Page 79 of Retrograde

I smirked at him. “You’re finally catching on. Took you long enough to realize you’re probably always going to be a few steps behind.” I held up my finger to him. “Five. I havefiveother options in just the few days since I’ve learned of what you’ve been beating Darren up with. Want to push more and see what else I can come up with from my connections?”

No. It was all over their faces.

Just to twist the knife in their backs the rest of the way, I smiled brightly at them. “I could stop interjecting to the media and let them keep talking about your family like they are stud horses—even agree that they would make great baby daddies to complement whateverroyalmate I would have. Wouldn’t that be fun? Send the nation into a tizzy and just—”

“You’ve made your point, Your Majesty,” the Alpha of Selka bit out.

“I keep thinking I have, but then you all don’t listen or retain it,” I said with a dark chuckle. “And you of all people shouldn’t be pissy when it’syour son, Rigel, who said right in front of June and her news crew that he just had to ride out mymoodsandflingswith the others to be one of thesevenremaining and he’d be prince andin charge.”

“Fucking moron,” Fraser grumbled, and I felt better when several of the Alphas obviously felt the same, giving Rigel’s dad a pitying look.

“Now that I’ve made my point, let’s talk about some of the deals that still fall under national security. I will also give you fools onelast chanceto show you’re on the team and stop this bullshit. No more trying to freeze me out or flex on me.”

“You know they will,” Darren muttered, sounding defeated. “Why even bother? Why fucking—there’s just no point, Sagan.”

I thought about that a moment and then walked over to him and kissed his hair. “I have faith. Maybe not in all of them, but that I can make Thovudin thrive. If a different family has to take over being Alpha—it’s happened before. Don’t give up on me, Darren. I won’t let them win.”

He grabbed my hand and blinked up at me with tears in his eyes. “I won’t ever give up on you. I cannot lose you, okay? That day you wouldn’t…”

Get out of bed. It crushed him. I knew that.

Also, that something else was going on with him. He was struggling with something he wasn’t talking to me about.

Then I felt small. The attack. He’d lost his sister—twice really, learning she wasn’t who he thought—and I’d been attacked.

“You have no idea how powerful I am,” I promised him. “And I’m getting stronger every day working with Belinda and the ancients. I’m not going to leave you.”

He let out a shaky breath. “Okay, then let’s hear these deals.”

Everyone was in shock when I was done and I could tell most were impressed… Even if begrudgingly so.

“What is the carrot you’re giving them?” Maple asked, shrugging when several people shot her unfriendly looks, but focused on me. “This whatever to be on the team?”

I sighed, understanding her upset. “It’s not even a carrot like—it’s good for Thovudin. I’m giving them the chance to accept that—there’s no reason to go against it. Novalidreason to…” Inodded for Belinda to go ahead because I was trying not to tear into all of the Alphas.

She dipped her head to me. “In her education, the queen was taught about not only the inception of Thovudin, but the history and way things used to be of dragons that many have forgotten. Manyintentionallyhave stopped teaching to rebuff certain dragons.”

“You’re speaking of how Princess Maple pointed out that our rulers used to always have a mystical dragon advisor?” Joris’s dad asked.

“Yes, like that, but also many,manyyears ago, certain other types of dragons were gaining influence and wealth, and at the time none of the Alphas were those dragons. In a coordinated effort to keep power where they needed it to be, they worked together to undermine those dragons.” She was quiet a moment. “I cannot even say they were wrong.

“Those dragons were going too far and—hindsight is always easier, but in many ways they cut off their nose to spite their face. Or…” She glanced at me. “What do you young ones say? Wrote checks that were painful for their future selves to pay?” She chuckled when I nodded. “Anyways, the queen wants to return to our roots in many ways as you all know.”

“In some areas that’s good, but if it was something that was dangerous in the past, why would it work now?” Thorn’s uncle asked but really tried to poke at.

“Interrupt the ancient again and I’ll burn you,” I said coldly. “You never interrupted themaleelders like that. Learn respect and to stop only seeing breasts.” I didn’t wait for a response and dipped my head to Belinda to continue.

She tried to smother a chuckle but failed. “As the queen said in her press conference, water dragons are too powerful to help with crops in droughts. In the olden days, there were teams of storm dragons who were trained specifically to help in thoseinstances. Others as well. I saw a team battle a hurricane that could have taken out half of Nerthus.”

“It’s true,” I said before anyone could argue. “It’s written in the De la Rosa archives.” I glanced at Fraser and Maple. “You both should have read it?”

“I did,” Maple said, snorting when Fraser rolled his eyes.

I left it alone because I learned that Fraser had ignored a lot of the royal training or learning when he was treated as Father’s backup. It was his way of rebelling.

Fair enough.

“More and more dragons want to return to using their powers,” I reminded the Alphas. “We’ve had over a hundred water dragons immediately volunteer to help—and I did notice how many of you had family members who were water dragons call in. It’s what weshoulddo whenaskedand we are respected by the world. Not when demanded of us.”