Dragon Fire & Wolf Blood

Chapter 2

After, mom and our dads had their time together. We ended up moving to a different office. Their office reeked of their affairs. I love that my fathers are so doting on my mother, but it gets grotesque sometimes.

Getting back onto the task at hand, we worked on our security plans with Emmit’s help. By the end of the night, things are “perfect”, as Emmit likes to say.

Damon was a grumbling pain in the ass the whole meeting. He was mad that he couldn’t go play with his new toy. I will never understand him. Thankfully, he ended up falling asleep at some point, so we were able to get more work done without his interruptions.

I am a little nervous about meeting or not meeting my mate tomorrow. Rather than getting my hopes up, I drank some tea and headed off to bed.

Sleep takes me on a wondrous journey and through the woods into the most beautiful creature’s arms. She was breathtaking. Nothing like I have ever seen in my life. Her eyes glowed a beautiful hue of red. She was mid shift when I was startled awake by the curtains being yanked open.

“Rise and shine son.” Dad Ryder laughed.

I grumbled into my pillow.

“What was that?” He arched his eyebrows at me.

“Why are you waking me up?” I repeated.

“Well, from what your mother tells me, you were mouthing off yesterday about how you could take her.” He gave me a pointed look. “You need to be smarter. At one point, that woman scared the s**t out of all of us.”

“Dad, I’ve heard this story a thousand times.” I sassed.

“Then heed the message and get up!” he yelled. Slamming the door behind me.

Completed my normal morning routine, then headed out to go by train. One thing all of us enjoyed was our morning work outs.

When I got to the gym, Emmit and Damon were already doing their cardio.

“Why are you so slow this morning, Alex?” Damon teased.

“Some of us didn’t fall asleep during the meeting last night.”

“Hey, I went to bed when you did and I’m up and running,” Emmit pointed out.

Getting up on the tread mill, I started walking. “I was having a really good dream. I didn’t want to wake up. After yesterday, mom sent Dad Ryder in to wake me up.”

“HAHA! You got woke up by dad!” Damon laughed at me.

“Oh don’t laugh just yet, Damon. I heard Dad Jace yelling at you about having that girl stay last night.”

“Ooooh busted!” I laughed.

Turning up the speed, I started jogging. We all ran in silence until we had completed our 30 minutes of cardio. Then came the weights.

Emmit hated doing strength training, but he knew both dads would kick his ass if he didn’t. Damon was all too into it. He liked looking buff to all the girls. Me, I just liked feeling the burn of my muscles.

We did our reps and headed out for our real cardio. Shifting, we took off. In wolf form we always ran a minimum of 50 miles. Since yesterday was an off day, we will be running 100 today.

Our parents insisted, since we would have to sometimes shift and run to other packs to provide aid.

I didn’t mind the run. It was peaceful and we were able to properly canvas the patrols and the area. As we ran, I saw Addaste and howled at him. He looked up and smiled.

As we ran past the celebration hall, mom was gently ordering the staff to finish everything on time.

Most would start to show up around 3. The ball will start at 8. It sounds late, but we thrive in the darkness.

Without putting up much of a sweat, we made our way back over to the palace. It was time to get ready. By the time we showed up, ate, and got ready, it was going to be time to start greeting people.

We were headed up the stairs when Theo, Enya, and Damira came running up to us.

“Are you excited?” Enya was bouncing up and down. She had just turned 18. She was finally going to get to join in the festivities to the fullest.

Theo is 19. He wasn’t too terribly impressed with everything. Secretly, I think he is gay, but he won’t admit it.

Damira is 16. She has a few years before she will get to start looking for her mate.

“Not really.” I responded. My voice portrays my lack of enthusiasm.

Enya was bouncing up and down the hall and it was irritating my nerves. She even rattled Jaxon awake.

“Can you all quiet down out there?” He mumbled.

“Enya, you got to slow down. You’re bouncing so much you woke up Jaxon.” I laughed.

“Sorry. I woke up Janessa too. She’s in there yelling up a storm. I’m just excited. Jeeze you too. Between the two of you I don’t know who is grouchier.”

Danira looked at Damon looking at his phone. Her eyes got mischievous. Quietly she sneaked up on him and grabbed his phone. She took off running down the hallway.

“DON’T LOOK AT MY PICTURES!!!” Damon yelled as he ran after her.

We were all left standing laughing.

“What’s all the commotion?” Dad Jace asked.

“Oh, Danira and Damon are at it again.” I pointed to where they ran off to.

“Nice. It was the pictures again, wasn’t it?” He had a smile plastered on his face.

“Sure was.” He all continued to laugh for a moment. Noticing the time, we all headed to our separate rooms to get ready for the night.

Dad Jace followed me into the room. I could tell he wanted to talk to me about something. His brows were furrowed and he was staring intently.

“Spit it out.” I pushed.

“How are you feeling about tonight?”

I was in the middle of taking my shirt off to get ready for my shower.

“I’m nervous, but also not trying to get my hopes up. I was pretty disappointed last year.”

Dad slid his hands into his pockets. “I hope you find her tonight. It would make your mom hush up about it and it would bring you so much happiness.” I just shrugged my shoulders as we stood in silence. “Well, I had better go downstairs. Your mother is going to have a fit if I’m not ready on time.” I saw a flash in his eyes and knew mom was going to make him late.

Man, those three were like horny teenagers. I’m surprised mom hasn’t popped out 80 more babies with how busy they are.

Shaking my head clean off them, I headed to the shower.

I wanted to take my time, but knowing I was going to cut it close, I decided against it. Drying off, I headed to my bedroom and got dressed.

Once my hair was slicked back, I took a look at myself in the mirror. Unlike Damon, I am not so full of myself. So, I keep my opinions minimal about myself. When I was younger, I looked “hot” so much so that girls had me feeling perplexed about my appearance like they were constantly acting a fool. So, I dumbed myself down some. It didn’t help, so I gave up.

Feeling good about my attire, I headed out. As I hit the last step, I could hear my mother greeting guests and instructing the staff as to who goes where and with what stuff. Both of my fathers were busy talking with the other people arriving.

Watching them, I was very impressed. Most cannot stand to share. Some days I don’t know how my dads haven’t fought and killed each other. There have been a few close calls. That’s for sure.

My mother handles them with ease. Which surprises me, but then again. She literally has two different beings living in her.

I think I am the perfect mixture of all of them. My mom swears the moon goddess took all the cells and jumbled them up when she made each of us. It was very curious. You would think we would have the traits of one father or another, but each of us were perfectly put together with the traits of all 3 of them.

Some people still didn’t fathom the idea that our father, King Rider, had his mate and his second mate. To be honest, it was that more of all 3 were mates with one another.

Coming out of my thoughts, I watched as people started heading towards me.

Behind me I could hear Damon, Danira, Enya, and Emmit coming down the stairs. Theo came walking down the hall from the kitchen.

They all looked eloquent and well behaved. Internally, Jaxon and I laughed.

“These guys eloquent? You’re a joker there, aren’t you?” He made fun of my thoughts.

My mom spotted us and motioned for us to get closer. Handing the current guest off to Dad Ryder, she hurried over to us.

“Now, if you all don’t behave tonight, I swear to the Goddess, I will f**k all of you up!”

“Mom, you shouldn’t be using that language.” Damon snickered.

“Damon, keep it up.” She gave him a warning look. In response, he stuck his tongue out.

“Now,” turning her attention to me. “I know you are nervous about your mate, and due to your brother’s having not found their mates, it is possible…..” She stopped a moment. “It is possible that all 3 of you will have the same mate since you are triplets.” She admitted.

This news had me irritated. She may be okay with it with my father, but I was not going to share my hate with no one. Not my brothers, NO ONE.

“If the Moon Goddess knows me like you say she does, then it would be wise for her not to do so. I don’t share.”

She nodded in understanding. Without another word, she headed over to our fathers and began conversation with the new guests again.

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Hours later, we finally welcomed all of the guests and the celebrations started.

My mom came hurrying over to me. “Have you found her yet?”

“No,” I felt like I was defeated.

“Don’t worry honey. Maybe she is with Queen Ember’s entourage. They got here before you got down.”

I just shrugged my shoulders. If she had been here, I should have been able to smell her by now.

People began dancing and eating. I watched as people moved about and enjoyed the ball. Quite a few people found their mates. It was hard to watch, but I placed a plain look on my face so no one could read that as time went on, things were starting to bother me.

Dad Ryder came over to me as I was taking another swig of the vodka I had eventually gone and gotten.

“Your mother wants you to meet someone.” He motioned with his head to follow him.

Walking up, I saw a woman talking with my mother. Her back was to me. Her body was gorgeous. Her hair was long and thick. Her body was perfect. I checked her out as I walked up.

“Queen Ember, I would love you to finally meet my son, Alexander.” she motioned towards me. It felt like the whole world stopped moving.

Our eyes met and the mate bond snapped into place.