Althena Book 2

80. Engagement Party

The rest of the week is the same. I go to school and shop after. For the girls' club, we plan the zoo trip that's coming up. Friday, we cheer at our last game. The boys win some kind of championship.

Saturday afternoon, I put my little blue dress on with the matching heels. Then I stare at myself in the mirror. It's hard to do all these celebrations when you don't have many people. I know Drogon has a big family though. Maybe nobody will notice I only have granny, Chris, Lila, Mary, and Clayton. Of course, I have my boys, but I don't think they count. Maybe they do.

Mike rubs my shoulders. "What's going on in your head, babygirl?"

"I'm torturing myself by doing these things. The people that love me are always near me. I don't have to have a party to see them. I just have to leave the room. What am I doing? This is a bunch of work for nothing."

"It's not for nothing. It's actually for other people."

"What?"

He starts doing my hair. "It's not even for you. It's for everyone else, baby. It gives people a reason to dress up and get out into the community. A good reason. And I'm pretty sure this party is for Drogon's mom to give you a gift. People don't even normally have a party for this. But they will be there in full force today. The press will be taking pictures of people all dressed up. Everyone will be smiling and laughing. Telling you congratulations. This is all it is. Say thank you, smile, and have a little fun. Then you can accept Drogon's mom's gift and the party will have been a success."

"Mission successful."

"Exactly, her mate and son finally let her give the gift. That's the entire point of today."

"What about the wedding?"

"Your wedding to Drogon will be huge. The king and queen getting married is not something that happens every day. It'll be very royal and televised everywhere. Your wedding to the rest of us can be whatever you want. You can wear a bikini and say vows with Conner on the beach. Trade rings. I want my parents and brother to be at ours. Nothing big. Cyrus would normally be huge because he's a prince. But he talked his mom into a small wedding for now. Honestly, she could probably be the only guest and be happy."

I laugh. "Yea, she seems to want this done quickly."

"It does mean something to them. They don't touch people that aren't their mates. They don't date. It's a big deal that he fell in love with you. And I don't know if she believes in our soulmate test or not. She wants him married, so even if you're not soulmates, you're still his wife. You'll be able to mark each other and be together forever. All that and he has to be a good example for his brothers."

"We are soulmates."

"I know, babygirl. The wedding will give her peace of mind though. Let's go accept your gift."

I stand up and laugh.

We fly over to Winter Moon and Drogon helps me out of the helicopter. "We really do match."

He pulls me against him and kisses my cheek. "You are beautiful. Let's go say 'thank you for coming' too many times to count. Then I'll give a speech and we can eat."

I crack up laughing. "You forgot to accept your mother's gift during your plan."

He smirks and leads me in. "I knew I forgot something."

My eye twitches and Clayton loses it. "I stood here just to see her face when she saw the present table."

Chris is standing right beside him laughing. "I'm not gonna be able to pull her away from this damn thing."

Clayton runs over with a box. "It's from me. You can open it."

I rip the paper off it and it's an empty box. He nearly falls on the floor laughing. I hit him on the head with it. "I'm going to give you 500 empty boxes when you get engaged."

Chris tries to stop laughing. "Keep going. You're not standing here all night. The party is in there."

Drogon pulls me with him. "You'll have to open them later, babygirl. Keep them out of your mind for now."

We walk into a ballroom and my mouth hits the floor. Everything is fancy. The colors are gold, white, and little accents of the blue I'm wearing. Lots of round tables are set up. They have white tablecloths with gold place mats. The dishes are white with gold designs. The centerpiece is a gold vase with white roses. Then 2 tall gold candles stand in the middle of the flowers. Tiny blue flowers are sprinkled along with the roses. "This is so beautiful."

"Not as beautiful as you, baby." He pulls me over to a wall.

There are pictures of us hanging on part of it. "Remember that concert?"

"Yea. I remember I had to keep your boobs in your shirt."

"You did that quite often."

He chuckles and points. "I was shitfaced in that picture."

"There's probably a few of them we're like that."

We walk the wall looking at all our pictures. Then a table with a book on it. "It's a guest book."

He kisses my cheek. "We'll have it forever."

The next area is a TV. It's playing video clips we've recorded. Or the news recorded. I laugh so hard when a video of us drunk at the teen's club plays. I'm sitting on his lap kissing him.

He smiles and pulls me closer. "Everyone had an issue with that, but the royal romance was alive."

"We barely knew each other."

"Yea, the alcohol helped with that one." He pulls me into a photo booth. We take a couple of pictures and keep going. The rest of the wall has snack food and drinks set up. It looks like a nice bar. People are randomly picking at it in spots. He grabs us some champagne.

"Congratulations, baby."

Drogon hugs a woman. "Thank you grandma. This is my world, Thena."

She takes my hand then gives me a hug. "It's nice to finally meet you, sweetie. Welcome to the family."

"Thank you."

We spend an hour or so talking to random people and thanking them for coming. All I know is my feet hurt.

Then Chris has a microphone in the middle of the dance floor. "Thank you all for coming. Now it's time we embarrass them a little. Come up here. We're going to play a game."

"Oh no." We go over to Chris and everyone else finds their seat.

"Give me your shoes and sit facing away from each other."

"Suddenly this is better." I have no problem taking my heels off.

Chris gives me one of Drogon's shoes and I keep one of mine. "Now, everyone has filled out this paper. The person who has the most correct answers will win a prize. I will ask the 2 of them a question. They will hold up the shoe with the correct answer. For example. Who is the better cook?"

I spin and look at Drogon. He's got my shoe in the air. "I was just making sure." I put my shoe up and everyone laughs.

Chris wipes his eyes off. "Ok. No more peeking. Here we go. Who said I love you, first?" I don't even remember. He said it before he took me for the first time though. I giggle and put his shoe up. I feel him laugh, then he puts his shoe up.

He says under his breath, "I know what you thought about, woman."

"Couldn't help it."

Chris shakes his head. "Who is more romantic?" I put his shoe up. He takes me out to fancy places. I think that's romantic.

Everyone laughs and I check. He's got my shoe in the air.

"No peeking." Chris smiles. "Who is the better driver?" I put my shoe up. I've never had an accident. He puts his own shoe up. Chris is laughing his ass off. "Who owns more shoes?" My shoe flies up from both of us. "Who spends the most money?" I keep my shoe up. I don't even bother to see what he does. "Who wakes up first?" Drogon's shoe goes up. "Who is clumsier?" I put my shoe up and laugh. I've never seen him fall in the mud pit. "Who is the better dancer?" I put his shoe up. He is good at it. "Who is the better kisser?" I stop for a second and everyone cracks up laughing. I have to think about it though. I've never kissed myself. I finally put his shoe up. I can feel him shaking his head behind me. "Who takes up more space in bed?" I put his shoe up. He must disagree. Everyone laughs again. "Who is more likely to burn the house down by accident?" I crack up laughing. I look at Drogon, and he's holding my shoe as high as he can get it. Chris nods. "Who is more likely to be arrested?" I put my shoe in the air and laugh. "Very good. And finally, who brought up marriage first?" I point at his dad with my shoe. Drogon does the same thing.

His dad laughs and stands up. "I had a feeling. And I was right."

The whole room is laughing by the time we get done.

"At this time, we're going to make a few toasts before dinner." Chris puts the microphone down. "You can sit at your table now."

Drogon and I move to the head table and his dad takes the microphone from Chris.

"Hi everyone, I would like to thank you all for coming tonight to celebrate the engagement of Drogon and Thena. For those who don't know me, I'm Drogon's father, Storm Winter. It means so much to us that you would come out and share this occasion marking the start of their life-long commitment." He raises his glass. "May all your wishes come true. We love you."

His mom takes the microphone next. "We're so grateful you could join us tonight. From the first moment my son saw Thena, she was his whole world. He was so smitten and happy. He went crazy trying to pick out some jewelry for her princess ceremony. Then the first time they went out, I swear the boy sweated through 2 shirts before he left. He was probably dehydrated at that point." I laugh and rub his back thinking about his engagement attempts. "It has been a true gift watching the love grow between the two of you. And I know the best is still yet to come." She raises her glass. "Here's to a lifetime of health and happiness. You both deserve it. And to the daughter I'm finally going to get. Congratulations."

Chris takes it next. "What can I even say? I forgot to write a speech, so I'm gonna wing it." We laugh. "First, thank you all for coming. For those of you that don't know me, I'm Chris. I've been best friends with Thena for years. To Thena, I'm so happy you found your forever. Boys came and went for us. Most were troublesome creatures," The crowd cracks up laughing. "But then Drogon came along, and you could not stop staring at each other." I giggle and take his hand. "I remember the jewelry Drogon picked out for you. It was beautiful. But you were wishing he was the gift instead." I laugh and try to hide my face. I know it's red. Drogon rubs my back and laughs. "Yea, she wanted you even then. And to Drogon, the man who knocked over an entire champagne tower because he couldn't take his eyes off her, you are so lucky." It takes a minute for the crowd to stop laughing. Drogon nods and laughs beside me. "Yes, I had to bring that up. But seriously, congratulations to you both. I'm so happy for you, and I'm excited about helping to plan the wedding. You deserve a lifetime of happiness." He raises his glass. "May the next chapter bring even more love and laughter." Then he brings the microphone to Drogon.

"Everyone, thank you for coming out tonight. It means a lot to us that you want to celebrate with us. We want to say thank you to everyone who helped make tonight happen. I know it couldn't have been easy to throw this together so quickly. You did amazingly. The place is beautiful. I love the pictures the most. Reminds me of how much Thena and I have been through already. And what Chris said is right, I'm the luckiest man on the planet. I have the most amazing woman I've ever met at my side. I could never ask for anything else."

I jump up and hug him. "I can't wait to marry you."

He kisses my head and smiles. "Thank you all. This means the world to us."