CHAPTER 8: Shopping with the Enemy

I pulled away after we kissed. He stared down at me. “What?” I asked. I stared at his engagement ring and my chest got heavier. All I could do was be mad at myself.

Lexus looked at his ring when he noticed I was. “It’s not your job to worry about it.”

“Did you tell that to the last girl?” My eyes were watering up which made me even more mad at myself. 

Lexus sighed of annoyance. “No, I told her I’d kill her if anyone found out.” He rubbed the back of his head. “It was a different situation that I regret Aqua. Are you guessing or did someone tell you?”

Maybe I shouldn’t be repeating what Arma, Stewart or Cade tell me. I don’t want to get anyone in any trouble. “I…”

“It wasn’t Cade right?” Lexus changed his question.

I shook my head. “No, no.” It wasn’t a lie since Arma implied it and not Cade. Cade was the one convinced Arma was wrong. “It was mostly a guess; they didn’t say anything with detail. You’re not going to follow through with your threat, are you?”

“Not unless I had to,” his answer scared me. “Everything is fine now because no one knows enough of anything. Everyone just thinks it’s rumors.” He walked to the door. “Try not to say anything about what just happened okay?”

“Only if it doesn’t happen again.” I couldn’t keep this going.

He chuckled. “How about this? I’ll let you make the next first move.” He was so sure I’d crack.

“Fine but only because I won’t make a move.” I nearly stuttered. He walked out of my room and I laid back on my bed panting. “Fuck.”

I took a nap and was woken up by a knock on my door. I got up and answered the door. “Sadia?” My heart skipped several beats. I curtsied out of worry.

Sadia smiled. “You don’t have to do that, I’m not even a part of the royal family yet.” Her engagement made me sick. “Konn suggested that we get to know each other since I will be Queen soon and you might be our adviser.” She had a feminine voice and a grace about her. “If that happens, we’ll be forced to spend a lot of time together. We might as well start now.” I wanted the complete opposite since I kissed with her fiancé about an hour or two ago. “Konn also mentioned you didn’t bring clothes with you?” It was a good thing I didn’t since the fashion is so different. “I can go shopping with you.”

“That’s a nice offer but I don’t have any money yet since I haven’t started working. I doubt stores take human currency.” I had the perfect excuse.

“They do.” Or I thought I had the perfect excuse. “A lot of sellers go back and forth so they have a use for it. You don’t have to pay anyways because I have a credit card from Lexus with a high limit.” She was ready to buy me a whole new wardrobe. “Do you need me to give you an hour?”

I shook my head. “We can go now.” I wanted it to be over as soon as possible.”

I wondered what kind of person Sadia was. “Great, are you used to flying? I know the human world are still trying to forget any other species exists so you probably couldn’t freely fly there.”

I chuckled nervously. “I have basically no practice in it.” I wasn’t sure what I was supposed to tell other people, so I just went along with what she already assumed. “What do you mean by forget? Humans don’t really believe in anything other than themselves, animals, plants, and insects.” I closed my door behind me after I walked out. “Only a small percent believes in shifters, demons, and magical creatures.”

Sadia looked annoyed. “Of course they don’t believe in any of us. I said forget because we used to all live in the outside world together. Once the realms were rejoined everything was pretty good. Over time many wars started, and we had to disconnect ourselves from humans all together.” We walked side by side down the hall. “The wars were apocalyptic. Our world is still in the same realm but hidden from humans. Werewolves are crawling all over the human world. You can’t tell me they blend in that well?” This was all new to me. 

I didn’t know werewolves were real, but I wasn’t going to make that obvious. “They’re known as a myth. Some people claim to have seen sightings, but no one takes them seriously. Are there werewolves in this kingdom?”

Sadia laughed. “Yeah, every kingdom has a few packs here and there. They can be troublesome because werewolves are so territorial. They want to be the dominant species in every kingdom, but they move in packs. One pack can’t take over a kingdom of dragon shifters, demons or even elves. Well, they don’t want to take over a kingdom because they refuse to be one. They just want power over others in their area. They’re usually found in forests and towns close to forests.” 

We walked out of the castle and she shifted into her dragon form. I tried my best to climb on with no trouble. I don’t know why but I wanted to impress her. Unfortunately, it took me a little while to get on. She flew us into the city and landed outside of several shops. She shifted back to her human form when I finished climbing off. “Sorry, maybe I should have gotten someone to help you up and down.”

I felt like a child because I’m sure no adult shifter would have a problem climbing up and down. “It’s fine, I just need practice.” I looked down at her hand where her wedding ring was.

She walked into one of the stores and I followed. “Tell me about yourself.” She said as she walked over to some of the hung clothes. 

“I’m nineteen and I was raised by humans,” I started.

“Sounds rough, do you think you’d even make a good adviser?” She said as she kneeled to look at some folded clothes closer to the ground. “You know nothing about our culture or history. Do humans even still have royalty? Did they teach you anything about aiding leaders? Here advisers are taught how as soon as they start their education.”

I was nervous from her judgment that seemingly came out of nowhere. “No… were you taught to be a Queen as soon as your education started?”

She whipped around to me then stood up. I thought she was going to yell at me or lash out in some way, but she let out a burst of laughter. “I deserved that. I’ve only been learning recently. I shouldn’t have come at you like that. I’m just disappointed Cade might not be our adviser, that’s all.” I’ve been wanting to ask Cade if he resents me for possible taking his position or if he’s fine with it. Now I knew one person wasn’t fine with it. “Let’s start over, I really do want to learn more about you.”

I let out a sigh of relief. I didn’t want to start off on the wrong side of her. Especially when her fiancée already cheated on her with me once. “Konn says I have intuition and I think I do because sometimes I just know stuff.” I’ve never talked to someone about this before.

“Ooh.” She responded before she started handing me a few pieces of clothes. “Let’s talk about Konn.” She was more interested in drama than my powers. “Are you pissed at him for not raising you? I know I would be.”

I looked at the clothes she handed me and started putting back what I didn’t like and keeping what I did. “I don’t know how I feel about him yet. I think I’m more confused about why he didn’t come back on his own and why he didn’t raise me.” I looked up at the ceiling because of how high it was. 

Sadia was basically picking out all my clothes for me while I sorted through them. “I’ve known Konn for a while and he is kind of hard to understand. I bet Lynn was mad when she found out Konn had a whole other kid.” 

“Lynn?” 

She looked at me. “Cade’s Mom and Konn’s mate.” It made sense that I wouldn’t have the same mother as Cade. I just thought I’d might. I wonder what it was like being mated with someone you chose. “You’ll probably meet her soon.”

I started tapping my hand against one of the clothing tables. “She’ll probably hate me.” I mumbled. 

“Maybe at first,” Sadia said. “What was your mother like? I’d love to know if Konn had a type different from Lynn.”

I wish I knew what my mother was like. I wish I knew so many things I didn’t. “I wasn’t raised by my birth mother. I was raised by two humans who found me when I was a baby.”

Sadia looked surprised. “What?” Her expression changed to a look of sympathy. “That’s even more horrible. I assumed you lived with your mother. I thought she was one of the few dragon shifters who lived in the human world blending in. Did you even know what you were?” 

She sounded like she cared so I decided to open up to her. “Not until yesterday but I always had a feeling. I knew I wasn’t like the humans around me.” I looked at the door as shifters came in while in their dragon forms then shifted down to their human form since all the clothes were human sized. Some dragons didn’t shift down and it was probably because they weren’t shopping. They were just accompanying someone who was.

“Did you ever date a human?” She handed me the last bit of clothes and we went through them together while sitting on a bench.

I started thinking about my ex. “Only one seriously and he just broke up with me a week ago.” I guess it was a good thing because he would have been the only thing keeping me in the outside world.

“You poor thing, you’re heartbroken?” Sadia asked in a concerned tone. “I couldn’t imagine having my heart broken. Why did he end things?”

I hated repeating this, “He said I was too submissive…” I mumbled.

“Oh, wow I couldn’t never see that being a problem here. If you even want to date here, you wouldn’t have a problem.” It was good to hear but I only was attracted to Lexus. “Shifter men are dominate so they like a girl who can willingly submit. I think Werewolves and Dragon shifters are like that because of their protective nature. I mean I don’t see myself as all that submissive, especially because of the kind of childhood I had, but I’ll definitely take that role when I have too.” She chuckled. 

I didn’t say anything because after I was thinking hard about what she was saying. It was hard for me to pay attention to what she was saying because the dragons walking around distracted me. I heard the most important parts, I just checked out at the end. 

“Come on, let’s check this stuff out,” Sadia said. I followed her to the cash register, and she bought everything we picked out. 

We carried all the bags out of the store, and I held them all on her back while she flew us back to the castle. When we landed two workers gathered all my bags to take them in for me. I think they were doing it more for her than for me. I climbed off and she shifted into her human form. “I had a good time; I have to get back to Lexus before he starts calling me.”

“I feel like we just talked about me the whole time.” I felt guilt even though she probably didn’t want to share personal things with me anyways.

Sadia smiled. “Don’t worry about it, we’ll hang out again and you can ask me anything you want. It’s nice to have a girl to talk to here. I was kind of friends with Cade’s girlfriend Vella, but she’s been avoiding me lately.  The girls back at home aren’t exactly fond of me either.” She shared something personal. “Here.” She handed me her phone. “So that we can text.” She stared at me while I put my name and number in then handed it back to her. “I’ll see you around, okay?” 

I nodded and watched her rush inside. She was a lot different than I expected. 

She seemed lonely too.