Chapter 312: A Shy Turtle Leaves The Shell

Ren’s bright green eyes sparkled with desperate hope as Altair stared silently down at her. She squeezed his hand again, silently praying that he would finally give her something. Anything. She would have gladly accepted a generic, dismissive statement like, ’My family is big,’ or ’We like to fly.’ Just a single crumb of his heavily guarded life.

The silence stretched on for what felt like an eternity. The only sound in the garden was the gentle rustling of the bioluminescent ferns in the night breeze.

Just as Ren’s shoulders began to slump and she was ready to give up, Altair finally opened his mouth.

“My father,” Altair spoke, his deep voice barely above a gravelly whisper.

He stopped right there, clamping his mouth firmly shut again.

Ren’s heart leaped into her throat. She didn’t dare speak a single word. She urged him on with a highly animated wiggle of her eyebrows, keeping her lips zipped tight. It felt exactly like watching a notoriously shy turtle cautiously poke its head out of its shell for the very first time in front of an audience. If she made any sudden movements or rushed him to continue, he might instantly pull his head back in and hide away forever.

Ren was metaphorically perched on the edge of her seat. ’His father… what?!’ she screamed internally.

Altair swallowed hard. He looked away, his golden eyes fixing on a glowing mushroom near her feet as he hesitantly continued. “I… I do not know who my father is.”

Ren’s internal cheering immediately flatlined. ’Oh,’ she thought, trying desperately not to let her crushing disappointment show on her face. Of course. Of course the bird would play the amnesia card!

“Oh,” Ren murmured softly, squeezing his hand to show she wasn’t mad.

But then, Altair’s gaze snapped back to hers. His golden eyes flared with an intense, complicated emotion she had never seen before.

“My father is a King,” Altair stated.

Ren’s eyebrows shot so far up her forehead they almost disappeared into her red hairline. ’This is it!’ she cheered wildly in her head, doing mental backflips. ’He is actually opening up! The vault is unlocking!’

“I—” Altair started, taking a deep breath to finally spill the royal tea.

“So, this is where you have been.”

A smooth, cold, and arrogant voice sliced through the quiet garden, completely shattering the intimate moment.

Ren jumped, swallowing a surprised scream.

It was Syris.

The panic of her heart instantly caught up to her brain. Between the boat ride, the fishing disaster, the sex marathon with Vex, and the nap in the grass, Ren had absolutely no idea how long she had actually been gone, or how long the Snake King had been trying to find her!

Syris walked from the dark archways, illuminated by the glowing flora. He was dressed in a dark snakeskin robe that hung loosely over his pale, muscular chest. His amethyst eyes were narrowed into lethal slits.

“I have searched this garden for you many times already, and you were not here,” Syris stated smoothly, his gaze burning into Ren. “Where exactly had you gone? The scullery is still a mess.”

Ren’s heart hammered a mile a minute.

Without waiting for her panicked excuse, Syris marched forward. He walked past Altair, completely ignoring the naked Golden Eagle as if he were nothing more than an ugly garden statue.

Syris firmly grabbed Ren’s hand, pulling her to his side.

Then, keeping his back turned to the bird, Syris spoke to Altair.

“I told you to leave my swamp,” Syris hissed, his voice dropping to a terrifying, venomous register. “Why are you still here, bird? Do I have to take you out of my territory by force?”

Ren gripped Syris’s hand tightly. She glanced at Altair. He didn’t look the least bit threatened. He stood tall and unbothered, his golden eyes staring blankly at the back of Syris’s head.

“If I turn around,” Syris threatened coldly, the air around him dropping in temperature, “and you are still standing there… you will not only be leaving the swamp. You will be leaving this life as well.”

Ren’s panic instantly peaked. An all-out, bloody fight between two apex predators was the last thing she needed tonight!

“Syris, look at me!” Ren demanded, forcefully yanking on his arm and stepping perfectly into his line of sight so he was forced to look down at her.

Her heart was racing, but she forced a perfectly calm, deeply disappointed expression onto her flushed face.

“Is this really how the great, legendary Snake King of the Swamp shows his gratitude?” Ren challenged, putting her free hand on her hip. “Threatening to murder the very beastman whose magical tear literally just saved your beautiful, flawless skin from peeling off?!”

Syris’ jaw twitched. His amethyst eyes flickered to his own smooth, perfectly healed chest, and then back to her.

Ren shamelessly played his massive ego like a grand piano. She tapped directly into his royal conscience and his undeniable superiority complex, manipulating his pride. “A true King honors his debts, Syris. He doesn’t slaughter his benefactors in his garden!”

Syris stared at her for a long, tense moment. Finally, he let out a sharp, irritated hiss.

“Fine,” Syris yielded, his grip on her hand tightening possessively. “The bird may stay in my territory until you leave for the forest. But my conditions are absolute. He will rest only in this garden, and he will stay out of my sight.”

Altair said nothing in response.

But Ren couldn’t mask her glee. She beamed, confidently patting Syris’s chest. “Oh, don’t you worry! You won’t even notice he’s there!”

’Mostly because he randomly disappears for ninety percent of the day anyway, so you really won’t ever see him,’ Ren added in her thoughts, a little bitterly.

Having graciously spared the eagle’s life, Syris had zero patience left. He immediately began pulling Ren away by the hand, dragging her out of the garden toward the dark corridors.

Ren desperately looked back over her shoulder. “We’ll continue talking later!” she mouthed to Altair, pointing a finger at him.

Altair said nothing in response. He gave her a stiff, slightly awkward little wave. Then, with a blinding, brilliant flash of golden light that illuminated the entire cavern, he took his beast form, settling his giant feathered body onto the grass.

Ren sighed as she was dragged down the hall. She really needed to figure out a proper schedule. She probably needed to set aside a day or two strictly for Altair. Having three demanding, stubborn husbands was proving to be way too hard for one human to manage.

Syris pulled Ren into his nest, leading her toward the furs.

He suddenly stopped in his tracks. He leaned his head down, sniffing her neck and her frizzy hair. His brow furrowed.

“Where exactly were you?” Syris demanded, his nose wrinkling. “And why is the scent of fish clinging to you?”

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