I shrug.“Sorry, not sorry,”I declare with a mischievous smile.
“What’d he do to deserve that? I want to do it too.”Torrez asks, and I crack up.
I put my hand over my mouth to try and hide it, but Suryn looks over at me. I cough and then give her an innocent smile. Her brow furrows, slightly perplexed, but she returns my small smile and looks away. Sauriel sits down, and someone else already standing starts to talk.
“He was lecturing me on the importance of this meeting,”I explain to all of them, and they all make noises expressing that they’re not surprised by that. Sabin shakes his head.
“In a couple of days, they’ll vote Suryn in. I’m not worried,”I tell Sabin.
“I don’t know, Squeaks. A lot of people are nodding their head and agreeing to arguments for new blood. A good chunk of the room agreed when Tok pointed out that because you’re of the First, you’re technically the rightful heir,”Ryker tells me, and nerves flurry up in my chest.
“I don’t want to be the Sovereign though,”I state.“I’m sure that has to factor in at some point, doesn’t it?”I ask, searching their faces.
“I know you keep saying that it’s not your thing, but you could be really good for these people,”Sabin tells me.
I shake my head.
“I’m not cut out for that, Sabin. I don’t want to rule anyone. I don’t want to be responsible for their futures. It just doesn’t feel right to me.”
Someone shouts out something that has the room grumbling, and it pulls my attention away. Tawv stands up to quiet whatever it was that set people off, and the crowd calms down again.
“If this doesn’t feel right to you, then what are you thinking does feel like the next right move?”Valen asks me.
I think about the question for a minute.
“I’m not really sure,”I admit.“And really, it’s not like it’s up to me either. We’re a team. Shouldn’t we be deciding that together?”
Tawv calls on a female leaning casually against the wall, and she dives right into voicing her concerns.
“True,”Ryker and the others agree in my mind.“So what do we want to be when we grow up?”he throws out there, and we all snicker.
“I don’t want to settle down here, but I can’t picture us only living in Solace either. I still feel like a paladin even though I know we’ll never have that title. It’s hard for me to picture a life that doesn’t include that kind of work,”Knox confesses.
“I feel the same way,”Valen states.
Bastien, Sabin, and Ryker all voice their agreement too.
“I was a betain the Silas pack, and what that involved was similar to what paladin do. We police the pack, protect and defend as needed. We help broker deals with other territories and back up the alpha at all times. Obviously, my role as a mate is different, but I was built for what I did as a beta. I was good at it, and I liked it,”Torrez tells us.
The guys grunt their understanding.
“So we need to find a job that fits a beta, paladin, enforcer…and whatever Vinna is,”Siah adds, smiling at me.
“Badass. I think the word you’re looking for is badass,”I tease him with a wink.
“So a job fit for a beta, paladin, enforcer, and one all around badass,”Siah recounts with an amused tone.“Well, that shouldn’t be too hard,”he jokes, and we all give an incredulous grunt.
“What if it wasn’t though?”I ask after a couple of minutes.
My mind whirls with the possibility of something, and I’m not quite sure what to make of it.
“What do you mean?”Bastien asks me.
“I mean…”I trail off for a moment as I try to piece it all together in a way that makes sense.“The casters have the paladin, but really paladin only get involved with caster issues. Same goes for the shifter hierarchy and the lamia hierarchy. But what’s the problem we all have in common, including the Sentinels?”I ask.
They all look away, thoughtful.
“Corruption?”Knox points out on a snort.
