book #2 Ice Queen: the snow dragon shifter ***completed***

#3 the king and queen

" I want to meet them. how do we do that?" Liam was at the breakfast table with his family. he was more than grateful for everything they had done for him and the life they had given him but he had a desire to know where he had come from and who he was. it was a desire that he couldn't shake and grew and fostered inside of him like a cancer. there were so many questions that tumbled through his head he couldn't form complete thoughts. was he good enough? where they going to want him back? would they recognize him? the thought of knowing who he was pounded in his head drowning out everything around him.

queen Emilia put on a stoic face to try and hide the hurt she felt knowing he needed this for him. he needed to know. she smiled at Liam. the smile only reaching part of her face. " of course dear. I will call them today and see how they want to proceed and if they want to come here or us bring you there. or we can do both. it's really up to you and the king and queen." she was hiding the tinge of sadness in her voice. the rest of the breakfast went on in silence. Scarlett wasunsure of what to say. She knew she had no right to be sad about losing him since we was not allowed to be hers.

" royal palace, this is king David. I was told this is an urgent matter?" Queen Emilia couldn't help but notice similarities in his voice compared to Liam. she wondered if they looked the same. where did her Liam get his stunning green eyes or his freckled nose? did they share other similar traits?

she cleared her throat after a bit of silence. she knew she had to do this for Liam. he deserved to know. " this is Queen Emilia of the snow dragon palace. is your Queen there as well? this matter is urgent but needs both of your attention. " secretly she prayed they wouldn't want to cooperate so she could keep Liam to herself but she knew they would want him. her Liam. their Liam. He was their Liam. Her world was falling apart.

" may I ask what this is about so I may tell my wife? Queen Abigail has been dealing with a lot with the summit coming up and I have been trying to let her get those details anchored down."

it was as though his words were a cover. there was sadness in his voice when he spoke of his queen. was it just the summit or the loss of her child? Emilia knew it was definitely the loss of her child even if she didn't want to admit it. no mother could ever recover from something like that. " your majesty, it is of the utmost importance. I believe..... we believe. " her words were failing her. she faltered slightly not wanting to give them this information, selfishly wanting to keep Liam to herself. she closed her eyes and let her words pour out of her mouth. she had to do the right thing or Liam would never forgive her. " we believe our Liam is actually your Liam."

there was a silence on the other line. a silence so loud that it took emilias breath as she waited for him to say anything at all. she heard feet shuffling and a door slamming open on the other end and then a woman's voice. " where is he? please I beg you, is he safe? was he injured? I need to see him. please?" the woman's voice was pleading and begging for her son. there were tears in her voice and Emilia could feel the pain radiating through the phone.

" queen Abigail? he is safe. I'm sure you both have so many questions you would like to ask. please ask anything. he really wants to meet you."

" please tell me how you found him. tell me everything that happened." Abigail was pleading with Emilia. guilt had wracked her every thought since he disappeared. was it her fault? did she not watch him well enough?

" queen Abigail and king David. I will try to answer everything I know. unfortunately, we don't know very much. my daughter Scarlett and her father went scavenging that day in the forest at the bottom of snowy peak mountains. she was four at the time. they felt rogues in the area and started to shift and fly home...."

" what do you mean fly home?" Abigail was curious. she had never heard of this before.

" we are snow dragon shifters." there was a silence on the other line as she paused. " they were flying home when, little Scarlett noticed the rogues swarming the little boy and attacking him. if it weren't for her the warriors and my husband never would have even seen him. they stopped the attack and killed the rogues. we brought him Here to our healer. he was unconscious for a week as he recovered. when he woke up he could only remember his first name and his age. we tried to find out whose little boy he was. we could sense he wasn't a dragon shifter. we reached out to the local packs around here but no one knew who he was. no one claimed him. we assumed the rogues must have killed off his family and were trying to do the same to him. we didn't know. I'm so sorry." pausing her story for a moment she needed to let them absorb all this new information in. she took in a few breaths. " after he woke up we took him in and raised him here in the palace with us. we made sure he has had the best education and that he knew about wolves. we could sense he was a wolf so it was important for us to make sure he studied about his kind and what would happen to him as he grew up. we tried to make sure to give him everything he would need. we didn't know who he was until he shifted yesterday. "

Abigail gasped. " he shifted already? he doesn't turn eighteen for another week!"

" yes, he shifted last night. we always celebrated his birthday on the day we found him. yesterday was his eighteenth birthday marking the day he arrived her with us. his wolf is huge. nothing I have ever seen before. all black with a crescent moon on his paw. it is how we figured out who he was. without his wolf we never would have known." everyone remained silent for a minute taking it all in.

" can we see our son?"

Emilias heart was breaking into a thousand pieces. she knew this was going to happen and she knew he wanted to meet his parents. something deep down inside her wished they weren't good people so she could selfishly keep him all to herself. " yes of course. he really wants to meet you as well. why don't we have you come here and meet him. he is such a good boy. extremely smart. he excels in school and is one of the most popular in school. he trains with our dragon warriors. he is top in his class."

" looking at the map it looks like your territory is four days from here. how does a four year old boy end up four days away from our kingdom? that day when he disappeared. there was no trace of him. it was as though he vanished into thin air. we couldn't even pick up his scent." king David was speaking out loud but mostly to himself. " queen Emilia ?"

" yes your highness."

" is there any rogue dragon shifters?"

" it does happen. it is very rare though. the last rogue we had was maleek. that was years ago....." her voice trailed off as she thought about it. he became a rogue around the time that they found Liam. he was caught trying to kidnap Scarlett from the palace. " maleek was exiled for trying to kidnap our daughter. princess Scarlett when she was three."

" do you know where he is now?" king David's voice boomed through the phone.

" no. we haven't seen him since he was exiled. no one has heard from him since. what would he want with a wolf pup? why would he kidnap your son? it doesn't make sense."

they talked for a while longer as they made plans for the king and queen to come to their kingdom. they went over details and when it was time to end their conversation queen Emilia said one last thing before hanging up. " I just want you to know we tried making sure he knew he was always loved. we do love him very much. we look forward to meeting you. see you in four days time." the phone call ended and Emilia hung up the phone. she couldn't help but wonder if maleek had been involved. if he had been, then why? why would a dragon be involved in attempting to kidnap a wolf shifter? and if maleek had been invovled was there more than just himself? where was he hiding? something wasn't adding up in all of it. they needed answers and she needed to talk to her husband about this new development.