Chapter 12: Royal obligations

                                    

                                          
~Dravon~
Once the rest of the guys are through, Blake closes the portal, and before I can turn around I'm engulfed in my mother's arms. Laughing, I turn around and hug her back.
"Oh, how I have missed you, my precious boy." She laughs as I spin her around, lifting her off the ground. Hearing her tinkling little laugh fills me with joy. I have missed it. 
"You seem to be in a good mood, Son." 
"I am, Mother, I'm finally home and back where I belong. I missed my best friends and they're all here too. What's not to be happy about?'' I smile, but I wish I didn't say anything, because she now looks dejected. "Mother?"
"You've still yet to find your mate! I don't want you turning feral on me, my sweet boy. You also need an heir. I just don't want to lose you. I mean, where could your mate be? Where are all of the prince's mates? This is unheard of for royals. Your father is going to order you to choose soon, and there's nothing I can do about it.  The elders agree, and they think all of your true mates have perished, as it's been this long already. They fear for you and Zander as you're the two who this affects the most. The quickest." She tells me, getting upset and flustered. 
"I know this, Mother," I say with a weak smile. "But she's out there... Somewhere… She has to be. They all have to be, for all our sakes… And don't worry about me and Zander, we're doing… alright. For now anyway." I whisper the last part and look out the window wistfully wondering if maybe our parents are correct. 
I don't want to entertain the idea that our mate is dead, but Blaze is getting more feral. I had to go see a witch to help me contain him so that I don't hurt anyone. She said to me that it would only last for so long and that I would still have the odd blackout. Well, it's lasted three months so far, but it is starting to wear off as she told me it would. 
I know I told Zander he needed to tell me, and that I'm being hypocritical as I haven't told him or the others either, but soon I will have to, as I don't think Keelan and the guys will come up with this all saving spell before we both turn feral. However, the circumstance is different for both of us, as Zander doesn't have anyone like I do. I almost hurt my younger brother, Kris a week or so ago. Blaze took control and was rampaging. Luckily I was away from everyone else checking the borders when it happened, and luckily Kris happened to be there. He shifted into his dragon Baltazar, managing to calm us down enough to make him give me back control, but not before we started fighting with him, and he got hurt in the process. 
Being that we're Royal dragons, our saliva stops bites from healing quickly, and if it gets into the bloodstream, it can slow the healing process for bones down as well, so he was in the hospital for two days with bites and broken bones. He told people we were messing about while training, and it went a little too far before we came to our senses. 
He covered for me because he knew the elders would try and force my father to chain me up until I chose a mate, or had to be put down from turning feral, so to speak. He's been keeping an eye on me since and has helped me when I needed it. 
After greeting all the other Queens, I look around the ballroom. It has a high white and gold, almost domed-shaped ceiling. Two levels are going around the room, with gold pillars around the bottom, like arches. Four magnificent diamond chandeliers are hanging down the middle, and the floor is white marble with gold inlay and patterns. A Fae designed it, hence all the gold. 
There's a raised platform for all the royals, with high wingback chairs which are in all different colours, depending on the creatures they're meant for, and just so happen to match the colours of our shirts. So Dragon's is a fiery orange. Our fire is blue and orange, but there are two blues already, and the originals who chose, wanted to be different. Shifters have an electric-neon blue magic that appears as they shift. Vampires are royal blue because of the first royal eye colour. Demon magic is a fiery neon-green colour. Witch's magic is dark emerald-green and Fae's magic is gold.