I turn my attention to the woman, and I’m surprised to find she’s actually slightly shorter than me and delicate. Most shifters are taller and muscular, but Lena is the opposite. She is also glaring at me like I’m responsible for whatever happened to them. She has long blonde hair, with gorgeous pink and purple streaks through it, and pale skin that seems to shimmer, even in the dull light of the assembly room.
“Well, let’s hope she’s going to do a better job at it than the last king,” she sneers, and I frown, surprised by her outright aggression. I’m not sure that Lucas or I deserve the animosity she’s projecting. “None of our complaints in the past have been acknowledged, so I have my suspicions that it won’t change.”
The three men with her look slightly uncomfortable, but they don’t disagree with her.
“Whoa, hang on a minute. My father wouldn’t have ignored you. Why don’t you tell us what happened, and we can see if we can get to the bottom of this?” Gryffin jumps in before I can say anything, but I’ve had enough of being talked around. I clear my throat and raise an eyebrow at the woman.
“Shall we allow all of these people to return to their homes so they can recover from their ordeal? I don’t believe they need to be here for this,” I suggest flatly, not bowing down to her dominance. I can feel it battering at me, but she isn’t even close to my hydra’s level.
“So you can sweep all of this under the rug? I don’t think so. I want witnesses to whatever we discuss here.” She crosses her arms stubbornly.
“Lena, love, she’s right. They all need good meals and warm beds, especially the children. Our people trust us to have their best interests in mind, and the queen is here now. She can’t claim she doesn’t know what has happened when she hears it directly from us.”
She huffs but gives him a short nod, and the three men disperse to usher the rest of the villagers out of the meeting room. There’s a huge sense of relief that seems to emanate off them as they depart, murmuring amongst themselves. I get quite a few side-eye looks, but nobody else seems to be outwardly aggressive toward us.
“I take it you didn’t get my invitation for an equine representative for the new council I’m assembling?” I turn my attention back to the woman, and I think my words shock her, but she recovers quickly.
“Being imprisoned by a self-entitled asshole kind of puts a brake on any mail one might receive,” she snaps.
“I take it the male lion claiming to be the alpha of this village did this to you?” I ask as Lena’s mates return and close the double doors behind them.
“Let’s all take a seat. There is a smaller conference room through those doors,” Christos, the dark-haired, blue-eyed mate suggests and points to another set of doors at the far end of the assembly space.
“That would be great. I must admit it’s taking me a while to get used to this shifter thing, and I’m not as fit as everyone else, so the run wore me out,” I reply pleasantly, not afraid to admit my weaknesses. Lena sneers at me like she wouldn’t spit on me if I were on fire, but the three men seem sympathetic.
“I’ve never envied the human who was selected to be our ruler. It almost doesn’t seem fair that they have to have a crash course in everything shifter and face a challenge before they have even hit the ground running, so to speak,” Santos, the tallest of Lena’s mates, murmurs gently. He’s an umber-skinned man with pitch-black hair and equally dark eyes that I’m sure don’t miss anything.
“What did you mean by invitation?” Johan, the last man, asks. He is pale, with long, chocolate brown hair that I’m sure would glow with vitality if he hadn’t been locked up.
We all take a seat at the table in the conference room. Lena chooses the largest chair at the head of the table, and her mates flank her, leaving me and my mates to take places across from them.
“I have dismissed most of the previous council.” I pause, trying to think of how I can word this diplomatically, but I decide that maybe the pure truth might score me some points. “I found them distasteful, to say the least. I have only retained the council of the Coldicotts, who seem more than willing to listen to my suggestions and work with the changes I wish to make.” I mean, I haven’t really spoken to them about it yet, but I plan to before I’m crowned. Once that crown is on my head, I’m stuck with the council.
Actually, that law may have to change if my heirs and I are going to be the permanent ruling family. We need to allow for flexibility. I’ll have to speak to the others about drafting new rules.
“And? Which sycophant have you chosen to replace them? Probably another egotistical speciesist asshole who thinks they are better than everyone else.”
Fuck me, Lena is getting on my last nerve. Yes, I can forgive her anger, since the equines have been unjustly treated, but blaming me, a recent human, for all of their past betrayals seems unfair—not to mention Lucas tried, but was circumvented by the majority of the council at every turn.
“I have asked Lucas and Mia to join the council—” I start, but she cuts me off with a scoff, looking at her mates.
“See? I called it.”
“Enough.” Micah slams his hands down on the table and stands up, leaning forward and glaring at the woman. “You may not like it, but you are speaking to your queen. Show a little respect,” he growls menacingly, and I shiver with delight. I’m turning a little feral myself around these males.
The men blanch, but Lena continues to scowl. My hope that they will help us track the children is dwindling.
“We understand you may harbor ill will because of your treatment, but I can assure you my parents tried to advocate for you, as well as the fairies and mers, but the council majority was always against them,” Gryffin says calmly, reining in his temper now that Micah has put them in their place.
“I have also asked Lady Sable to join the council. As chief archivist, her knowledge will be invaluable to me. Lastly, I extended invitations to the fairies, mer, and equine conclaves to put forward a couple of potential applicants. Of course, I get final say because I need to be able to work with them, but I hope that having representation on the council will go a long way to break the barrier between the various shifter factions.”
“You really think offering us a seat on the council will erase hundreds of years of poor treatment?” Lena snarls. “You have no idea what we have suffered and what our children have had to deal with growing up. They were ridiculed and considered outcasts because they are perceived as lesser since they aren’t a predator animal. My own son denied his shifter side and retreated to live in the human zone, shamed because when his animal presented, he was a pegasus and, because of my unicorn genes, he was pink. Teenagers are cruel, and rejection for a young man is heart and soul breaking.” My heart skips a beat at her words, and Brodie isn’t quick enough to stifle the gasp that escapes his lips. Luckily, Lena misses it, so caught up in her tirade.
Fuck me, this is Nox’s mother. My stomach rolls, and I groan internally. Oh well, I guess I couldn’t have been lucky with all my in-laws. I’m going to be eternally grateful that both Gryffin’s and Hunter’s parents seem to be happy that I am mated to their sons.
“The only thing that King Lucas ever did right was declare Zalfari an equine only zone, and even that wasn’t observed. That lion waltzed in here six months ago and has been making our life hell, and every time we sent a communication to our closest military barracks, asking for help, it was denied. On the day of the retirement party, they rounded us all up and shoved us into the cells where we’ve been since. We couldn’t even fight back. He had a runed staff that made us compliant.” She is furious, and I can’t even blame her.
I exchange a glance with Hunter. It looks like that staff sergeant will need to be replaced and imprisoned, and an inquest will need to be launched into rogue agents inside the military ranks.
