Tal noticed the two strangers looked similar, hauntingly similar, and wondered if they were related. Then he realized they had to be related… or clones. Either way, they were practically twins, though one definitely seemed like a more masculine version of the other.
"Aahh. Alpha Queen Talon," Elder Bryce welcomed him, the words sounding as if they were choked out of him.
Tal didn't know if it was the whole Alpha Queen thing, which admittedly, he choked on himself, or maybe the whole 'Talon' thing. Making a mental note to talk to Josie about it, he returned his focus to Elder Bryce.
"Let me introduce you to Freud and Anglania Lang, they are distant cousins of Alpha King Blazell and Beta Prince Buckington. They were not in the planet's orbit when you were introduced to the kingdom as Alpha King Blazell's mate. They had, as a matter of fact, left only hours before you… arrived… at the palace, and have been extremely busy with family matters since returning, but they wanted to make sure that they came by to meet you and welcome you to their family and to Tumaro," he explained and expression of pain crossing his face.
Tal wondered what family matters they had to attend to and if the reason had the Elder so distressed. He hoped it would be nothing that would cause Blaze to leave him for any extended period of time. Feeling extremely guilty over his selfish thoughts, Tal would have to make up for that brief flash of self-centeredness and be extra kind to Anglania and Freud and try to help them as much as he could.
Tal smiled and stepped forward to shake hands with his new cousins-in-law. Freud appeared large, almost as large as Blaze, but then again Tal had begun to discover all the Tumaron men were large, except for the Elders. Freud's hair had a gorgeous blond color, cut extremely short in the military style. His blue eyes seemed shifty, extremely untrustworthy, and not too intelligent. Freud stared at Tal as if weighing him as possible competition for something; or to assess him as a threat for some inexplicable prize. Tal wondered what the prize could be and if he'd come up lacking in the other man's eyes. Freud had tan skin, which, once again, Tal had come to expect of all of the Tumarons.
Freud smiled thinly and shook Tal's hand and bowed deeply, almost mockingly. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Alpha Queen Talon," he said with a sneer, his lips twisting sarcastically.
Picking up on some underlying jealousy and thinly veiled contempt, Tal pulled his hand back and nodded regally to the other man. Definitely not a member of Team Talon then, he thought jokingly, very happy to not be projecting his thoughts and feelings to Blaze, because these people were his cousins, his family members. He didn't know how Tumarons viewed mates versus blood kin and which relationship would be more sacred. Mentally squaring his shoulders, Talon turned to face Anglania. Anglania Lang was the feminine version of her brother. While shorter and smaller than Freud, she still towered over Tal and had more muscle. She looked like a warrior princess with her long blonde hair braided in one long plait to the middle of her back. Her blue eyes were wide and held such innocence in them that Tal instantly went on alert. Beautiful, with a pert nose, high cheekbones, and curvaceous body, she looked like one of the supermodels from Earth, hundreds of years before the time before the Great Interplanetary Awakening. Josie used to stare at pictures of them as a teenager. Tal's mind scrambled for the model's name but found it completely empty. With a mental sigh at the further destruction of his brain because of his pregnancy, he gave himself a stern mental talk.
Look Tal, you can't be an Alpha Queen based on looks alone, you're going to actually have to bring something to the table here. So straighten up and focus! Get your mind right or they're all going to think that you aren't worth a single Printakius.
Tal smiled at Anglania and shook her hand also, shocked when she squealed and hugged him fiercely. He tried not to choke on the cloying scent of flowers, sugar and… no way… dirt? How… gross.
"No shaking hands! You're family now, Alpha Queen Talon. Family! I mean, we're all just so happy Blaze has found his mate! We were beginning to despair for him." She lowered her voice. "Although we were a little surprised to hear you were a man. I mean how would Blaze get his heirs you know? But then"—Anglania's body shivered in what Tal supposed was delight—"then we find out you're Vermithian so you can actually get pregnant and Blaze didn't waste any time getting you with his child." She giggled and lightly squeezed Tal's arm, which she still held in her grasp. "Or should I say children? Elder Bryce filled us in on everything. We are just so excited and happy for the both of you. We really are, and you know, if you have any questions about palace etiquette, events, politics or the like, do not hesitate to ask me. Really. I'd be beyond happy to help you with anything that you need help with. I'll bet you didn't know if Blaze hadn't found his mate this year, the law would've required he marry me in order to produce heirs for the royal line, so I pretty much know everything you should know," she offered with a large smile. "But can you imagine Blaze mated to me? I know I can't!"
Tal blinked in surprise at the rapid flow of words, and by what she'd said, and the way she'd said it. Either she counted as one of those women who found gay men sexy and arousing or just… weird. He leaned towards the latter.
"Uh…" he stammered, "t-t-that would be great. Thank you." He accepted her offer of help in confusion, still baffled by her exuberance.
Bemused and amazed, he wondered where she kept her energy cell pack and his legs quaked in exhaustion in the face of her bubble of liveliness.
Anglania shook her head, her blonde braid moving around her shoulders enchantingly. "Don't mention it, really, it's the least I could do. I mean, we are family, right?" she asked humbly, shrugging one elegant, tanned shoulder.
Josie grunted from the other side of the room.
"Right," Tal returned with a genuine smile.
Smiling broadly, for the first time Tal had ever seen, Elder Bryce clapped his hands to get everyone's attention as if they were a rowdy bunch of adolescents.
"Right, well, I'm glad everyone's met and getting along, but we really should let the Alpha Queen rest. She is carrying quite a litter," Elder Bryce stated with a chuckle at his joke.
Tal forced a laugh from his lips even as his hands fisted in anger at the man's idiotic words.
Ass.
Everyone rapidly agreed and Tal and Josie walked the visitors to the door. They said goodbye and Tal promised he would call Anglania if he needed anything. The door closed behind them and the two adopted siblings breathed a sigh of relief as they leaned back against the door side by side.
"Bitch. Pale, wolf shifting, conniving bitch," Josie breathed, glancing at Tal.
Probably to gauge his reaction. "Don't forget underhanded, fake, sneaky, and manipulative," Tal pointed out, "as if she ever had a shot with Blaze."
He shot her a look before collapsing into hysterical laughter, Josie joining in.
"I'm so glad I wasn't the only one who saw it!" Josie chuckled.
"Oh no, sweetie. I saw it too. We're going to have to be on our guard with those three," Tal stated with foresight of the trio's motives and shady dealings.
He didn't know what they wanted, exactly. Anglania wanted to be mated to Blaze, but he couldn't figure how the other two played into it. Too bad for the skinny witch, she'd never come in contact with a Vermithian before. Otherwise, she'd know better.
"Right you are," Josie nodded before slipping her arm through Tal's and pulling him away from the door. "Now, let's get you showered, dressed in something a little more comfortable, and fed so we can go shopping in your kingdom," she suggested, walking him away from the suite door towards the bedroom.
* * * *
Standing outside the door, Freud and Elder Bryce growled at the pair's astute observations. Anglania merely smiled. No surprise Josie had picked up on Anglania's stellar performance as the helpful familial relation. The Edifician might be too smart for her own good. If her horrible Vermithian brother didn't happen to be standing in the way, and she didn't have to get rid of him, the two of them might have been friends.
Oh well, she didn't live her life full of regrets or 'what-ifs'. The Edifician woman would have to be dealt with as well. Just maybe, she would deal with her a little nicer than she would the Vermithian scum. Patting both her brother and the Elder, her obedient and loving mate, on the top of their heads, she smiled when they both groaned happily. Men were so easily appeased, and so easy to control. She began walking down the hallway towards her own chambers.
"Those two just may be trouble for us, but boy, will it be fun to kill and tear them both apart. Especially the Alpha Queen. Then, after Blaze has grieved sufficiently, I'll make him claim and mark me. Then I'll get pregnant, and as soon as I do, you, Freud will make sure both he and Buck have a fatal accident," she explained her plan, not looking at either of them until they were all ensconced in her chambers.
Her horrid guest chambers. It wouldn't be long until she would be in the chambers for the Alpha Queen, just as soon as they dealt with their current… distraction. Walking over to the liquor cabinet tucked in the corner of the sitting room, she opened it and pulled out three glasses and two bottles, one filled with Namprincian Whiskey and the other filled with Strawxigian Snake Venom, the most illegal liquid drug on the market. She mixed both liquids in the glasses before offering them to her partners in crime. Only then would she finally look at both in the eye, with a twisted smile, before sinking gracefully into her seat.
"And then the kingdom will be ours, as it should have always been," she stated.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Tal and Josie stepped out of the royal carriage shuttle, Tal's laughter joined with his sister's as he entwined their arms and began walking away from the vehicle. While it was extremely difficult for him to allow someone else to get his bags, and Josie felt the same, if they tried to grab their purchases on their own, it would cause problems with the palace servants. So the Tal dragged his sister around the palace yard chattering about everything from their mates to his unborn children.
He rolled his eyes when Josie rattled off possible baby names for his 'litter of puppy hybrids' and tried not to laugh when he realized every name was a variation of hers. He and Blaze had only discussed baby names once before Tal had magnanimously told his mate that when the time came Tal would be too out of it to name anyone and would leave that particular task to Blaze. He'd made the right decision. Blaze's face had erupted in a huge grin. Tal didn't share the information with Josie, however, letting her chatter on about Josine, Josina, Josephiro, Josien and Joseph instead.
Extremely happy he had this time with his sister, Tal hadn't realized exactly how much he'd missed her until they decided to spend the day together. There were just some things his mate couldn't give him, though he'd never tell Blaze. The man proved to be extremely jealous when it came to anyone giving Tal something Blaze felt he should be doing. Tal thought it completely ridiculous, but Mailon had warned him it came down to a wolf thing and to not question it at all. Tal readily agreed. There were quite a few things Tal agreed with Mailon about: his mate, being the Alpha Queen, and the fact that Mailon's cousin, Kazumi, seemed to spend an awful lot of time staring at his stomach, which was probably the creepiest thing that had happened to him since he'd shown up at the palace.
Well, outside of the 'Wonder Cousins', as he and Josie had dubbed Anglania and Freud.
"So what do you think we should do now? Can your stomach handle us going out to the barns?" Josie teased, rubbing Tal's stomach.
Tal pushed her hand away in feigned annoyance and huffed. "My stomach is fine, oh Mighty-Pain-In-My-Ass," Tal said, laughing when his sister opened her mouth in shock and put her hand to her forehead in a false swoon.
Tal took Josie's arm in his again and the two walked on towards the training fields.
"Gregor said the Alpha Kings used to let the Tumaron people come out here and settle their disputes with violence and by fighting and whoever forced their opponent to submit won the judgment. He even said Blaze was doing this up until about a month ago. I wonder why he changed it. It sounded like it was a pretty old tradition," Josie mused.
Tal grinned sheepishly before answering. "He changed it because of me," Tal responded, his left hand drifting absentmindedly to rub at his stomach.
Josie glanced over at him, once again, waiting for him to tell her all.
"The first time I appeared in Court there were two men who were fighting about their children, both boys, both of them at the age of consent… they were found in bed together having sex, by one of the fathers. Now, I didn't see what the big damn problem was, obviously, and I knew Blaze didn't either, but he was just letting these fathers argue in front of him. No one asked the boys what they wanted or how they felt. It had come down to the fathers arguing and demanding retribution from each other for their son being corrupted and being made 'unfit' for whoever their mates ended up being and then they'd come to the Alpha King to get him to decide who was in the wrong. I was shocked when Blaze said they could go out into the training fields and have the decision made there. I followed along behind him and everyone else and sat in the seat they gave me and, Josie…" Tal sighed, his entire body collapsing in on itself as if he were reliving some unspeakable horror.