The Succubus and her two Mates

33| Contributing

Feeling disquiet from her conversation with the Queen, Ronnie wandered the halls. She looked around where she had ended up. There were people moving between rooms that looked like offices. She could hear Brand and Brocks'voices from up the hall.

She only had a second of uncertainty if it would be okay to disturb them at work before deciding she didn't care.

"Veronika?" She felt the surprise mirror in the tone.

She turned to see the King entering the hall. She hastily bowed, "Your majesty. I was just..." She lifted an arm towards her mate's voices.

He smiled at her, "Of course."

She hesitated, "May I ask a question?"

King Paol nodded and motioned to his office, the room he had been coming out of.

He shut the door behind them and motioned for her to sit on a sofa off the side in a small sitting area in his office.

After sitting next to her he nodded to indicate she should speak. "The Queen has been pretty open with her expectations of Brock and his... Brand and I." She had been about to say mates. As in plural. "What do you want of us?"

Paol sighed and relaxed back into the couch. She twisted, so she could still face him, her knee coming up onto the sofa.

"I would want Brock to have what his mother and I did not." He smiled. "That is what all parents want for their children."

She couldn't help but snort. She apologized immediately, realising that was probably not proper etiquette.

The king just laughed, "Sevnia wants that too, just from a different angle. She doesn't want Brock to ever go through a war, or wars like we did. At the beginning of our reign, we had already faced two callosal conflicts."

He shook his head thinking about it. She felt that weight again, what she felt from him during the initial speech. Ronnie was lost in her thoughts - what would life be like watching Brock and Brand leave for war...

"I had a mate."

Ronnie glanced up at the king in surprise. "What happened?" Ronnie asked the question without meaning to. It was obviously not the Queen.

The King smiled sadly. "I was meant to reject her. Sevnia and I were already betrothed, mere months before our union. Sevnia never met hers." He took a second. "Mine was killed before I could do it. The loss... is unforgettable."

She hesitated, wanting to comfort him but not sure how. She felt the pain he felt even after all this time. She took his hand like she had the queen.

He gave her a little look of surprise but squeezed her hand in thanks.

"Does she know you found your fated mate?"

The older dragon nodded.

"I'm so sorry. I can't imagine what that must have been like for you... and for the Queen..." to know your husband had found and felt his fated mate...

"It was challenging but we both had a duty, and we performed it."

Ronnie couldn't help but think of ifs and buts, what if the previous King had had faith that Sevnia could hold the usurper at bay, could she have found her fated mate? Without the obligation, would Paol have been with his mate, saving her from her death?

"It all seems to be a curse." Tears were in her eyes.

Paol placed his hand on her shoulder and squeezed once before dropping his hand. "We are not unhappy."

"You're not happy either though."

He could only smile. "Our union gave us Brock. Could you imagine a world in which he didn't exist?"

Silence settled around them. She could not imagine- would not imagine the possibility. But at what cost were they here? And what was still to be paid?

~*~

Brock was tense. "I don't think that is a good idea."

King Paol replied, "We have no other options. Kainon has never shared anything with Amer. Advisor has briefed me on Veronika's abilities. She could detect whether he reacts to our suspicions on what information he has."

"What do you think he knows?" Brand asked.

The King's shoulders dropped a bit. "The only thing we can think of is that the Warlocks want whatever he had that had aided his near ascension to the throne of the Netherrealm."

"A weapon?" Brock queried.

"A power source, perhaps," Advisor mused. "Our intel is that he was a disgraced General. He was expelled to the human realm only three years ago. In that time he took control of the demon contingents there, even uniting warring factions." Advisor was clearly impressed - forever the academic. "The coordinated assaults that he orchestrated were perfectly executed. He took everyone by surprise. There is no doubt he would have succeeded if the Wolves had not captured him."

"You're not really winning your case for me to let Ronnie anywhere near him."

Advisor was dismissive. "She wouldn't even need to be in the same room, as long as she could see him and in close proximity, she will be able to accurately read him. Her abilities really are extraordinary."

Brock and Brand were uncomfortable with Advisors' interest in their mate.

"I will ask her but I won't make her do it."

The King just shook his head in frustration.

~*~

"Yeah sure. I can do that." Ronnie was smoking a spliff on her balcony - she'd essentially left the sofa out there. It had quickly become one of her favourite places to chill.

"You don't have to though," Brock promised.

She just shrugged. "I don't mind. I'm not doing much anyway. Would be nice to feel like I'm contributing a little bit."

Brock relaxed, not realising how tense he'd been about asking her to do this.

Brand sat next to her and took her joint from her, taking a puff himself. "Plus side, you can see what the Wolves Kingdom is like, and we'll go straight to my old homeland afterward."

"Sweet," Ronnie replied, "So who's the big bad?"

"Kainon Wyld. He's a General that came close to taking over the Netherrealms."

"Uh... Okay..." shiiiit....

~*~