"That sounds perfect! My brothers are the ones that raised me, so they did the decorating when it came to my own nursery. Since they couldn't decide on a single theme, they decided that they would each decorate one wall, leaving the wall with the door blank to keep things even." She took a sip of her tea and continued. "Caiden chose dragons since he had mastered the element of air, but they weren't cute cartoon dragons; they were realistic ones with long fangs and bodies."
"Oh no!" Rheia covered mouth to hide her smile.
Amelia held up her hand. "It gets better. Kyran had mastered water so he had sharks painted on his wall. Finally, Tristan chose an erupting volcano for his wall, since he had mastered fire."
By this time, Rheia had given in to her giggles, and even Ryuu was smiling.
"I wasn't able to redecorate that room until I was thirteen! But on the bright side, not much scares me as an adult." She shrugged.
"Where were your parents?" Ryuu asked.
"After I was born, my mother realized she wasn't the maternal type. She wanted to be a free spirit, untethered by earthly shackles." Amelia made air quotes around free spirit and earthly shackles.
"Then why have a child?" Rheia asked.
"Because my father wanted another one. When I was born, he handed me off to Caiden, and he and my mother left on a free love adventure. My nature loving, bell bottoms-wearing mother turned my high-born, ruling-house father into a nomadic hippie, although I think he fakes it because he loves her. He still makes them stay in five star hotels after their 'sojourns' into the woods."
"So Lady Ironwood is a free spirit?" Ryuu asked, rotating his mug.
Amelia shook her head. "My mother is also quite the feminist, she kept her maiden name much to the utter shock and dismay of my father, so it's not Lady Ironwood; it's Lady Camden."
"She sounds fascinating." Rheia said, setting her cup down.
"Indeed," Ryuu murmured.
"She's something else, I'll tell you that. I don't know how many times I thanked the Goddess that my brothers raised me, nightmare walls and all. During one of her visits, my mother took me on a nature hike. She made me sit crossed-legged in the woods for hours, trying to hear the voices of the spirits. I couldn't have been more than four or five at the time. When Caiden found us, I was hungry, crying, and covered in mosquito bites." Amelia shuddered thinking of how her life might have been if her parents had stayed home all the time to raise her.
"It sounds like you're very close to your brothers," Rheia commented, a knowing look in her eye.
"You have brothers, too?"
"Yes, but like Penny, not by birth. We chose each other, kinda like the family we have now."
Amelia looked around, remembering the empty dining room. It was eerily quiet considering how many people lived there. "Where is everyone?"
Rheia stood and stretched. "Penny is in the front room being homeschooled by her grandmother. Beth is with Meryn, Jaxon, and Noah in Aiden's office, and the boys are doing drills as usual, though after Meryn's comment last night about explosives, I heard Aiden wants to do an inventory of the armory."
Amelia brightened. "We have an armory?"
Rheia shook her head. "No. Just...no."
"Do they have grenades?"
Ryuu nodded. "Oh, yes; according to denka, they explode when you pull the pin, not when they land after you throw them."
Amelia nodded. "Good to know."
"Okay, on that note, I'm heading back to the clinic. Be good and stay away from the armory." Rheia wagged a finger at her, waved goodbye and left.
Amelia quickly drained her cup before standing. She pulled on her coat. "I'm going to go see what Darian is doing."
Ryuu stood, his face serious. "Be careful itoko-sama; his light is all but faded."
"I know; it's why I'm trying so hard."
Ryuu walked over to the counter and picked up something small and metallic. "This is from Meryn, for your stalking efforts, and this is from me for breakfast." He handed her a pair of binoculars and a sandwich wrapped in paper towels.
"Thank you for the food. Tell Meryn she rocks socks!" Amelia accepted the binoculars.
"I will tell her you were most thankful." Amelia laughed at his paraphrasing and waved goodbye.
She walked out the front door and looked over to the open field where the men had been training yesterday. Sure enough, they were at it again. Acting as if she had every right to be there, Amelia sat down on the stacked crates next to Aiden. He grinned at her, and kept counting, making notes on a piece of paper on his clipboard. Rheia hadn't been kidding when she said Aiden would do an inventory.
She placed her sandwich in her lap and unwrapped the paper towels. Ryuu had made her a ham and cheese sandwich, one of her favorites. Smiling, she began to eat as she swung her feet happily. When she had finished her breakfast, she stuffed the paper towels in her pocket and pulled out her binoculars to look for her mate. She found him dangling from a rope attached to one of the drill towers. When he began to do pull-ups on the rope he was hanging from, she sighed. When he turned his body upside down and began lowering himself up and down in an inverted pull up, she had to check for drool. When her hand came up to check her chin, she heard the men start laughing. She gave them the bird, making them laugh even harder. With each repetition, his arms bulged, and she felt her heart beat a little more out of control. She had a death grip on the binoculars that were giving her the up close and personal view of her gorgeous mate.