Chapter 2

By seven o'clock, three other men had entered the house. They were splayed out over the furniture in the living room. Dylan was toddling between them unsteadily, sometimes holding on to one as he moved about the room. Aiden flipped through some paperwork one of them had brought to her to look over.

The front door opened as Clint walked in with bags slipped over his arms. He had gone to the store after work and picked up the groceries they needed. He knew the others would be coming over so he picked up extra food for them. They all had big appetites, and the portions usually made in their home wouldn't be enough to feed them.

As he came Dylan turned and began rambling in baby language. Obviously, he was happy to see his daddy come home. Clint pressed a kiss to Aiden's head as he passed her on his way to the kitchen. One of the other guys jumped up and began to help put the groceries away. The one-butt-corner held two butts as the men fumbled around each other. Clint dropped the spaghetti noodles twice before he banished his friend back to the living room.

"This doesn't make any sense," Aiden groaned as she threw the folder to the table. "Why hasn't Mikey done anything?"

"Because he doesn't know it's happening. The Council is made up of old coots who don't realize this is the 21st Century and that we need to quit using hand forms to archive. It was all too easy to sneak in and grab everything," the black-haired man said.

Aiden looked up at him. "Did you sneak in unannounced?"

"That's the point of sneaking, Bakes." He used her nickname just to get under her skin. Unfortunately this time, it didn't so much as get under her skin as it did fuel the anger that was slowly starting to boil.

"Tyler, we can't be doing that, even if it means we get information."

"If we get the information, what does it matter?" a buzz cut auburn asked as he moved his leg he had slung over the arm of the chair.

She cast him a droll look, almost like she was asking him if he was crazy or not. "We can't be doing things illegally. It will only make things look worse for us."

"What exactly does Mikey want?" another auburn asked.

"He wants to create a new empire where the Silvers are heard as the majority instead of the minority."

"And he wants you to lead it," the first auburn haired man supplied.

"You got that right, Austin. We have to meet in San Francisco in two weeks. We'll have to go through everything Mikey went through when he became Emperor."

"Do you think it will be easy?" the second asked.

She shook her head. "No, Keldin, I don't. We'll be walking into a nest of Golden vipers and we know how they'll be. They hate us because they think we're just out to take their power."

"Don't you think in this case we are?" Tyler asked. They all looked at him. "You're talking about forming a new kingdom to cater to the needs of the Silver Faction. For the last sixty years, the Golds have had the run of the Empire. If you take that away from them, they are not going to be happy."

"What about your brother? We know how he tends to be," Austin said. He rubbed his head with his free hand. The other was preoccupied with Dylan as the nine- month- old tugged on it.

Aiden tossed the files to the table and rubbed her face. "Mikey wants everyone to be happy. He's been trying to get legislation up and running about the Silver Faction but all of it has been shot down by the Golds. It's getting bad."

"What do you want to do about it?" Keldin asked. "Mikey has obviously summoned you and you can't say no."

Dylan toddled over and Aiden pulled him into her lap. "I don't want to rule a group of people but if they feel confident in me, I'm going to try."

"We'll back you," Tyler said.

"You might want to call your brothers. They might be willing to help as well," Austin said.

She made a face as she thought about it. Out of the five of them, Mikey was the only Gold member. The other four were Silvers. It hadn't stopped them from being a family but it did mean that their abilities were somewhat different. Cole, Andy, Wyatt, and Aiden were born at night while Mikey was born during the day. It was hard for everyone to believe but Mikey was born before the sun set, making him a Gold. Aiden was born after the sun had set, making her a Silver.

Over the years they realized Silvers and Golds were completely different. Golds had a better power source. The sun was almost always out. The only hindrance was cloud cover. Silvers had to watch the cycles of the moon. At the new moon they were at their weakest, meaning their powers weren't fully charged. At the full moon, they were at their peak.

"Dinner's ready," Clint called from the kitchen doorway. He looked at the men in the room. "You're welcomed to join us."

They flicked their gazes to Aiden. When she didn't respond, they decided it was best if they left. It wasn't hard to know when their friend was almost at her wit's end because their people were being stupid. They grabbed their jackets and stepped out into the cold Knoxville weather.

Clint watched as Aiden fastened Dylan into his high chair and pulled out a jar of baby food, carrots by the looks of it. He could tell she was mulling this over by the way she gnawed at her bottom lip. She did that when she needed to think something all the way through.

It made their lives a little more hectic. He was so used to being able to look into her mind and find out what he needed to know. When she receded into the innermost part of her mind, he felt cold. He wondered what the others felt when she pulled away from them.

Sometimes he really considered asking but he didn't want them to think he was being super nosy. This was their lives; they had lived with it all their lives. He was just coming into it, but he wanted to be as helpful as he could.

"If we take this job, it means you'll have to move and find a new teaching job again," she said suddenly.

"I know what it means. It also means you'll have to switch schools again," he replied as he made two plates of spaghetti and placed two pieces of garlic bread on each. "Aiden, you can't switch schools anymore. You'll fall behind."

"I'm not worried about falling behind. I'm worried about moving my family and them being happy."

"Dylan will be happy no matter where he's at. I'll be happy wherever I am as long as you're there."

Aiden smiled at him as she sat beside him and fed Dylan. "We'll need to leave in the next few days if we're going."

"Well, finals are next week and then graduation. I have to have grades in by the ninth. We can be out of here by the eleventh."

"That sounds decent. It gives us time to give Tyler a small birthday party before we all head to San Francisco."

Clint took a minute to think about how he was going to form this next question. He knew Aiden loved her family but sometimes they didn't always get along. If creating a new kingdom was going to be this difficult, he wondered what the price would be.

"What is it, Clint?"

He looked up and saw her watching him intently. She wasn't reading his mind because he didn't feel the familiar intimate brush against his inner recesses. That golden gaze would be the undoing of any man but he was used to it. It just meant she was waiting patiently for him to reply.

"If you take this on, have you thought about moving the court to a different location? It might make things easier by not having both Courts within the same vicinity," he said as he twisted the spaghetti around his fork.

When he looked up, Aiden's face was drawn. There were two worry lines between her brow and crow's feet appeared around her amber eyes. "I didn't mean to upset you."

"No, you didn't upset me. I had been thinking about that and we've discussed that. There would be a lot of things to deal with before we even could get the Court established," she replied as she wiped carrots from Dylan's nose. "We'd have to call my brother for the jet. I won't be shadow-walking with Dylan. You could handle it but he's too young."

"So, we're definitely going?"

She nodded. "Might as well."

Clint snorted in laughter at the thought of them coming in on a jet with Tyler, Keldin, and Austin in tow. They would be a sight to behold. He wasn't even sure if they had flown before. They were so used to being able to move whenever they wanted.

Being confined on a three-hour flight may just undo what little control the crazy men had. First, they had to finish dinner then school before anything could be done.

~~~~~~

Aiden's Journel

December 3, 2011

I don't know what's more appalling: my family thinking I can be super woman or the fact that my son is growing right before my eyes.

But that's not the reason I'm writing now. My friends will be over tonight, not like they're not over every night for football and nachos. My cousin Parker just dropped a bombshell on it me. It's not like he doesn't do that all the time but this time it's even worse than I thought.

Mikey wants me to lead the Silver Faction of our group. He wants me to be the Silver Queen. It would match his Golden King but I would have my own group of people. I don't want to do that but if I have to, I guess I must. I know half the people blame me for the upheaval the Empire went through when I overthrew my grandmother but it had to be done.

Mum Mum was a tyrant, killing people off the books for profit. I'm not against meting out punishment, but the person should deserve it because he or she broke a law. Not because they simply disagreed with the way things are run.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. I know Tyler, Austin and Keldin will back me. They had been with me since the beginning. I just don't want them to get a bad reputation because of it. They have done remarkably well adapting to living outside of court but I don't want to ostracize them anymore. Some will think I am playing favorites because I have three of my best friends in my court. It's nothing against people; I just trust them more than anyone.

The main thing I have going against me is that I have brought Clint in on all of this without fully mating with him. A bond-mate is completely different than a soulmate. A bond-mate only has a slight mark and full range of telepathy with their intended. Many of us have decided only to bring their mates in on a bond-mate basis.

I'm not one of them, but we have talked about it. It states in our bylaws that a ruler has to be married or mated (the two are completely different) to take the throne. I'm neither so I'm pretty sure my family will force me to mate with Clint. I don't want to put it on him unless he is fully agreeable to it. We are raised to be gentlemen and gentlewomen when it comes to things like this. I have to be as well and asking Clint to be my mate is what it will come down to.

My family is more important than ruling people who hate me. I will not raise my son in an environment where he will be hated. I can take hatred, but I will not allow it to touch my son. He is more important than I am. One day my son will be one of the most powerful people in our group and he will not have to answer to anyone unless he does something wrong. But I know I will raise him as a good boy who will do what he can to make sure his family is taken care of.

Oh Lord! I'm raising a mini me!