Althena

58. Swimming

Drogon catches himself from falling out of the helicopter. Then he takes my shoes and gets me down.

"That was complicated for some reason."

"Yep." We make it to the steps, and he stares at them. "I need to sit down for a second."

I sit beside him. "Me too. I'm so tired."

"It's the alcohol. We're pretty damn drunk."

"Oh. This is what that's like." I stare at the ground. "It's kind of spinny."

"Yea, spinny. Want to go swimming?"

"There's no pool here. We can go to my riverside house. It has a pool. Let's do that."

"Ok." He helps me up and walks me to the helicopter.

I trip getting in but we make it. Then I straddle and kiss him.

He pulls my hair back and kisses my neck. "Take us to the riverside house." His hand slides up my side and over my boob. He massages it while he kisses my neck.

"No. Come on. Get out of the helicopter." A guard is pulling me. "What are you doing?"

"Going to the riverside house to swim."

"There's no pilot in here."

Drogon looks to the front, then laughs. "I guess we're sitting in the helicopter."

"Sitting isn't the right word." The guard gets me down then helps Drogon. Then he follows us all the way into the house.

Mike and Conner have their arms crossed. They don't seem happy. Dad and Storm are talking to each other. Chris, Clayton, and Cyrus are laughing. Mary is nodding. "Where were they?"

"Helicopter, ma'am. Trying to go swimming."

I smile. "We forgot the pilot."

She shakes her head. "You 2 made the news. Again."

Drogon sits in a chair. "Yea, her helicopter landed on Winter Moon. The press was all over that."

"Not that." She flips on the TV and hits play.

A woman's voice fills the room. "It's official. We have a royal romance. Princess Althena Sage and Delta Drogon Winter, from the Winter Moon Pack, were spotted together today at Surge Lounge. It is outside the Winter Moon territory. As for the footage, it speaks for itself." The TV shows me sitting on his lap kissing him.

Clayton laughs. "She's right. It does speak for itself."

I tilt my head. "How did they get that footage?"

Chris answers, "It had to have been someone inside the place. It was taken from inside, not out the window. And the camera is kind of bouncy. It's not a mounted system."

A guard shakes his head. "I didn't see any cameras."

"THEY ALL HAD PHONES. YOU IDIOT." Mike slams a chair against the wall.

I jump up and try to run away. I don't make it very far. Conner carries me back. "Knock it off, Mike. You scared her."

"Maybe she should be scared."

I hold Conner so tight. "Please don't let him hurt me."

"Nobody will hurt you." He rubs my back.

Mike slams another chair into the wall and points at the tv. "DID YOU DO THAT ON PURPOSE? YOU WANT TO BE SEEN WITH HER THAT BAD?"

"Mike, get control or get out. She's scared of you." Mary stops the tv.

Drogon shakes his head. "I didn't see anything. I didn't think they were paying attention to us. I thought she would like the games there."

"WHO DID IT?"

"I don't know. When I go back, they'll tell me. But I don't know."

"Find out." Mike takes me from Conner. "I will never hurt you, baby. I love you. Don't be afraid of me."

"But you yell."

"I'll yell more later too. But that's all I'm going to do. I won't hurt a hair on your pretty little head." He kisses my head and I snuggle with him. "I am going to kill whoever sent that to the press. Figure it out, Drogon."

"I will. f**k, I'm sorry. I thought it would be a safe spot for her to play some games and wind down. I always went there when I was her age. Then somebody had alcohol there. Everything went sideways."

Storm nods. "That's understandable."

"No it's not." Dad stares at him. "He got my underage daughter drunk."

Storm shakes his head. "Did Drogon give you any alcohol tonight?"

"No. That nice man on the tv did."

They all turn and see him. He's frozen in place, pouring alcohol into a cup.

Chris nods. "He does seem nice. Also, not the man shooting the video. How many people were in the room?"

I shrug my shoulders. "Maybe 10."

"We can figure it out by seeing who is in the video, Mike. If they're in the video, they're not shooting."

"Sort it out. I'm going to talk to this one before she passes out." He carries me to another room.

I lay against his chest and listen to him breathe. "I love you."

"I love you, babygirl. Why were you kissing Drogon?"

"I like him."

"Do you think he's your mate?"

"I don't know. He's blue."

He sighs. "I do not like this phase. Did you do anything other than kissing?"

"No. I went to his apartment though. That felt weird."

"Why did you go there?"

"He hung his jacket up. I stood in the living room. Then we left. No kissing there."

He chuckles. "Thank you. Don't go to another man's apartment or house alone, please."

"I won't. I didn't mean to this time. It was awkward. I don't know why. I was only in the living room."

"Because you know you wouldn't want me in another girl's apartment."

I sit up and stare at him. "I'll murder you both."

"I know, babygirl. I won't do that. I have to remember you're young and situations sneak up on you. But do your best to avoid that one, please."

"I will. I'm sorry."

"And no more than kissing. I'm only letting you do that because you have 2 missing mates, and he may be one of them. But anything more than kissing, I will keep you apart until he gets purple, or dies."

"Ok."

"Thank you." He carries me back to the room with everyone in it. Then he sits in a chair and holds me.

"This is the name." Chris hands him a piece of paper.

"Thank you. I'll deal with it tomorrow."

Storm throws his hands in the air. "I'M ONLY SAYING. HE SHOULD ESCORT HER TO THE BALL."

"NO HE SHOULDN'T. HE SHOULD STAY AWAY FROM MY DAUGHTER. HE IS CORRUPTING HER."

"SHE HAS 2 MATES. SHE'S CORRUPTING HIM."

"THEN WHY DO YOU WANT HIM TO ESCORT HER ANYWHERE?"

Mike laughs and it sounds scary. "You are not doing this tonight. They are drunk and need sleep. I'll sort the footage out tomorrow, and we'll go from there. If he had anything to do with it getting leaked to the press, he will never see her again."

"For f***s sake." Storm crosses his arms. "She's the goddamn princess, Mike. People are going to record her forever. The only thing Drogon did was believe his friends wouldn't do that to him. Don't forget, he's only 19. He still has a lot to learn too. And after this..." He points at the tv. "It's only going to start more rumors if he doesn't escort her."

Chris rubs his face. "It's over for tonight. We're all tired and some of us are drunk. Let's meet here for lunch."

"Fine."

We get to our apartment and Mike sits on the couch with me. Conner sits in a chair. Everyone else disappeared at some point.

"You feel better, baby?" Mike twirls my hair.

"I missed you."

"I missed you too."

"What kind of place was that? It was hard to tell from the video." Conner puts his feet on the table.

Tears fill my eyes. Then I cry uncontrollably.

Mike tries to sit me up. "What, babygirl? What's wrong?"

Conner sits beside us. "Calm down. Tell us what's wrong."

"I wanted to go to school." I face plant Mike's chest and sob. "I wanted friends. I wanted to play volleyball. I wanted to be in the band and choir. I wanted to do science fairs and talk to girls. I wanted to go to school."

Conner rubs my arm. "Why does that have anything to do with tonight?"

Mike wipes his eyes off. "It was an after-school teen hang out place."

"I wish I had known about them sooner. Maybe I could have found a place like that in the Market District at home. I could have met people my own age. I could have made friends."

"You had me."

"We weren't friends. You were taking care of me."

Mike hugs me. "You were being her mate, not her friend, Conner. Even without knowing, you were acting like her mate. I was acting like her mate, but from a distance. I had to let her grow up. God knows I wasn't her friend either. The only family she had hurt her. Her boss, for over a year, had been stealing from her. At least she had Chris."

Conner kisses my head. "I'm sorry I never went to the beach with you. I should have."

I give him a hug. I feel so much better after getting that out. "We can still go to the beach. It'll be fun."

He smiles. "Now let's talk about you making out with Drogon."

I shake my head.

"Don't want to talk about that?"

"I was drunk."

He nods. "You're still drunk."

"Want to make out?"

They laugh. Then Mike bounces me. "You have us, baby. Don't go around making out with people. Kisses are one thing, but yea, that was nearing on making out."

"Did you make out with girls when you were a teenager?"

Mike moves me over to Conner. "I was mostly good. I didn't do anything serious. I have to piss." He is gone so quickly.

Conner cracks up laughing. "I kissed a few girls. Felt some boobs once. Now I have you and you blow my mind."

"Blow something." I giggle and lean against him. "Are my boobs better?"

"Yes. And I didn't see hers. Only felt them. They were nice. Yours are amazing. I can't wait to kiss them some more. Tease those little pink nipples."

I shiver and he chuckles. Then Mike sits down.

"Did you feel boobs?"

"Woman, why are you asking this stuff?"

"It's a question, Mike."

Conner smirks. "I felt boobs. Her's are better."

"Hers are better than anything. Yes, I felt some boobs. I got a couple of girls out of their shirts. That's as far as I went. And you are so much sexier than any girl I've ever met, baby."

"Ok."

"Ok?"

"He can feel my boobs."

"NO." They yell at the same time.

"BUT THAT'S WHAT YOU DID AS TEENAGERS. WHY CAN'T I?"

"Baby, we didn't have our mate. It is different."

"I just want to be normal." I plop against Conner's chest. "I want to go to school and make out with boys."

Mike picks me up. "You are being a normal drunk teenager tonight. That counts. Let's get some sleep. Who do you want to sleep with?"

I look back and forth at them. I cannot pick. I don't know how long I look back and forth.

Conner smiles. "The other girl said she likes sleeping between her mates. Let's try that for a night. It's not like she's waking up early anyway."

Mike laughs. "That's true."

They put me between them and I wiggle all over hell. I absolutely love this. I have tingles and warmness everywhere. I end up sideways over them.