Chapter 437: The Patient Is Being Very Brave

Beta Draven received the handoff without flinching because he had been expecting it. Kael Ashenvale had a talent for answering the questions he wanted to answer and redirecting the ones he didn’t, and Beta Draven recognized the pattern because Beta Draven had just used that himself.

"I heard unmistakable growling," Beta Draven said, his voice measured, each word earning its place in the sentence. "It was coming from beneath his ribs in a pattern that I have seen on more than one occasion when a wolf perceives a threat to their mate. His eyes were also fluctuating between wolf gold and his regular, typically what I’d see in an Alpha or Beta." He looked at Maddox. "I would put it at seventy-five percent certain that he has a wolf. But I could not feel an alpha aura from him, assuming that is what his wolf would be, Your Majesty."

Maddox’s eyes moved around the table the way a cannon rotates looking for the most deserving target. The cannon considered Brennan. The cannon considered Blair. The cannon considered Beta Draven. The cannon landed on Kael.

"You."

Kael rolled his eyes. "For fuck’s sake—"

"My wife was arrested, imprisoned, and charged with attempting to kill a king, and when the charges were dropped and the cell opened, she chose to remain in the kingdom that did all of that to her."

Maddox delivered this summary like a prosecutor reading charges to a jury except the defendant was his brother and the crime was letting his wife enjoy prison enough to stay.

"Yes, we’ve established that," Kael replied.

"WHY DIDN’T YOU REASON WITH HER?" Maddox roared, his voice cracking on the last syllable.

"Sure. I didn’t reason with her at all. I told her to stay there, actually, that you didn’t want her and to never return."

Kael’s deadpan took the room a second to digest. Every person at the table processed it at different speeds with Griffin processing it last.

Maddox was not amused. "Wh—"

"Maddox. She’s one portal to a sketchy alley away. She’s not dead," Kael added, cutting him off before any more questions came out.

"Why is she there and not here?"

Kael let out a dark, exhausted laugh.

"Oh, I tried. She is convinced she ruined his bloodline and is now running a one-woman wolf orientation program and treating his chambers like a veterinary clinic while he gives birth to his first shift."

What followed was a two-minute performance that nobody in this War Room was ready for and put Griffin in a state of joy so complete that Ryker would have to physically restrain him.

Kael grabbed his own ribs and winced, his face contorting.

"’Guinevere, it hurts so much. I don’t know what it wants. Please stay.’"

He clasped his hands and his voice climbed into a register that was either Guinevere or a very devoted nurse and the room couldn’t tell the difference.

"’King Solveil, worry not. The little guy is just overstimulated. Sometimes we confuse our wolves’ emotions with our own but that’s perfectly normal.’"

The air quotes Kael put around "perfectly normal" were invisible but audible. Nothing about any of this was perfectly normal. Griffin was physically leaning towards Kael, his face a mirror of every emotion being performed like he was watching a puppet show.

Kael dropped to one knee, seized an invisible hand, and stared upward with the face of a woman who had just discovered she could mother a king. Or the face of a dramatic dragon who was impersonating his mate. The room wasn’t sure which.

"’His wolf needs a watering hole, Master Healer. His wolf will be able to play in the watering hole too when he shifts. Before that, he can relax in it so he can give birth to his wolf. Yes, like a water birth. For a grown king because he needs that even though Kael told me he was fine. Kael is the best looking and smartest dragon I know. He went to prison with me. That dragon? No, I am not going to listen to him.’"

Kael rose and pressed one hand to his chest, face contorting in pain. Griffin’s contorted too, like the pain had been contagious.

"’Are you sure you can stay to help?’" Kael asked in a whiny voice.

He crashed back to the knee, grabbed both invisible hands.

"’Oh yes, King Solveil. I poisoned your bloodline and am the reason your life is over. You have an STD with no cure and are carrying another life in your womb.’"

He stood and became Solveil one last time, hand to forehead, leaning backwards.

"’I am in so much pain. But I feel better now that you are here.’"

Kael cracked his neck. Then he stared at every person at the table with the expression of a man who had just reenacted the most absurd situation of his life and was waiting for someone to tell him he could have done better because he could not have done better.

Nobody moved.

The growling from Nicholas’s wolf had stopped. No heat was coming from Maddox. Both were looking at Kael with perplexed expressions.

Griffin started clapping. Ryker grabbed Griffin’s hands without looking at him, cutting him off.

Then a sound came out of Sterling that was as rare as Guinevere staying in one kingdom for a full week. Sterling lost it. Fully. The laugh came out and it kept coming and his body was shaking and his concussed head was pounding and he didn’t care because the pounding was worth it.

"A water birth." He could barely get the words out. "STD with no cure. You stood there and listened to that."

"I TRIED," Kael said flatly.

"You tried." Sterling was crying now. Actually crying. From laughter. In a war room. "You tried to reason with a woman who was coaching a king through wolf labor in a watering hole and you failed and you came home alone. That’s the briefing. That’s the whole briefing."

Every person at the table independently confirmed that the sound coming from Sterling was laughter and then independently questioned whether the concussions had caused hell to freeze over.

"Someone mark the date," Ryker announced. "Mark the time. Mark the room. Sterling just laughed. In front of witnesses. I want it documented because nobody is going to believe me when I tell this story and I am going to tell this story for the rest of my life."