Royally Exposed

by Catherine Banks

  “Want to go for a walk to the dining car? We can get some food and bring stuff back for everyone. I’m sure we’re all hungry by now,” he suggested.

  He was trying to get me away from the guys so that I could talk to him. I really appreciated that.

  “Okay,” I agreed, climbing over Nico to get into the aisle, then pushing past Rhys and Fox to the door leading to another car.

  “We’re going to get some food for everyone,” Martin told them.

  “Oh, I’ll come too and-” Rhys started, but there was a quiet conversation, too quiet for me to hear, and then Martin was pushing me through the door.

  Part of me wanted to glance back at them, since it was dead silent now, but I kept my eyes forward and walked with Martin down the aisle of a car filled with passengers. Every single seat was taken and I felt bad we had an entire car to ourselves. The guys probably paid for all of the seats, but I still felt bad for all the people crammed into this one car.

  We went into the next car and delicious scents filled the air.

  “Food,” I whispered and headed forward.

  “So, what’s going on?” Martin asked. “And don’t say, ‘nothing’ or I’ll pinch you until you tell me.”

  “I was just thinking about how much I’ve changed things for them. Before, they wouldn’t have had to take turns playing games. They didn’t have to take turns with a woman. They didn’t have to take turns going out on dates. Now, they have to take turns, make schedules, and ro-sham-bo just to determine what fucking seat they’re going to sit in.”

  A woman in a fancy suit, turned and gaped at me for my language. I rolled my eyes at her and focused back on Martin who smiled at me.

  “Why the fuck are you smiling when I just poured my deep, inner thoughts out to you?” I growled at him.

  “Sometimes you are so dense, cupcake. They love you. They do all of those things because they want to make this work with you. If they didn’t want to do it, they wouldn’t. They’re fucking princes. They don’t take orders from anyone, except their king, and sometimes not even them!”

  “I should let them go, so they can go pursue other females, but I’m too selfish for that. I can’t imagine my life without them. I can’t imagine having to see them with another female. It hurts so much, just imagining it. Which then makes me feel worse, since they have to see me with other males.”

  The woman looked like she was about to faint now.

  “If you don’t want to hear us, then hurry up and get out of line,” I snapped at her.

  She gasped and spun around with a harrumph.

  “Again, if they wanted to do that, they would. They don’t want to pursue other females. And you’re not being selfish. You love them.”

  “What’s going to happen at the Summit?” I asked.

  “All of the Other races get together and discuss peace agreements, trade requests, and any orders of business the kings might have to bring up. The princes are there to give advice to the kings and assist in making decisions. Really, they just have to listen to all the boring crap and nod once or twice at their fathers. It’s super boring.”

  That sounded awful.

  “So, you and I are going to be holed up in a room for hours on end, with nothing to do,” I said.

  “Yeah, too bad we aren’t single,” he smirked at me. “Then, we could fill the hours with lots of things to do.”

  “There are children,” the woman gasped at us.

  “And we didn’t say anything bad. Your dirty mind was the one that supplied what you thought we were talking about,” Martin pointed out. “We could have been talking about playing two-person video games for all you know.”

  “Do you think I should take them as my mates?” I asked Martin as quietly as possible. I never knew when someone from the media would be around.

  “I can’t answer that for you. That is something that you have to figure out for yourself.”

  “I think I already have,” I admitted. “And I need your help.”

  “My help?” he asked with raised eyebrows. “I can’t mate with them for you.”

  I laughed loudly, throwing my head back at the ridiculousness of his statement. “No, you idiot. I need you to help me get their mating gifts.” Like humans gave each other engagement rings, Others gave each other gifts. Normally, it was jewelry, but shifters couldn’t wear rings because they would get in the way when they were shifting. I had heard that one shifter lost a finger because she had forgotten to take off a ring before shifting.

  “Oh!” he said, drawing out the word. “That, I can help you with.”

  We grabbed a ton of food and headed back to our car, where the four princes were huddled together, whispering conspiratorially, but stopped when we walked in.

  I rolled my eyes. “Oh, I wonder what you were talking about. It couldn’t have been me.”

  “You’re always on our minds,” Deryn replied smoothly with a sweet smile.

  “That was sweet,” I told him and kissed his cheek.

  “That’s not enough food,” Rhys grumbled.

  “Well, that’s all we could get. So, why don’t you go get more, if you think we need more,” I suggested. “I’m going to sit down, look at the scenery, and eat my blueberry bagel.”

  “Martin,” Deryn called. “Come with me.”

  Martin set our haul onto a table and went with Deryn and Rhys to get more food.

  “You okay?” Fox asked, sitting next to me in the seat. “You felt sad for a bit while you were gone.”

  “I’m fine,” I assured him with a smile. “Just talking with Martin about some stuff.”

  “Stuff like?” he probed.

  “I love you, Fox, but there are some things that I can’t talk to you guys about.”

  “Why not?” he asked with a scowl. “I talk to you about everything. You’re one of my best friends. Aren’t I one of your best friends?”

  “Yes,” I replied immediately. “But, I don’t feel comfortable talking with one of you about one of the others. You guys are each other’s original best friends and I refuse to cause a rift or issues between you. If I have problems with one of you, I am not going to go complain to someone else about it. Remember what happened when Rhys made me sad that one day? He got punched in the face and it wasn’t even something that he deserved to get hit over.”

  “I get your point, but I wish you would talk to me more,” he pouted.

  “Plus, you guys talk to each other about everything. So, if I told you something about Rhys, you would either tell Rhys or tell one of the others who would then tell Rhys. It would get back to him and then he’d come talk to me about it and want to know why I didn’t just talk to him about it in the first place.”

  “See, you already know that you should be talking to us first anyway. All of us wish you would talk to us about your feelings more. We want to know what is going on in that beautiful head of yours. We want to know when we do something that makes you happy. We want to know when we do something that makes you mad. And we especially want to know when we do something that makes you sad. We hate when you’re sad. It creates this pressure in our chests that won’t go away. It’s incredibly uncomfortable and all we can think about is making you happy again.”

  I felt bad, but I meant what I had said to him. I wouldn’t complain to them about one of the others. It wouldn’t be right.

  “I’ll try to get better about that,” I promised.

  We ate and played games for a few hours, but I was tired again. I grabbed Deryn away from the game, pulling him to one of the chairs and lay my head on his lap. He pet my hair and hummed a song that I thought sounded familiar, but couldn’t place as I fell asleep.

  My sleep didn’t last long, though. The train slammed to a halt, throwing us forward and onto the floor. Deryn had managed to keep me from hurting myself and helped me get up.

  Our food was now all over the floor, chips strewn all over.

  “What the hell happened?” I asked.

  “Stay he
re,” Rhys ordered Deryn. “Martin and Nico, come with me. Fox, stay with them.”

  “Stay safe!” I ordered them.

  They didn’t respond, just walked out of the car to find out what had happened.

  A second later, the train rocked wildly as an explosion hit.

  Deryn picked me up and curled his body around mine.

  “Status?” Deryn asked.

  “No answer,” Fox growled, putting his phone away.

  “Decision?” Deryn asked.

  “Out the back,” Fox said. “I’ll go first.”

  Deryn nodded and we headed out the back end of the train. Fox took point, throwing open the doors as we went, but as we looked out the rear of the last car, we hadn’t found anything except scared people. Fox leapt out of the last car, onto the train tracks, and then leapt up onto the top of the car.

  “Oh, fuck,” he said, loud enough for the sound to make it down to us.

  “Status!” Deryn growled, growing impatient.

  “It’s a god damn Cthulhu!” Fox yelled. “It’s got the first few cars of the train in its tentacles.

  “That’s not a real creature. It was created by H.P. Lovecraft,” I reminded Deryn.

  “Well, then how do you explain that?” Fox asked.

  Deryn leapt up onto the top of the train car, me still in his arms, and we both stared at the creature attacking the train. It sure as hell looked like Cthulhu.

  “Well…” I didn’t know how to finish that.

  Rhys, Martin, and Nico were battling with the Cthulhu-like creature, trying to save the cars from its tentacles.

  “Fox?” Deryn asked.

  “I’ll go. You stay with her,” Fox said. He kissed my cheek and raced across the top of the train cars.

  “Do you guys do things like this a lot?” I asked Deryn.

  He smirked. “You’d be surprised how often things like this happen to us.”

  “So, maybe you guys are the problem and not me,” I teased.

  “Oh, you definitely attract your own danger,” he replied. “But, so do we.”

  Rhys, Martin, Nico, and a few additional Others were fighting the creature, trying to save the people inside of the cars.

  “We need to do more training,” I whispered. “I could be useful in situations like these.”

  “Too dangerous. We will never allow you to face something like this,” Deryn said, shaking his head.

  “I can shift into a god damn dragon,” I reminded him angrily.

  “We don’t care. You’re not going to jump into battle. You only need to do things like that to protect yourself. And yes, your nieces or children on occasion,” he said.

  “Overprotective,” I grumbled.

  “There’s no such thing. We are supposed to keep you safe. Letting you jump into a fight is not a way to keep you safe. Our entire being is set to keep you safe. All we can focus on is keeping you safe. So, no, there is no such thing as us being overprotective. You are the most important thing to us.”

  “I wasn’t looking for a lecture,” I grumbled at him.

  He smirked and kissed my cheek. “Well, too bad. You got one.”

  The train shuddered beneath us, the monster pulling on it, forcing Deryn to jump down off of it and onto the train tracks.

  “This is not looking good,” I commented. So far, my guys seemed to be able to stay out of harm’s way, so I wasn’t too worried about them. I was worried about all of the people on the train though.

  “This is such a pain in the butt,” a guy said as he stepped out of the back of the train in front of us. He had long, golden hair, piercing blue eyes, and was carrying a huge sledge hammer.

  “Thor? What are you doing here?” Deryn asked.

  Thor? Like, God of Thunder?

  “Yo, Deryn. I was sleeping on the train when it slammed on its brakes and sent me flying. Now I’m pissed and I’m going to take it out on the squid thing,” he explained. His eyes fell on me, in Deryn’s arms, and they widened. “Who is this? Did you find a mate?”

  “This is the Princess of the Four Clans,” Deryn introduced, but his grip on me tightened.

  “I’d stay for a longer introduction, but as a resident god, I’ve got to go handle this,” he said, winked at me, and then leapt up and ran down the train cars towards the monster.

  “Is he really a god?” I asked.

  Deryn scoffed. “In his own mind.”

  Thor leapt from the train, hammer raised, and gave a mighty bellow. The sky filled with clouds and lightning struck his hammer, alighting it and with a swing, the lightning went from his hammer to the monster.

  Rhys and everyone else who had been battling it, leapt away just before the lightning struck, saving themselves from electrocution.

  “Thor! Warn us first!” Rhys yelled at him.

  “I bellowed,” Thor countered and together they all watched as the monster twitched and then sank back into the water from where it had come. The cars righted on the tracks and everyone cheered.

  “Great, now he’s going to be made out a hero again. Let’s get back to our car,” Deryn grumbled.

  “I take it you don’t like him very much?” I asked softly.

  “He’s a good enough guy, just full of himself. Plus, everyone fawns over him like he’s something special. I’ve beaten him before and so has Rhys. He’s not perfect, like people think he is.”

  “Oh, did he steal a girlfriend from you too?” I teased him, trying to lighten his mood.

  He rolled his eyes at me, but then his usual smile returned. “I actually stole one from him a few years ago.”

  “You’re terrible,” I said and shook my head. “I had no idea you were a thief.”

  “I stole your heart, didn’t I?” he whispered huskily in my ear.

  My hands gripped his shirt tighter and I tensed. “Don’t. Tease. Me.”

  He chuckled and kissed my cheek lightly. “Sorry, baby.”

  The others came back, Thor with them, chatting and laughing like old friends.

  “Thor, this is Jolie. Jolie, this is Thor,” Nico introduced.

  I stood up out of the seat I had been in beside Deryn and held out my hand. “Nice to meet you.”

  He took my hand, pulled me forward and hugged me, his nose tickling my neck as he inhaled deeply. “Hello, Jolie.”

  I heard three growls and two chuckles, one of which was mine. “Hello, Thor.” I sniffed his neck and wondered what it was about his scent that smelled so familiar.

  “Let her go,” Deryn ordered him.

  Thor released me with a smirk. “Don’t worry, I was only saying hello.”

  “That’s not how you say hello to someone you don’t know,” Deryn chastised him with a growl.

  “It is if you’re a werewolf,” I said. “Especially a Northern Clan Werewolf.”

  That got everyone’s attention.

  “How do you know about that?” Thor asked suspiciously.

  “Because that’s what I am,” Martin said.

  Thor spun to face Martin. “I knew you smelled familiar!” He spun back to me. “You aren’t a werewolf, though.”

  “No, but Martin and I dated in high school and I spent a lot of time with the pack,” I admitted. I stared at Thor a minute longer and then gasped. “Tim!” I yelled at him.

  “Tim?” Deryn asked.

  Thor flinched. “Oh, wow. It’s been years…” He froze and then pulled me forward to inhale the top of my head. He took a few big lungfuls and then he tilted my chin up with his finger to look into my eyes. “Jo?” he asked softly, recognition finally showing.

  I nodded. “Yes, Tim.”

  “Holy wolf teats!” Martin yelled.

  Thor smiled wide, dimples flashing, and he whispered, “Jo,” before kissing me deeply.

  I tried to push him back, but he was gone the next instant, Deryn having thrown him off of me and against the far wall of our car.

  Thor wasn’t even fazed. He was still smiling wide and tried to walk back towards me, but Deryn and
Rhys blocked his path.

  “Jo, how is it possible that you’re even more beautiful now?” he asked me.

  My cheeks were on fire. It had been a long time since I last saw him. Back then, he was Tim, not Thor, and he wasn’t nearly as muscular.

  “Don’t touch her again,” Deryn ordered him.

  Martin pulled Thor into a bone crunching hug and Thor returned it. “I didn’t even recognize your scent!” Martin exclaimed. “Your appearance and scent are so different!”

  “Well, the last time I saw you two was graduation,” Thor reminded us.

  “You went to school with Jolie?” Rhys asked, for clarification.

  Thor nodded. “She was my first love.”

  “Wasn’t that Stacy H?” I asked with a teasing smirk. Stacy was the first girl he kissed and she had been head over heels for him.

  “No, it was always you,” he said seriously. He turned to Martin. “You let her get away? What the fuck is wrong with you?”

  I flinched and Nico and Fox saw it, exchanging a look before turning back to Thor, who was still being blocked by Rhys and Deryn.

  “It’s a long and unpleasant story,” Martin answered without looking at me.

  “We’ve got hours left on this ride,” Thor said. He looked at Rhys and Deryn. “How long are you going to keep standing there?”

  “As long as we think you might try to kiss her again,” Deryn growled.

  “Jo,” Thor called, “come talk to me.”

  I squeezed between Rhys and Deryn to hug Thor, ignoring their growls again. “I can’t believe it’s you.”

  He chuckled. “I feel the same. They said your name, but I couldn’t believe it was you. That you could be the Jolie.”

  We sat at the table and my guards took seats around me.

  “You want to tell it?” Martin asked.

  I shook my head, dreading this tale already. Thor held out his hand and despite the four males growling behind me, I set my hand in his. Thor could always tell when I was upset. He was very empathic.

  “Jolie,” Deryn growled softly.

  Without looking at him, I reached back and held my other hand out to him. He linked our fingers and quieted.

  “Remember how we kept seeing vampires in the area?” Martin asked Thor.