Royal Guard Tiger (Shifter Kingdom Book 2)

by Zoe Chant

  Tristan glanced down at the bedframe, and the bare wooden floor beneath it, and said, “I’m going to... look around downstairs.”

  Poppy grinned at his retreating back and didn’t argue; nothing in the house was even as soft as the grass up on the mountain’s peak. They couldn’t just make love outdoors here in the valley, with Myrthild and Fredrik and Estella only a few doors down, so they would just have to find a way to furnish the house more comfortably as soon as they could.

  Poppy listened with half an ear for the sounds of Tristan looking around downstairs as she went across the landing to the other upstairs bedroom. It was small, and entirely unfurnished, but... just right for a crib, she thought. There would be room for a rocking chair, too, by the window with a view of the sea.

  She lowered one hand to her belly. She knew it couldn’t be happening yet—the little bump of a birth control implant was still there in her upper arm, assuring her that she and Tristan wouldn’t be surprised until they were ready to be. Still, she could imagine rocking a baby, their baby, here. Making a family here, where they would have a home that stayed put, waiting for them.

  She thought back to when she had arrived in London, thinking that it would take her weeks of thought to decide what to do next. She thought of that restless searching feeling that had pushed her onward for as long as she could remember, and she realized it was now still.

  It wasn’t just the relief of the need to bring the stones home—she had found what she was looking for here. She didn’t know whether that was Tristan, or the stones, or this place, this home, or the idea of the future they could have.

  She thought maybe she had always been looking for all of that and now, all at once, she’d found it.

  “Ha! Found it,” she heard Tristan call from down below, sounding further away than just one flight of stairs.

  Poppy turned away from the window and hurried down to find him—a little round-topped door in the kitchen stood open on another set of stairs leading down. These steps were stone, but a light glowed down below, and Poppy followed them down into something between a cellar and a basement. There were no windows, but the floor was paved cleanly in stone, and the walls were lined with shelves that held wooden boxes and chests of all shapes and sizes.

  Tristan was kneeling over a wide, low chest, painted red with little decorations of blue and green and white. He was reaching down under what looked like a layer of blankets and sheets, prodding at something. He looked up at her and gave her a wide-open smile.

  “Mattress,” he said succinctly. “Wool-stuffed, probably. It’s been folded up and tied down to keep it in the chest, so it will need some fluffing to get it back into shape. We should take the whole chest upstairs before we take it out.”

  Poppy looked around again and realized that all the house’s furnishings must be here, things put away after the last guardian had left, packed carefully to protect from earthquakes or time.

  “Glass for the windows,” Tristan said, pointing to a stack of wide, flat boxes under the stairs. “If we get those in place it will be a bit quieter.”

  Meaning, Poppy realized, her face going hot, their new neighbors wouldn’t hear them breaking in the bed.

  “Right,” Poppy said, going over to grab one handle of the trunk with the bedding. “Looks like we’ve got some moving in to do.”

  Tristan laughed, but he closed the lid and helped her carry it up the stairs.

  *~*~*

  They had set up their bed and installed the first two of the glass windows when Myrthild came up the path with a basket.

  “Supper, and a few other supplies,” she said, as they came to meet her. Tristan took the basket from her hands, and Myrthild smiled and took a step back. “I won’t keep you, I know how it is—new-mated and making your first den together.”

  Poppy grinned and thanked her, but she saw a certain shadow in Myrthild’s eyes as she turned away, and her steps were hurried.

  Poppy suspected that she didn’t want to be away from Estella too long, and that “much better” than however unwell Estella had been before was not quite the same as “entirely recovered.”

  When she looked at Tristan again, he was staring into the basket as if it held the secrets of the universe. “Tristan?”

  He looked up, and his expression had gone unreadable, making her realize how open and happy he’d looked since they came down from the mountaintop together.

  “What is it?”

  He nodded, as if to say, Yes, there is something, but he said only, “Let’s go sit by the lake and eat.”

  The late afternoon shadows were beginning to stretch longer, but they were both warm from their work, so it was pleasant to sit down at the edge of the little mountain lake. They pulled out bread and cheese and sausage, fruit and salad and little cakes from the basket, and for a while they ate in silence, Tristan staring out at the lake while Poppy mostly watched Tristan.

  She was a little startled when he looked back at her, but she smiled and he smiled back before dropping his gaze. “I think I dreamed about this place, after the first time we made love. Of being here with you, and our... our future.”

  Poppy was almost certain future wasn’t the word he’d meant to say there.

  “Was that... magic, do you think? Have you ever been here before?” She looked around at the quiet and added, “Are other people allowed to come here?”

  “Allowed, yes, at least this far. Few have bothered, since the stones were lost, and even before then, not many, I don’t think. I hadn’t, ever.” He looked out at the lake again and shook his head. “That’s... you told me to think of whether there were more things I hadn’t told you, and I was trying to think of the things I haven’t told you. That’s... not the most important one. But it’s the one I like the best.”

  Poppy stood up and moved around to his other side, so the detritus of their picnic wasn’t between them. She snuggled up to his side, and Tristan’s arm came around her, warm and steady, reminding her of the night they met. “Tell me some more?”

  Tristan sighed. “I told you your sister sent me to find you, and that Otto had tried to... remove her.”

  Poppy nodded, starting to see what he was getting at.

  “The reason she could send me and the reason she was conspired against...” Tristan tugged her half into his lap, curling his arms around her but getting enough distance that they could look each other in the eyes. “Did you know that your mother was married once, before she met your father?”

  Poppy nodded. “To Signy’s dad, you mean? You don’t have to tell me she’s my...” Half-sister, Poppy didn’t say, as she realized that Signy’s father must have been Valtyran, a shapeshifter.

  Tristan nodded. “Her grandfather summoned her to Valtyra—sent me to America along with Kai, and Otto, to find her. Otto was First Minister, you see, and Kai and I were guardsmen. And Signy’s grandfather is the King of Valtyra.”

  Poppy’s jaw dropped. For a stupid, jealous second, all she could think was, Oh, of course, I might be a Guardian of the Stones but Signy’s a princess.

  Then she saw the scars on Tristan’s face and throat—really saw them for what they were, not just part of Tristan’s face but the evidence of violence and betrayal.

  She touched her fingers to his cheek. “Otto... didn’t want an American princess?”

  Tristan tilted his head. “He didn’t want a princess who knew her own mind, and her own mate. Signy is human, just like you are, so it is her husband who will rule Valtyra—Otto meant to choose for her, but Signy and Kai knew they were mates as soon as they met. They are Crown Prince and Crown Princess now, and soon they will be married. And... it may not be long, after that, before they become King and Queen.”

  Poppy leaned against Tristan’s chest, hiding her face for a moment.

  “But you are a Guardian,” Tristan said softly. “And the Wisdom Stones are the heart of Valtyra, as my mate is my heart. And we shall have our own future here, because you had the courage to find th
e stones and bring them home.”

  Poppy nodded, twisting to look out at the lake again. There was plenty of room in Valtyra for her and for Signy, after all. And she wouldn’t have wanted to be a queen, but Signy would probably be pretty good at it.

  “Do you have anything else to tell me?” Poppy asked after a while.

  Tristan nuzzled against her hair and said, “Sometimes you snore and it’s adorable.”

  Poppy burst out laughing, elbowing him a little, and Tristan fell back to the grass as though she’d really knocked him down. Poppy could have followed him down, tickled him or kissed him or done something else to keep them rolling in the grass as the sun sank on the other side of the mountain’s peak. Instead, she took a breath and said, “Do you have a phone that gets service here? I need to call my sister.”

  *~*~*

  Poppy went inside and started a fire in their fireplace, perching on the hearth while Tristan got back to putting the glass windows in. He was near enough to watch, and near enough to hear at least her side of the conversation, but not hovering.

  The phone rang for a while, and just when Poppy was wondering what to say in a voice mail and thinking that it had been stupid to imagine a Crown Princess would be free to answer her phone whenever Poppy called, Signy picked up.

  “Tristan? Is Poppy okay?”

  Poppy covered her mouth with one hand at the sound of her sister’s worried voice, struggling for a second to compose herself before she said, “Hi, Siggy. I’m fine.”

  “Poppy!” Signy’s shriek was halfway between delighted and exasperated, and so familiar that tears came to Poppy’s eyes. She looked up to see Tristan watching her, and he winked and returned his attention to the windows when their eyes met.

  “Pops, I’m so glad you called, because I was trying to give you time but I was also honestly going to call out the rest of the Royal Guard to track you down if I didn’t hear from you soon. But you’re all right?”

  “I’m fine,” Poppy repeated. “I’m, uh, I’m a Guardian of the Stones, as it turns out? Apparently that’s... important.”

  “You’re—” Signy’s voice altered, clearly aimed at someone else. “Laila, could you just get Kai? Immediately? Tell him I require a word about tomorrow’s schedule.”

  “Siggy?”

  “It’s fine, it’s fine, I’m just going to strangle Kai before I even get around to marrying him,” Signy said. “I was losing my mind wondering where you were and whether I was going to find out before we had to head off to some mountain first thing tomorrow morning because there’s an urgent ritual that he and my grandfather have to do with some special stones, and no one thought to tell me that the heroic young woman who brought them back to Valtyra today is my sister Poppy.”

  “It was going to be a surprise!” The masculine voice must belong to Kai, her soon-to-be brother-in-law.

  “Oh, a surprise like my sister Siggy being a princess?” Poppy asked.

  Signy was silent for a moment. “Um...”

  Closer to the phone, Kai said, “I like you, Poppy. Welcome to the family.”

  Poppy giggled. “I’m reserving judgment, Kai. But it does sound like you’re well on your way to treating my sister like a queen.”

  Signy finally started laughing, and Poppy was laughing nearly too hard to hold the phone; Tristan came over after a while and she leaned against him while he got all the details from Kai about when they would be arriving the next day (very early) and what preparation was required (none, except to be prepared to get up very early).

  Poppy and Signy managed a few apologies and see you tomorrows before Tristan hung up the phone and tugged her to her feet. “Come on, we need to get the rest of these windows in before it’s time for bed. And our bedtime is very early tonight.”

  “And at some point we’ll have to go to sleep, too,” Poppy agreed.

  *~*~*

  Myrthild and Fredrik joined them the next morning to greet the little party who had come up the mountain. Poppy had wondered if there would be a whole entourage, but it was just Signy and her gorgeous blond mate Kai, the white-haired king, and another man with a similar big build, who was soon introduced as Magnus, the Captain of the Royal Guard.

  He was older than Tristan, but there were only a few glints of silver in his dark brown hair. The trip up the mountain clearly hadn’t troubled him, unlike the king, who was still catching his breath.

  “Magnus was my boss, until yesterday,” Tristan explained in an undertone, while the king and Myrthild and Fredrik were explaining to Signy exactly how they were related to each other—Myrthild was some kind of cousin many-times-removed to Signy, and Estella was therefore a different kind of cousin.

  Poppy looked up at him and a flash of guilt went across Tristan’s face. “Should I have remembered to tell you that I had to quit my job to stay here with you?”

  Poppy squinted at him, then said, “I’ll let it go, I suppose.”

  Tristan stole a quick kiss, just before everyone’s attention turned toward them, Myrthild saying, “And you know of Poppy of course—she brought home the lion and tiger stones, though I haven’t yet had the story of just how she came to find them. She is the tiger’s special guardian.”

  The king stepped forward, holding out both his hands. Poppy was pretty sure you weren’t supposed to hug kings, but it also didn’t seem like she was supposed to curtsey—no one was exactly standing on ceremony, in this deserted village at six in the morning. She tried holding out her own hand, the one Tristan wasn’t keeping a grip on.

  To her surprise, the king clasped it in both of his and kissed it. “Thank you, Miss Zlotsky. You have done us a greater service than you can possibly know. Any Guardian would be honored throughout the kingdom, but you have done more. You have brought our heart home to us.”

  “...Oh,” Poppy said, looking up at Tristan and over to Signy with her eyes wide, not sure what to do. “You’re... welcome?”

  The king simply squeezed her hand and released it, still smiling. “Well. We shall express it properly another time. For now—Kai, Magnus, Fredrik, Tristan, come with me to speak to the stones. Ladies, if you will excuse us.”

  Poppy nodded, and Tristan hugged her tight one more time before he followed the king with the other men, and then Signy caught her in a hug.

  “You will come to the wedding, right?” Signy asked, when she let Poppy go a little.

  Poppy nodded helplessly, and Signy said, “Good. Because Laila’s figured out about six options for your dress, and I need to know what you think. And get your measurements.”

  Poppy’s eyes went wide, wondering what she was getting herself into.

  Myrthild laughed. “Come, come back to my home, girls. We’ll have tea, and I know where to find my tape measure.”

  *~*~*

  Epilogue

  Tristan looked at Poppy, ten days after they met, and smiled down at her as they went to their audience with the king.

  Today was the day of the royal wedding, but the earliest parts of the ceremony—conducted at dawn, and mostly private—were already over. Everyone had changed into their finery for the main ceremony. Tristan wore a tuxedo rather than a guardsman’s dress uniform for the first time, and Poppy looked radiant in a silk gown of some rich blue-green shade that made her eyes look as bright as the sea.

  She beamed up at him now, almost skipping as they walked through the palace. She was already wearing a gold tiara set with sapphires, loaned from her sister for the occasion, but her neck and shoulders were bare.

  There was no mystery, and no need to worry, about why they were being called before the king today.

  It was the same audience chamber in which Tristan had been given his mission to find Poppy and bring her to Valtyra, though the company was somewhat expanded. Kai and Signy were both present, as well as Poppy’s parents, but also Magnus and the King’s Council—such as it was, these days, having lost four of its members after Otto’s treason came to light.

  Signy—Crown Princess
Signy, in her full formal role, which she had settled into as if she’d had rather more than a few weeks’ practice—made introductions all around. Poppy was new to the councilors, of course, and Tristan was nearly as unknown. As a guardsman he had been virtually invisible to these men despite seeing all of them in and around the palace for the last ten years.

  Soon they assembled themselves properly for their real purpose. Poppy took her place before the king with Tristan standing at her shoulder, while Kai and Signy flanked the king. The Zlotskys and the councilors were to either side, witnessing.

  “For your great and courageous service to the Kingdom of Valtyra,” the king said, “I award to you, Poppy Zlotsky, the Royal Order of the Bear. All your life you shall be, in your own right, Lady Poppy of Valtyra.”

  Poppy knelt to receive the marks of her honors, smoothly rearranging her skirts as she had practiced while Magnus stepped up with the velvet pillow on which the items of her regalia were arranged. The king first bestowed the yellow sash of the order with the white and gold star-shaped badge. After that came a heavy gold chain that hung over her shoulders, a plaque with an enameled white bear resting at the center of her chest, just above the neckline of her gown.

  There had been much practicing when they came down to Bjornholm from the mountain last night, to be sure Poppy knew how to wear everything. Which was to say nothing of the frantic communication to be sure that the neckline of her dress would be precisely engineered to accommodate both the sash and the chain.

  Poppy arose, back straight and chin up, and took her step back to stand beside Tristan. He beamed at her, and she was grinning radiantly at him, blushing a little as all in the room applauded her, including the king—and her sister.

  Tristan looked around and found that one person wasn’t looking at Poppy—Kai was looking at Tristan, grinning widely, and he mouthed, Wow.

  Kai had never seen him smile like this, but Tristan had a feeling that his friend was going to have plenty of time to get used to it; it seemed to happen so easily when his mate was by his side. Tristan grinned wider, helplessly, and returned his attention to Poppy.