A Royal Pain

chapter eight

"Calm down. Aurora is fine."

"She could have died, thanks to your ass. Did you even bother to see where she was going?"

"You were in the room, too! Since when am I Aurora's keeper?"

Somewhere in my foggy haze, I recognized the last person that spoke as Brian. Why were he and Mason arguing? Sitting up, I realized that I was still in the living room. "What's going on," I croaked.

Their eyes darted to mine like they forgot I even existed. "Uh, nothing. We were just talking about what to do with the rogues," Brian stuttered. I narrowed my eyes suspiciously.

The man from earlier came to their rescue. He pushed past them to stand in front of me with an outstretched hand. "Daniel Wan, Your Highness." He was also Asian, with dark brown hair and a charming smile. Before he found Kim, I had no doubt that she-wolves fell at his feet. They probably still did.

I shook his hand even though I was still half-asleep. "Call me Aurora. Kim has told me so much about you." At the mention of his mate, Daniel's whole face lit up. I could only hope that one day Mason felt the same way about me.

"Speak of the devil," Brian murmured. Kim burst into the room, oblivious of what had happened in the past hour. She only had eyes for her mate, and who could blame her?

"Daniel!" Kim ran into his arms. They were in the very own bubble and I had a feeling that if an asteroid hit Earth they wouldn't notice. It was hard not to be envious when my own mate would barely look at me but it was even harder to feel negatively towards Kim. Out of everyone in the room, she deserved a happily ever after the most.

Kim finally noticed our solemn expressions and turned to face me. "What's wrong? Why do you have a cut on your face?"

I rubbed my cheek, thinking back to when the rogue swiped at my muzzle. Not all injuries transferred into your human form, but this scratch must have been deep. "Rogues attacked me," I said.

Kim glared at Mason. "And no one thought I should know?"

He looked like a little boy who got caught with his hand in the cookie jar. "It just happened. Charles doesn't even know." Kim rolled her eyes but decided to drop it. Mason turned to me. "Can you tell us everything that happened?"

I thought back to when the Moon Goddess had visited me. Our conversation was brief but knowing she supported me somehow made everything better. Somehow, even Andrew's plan to kidnap me couldn't dull the peacefulness that I had when I thought about the Moon Goddess. I could only imagine what would have happened if I didn't realize what the rogue was trying to do. He was purposely baiting me, withholding himself so that he wouldn't hurt me while running deeper into the forest so that I would chase him. If I followed him as planned, Andrew would probably be waiting with a syringe to plunge into my neck. I didn't want to think about where I would be if my instincts didn't kick in.

By the time I was done recounting the story, nearly everyone had their jaws on the floor. "Damn. You could give my warriors a run for their money," Daniel grinned. "You should help train them sometime."

My eyes widened. That sounded amazing. Before I could agree, Mason interjected. "Absolutely not."

"Why? Do you want your warriors to die when we attack?" I exclaimed.

Mason turned his whole body to face mine. The intensity of his gray eyes boring into mine was almost too much. "Of course not. You're not training anyone. End of discussion."