Two Worlds; The Collision

Chapter 3

Rhys Pov

“Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, you smell like a chicken, and you look like one too!” I snorted, rolling my eyes as Zain let out a yelp, the sharp smack of Grayson’s shoe on the back of his head echoing through the laughs of everyone around us.

Mom glared at him, pointing her finger in a way that spoke more than words could, making Zain straighten up fast and grin sheepishly at her, rubbing the back of his head as his red and green eyes flickered around the room in every direction but at her. “Did you make a wish?” Dad asked, sitting down next to me at the table. I grinned, shaking my blond hair out of my eyes as I turned to look at him. “You can’t have any cake unless you make a wish.” He said, pouting at me.

“I wished that this cake doesn’t kill me like it almost killed Jules when she turned sixteen,” I said honestly, nodding my head at him.

Juliet, or as we all called her Jules, let out a snort, pressing an elegant caramel-colored hand against her lips as she shared a knowing look at me as she tried to hide behind her black hair. Jules was the little sister of my dad’s that he had adopted, so in a sense, she was my little sister and my aunt all wrapped up in one. Dad stared at me, throwing his hands in the air. “It was an accident! And frankly, it’s all Lucie’s fault anyway,” he said, before Lucie placed her hand on the table and made him look at her. She had a look of disbelief and amusement shining in her eyes as she shook her head at him. “Don’t look at me like that! You know it’s your fault! You were supposed to help me make the cake! I couldn’t do it without you.” He said, pouting at her.

Mom let out a soft giggle, coming to stand beside dad and sitting down on his lap, kissing his cheek. “Now now, stop throwing fits during Rhys’s birthday. It’s not every day our favorite son turns eighteen,” She said, absently running her fingers through his hair.

I snorted, though I couldn’t help but smirk at her. “I’m your only son, mom,” I said, laughing at her.

“Exactly why you’re my favorite.” She said with a grin, pressing her finger to my nose. I automatically scrunched up my nose at the feeling of her finger against it, her habit ever since I was a baby. She always messed with my nose, saying it was her nose, when most of my features were hers anyway. Except for my eye shape and my mole, I looked more like my mom than my dad.

Zain shoved his way to the front of the table, a steady hum coming from him to indicate he was hungry and tired of waiting. Without waiting for anyone to cut the cake, he took the fork in his hand and stabbed it into the cake…moments before it exploded everywhere. All of us let out various shrieks of surprise as the cake rained down on us, getting in our hair and on our clothes, and out from the middle of the cake came a telltale croak, followed by my frog jumping into the air. Everyone called out different things, catch her, kill her, and Zain said eat her, but in the end, it was Adaline that had caught the frog, a smirk dancing in her icy blue eyes as a chunk of cake slid down the side of her cheek. “I wonder if the cake exploded because Zain stabbed Victoria, or if he cooked it wrong,” she said, her voice ever calm as she gave a soft chuckle.

Zain laughed, pointing at the frog in Adaline’s hands as he took off his shirt and started to mop the cake out of his hair. “Saggy t**s! Did the flaming chicken try to cook you?” He asked, pulling a laugh out of everyone around us. “Damn, bro, that would have been nasty.” He said, cringing.

“Anything to take your clothes off, Zain…I swear…” Grayson muttered, grabbing the back of Zain’s ear and pulling him away from the table.

Zain grinned, pulling easily out of Grayson’s grasp as he wrapped his arms around his husband’s shoulders, kissing his cheek. “Only for you, Sunshine. Wanna take a shower with me?” He asked, practically shoving him away without waiting for an answer.

All around us, most everyone started to walk away, complaining about cake showers. Steve was talking animatedly to his wife Dani about the dough ball of doom dad made once, and all I could do was chuckle. Soon enough, all that was really left was Adaline, my dad, Lucie, and Jasper. “You know, I remember when you first discovered your love of frogs, mate,” Jasper said, walking over to me. I grinned, tilting my head forward as he ran his fingers through my hair, watching as chunks of cake fell down into my lap. “You came into my shop and killed the poor frog, smacked it around, and refused to give the bloody dead thing to Jaiden until I got you a stuffed animal.” He said in a joking manner, his musical accent rolling his words around with his laughter.

Dad laughed, standing up and grabbing Victoria from Adaline who was holding her with a pristine look on her face. For some strange reason, Victoria liked Adaline, probably because she was the only one who didn’t accidentally step on her or squash her, or didn’t throw her around. “I remember that, it was so nasty. It’s a good thing Dani accidentally made this little one indestructible,” he said with a grin.

The frog tried to squirm out of dad’s hands and leap towards Adaline again, who simply giggled, accepting the frog back into her arms. “I’ll return her to her cage, and Jaiden…next time try not to cook the frog?” She asked, patting his cheek lovingly before turning around and walking away.

Dad grinned, shrugging. “It wasn’t on purpose, how was I supposed to know she was in the batter?” He asked, going over to the cake and studying the remains of it. He looked at Jasper who was still pulling the cake out of my hair, raising his eyebrows at him. “I dare you to try it,” he said, holding up a forkful for him.

Lucie stepped closer to us, a frown on her face as she yanked her fiery red curls into a ponytail filled with cake and grabbed her husband’s wrist, yanking him away from me. “Oh no you don’t! He’ll do it just to see if he can stomach it. Come on, we need to go get cleaned. I’m sure everyone will be back for the party once we’re all cake free.” She said, smiling at me.

I nodded, laughing at her. “Oh, I’m sure it’ll be okay. After all, Alice said she was going to wait till later to come with her own cake. She had a feeling something like this would happen.” I said, grinning at her.

Lucie laughed, wrapping her arms around Jasper’s waist as she pulled him away. “Come on, we need to get this cake off. I’m sure our son is already home getting cleaned up too,” She said, smiling up at him.

I watched them walk away with their arms wrapped around each other, and couldn’t help but sigh, slightly jealous of the way they loved each other. Dad stared at me, his eyes filled with a knowing look as he sat down next to me once more, ignoring the gross squish sound of the cake under his butt. “What happened to that girl you were dating? That pretty one…I can’t remember her name.” He said, frowning.

I frowned, trying to remember which girl he was talking about. “The one with the midnight-colored skin and brown eyes? Or the one with the pale skin and blond hair?” I asked, trying to figure out which girl he was talking about.

He shook his head, frowning at me. “Neither, I think she had blue hair, actually.” He said, sighing. I nodded, remembering that particular fling. I shrugged, though he seemed to notice my hesitation. “Your mother and I have no problem with your…choices, son. But you have a new girl or guy every other week, it’s hard to keep up with all of them. You’re eighteen now, you’re going to be taking over as the next Shifter king soon…don’t you think you should start trying to find the one to settle down with?” He asked, his eyes filled with concern.

Honestly, it was hard to take him seriously with the large piece of cake in his hair and shoved into his right ear, making me wonder how on earth he could hear properly, but all I could do was sigh. That was probably the kindest way of calling me a player, and I probably was in a way. I never cheated, but I never stayed with someone for very long. How could I stay with them when I was surrounded by all of these couples that looked at each other like…like that? I knew the difference. They were all true mates, of course. I’m not a wolf, and while my mother is, I don’t have wolf genes. Unless I have a werewolf true mate out there somewhere, I’d have to fall in love the old-fashioned way. But how could I just settle for anything? No one ever looked at me like mom looked at dad, no one ever moved me when they kissed me, when they touched me. It didn’t matter if it was a boy or a girl, I was bi, so it didn’t matter to me about gender, but in the end…I just wanted to feel something. They’d never force me to marry someone I didn’t love, but they wanted me to be happy, too. “I haven’t found the right one yet, dad,” I said, shrugging. Honestly, I wasn’t even sure if I would…but I wasn’t going to tell him that. There was no way there was someone out there that would love me the way my parents loved each other. Sometimes late at night, I’d see it, a black silhouette standing across from me. I couldn’t tell what gender they were, what they looked like, or sounded like…but I felt the way they touched my hands, the way the touch sent a fire throughout every part of my soul…and I couldn't possibly settle with just anyone. What if that someone was real? What if that someone, my someone…was out there somewhere?

Dad seemed to understand I wasn’t really wanting to talk about this any longer and nodded, that knowing, calculated look in his eyes that showed just how smart he really was. His brown eyes peered into mine, perceptive, studying me, before he stood. “Let’s go get cleaned up, okay?” He asked, holding out his hand to me. I nodded, letting him pull me up and away from the table filled with the destroyed cake volcano that was still slowly dripping off of the walls and ceiling around us. A few of the bears that always followed my dad around nearly tripped over themselves to get to the mess and clean it and I sighed, laughing as one of them threw a cake ball at the other. The idea of becoming the next king wasn’t bad to me, I was ready for it. I was born for the role, and I was excited about it. It was just the queen or other king part that I’d have to finally find that annoyed me. Why couldn’t I just do it all alone? Unless I could find the one that I was dreaming about…I didn’t want to settle down with anyone. “You know…I dreamed about her, before I met her.” Dad said suddenly out of nowhere.

“Um…what?” I asked, my eyebrows raised in a question as he grinned at me.

Dad laughed at me, though his eyes still held that look, that deep look that showed just how smart he really was. You and I are more similar than you’d think. You dream of someone, right? A black silhouette. I never dated anyone, and yeah I was trapped in my house all of my childhood, but I never agreed to any of the girls my father tried to throw at me. I wanted to save myself for her, the girl I was dreaming of. The dreams are real, son. Shifters don’t have mate bonds like wolves do unless we’re mated to a wolf. Shifters dream of their mate. You’ll know when you find them. I’m sure you’ll find them.” He said, grinning at me. “I found my dream girl, after all.” He added.

I grinned, shoving my shoulder playfully into his. I grabbed a chunk of cake off of my shoulder and smacked it into the side of dad’s face, laughing as he growled in surprise at me. I ran, him trying to chase after me and throw cake at me at the same time, and all I could do was laugh. Yeah…maybe I did have a dream girl or guy out there somewhere. Despite his words, I wasn’t entirely sure it was real, not for me. I grinned, trying to hide my worries behind a smile as he managed to throw a piece of cake into my ear. For now, I wasn’t going to worry about it. For now, I was just going to live my life as it was thrown at me. Training to be the next king, and spending time with my family. Maybe if I told myself it was good enough for me over and over again, I’d start to believe it. Maybe I’d be able to shake this feeling that there was more for me out there, just waiting for the moment to come.