Reign Of The King The Falcon Ridge Series Book 10

“I’m not going.” She folds her arms and crosses her legs.

“Ricky." I tilt my head to her with a warning look.

She whips her head to me. “No. The Highs are your thing not mine.”

“You need to realize, you’re Queen now. A Queens presence is required at the council meeting after her coronation.” I inform her using my Kingly voice.

She points to me. “Well, this Queen will be the first to not…go!” She turns to face forward.

“Listen.” I turn to her and grab her hand. “I realize Victor leaves a sour taste in your mouth….”

“A sour taste? He tried to take a mother from her child, Zan. What kind of asshole does that?” she scowls at me.

“…but…it will only be for a few moments. Hour at most then you won’t have to return unless you want to. You know Lunas have duties they may not like. Queens do too.” I lean to her.

“You guys gonna keep fighting or are you ready to jump?” The pilot says from the cockpit of the small aircraft we’re in.

I look to him. “Are we high enough?”

“15,000 feet.” The pilot says.

I look at Ricky and we look at him. “GO HIGHER!” We say at the same time

“Ok. It’s your jump.” He grins.

He raises the altitude. We prepare ourselves. Ricky opens the door to the plane.

“Ok. If I beat you, I don’t go. If you beat me, I go. Deal?”

“Deal.”

“Ok. Ready?” She steps close as we wait for the green to go.

“Ready.” I smile.

I never thought of myself as a daredevil. Fun was never a factor in my dark life. Being King of Wolves doesn’t allow for it.

Ricky freed me. Freed my heart. Showed me what real love was and what different things you can do with it.

She’s still a giant pain in my ass, but dammit, I love the fuck out of this woman. For real.

Hope was just that. Hope. Hope was safe. Strong. Caring. Loving. She’s a celestial being so, of course, she would be. Her power over me was strong. Probably why they made the laws that they did. It wasn’t that she didn’t love me. It was that she didn’t want to commit herself to just me. Hope is important. If she didn’t exist, I wouldn’t have my gorgeous daredevil right now.

Hope gave me strength to turn her down when it was right. Hope encouraged me to fight the raging monster of the mountain. Hope helped me save Ricky and bring her home to me where she belonged.

So in a sense, I owe a lot to her. I don’t wish her any ill will either. I suspect this was all part of Destiny’s plan to free my father. It’ll be something I’ll need to find out soon.

I’ll also have to check out my new powers. I haven’t even been able to concentrate on them. Me and Ricky have been having too much fun since our bonding.

“Ok! You guys got a green!” The pilot says.

“Awesome!” Ricky says to me. She throws her arms around my neck and slams her lips on mine. She kisses me until I melt in her arms. She breaks and smiles. I smile back.

She shoves me to the other side of the plane and back flips out the door.

I get up and hang out the door.

She waves “SEE, YA! WOOOHOOOO!” She spins in the air as she falls.

I pull myself back. “SO NOT FAIR!!” I throw myself out of the plane.

The air is rushing past my helmet as I tuck my arms and legs in.

I’m turning my body like a spinning rocket hurling to the earth at huge speeds.

Ricky’s on her back with her hands behind her head.

“YEEEAAAHHH! WOOOOO!” I shout as I do back flips and summersaults.

I tuck myself in again and make a beeline for her.

“You’re not getting away from me.” I smirk through the link.

She turns and tucks herself in.

I reach her back and twist around to her front.

“Hey! You’re not going to win.” She says through her link.

“Oh yeah?” I hit a button on my helmet. “Trish deploy emergency chute 2!”

‘Yes, Zander.’

“ZANDER NO!......” Ricky’s emergency chute opens and she slows to a crawl. “….YOU BASTARD!”

I smile and wave at her. I roll back over and look around the dome which is fixed now, shines like a beacon. The city itself glows white in the beaming sun.

“Trish. Glider one.”

‘Deploying glider.'

My pack bursts into a hang glider. I reach to my back and pull down the guide handles.

“YEAH!” I scream as I point the glider up and fly over the city.

I dip and the glider falls. I pull it back up and I’m basically riding an air Rollercoaster. “THIS IS WICKED!!” I link to Ricky.

“Incoming…” She links back.

“Incoming?” I look around and she thuds on my back.

The glider starts to fall faster. “What are you doing?”

“Winning?” She says.

She lets go and my glider flairs back out.

She hits a button on her suit and her wings come out. She switches to pilot mode and starts to fly.

“NOT FAIR! GLIDERS ONLY!” I yell.

“I never agreed to that.” She waves and flies away “YESSSSS!” She yells through the link.

“Screw this. Trish, pilot mode.” I order.

‘The pilot mode on the C20 hasn’t been fully tested. Are you sure you wish to proceed?’

“Yes! Proceed! She’s getting away!” I yell.

The two air propulsion units under the wings kick in and I’m now a flying glider.

“FUCK YEAH!!” I scream as I go higher.

I fly past Ricky and the city’s towers, buzzing by tall windows.

“Zander, are you crazy? We haven’t tested that yet?” Ricky links.

“WE ARE NOW!” I yell as I scoop the glider around the buildings

Nala’s eagle screeches with me. She matches my speed and I give her a two finger salute. She screeches again and flies off spinning over the city.

I hit a button on my helmet which gives a screen with all the soft targets on the ground. “Cool!”

The navigation kicks in and sets course for landing on the Unit building.

“OK, reduce speed.” I say coolly. The glider reduces its speed and I direct it.

I turn off the air propulsion and start to glide in. I prepare myself for landing when the propulsion kicks back in.

“What?”

I shoot back up into the air and zoom off over the building.

“OH FUCK!!!” I yell as the glider spins out of control. The world spins uncontrollably.

“TRISH! ABORT! ABORT!...”

‘Emergency chute deployed.’

I wait.

“TRISH! I HAVE NO CHUTE!” I yell.

‘Impact in thirty feet.’

“SHIT!!!” I yell as I hit the grass of Phoenix park. The glider breaks off and I roll head over feet across the grass right into the pond. Water crashed in high waves as I splashed into it.

I breach the surface, shaking my hair out and gasping for air. I float in the water as people who were in the park gathered at the edge.

Some played with the now destroyed glider.

I walk out of the pond, dripping wet and covered in grass stains.

They all stare at me.

“The…uh…the waters great. Great day for a dip.” I push passed them, slightly limping. I grab my pack and drag the broken glider wings behind me as people watch me leave. My face flushes as I die of embarrassment.

I get back to the unit and fight the wings through the door. I throw them to the lobby floor and take big strides to the front desk.

“You’re Majesty….Dude, are you ok?” The soldier looks at me with concern.

I thumb over my shoulder. “I think a fish took my key card. Order a new one.”

“Uh…ok…” He eyes my sorry state and my fuming face.

I huff over to the door as he buzzes me in. I throw open the door. “And if you see my wife, tell her, her glider sucks!” as I stomp through the door, my shoes squishing as I walk.

****

I sit on the couch in Ricky’s office with a towel around my shoulders.

Ricky has an arm around her waist and her other hand is trying to hide her mouth. Her face is red and there’s tears in her eyes.

“Stop…laughing.” I growl as I side eye her.

She sucks in a breath. “I’m…sorry…” She can barely breathe. She waves her hand in her face.

Nala’s tiger is making muffled sounds.

“You stop laughing, too!” I yell.

She changes to a hyena and falls on the floor.

“I’m out of here.” I grumble.

Ricky runs to me. “Baby…baby…I’m sorry. I told you it wasn’t working.”

“It was until it didn’t.” I point in her face. “Declan’s a dead man.” I stomp to the door, my shoes still squishing.

Out of frustration, I pull them off and toss them. Walking out of the office in bare feet.

I turn up the hallway and Declan was coming down. “Oh good! I really need to show you guys this.” He holds up papers.

“You!” I point to him aggressively.

“Me?” Declan looks around with worry on his face.

“You! Your glider almost killed me!” I lean to his face.

“Wait…you took the C20? That wasn’t ready for a field test yet. Who told you to take it?” His brows went up.

“No one.” I grumble and lean back.

“OK. Just so you know, there are trillions of things that we develop here that will kill you. So unless you want to die, don’t take anything from my lab again.” He scowls.

“Fine…..sorry.” I scratch my head. “You got something?”

“Yes!...” He pulls me back toward Ricky’s office. “These came over the satellite imagery.”

I look at the Phoenix Mountain photos and dots. Looks like thousands of them. “What is this?”

“Um…that? That’s an army.” He chokes.

“Army? What army?” I stop him.

He shakes his head. “Until we get scouts out there, we won’t know who they are. Zander…there’s thousands coming from the west and east sides. They’re coming for us.”

I look at him wide eyed. “How long?”

“Two, maybe four hours.” He swallows.

“Get the scouts out. I’ll get Ricky. Call….everyone!” I bark as I head to Ricky’s office.

****

“Ok guys! Cool it! We don’t have time for this!” Ricky calms the Alphas in the council room.

“Ok. Intel is sketchy right now. All we know is we’re being threatened on two fronts. Falcon Ridge is two days out. We have enough fighters for an even match, but if we lose any, we’re toast. We need to get anyone who can’t fight, out of the city and into the emergency bunkers. Lock the doors.”

She looks around the room. “This is a real fight guys. From the size of it, it’s more than we’ve ever had to face. Be strong. Watch each other’s backs and win this thing. Phoenix cannot fall.”

Yes’s erupted in the room.

As people left to prepare for war, I found Ricky in the crowd. “That was a good speech. See, natural Queen.”

She breathes. “Yeah. Let’s just keep people alive before you throw that crown on.”

She looks at the satellite photo. She rubs her neck. “There’s just so many. Who are they?”

Declan ran in. “Ricky. They identified whose coming for us.”

“Who?” She steps forward.

His eyes panic. “Everyone.” He scrubs his head. “It looks like any bad guy we’ve fought has teamed up into one big, giant, massive army and they’re coming.”

I look to Ricky confused. Declan wraps his arms around his waist.

He looks like he’s about to crap his pants.

“We're so fucked.”