Althena Book 2

81. New Ring

The head table is on a platform, so I can see over the other tables. There are so many people here. I don't know 99% of them. But there are a lot of people.

"What, babygirl?" Drogon rubs my knee.

"I figured there would be like 40 people here."

"King and Queen, baby. A lot of people want to be seen. Photographed by the press. Meet us or get a picture. It's a royal event. Some people just want to go to a royal event. Or be seen supporting the royals. It's always big when the word royal is involved." He kisses my head. "Enjoy it, baby. It doesn't matter if there are 40 people or a thousand here, this is for us. Did you have fun?"

"I did. I can't believe Chris told you I wanted you to be the gift though."

He laughs. "I wish I had known that. I would have put a bow on my head. Take me. I'm yours."

I giggle and snuggle against him.

It seems like we eat through 7 courses of food. Then we walk around thanking people for coming again. It takes another hour for the place to thin out to a manageable number of people.

Storm sits in his spot. "There were a lot of people."

Mike nods and sits beside him. "Everything went well though. They were adorable for the whole thing."

"They really were." His dad chuckles.

Chris and Clayton carry in the gift table. "We're not watching you open them out there. The chairs are in here."

I take my shoes off. "I should make Clayton go home before I open them."

He cracks up laughing and misses his chair. I stand there clapping. It's all I can do.

Mary nods. "Maybe someday you'll figure out chairs, Clayton."

Lila hands me a wrapped box. "OPEN MINE FIRST."

I look around. I still don't know half the people here.

Drogon guides me to a chair beside the table. "It's alright. They're mostly family or close family friends."

I hold his hand. "Did we say anything about gifts and money?"

"You're still going to get some gifts, sweetie." Granny sits beside Drogon's mom. "You are going to want to write down the gift givers. That way you can send thank you notes."

I smile and open the box. "Magazine. It's a wedding magazine. Thank you."

Lila smiles. "You're welcome. I subscribed you to every wedding magazine I could find."

"That is so perfect."

"I know. I even surprised myself with it."

I open a few bottles of wine. Some glasses and champagne flutes. Some coffee cups that say hubby and wifey. "These are the most adorable cups ever."

Drogon smiles and takes them.

I open a few vases and put flowers in them. "People are so smart."

Chris nods. "They can be. What's next?"

"Engagement scrapbook. I love this. It even has a place for the cards we get. We can remember everything forever. I'll need a lot of pictures of this party and a few of the napkins that have our names on them."

Mary smiles. "You'll have your guestbook too."

I start sobbing. It came out of nowhere.

Drogon pulls me up and hugs me. "You're ok, babygirl. Relax and enjoy it."

Mike rubs my hair. "Relax, baby. This is for you to celebrate your relationship. That's all. You did perfect this whole time."

I smile and sit back down. The present is a wood photo frame. "It says, 'She said yes!' on the bottom."

Drogon's mom smiles. "You'll have to put one of your engagement photos in it."

I open some more wine and champagne sets. Then we get a book of date ideas and a cookbook for 2. "These are all so thoughtful."

Chris smiles and hands me his. "Mine's practical."

It's a gift basket of ring stuff. A crystal jewelry dish. Some jewelry cleaner and brushes. A few polishing cloths. "This is perfect. I don't trust those jewelry stores cleaning my ring."

He laughs. "I know."

"That's it, babygirl." Drogon gives me a hug. "That was perfect."

"Everything was perfect. Thank you all for throwing this party for us."

"Mine now. I waited. I've waited for a month. It's my turn." His mom dumps the book-shaped present into my hands. "I'm never waiting again. Open it."

I pull the bow off and try not to laugh. Then I open the box and it's full of papers. I can feel Drogon reading them over my shoulder. Mike reads over my other shoulder.

"Mom, did you buy us an island?"

"YES." She screams and jumps up and down. "IT'S A FEW ISLANDS. THEY ARE CLOSE TOGETHER." She runs over and pulls out a map. "3. 3 ISLANDS. RIGHT THERE. SEE THEM? 2 LOOK KIND OF BIG. AND THEY ARE SOUTH OF US. THEY'RE TROPICAL ISLANDS."

"Thank you, mom. This is amazing."

"I knew you'd like it."

"Thank you." I smile at her. "We should go there now."

Drogon shakes his head. "This has been a lot for a day. Let's relax tonight and we can take the boat out tomorrow. During the daylight."

I pull his arm. "Let's go to bed, so tomorrow comes faster."

He pulls me against him and whispers in my ear. "I'm definitely not going to argue about going to bed with you. But we can't run away from the party."

I giggle and snuggle him. I forgot about that.

"You 2 are so precious." Granny stands up. "I'm old though. This is a late night for me."

"Me too." Phira follows her. "You kids have fun. Congratulations on the engagement."

"Thank you."

Drogon gives me a kiss. "And how could you say I take up more room in the bed? Your little body somehow takes up the whole thing."

Conner shakes his head. "She doesn't take up any room in bed because she's sleeping all the way on top of you."

"It's called cuddling."

"I do like your cuddles, babygirl." Drogon kisses my hand. "That game was cute though. Who thought that up?"

Lila smiles. "I found it in one of the magazines. I thought it would be fun. Chris was looking for a game."

"I loved everything. Even the pictures and the videos. This whole party was perfect. I was surprised at how many people came though. I figured it would be around 40."

His dad chuckles. "No. We broke 1,000."

Cyrus smiles at me. "Few more than 40. I couldn't believe how well it went though. The flow was perfect. Usually, we get that many people in a room and everything stops."

"The trick is the walk." Mary points at the wall. "Look at the pictures, sign the guestbook, grab a snack and drink. Then mingle and find a seat. It kept everyone moving in the same direction."

Cyrus's mom smiles. "It made sense to feed everyone right after the game because everyone was already seated. If you let them get up, it would have taken another hour for them to sit back down."

"True." Clayton stretches. "Best speech was Chris's. Bonus points for bringing up the champagne tower. Did you see him turn red?"

Chris cracks up laughing. "He was trying to hide when his mom was talking about sweating through shirts. Then Thena, when I said she wanted him as a gift. She turned bright red too."

"I couldn't believe you said that."

Conner sits down 2 boxes. "You have about 100 cards to open. And this box is date night ideas."

"Oh my."

"I forgot about that." Chris opens a box. "I put it in the corner and asked people to write their favorite date on a card. You should get a lot of ideas between these and the date night book you got."

"This was a lovely evening, but I can't stay for all that. I need to turn in as well. Let's head home, Clayton."

"I want to stay with them and see the island tomorrow."

Mike nods. "We have Chris, Dacious, and Atlas too. He'll be fine."

"I suppose that'll be ok. Have fun and bring your butt home tomorrow. You have school on Monday."

"I will, mom."

Slowly, enough people leave and we can end the party. 9 of us go to my house. I wanted Lila to come but she wouldn't. Clayton seems bummed too but didn't say anything.

I put on pajamas and sit in the middle of the living room floor. Conner drops the box of cards in front of me. I open them one at a time. Some people gave us gift cards to use for dates. Others wrote well-wishes. They're beautiful.

Clayton lays across a chair. "I can't believe it's only 8:30. It feels like 3."

Mike nods. "I want to leave at about 8 in the morning. Nobody get too drunk tonight. I'll leave your ass here in the morning."

"What's going on with you and Lila?" Atlas asks Clayton.

He shrugs his shoulders. "She won't be in a relationship. She wants to wait for her mate, and I'm a prince. Whatever that means."

Cyrus smiles. "You're a prince. You're going to be a king soon. The Alpha of Darkburn. She's Lila. A cheerleader from a high school you don't even go to."

Conner nods. "She knows girls throw themselves at you too. You're a prince. That's what they do. She can't compete. She's only your sister's friend."

"She's protecting herself."

Drogon pours himself a glass of wine. "Yep. No matter what happens, she'll remember you forever. The prince liked her. But you'll forget about her. You won't even remember her name in a couple of years."

I crack up laughing. "I'm so happy for you and your new ring. Oops, I mean fiance. Congratulations. From Amber." I lay on the floor and laugh for a couple of minutes. That was a good one. The boys shake their heads at me.

Drogon tickles me and picks up a card. "You are ornery. What does this one say...? Marriage is a relationship where one person is always right, and the other is the husband."

I scream laugh. "They keep getting better."

Drogon chuckles and picks up a different one. "This one is from my grandma. Congratulations! I'm so proud of you both for getting married out of love and not an unexpected pregnancy." He takes a drink and shakes his head. "Thanks grandma."

I can't even get off the floor. I'm laughing too damn hard. "Someone wine me."

Conner hands me a glass while Drogon tries again. "This is to me from my cousin. Congratulations, you found the one person you're going to annoy for the rest of your life."

I choke on the wine and try my hardest not to spit it all over myself.

"Are they all like this?" He picks up another. "Congratulations on your engagement. We wish you all the best. Steve and family. That's my uncle. Had a gift card in it."

I give him a little kiss. "Most of them are sweet. We just had a group of funny ones there. Amber's is my favorite. She's happy for me and my ring." I look at my ring and smile. "It's so shiny."

"It would be shinier if you clean it."

"I'm never taking it off."

Chris rolls his eyes. "I'm working on it. Let it go for now, Drogon."

He chuckles and kisses my head. Then he looks at Chris. "What's going on with you and... is it still a secret?"

Clayton laughs. "Yes. He's coming out very slowly."

Chris shakes his head. "He's a nice guy, but I'm not going to date him. I deserve to be shown off to the entire world. And he can't do that because he's still hiding in the closet."

"He will come out eventually, Chris. Don't do anything you'll regret."

"I won't. I'm just not going to hide. It wouldn't be like a real relationship if I wasn't allowed to post photos of us together or go on dates. I'm not going to sit in a closet and wait with him. He needs to come out on his own. I'll be his friend though. And I already told him that. He knows."

"That's fair." I refill my glass. "We should go super sexy around him though. See if we can get him to knock down a champagne tower too."

"Bet. I'm inviting him to the boat tomorrow." Chris pulls out his phone and texts him. Then he glances around. "We're friends. It's not weird." His phone dings. "s**t. He has to work. I'm telling him to call in. Oh, I'm taking this week off school. I'm staying with you again."

"That's fine."

My phone dings. It's Chris in the group chat. -Akmae is sick. He's not working tomorrow. He's coming with us on the boat instead.-

We laugh.

Mike: -You can't call in sick then go boating with your bosses.-

Akmae: -I am aware.-

Me: -It's fine.-

Monte: -How is it fine?-

Me: -He doesn't want to work. He wants to go on the boat. Just move the annoying girl to the coffee shop. We won't be there to get annoyed anyway.-

Monte: -I will be there.-

Me: -I'm sorry. Call in sick and come with us on the boat.-

As soon as Mike is done laughing: -We could use your security experience tomorrow. We're going to look at a private island.-

Monte: -Yea, I'll be there. I don't want to deal with annoying girl either. What time?-

Mike: -I'm hoping to leave here around 7:30 or 8.-

Monte: -I'll go on the boat tonight.-

Mike: -See you in the morning.-

Akmae: -So, am I working or boating?-

Chris: -Boating. You need to listen.-

Me: -Boating. None of us are brave enough to argue with Chris.-

Clayton: -Boating. Monte, bring extra bullets.-

Monte: -I already left. Order some.-

Mike: -Boating, Akmae. You can come over now or be here about 7:30 in the morning.-

Clayton: -Come over now. I'm already here.-

Akmae: -Alright. Be there in half an hour.-

Chris jumps up and runs out of the room.

Drogon picks me up. "I'm taking this one to bed. She's falling asleep on the floor."

Conner kisses my head. "See you in the morning, baby."