Page 16 of Her Warrior Fae

Ren sat behind his desk, rubbing his eyes.

“Dex,” he said. He looked exhausted.

“Is this a bad time?”

“Not at all. I think I’m about done here. I can’t think straight anymore.” He sat back in his chair. “In fairytales, they make being king look really glamorous. They make it look like the guy sits on the throne all day being worshiped by his people. In real life, being king is just a hell of a lot of administrative work.”

I chuckled. “You’re doing a great job, and the people do worship you.”

Ren grinned at me. “Well, there is that.” He stood from his desk and stretched until his back popped before he turned to the windows. “This rain is good for the country, but I’m starting to miss the sun.”

“I think we’ve all had enough of the rain.”

Ren nodded, and we stood in silence for a while.

“What’s on your mind?” he asked, looking over his shoulder at me.

I shrugged.

“Come on, man, spit it out. I know something’s bothering you. You’re usually full of reports, and you’re silent now.”

Ren knew me too well. He and Nylah were the two people who knew me better than anyone—better than I even knew myself, sometimes.

“I’m over five-hundred years old now,” I started. “I still haven’t found a mate.”

Ren walked to a large leather armchair—one of two—and sat down. He didn’t invite me to sit on the other. He knew I would sit if I was comfortable.

I wasn’t.

“Your fated mate will come,” Ren said. “Sometimes, it takes a while. It took this long for me to find Ellie.”

I grunted in agreement. Ren had been betrothed to Lucia, but that hadn’t been about fate, it had been about politics.

“Do you think your fated mate is the only mate you should be with?”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean…should I wait for my mate to be myfatedmate? Or…” I wasn’t sure how to put what I meant into words.

“Did you meet someone?”

“I guess you could say that.”

Ren wanted to press for more. If he asked, I wouldn’t lie to him, but he respected me enough not to pry.

“I don’t know much about love and fates. My dad didn’t really talk to me about that, and my mom wasn’t around for me to learn what a mate bond should look like between them. It was a learning process when Ellie and I forged the mate bond, and I had no idea what I was doing or how serious what I was feeling was.”

I nodded. Ren’s father had been a hard man, ruling with an iron fist. There was little space for affection and even less time to spend with his son if he didn’t think it would benefit the future of the country. Ren had grown up without his mother. To solidify his lack of knowledge in that department, King Arnott had chosen Lucia as his match, a political move, and the mate bond wouldn’t have existed with her if they’d become mated. They’d never been fated.

“What I do know is that it’s not a small thing. If you do meet your fated mate, you do what you have to in order to make it work. It’s just so different when the person by your side is meant to be there.”

Ren rubbed his chin where stubble started to show after a long day.

“The difference between my relationship with Ellie and my relationship with Lucia is like day and night.” Ren shook his head. “I did what I had to do for the sake of the country, but that woman rubbed me the wrong way.”

I understood what Ren tried to say about fated mates being different than mates who weren’t fated.

“You just listen to your heart, Dex,” Ren added after I didn’t respond. “Your heart will tell you what to do.”

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