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It was the first night since their reunion that Cain hadn't slept with DG beside him. He tossed and turned in the all too big, all too spacious bed, unable to get comfortable despite the luxurious mattress beneath him.
He couldn't stop seeing DG in his mind, watching her take control of the situation as everyone else willingly let her. He kept replaying the moment he'd seen Azkadellia again for the first time in cycles, the shock of it as he compared his memory of her during her position with the fragile slip of a girl she'd become.
How Azkadellia could ever become Queen, he didn't know. If she were to take the throne, it would be in image only and he could only hope DG would be there at her side, to advise and guide and support her during her reign. Ozma help them if the Council got their way and DG was sent to IX to be an unwilling bride.
When the door to his room opened, he reached immediately for his gun, pointing it at the intruder before they'd had a chance to take a single step forward.
"It's just me," DG called out, her voice soft and cautious.
"I thought you were spendin' the night with your sister." His heart continued to race though for a very different reason as he put the gun back on the table beside the bed. "Won't she be missing you?"
"She's sleeping soundly. Raw did some kind of Viewer thing because she started to have a nightmare." She sounded as sad as she did tired as she slowly made her way to the bed. "He said she'd be out until after the second sun rise so I figured it'd be okay for me to leave her. I can go to my room if you'd prefer to be alone?"
The uncertainty in her voice made him growl and he reached out to snag her wrist as soon as she was close enough, tugging her to him and onto the bed before she could even think about leaving. "It'll cause a scandal if you're caught here," he murmured, brushing her hair back from her face as he placed a kiss beneath her ear. He smirked at the hitch in her breathing and did it again, pulling her more firmly against him.
"In that case, maybe I should leave," she said a little breathlessly, though by the way she clutched at his shoulders as he rolled her beneath him, effectively trapping her, he knew there was no fear of that happening. "I can't sleep without you anymore," she whispered, arching into him as he started to leave a trail of kisses along the line of her neck to her jaw and eventually to her lips. "That's going to be a problem."
"I don't have a problem with it." He kissed her deeply, sinking into her. Though the voice at the back of his mind warning him to keep a grip on his control was still there, Cain wasn't feeling as inclined to listen to it. There was something about being back at the palace, seeing his DG disappear as the Princess she had to be took her place, a need to reassure himself that she was still there somewhere underneath it all.
She shifted a leg to wrap it around him, pressing him down against her as she pushed up. Her lips parted beneath his, taking everything he gave and silently begging for more.
It was only when he felt her nibble fingers slip beneath the shirt he'd worn to sleep in that common sense came back to him and he tore his mouth away from hers, only half-hearing her moan of displeasure as he panted into the crook of her neck.
"I want this," DG told him, locking her arms around him as though she were afraid he was going to move away. "I want you, Wyatt."
"I want you, too, Deege." He nipped at her neck, soothing the sting with a kiss as she shifted restlessly beneath him, feeling the evidence of his statement against her. "But I told you. This doesn't go further till I get a ring on your finger."
"What if someone else gets their ring there instead?" She tightened her arms around him as he lifted himself up just enough to look at her. "I don't want to wait for someday in case it never gets here. I don't want to wait for my wedding night if it's not with you."
It took a few moments for his brain to catch up, and when it did, his eyes darkened further. "You don't want to wait...?"
A blush coloured her cheeks but she kept her gaze on his as she nodded. "I want you to be my first, Wyatt Cain, especially if you can't be my only."
He let his forehead rest against hers, his eyes closing as he sought out one of her hands, lacing their fingers together. "I will be," he promised, his voice low with intent. "But that's all the more reason to take our time with this."
"We've waited over a year. Annual. Whatever. What if time runs out?" She moved the hand that wasn't clutching his to the back of his neck, fingers stroking the short hair there. "I don't want to risk it, Wyatt."
"We won't." He leaned down to steal another kiss from her lips, keeping it brief so not to get caught up in the whirlwind of want and need she stirred so effortlessly in him. "But not tonight, DG. Our first time together isn't going to be a knee-jerk reaction to events beyond our control. It's going to be about nothin' else but you and me."
She grumbled her disapproval of the plan but let him roll off her only to curl up against him when he lay on his back, her head on his shoulders as their joined hands came to rest over his heart.
*\*
Things moved quickly after DG's return to Central City and declaration that the family would be moving to Finaqua.
The Council weren't happy, and Cain experienced meeting them for the first time. It took a gentle touch of DG's hand on his arm and a quelling look from his son but he managed to somehow not shoot one of the self-righteous nobles who tried to stop the Royal Family from moving somewhere they'd be safer.
Duke Montague and Count Faraday were the worst offenders and, in his mind, the two that needed to be watched carefully. After a quiet discussion with his son, he was pleased to find out Jeb felt the same.
The first reason they gave him for hating them was their clear distaste of DG. Glitch had warned him there were some members of the Queen's Council who objected to the younger Gale daughter's different way of doing things and Cain would have bet everything he owned that the Council members Glitch had been alluding to were Montague and Faraday.
First, they objected to her plan of going to Finaqua. When they'd been talked around to agreeing to that by the other members of the Council, they'd objected to the security detail DG had suggested, comprising of himself, Jeb, Rafe, Bane, Bran, Ishta and Elliot. They'd argued that it was too many, given that there were already guards stationed at Finaqua. Besides, they'd added with a suspicious glance in Cain's direction, the former Tin Man, while respected as a hero of the Eclipse, didn't have a formal title and was therefore not an official member of staff.
If looks could kill, Faraday would have been dead at the fire shooting from DG's eyes. As it was, Cain himself had to move to keep her from advancing on the man, her palms sparking with her magic.
Ahamo was the one to step in and calm the situation, smoothly announcing that Cain was succeeding him as General and Troop Commander and had accepted the position as DG's personal guard until the threat to their family was resolved.
The newly bestowed title gave Cain reason to pause, though he suspected DG didn't understand the significance of the role Ahamo had given him. Oh, she'd smiled and arched an eyebrow when he'd bene appointed her personal bodyguard but it was the General and Troop Commander title that had caused Montague's face to redden, Cain was sure.
Especially as it was a title usually reserved for the Consort and no one else.
It didn't escape Jeb's notice, and Cain caught his son trying to hide a smirk behind his palm as Ahamo glared down the two nobles who would dare speak against him. It was fascinating to watch the calm and placid Consort slip into his Seeker persona, more so when both faraday and Montague immediately backed down though Cain doubted they knew about the Consort's other identity.
It was the second Montague mentioned the Prince from IX that Cain found himself reaching for his gun again. DG stilled beside him, as if frozen, and fixed the Duke with a suspicious stare.
"What do you mean, we're expecting a visit from the Prince?" The Queen stood gracefully from her seat at the head of the table and stared her advisor down. "Why is this the first I've heard of it?"
"The communication arrived after the attack on the Princess Azkadellia, Your Majesty." Montague lowered his head but didn't sound at all remorseful. "We thought it best not to disturb you and instead to finalise the arrangements ourselves."
"We? Ourselves?" The Queen's lavender eyes narrowed as she stared at each of the Council members in turn. Most of them looked as surprised as she was. Most of them. "Who would that be, Duke Montague?"
"Count Faraday, my Queen," Montague admitted with a glance at his fellow Council member.
"I see." Queen Lavender's tone was icy. "And did you inform anyone else of this communication?"
Around the table, people shook their heads. Montague and Faraday found it difficult to meet her gaze and stared instead at the top of the table.
"I see," the Queen repeated. "You will write to the Prince and you will tell him that we will be leaving Central City."
"Invite him to join us in Finaqua," DG suggested, earning surprised looks from her family as well as the two Cain men in attendance. She didn't look at any of them, fixing her gaze on Montague and Faraday instead. "If the Prince plans to travel to the OZ, it's only right that we agree to meet with him. It would be useful," she continued quietly, her gaze never wavering, "to be able to speak to him in person, without anyone acting as a go between. At least then we'll all know where we stand and there'll be no room for misinterpretation."
Though Cain didn't like it, he understood her distrust of the two men in charge of communicating with her potential betrothed. At least if they were taken out of the equation, an open and honest conversation could take place between the Prince and Princess who were bound by an annuals-old marriage contract.
"Very well, my darling." The Queen smiled at her daughter, but the smile faded into a hard expression as she fixed her gaze on the Duke and Count. "Arrange it, and copy Lord Ambrose in to your messages," she ordered. "You will both remain here in the city until we return."
"But, Your Majesty," Faraday began to protest, glancing at Montague. "Perhaps it would be better if we accompanied you to Finaqua to meet with the Prince and liaise with his people..."
"We have had the most contact," Montague agreed. "It would make more sense –"
"It would make sense for me to meet and speak with him on my own considering I'm the one supposedly meant to marry him," DG interrupted curtly. "The Queen has given you your orders, gentlemen. You would be wise to follow them."
There was an unspoken threat in her words, and the room suddenly felt a lot colder than it had. Cain wasn't sure if DG was aware her magic was spilling out of her but the members of the Council were and they looked at her with a combination of awe and interest. Curiously, the only members who stared at her with fear – and was that repulsion? – on their faces were Montague and Faraday.
He felt himself relax at that, realising that there were more allies at Court than there were enemies. Whether DG knew it or not, she'd managed to win over a lot of her mother's advisors simply by being herself. As for those she hadn't, Cain suspected they wouldn't last long at Court when the crown's position was fully secured.
The meeting was adjourned shortly after, and less than an hour after that, the Royal Family were loaded into carriages that would take them to Finaqua.
Cain rode alongside the carriage that carried DG and her sister, knowing DG shared his wish that she could be on his horse with him in the fresh air instead of cooped up inside the luxurious coach.
With the Prince's arrival imminent, it was only a matter of time before DG's fate, and their future together, was revealed to them.
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