****g history between us for peace to reign.” He turned to Alaric. “If you think for one second that I will allow my daughter—”
“Two words, Xavier,” Alaric calmly interjected. “Klara. Reifenberg.”
Xavier paled at the name as Brighton winced hearing his once-beloved’s name again after so many years. It had taken half his life to find her, and now he was being denied a second chance.
It couldn’t be happening, not again. He held on tighter to Louisa, his hands secured tightly around her waist until she leaned into him, assuring him with her proximity.
“Who’s Klara Reifenberg?” Kane asked. “I mean, I assume she is a relative, but what does she have to do with this? And who is she? Father?”
Xavier blinked before coming to from his shock. “Louisa, go to your room. You…you need your sleep.”
That was fine with Brighton, and he started to pull her away until Xavier growled low in his throat. Lexi stepped forward and looked at her father-in-law with a stern expression.
“I’ll escort our guests to their rooms for the night,” she said as she followed after them. “I have a feeling this won’t be solved in one night.”
They left the room as Kane, Xavier, and Alaric looked on, the prior king still looking like he could chew up nails and spit out bullets.
Once the door to the room was closed, Lexi breathed out a sigh and looked between the two of them. “I’m behind you—both of you,” she told them quietly. “And I’m sure Kane will be as well. It’s your father that seems to hold some sort of grudge, but I don’t rightly know why. If there is some sort of bad blood between the two species, I hope that this is just the beginning of mending that bridge.”
Lexi started to walk in the direction of the guest rooms on the second story. She eventually stopped before a large, ornate door and turned to Brighton. “This will be your room. Before the meeting was to take place, I had the maids on duty dress the beds and clean. You should be comfortable, but if you need anything, there is an internal phone system that will ring whoever is on overnight duty in the kitchens. There’s also a red button too if security is needed. Just pick up the phone, press it, and guards will come within a minute.”
Lexi turned to Louisa, her face still serene with only a twitch of her lips at her next words. “You know how to get to your room from here, so I’ll leave you to it.”
She turned and walked away, leaving Brighton and Louisa behind and staring at her retreating back.
Louisa fumbled awkwardly while Brighton stared at her profile as Lexi moved down the stairs.
“Would you like to come in and talk?” he asked her softly. “I know you have a lot of questions, and whatever you would ask, I will answer honestly.”
He nodded to drive the point home. Louisa looked up at him, smiled, and nodded her head as well.
“I would love a chance to catch up and learn more about what…what this all is.”
He opened and entered the room, the motion sensor chandelier burning bright until he walked over to the switch and dimmed the bulbs.
***
“You’re trying to take my daughter from me, just like your son did to my ancestors hundreds of years ago,” Xavier accused. He’d still yet to explain everything to Kane, and Lexi walked in silently as his voice rose.
“Father, most of the palace may be asleep and far away, but you could do with toning it down a bit,” she told him with a slightly admonishing tilt of her head at him.
“Well, I’m angry!” he cried loudly. “Do you know what this means? My only daughter will be exiled to some f*****g place in the fae land, whatever it’s called—”
“Solas Nèamhaidh,” Alaric told him.
“Whatever the blasted place is called,” Xavier grumbled. “It still means my youngest child will be far away from me, and I won’t have it.” He turned to glare at Alaric head-on. “Your kind will keep her from me and her family. I’ll never see her again, and it’s not like that Solas place has a f*****g airstrip so I can come and visit. Besides, your kind were the ones to steal away the family jewels.”
“What family jewels?” Lexi pondered.
“Those jewels were given to your I-don’t-know-how-many greats grandfather Franz at his wedding to his mate and queen. They was given before the peace between our races crumbled under Franz’s reign. His daughter, just like yours, was mated to Rionnag, and he killed her just as surely as you will to your own, Xavier. Mates were not meant to be kept apart. I’ve listened in on what goes on with the different shifter communities. The fae have long memories, but I only need to go back a few years and remind you of one true mating gone horrible astray.”
He stopped walking and sat back down on a settee in the corner of the room.
“Your daughter-in-law, Eliza, how did her true mate fare after she denied him when he went nearly insane and tried to rape her? You know the man has never shifted back to human since then? Too insane and living too long in the wild to get his humanity back. He never will, and he will die never knowing the love of his true mate. He made a mistake in love, but you are making one out of history bad blood between us. When Franz denied his daughter her true mate, he killed her just as surely as Jonathan will die alone and feral someday.”
“Father, what is he talking about?” Kane’s eyes flickered quickly between Xavier and Alaric. His father, however, kept his own counsel on the subject.
“What you father refuses to tell you is that my son once was mated to Klara Reifenberg, son of Franz Reifenberg nearly 700 years ago. Franz refused to let his daughter mate with a faerie, and Klara killed herself that very night. Threw herself from the roof of the palace onto the flagstones in the garden out back. My son was never the same afterward.” His face was cold as he turned to Xavier. “Franz’s mate never forgave him, did you know that? The two died, earlier than most shifters, because of what Franz did. My son has waited half his life for another chance, and you refuse to give it to him? You are no father to her. You will kill her with this decision as surely as Klara is still dead to this day.”
- Writer
