The Sovereign Heir (Book 1)

Elaina cut up fruit better than any chef for the bar as I fill the containers for mixers. I watch her meticulously clean as she went. I cleared my throat, “Speaking of weddings, am I still your date or have you replaced me already?” She rolls her eyes at me, “Of course not.” Elaina pops me on the arm and I feigned injury. “Oi, I think you broke my arm.”

“Be glad I learned to not use more of my strength than necessary, because it would be more than broken.” I swallowed the lump that just formed in my throat, she really meant that.

Following behind her back to the second floor, Elaina retrieves her orchids and held her arm out to me. My stomach flips while I’m suddenly pulled with her as she orbs into the mansion, it felt like being sucked into a vacuum with a sudden pop of my ears. My head is spinning; before I could make it to the nearest bathroom, the contents of my stomach came up violently into the floor planter.

Elaina’s POV

“I forgot you’ve never orbed before, let me get you some water.” He is definitely not going to let me do that again. He is a shade paler after I hand him the bottle of water, making me feel even worse. Nolan took a swig to clean his mouth out before spitting it out in the planter.

“So, when can I teleport?” Was he serious? He just blew chunks and wants to try it again?

“You already can, it’s more of a mental thing. You concentrate on the location you wish to be at. Walking in the direction helps in the beginning. Even better if you’ve been there before.”

Nolan put the water bottle down near the planter.

“That will leave a stench. Let me take care of that right now.” Light envelopes the planter quickly then vanishes. Nolan looks into it seeing it is immaculate.

“You surprise me more and more every day.”

I gave him a wink, “There is more to come. You know I held a long standing prejudice against Lycans, despite my father being part Lycan. I pretty much put you all in the same category as Allister.”

He raises an eyebrow at me, not speaking.

“Don’t look at me like that. You know damn well our first week together was chaotic. You trying to control me, hiding my key cards. Me driving you crazy making you drink those god awful herbal concoctions.“

“You’ve made your point; I was a dick at first. But you, you tried to poison me with that rubbish you called a tonic and rearrange almost everything in our bedroom and the house.“ Nolan says what he is thinking next, ”Oh, the attacks have subsided suddenly, but we are still going to continue the training.”

I ball up my face in disbelief, which made no sense. They wouldn’t just stop unless they were planning something bigger.

“What is it, Love?”

“They aren’t stopping, they are waiting and planning something on a larger scale. What exactly I’m not sure of. One thing I do know, your ex Evil-Lynn is up to no good. She has connection to the off shore bank used by the traffickers.”

Nolan isn’t very surprised by my admission of investigating Evelyn, but he didn’t say anything or should I say he didn’t think anything to doubt his love and loyalty to me. We discuss my suspicions at length. Not once did he try to defend her. Nolan isn’t shocked at all that she might be involved. “Let’s lightly pack from the realm now, one less thing off our plate.”

Nolan thought I was joking when I said we didn’t need much, “Lightly pack? Aren’t we going to be gone the equivalent of a week.”

“Give or take a day or hours depending on what time you are using. We don’t need much there. Everything is provided for us, except any favorite personal items and clothing returning back. We will be dressed in traditional garb for the most part.”

Nolan follows me up the stairs looking very confused, more confused than normal. “I’ll explain more before we get there.”

Crash Course

“Something was off with Evelyn the day she showed up with your sister, besides her obvious hate for me. I dipped into her head, not so much a thought but a feeling I got, an ulterior agenda. I’ve had my brother probe into her background a lot deeper than anything you would already know about her. It’s just I haven’t had a chance to see how far he has gotten with it. I’m stunned you aren’t surprised by anything I’m saying about her?”

Nolan responds very matter of factly, “It’s because I’m not. Her family is very rigid. They object to blending of the species and even called your line an abomination, which was one of my ending points to our already strained relationship. Wait?Isn’t Bryant a super tech genius? Shouldn’t he have found what he was looking for?”

“He is but not without leaving subtle foot prints and alerting Evil Lynn that someone is on to her. She’ll just cover her tracks. Enough of that, let get you prepared for the realm.”

I broke down how the realm worked with the difference in time and gauntlets. He was totally unaware many of the creatures that he thought to be extinct, actually were thriving in the realm. Humans chalked it up to myth and legends. Truth can be even stranger than fiction. Nolan looks more confused than ever.

“How come I’ve never seen your gauntlet? I’ve seen your armor at the training grounds and when you almost gave my father a heart attack.”

“Oh, well the 9 bracelets on my right arm only look like bracelets. I know you’ve noticed I have never taken them off. They cloak themselves in this world based on the person’s preference. Like Bryant, he has a wrist tattoo. Each are customized or more the owners personality customizes it. They are extensions of you.”

“That explains the different armor I saw when..”

I tensed slightly as I respond, “When my brother showed you my memories.”

Nolan begins to defend my brother, “Laina, Bryant is very protective of you and made sure I only saw what I needed to see, nothing more. You were 16 and took on more responsibility than most adults. Even a seasoned soldier wouldn’t have handled it as well or without some form of PTSD ”

Nolan grabs me, placing a hand behind my neck. I hesitantly gaze into his eyes; all I see is acceptance. Something I was afraid I wouldn’t see after he witnessed the carnage I am capable of. He kisses me softly, then with a sense of urgency.

We navigate to the bed, “Glad you two got your shit together.” We both jump, startled at the voice that flitted through our heads. Yana is perched on the nightstand. Not only did she scare the shit out of us, but she killed the mood. What a little cock blocker.

“You guys need to pack; I would like to arrive on time. You’ll both be in this bed, up until it’s time to leave.”

“We aren’t leaving until Thursday; it is only Monday .”

“No shit, you two reek of sexual tension and I know better.”

I stood up with my arms crossed over my chest, “Fine.”

“Let’s pack so she can leave to go hunt . Don’t you have a deer you want to eat or something?” I tell Yana.

Yana gave me attitude right back, “Whatever.”

We packed light and I gave Nolan his gauntlet I had since my last time at the realm. I’m just going to enjoy every moment we have together as long as I can. Nolan marvels at it. Yana is finally out in the woods, stalking her prey.

Placing my hand over his heart, I couldn’t help the words that came from my mouth, “God, I missed you so much.” He places his hand over mine, “I missed you too, I was beside myself sick wanting you to come home.” We stood there for a while with our foreheads touching.