***
I was walking down by the lake when I saw the big dragon.
Angus.
Hello, pretty lady, Angus replied.
I smiled despite my bad mood.
“How’s it shaking?” I asked him.
How’s what shaking? he asked in confusion.
I smiled.
“How are you?” I amended.
I couldn’t really be sure, because to be honest, I wasn’t good at reading dragons still, but I could swear he smiled.
I’m fine, little one. You, obviously, are not. What’s wrong? he asked.
I sat down on the bench that’d been moved down close to the water. For my best friend. A best friend that I’d pissed off because I’d pissed her husband off.
So I explained that I’d pissed everyone off, not leaving anyone out.
“So, was I childish?” I asked once I’d finished.
Let me get this straight, he said. You asked Keifer to allow someone to take you to the store so you could get supplies, supplies that you wouldn’t tell him about. Then you yelled at him in front of five people, one of whom was his wife. Do I have that correct?
It sounded bad when he put it like that.
“I wanted to buy Nikolai a birthday present,” I said huffily.
The dragon rumbled out a laugh.
And you couldn’t just order it online like everyone else does? he asked.
I shook my head.
“I feel like I can’t breathe,” I said. “I’ve been trying for weeks to order it online, and it’s not in stock,” I mumbled. “I’ve run out of options, and I really want to get it for him.”
I dropped my head into my hands and shivered in the cold night air, silently berating myself for not grabbing my jacket in my haste to get out of the stupid mansion where everyone seemed to be in every room.
“Your first mistake was going about it the way that you did,” Keifer said from behind me.
I jumped, then dropped my head, sighing.
Shit.
“Your second mistake was yelling at me in front of the others. I will take a lot from you, since you’re my brother’s mate, but I’m not going to take you yelling at me in front of them. It makes me look weak, something which my brother told you the last time you raised hell seeing as I was listening when he did,” Keifer continued.
I gritted my teeth.
“Your third mistake was saying that in front of my wife. She may be your friend, and owes a certain loyalty to you, but she’s my mate. She’s my other half. She’s co-ruler to me. She can’t be seen arguing against me, just as you can’t. You’re a princess now. It’s time to act like it,” Keifer finished.
By the time he was done, I was clenching my fists so freakin’ hard that I didn’t have any feeling in them.
Whirling around, I glared at Keifer.
Easy with what you say, Angus whispered through my mind. Control your anger. State your case. Tell him what you feel, but don’t make him feel stupid.
I was beyond ‘rational’ however.
I was into the ‘irrational’ state now.
“Keifer, do you know what it’s like to be imprisoned?” I asked.
His eyes narrowed, and I couldn’t be sure if it was due to the setting sun or the fact that he didn’t like my tone.
“No,” he said.
I nodded.
“And do you know what it’s like to be told what to do and when to do it?” I persisted.
He shook his head. “I’ve been king and a prince my whole life,” he admitted. “It definitely isn’t something that I’ve experienced.”
I nodded again.
“What about the basic amenities. Have you ever had to deal with power outage?” I asked.
He shook his head. “The sanctuary has backup generators, and we have for a very long time now. Why?”
I ignored his question.
“When I was four years old, I got my first job. It was beating the rugs out at my parents’ place. There was a line of them that stretched over thirty feet long. I did it for five hours a day after I did my schooling,” I told him.
He cocked his head.
And it was then I realized that Nikolai was there, too.
I knew he wouldn’t let Keifer yell at me.
He’d let him explain what he felt he had to, but he wouldn’t ever let Keifer hurt me. My feelings were a different thing, and I hated that Nikolai was siding with Keifer on this.
He’d held back some, staring at what was going on.
I turned back to Keifer.
“When I was eight, I graduated from the rugs and moved to the kitchens, where I cooked the morning, noon and evening meals, as well as baked the next day’s bread for over a hundred other people,” I explained. “I was one of about four girls that were in my age group in our Amish community. So, for sixteen years, I followed order after order, and worked my ass off all because I was a girl. And I left because I was told to leave. But I didn’t go back, do you know why?”
I crossed my arms, glaring at the man that was now my ‘King.’ Even though I’d never sworn any fealty to him.
“I did a woman’s work. I did what I was told. I went where I was instructed. I read what I was given. I was a fucking slave,” I hissed. “And now, here I am, a fucking slave again. I go to sleep when I’m supposed to, since the lights are turned out at a certain time because I share a fucking house with fifteen other people. I work where I’m told, because I’m needed. I don’t leave because I’m told I can’t. I haven’t been able to order a single fucking thing off of the Internet because of some blackout to my account due to somebody out there looking for a way in at me. I’m being paid by my mate for services rendered because whomever is supposed to pay me doesn’t. And to top it all off, I am now mated to a man that takes the side of his brother rather than his mate.”
I was good and pissed now.
In fact, I wanted to throw something at both of their faces.
My shoe, perhaps, since when I looked around that was the only thing I could see that would make an impact.
I didn’t, however.
Instead, I pulled what little courage I had left, and volleyed one final blow at not Keifer, but at my husband.
“I left that place because I knew they were going to marry me off to a man. A man that’d already told me he would brook no disrespect to his family or mine. I was to obey him. No matter what. And so I left, because that’s not how I wanted to live my life,” I snarled. “And look where I am...being dictated what I can and can’t do. By you. By him. And who’s watching out for me? No one, that’s who. Because even my own fucking best friend takes the other side.”
With that, I gathered the darkness around me, something that I’d learned from Perdita, and I disappeared.
Well, seemed to disappear.
Really, I just sat on the picnic table.
“Shit,” Nikolai hissed. “Shit.”
Shit was right.