Page 55 of Nicolette

That seemed to get her to at least stop fighting against me as we headed for the elevator.

The ride down was quick and quiet, but when we stepped out into the lobby area, a group of three sweetbutts was coming back from the gym. Each of them dressed in just enough clothing not to be considered naked but absolutely left nothing to the imagination.

“Good morning, Rambler,” Holly greeted.

There were a handful of women in the group of sweetbutts that I actually liked and thought were good people. Holly was one of them. She came to us five months ago when she realized she was a feline shifter, which was a problem since her father was a bear. With her mother being a human, it was clear Holly wasn’t her father’s daughter, and that caused a dangerous situation for her. When she reached out to Nine and explained what was going on, he made it clear she had a place here if she wanted. More than once, I’d tried getting Holly to do something more with her life than choose the path of a sweetbutt. It took me a few conversations, but I finally understood that she took what happened with her family hard, and this was what she could deal with right now. Maybe now that Nic was here, who’d be drawn to dealing with the situation that was our single females, things might change for all of them.

“Good morning, Holly… ladies,” I said, nodding to them but kept moving, knowing Nic wouldn’t handle it well if we lingered.

Until the women respected Nic’s claim on us and understood that she was the boss bitch around here, any interaction would be risky.

“So that’s it, you have your piece of ass, and the rest of us are nothing?” Drama sneered.

That wasn’t her given name, but it was the name all of us gave her because of shit like this—never letting things settle, always needing to poke the bear.

Letting out a sigh, I turned to look at her. “Was there something you needed, Drama?”

“An answer would be nice,” she snapped. “I wasn’t around last night, but word travels fast around here. What I want to know is if what they told me was legit?”

“I’d be happy to answer your question, and since you weren’t here last night, you missed the announcement given to the pride.” Moving Nicolette in front of me, with my hands resting on her shoulders, making sure she didn’t do something stupid, I nuzzled her cheek. “This is Nicolette. She is my fated mate who’s already marked by Nine. We also believe that the rest of the leadership are her mates as well. Even if they’re not, she’s claimed them. Oh yes, the other noteworthy fact is she’s a lioness and the female alpha to this pride.”

Drama’s mouth dropped open in a rare moment that she was speechless.

Nic gave her a wave. “That’s me in a nutshell. Although, I feel like it’s only fair to warn you guys that I’ve been a fighter for The Broker for the past ten years. So if you plan on physically attacking me, keep that in mind because I will defend myself.”

“Is there anything else, Drama, or can we go get breakfast now?” I inquired in a move that was uncharacteristically passive-aggressive. My tiger was pissed that these females were keeping us from having time with our mate.

Holly stepped forward and reached out a hand to Nic. “I’m Holly. It’s really nice to meet you. I’ve only been here a few months, but if you need anything, let me know. Being the newbie in a place like this sucks.”

“Thanks, I really appreciate that. Right now, I’ll be around one of these overbearing males since I’m a new shifter, but who knows, maybe they’ll let us hang out if I don’t try to kill anyone,” Nic joked.

The interaction made me smile. It was nice to see Nic could have an amicable conversation with someone other than us. One of the other girls coughed loudly, poorly covering up their—suckup—comment. Holly flinched, and that was all Nic needed to see before she was out of my grasp and up in the woman’s face.

“Oh, I’m sorry. Were you referring to the invisible blowjob you were performing just now, or did you have something to share with the rest of us? While I’m fairly certain you are excellent at sucking, what Holly was doing, one might consider to be acting like a decent fucking person.” Nic snarled, making Jackie’s face drain of color as she realized just how badly she fucked up.

The woman kept shaking her head, unable to speak with Nic’s lioness so close to the surface. The serval was shaking in her fur right now and was looking to Drama for help, but there was no way that woman would stick her neck out for someone else.

“S-s-sorry,” Jackie stuttered. “It was wrong.”

“Yeah, it was,” Nic agreed, stepping back and letting the woman have a little room to breathe. “Why do all of you have to be so nasty? Fuck, I thought a pride was supposed to be like a family. Right now, I feel like I’m on a warped episode of The Bachelor with a Survivor twist to it. Hell, feels like anyone one of you believes you’re going to get voted off the island if you’re not careful. That shit’s gonna stop, and I mean right the fuck now. So you’re going to apologize to the person who actually deserves it because the person who you insulted wasn’t me.”

To my amazement, Jackie walked up to Holly, took the woman’s hand in hers, and apologized sincerely.

“Thank you for apologizing, Jackie. It means a lot that you would do that in front of Drama,” Holly said, pulling the woman into a hug. “She’s not going to be able to threaten you anymore.”

That got my attention, but Nic caught my eye and gave a slight shake of her head. While I didn’t like that we weren’t going to address that right away, I understood she didn’t want me to interfere. If we ever wanted to get to breakfast, diving into this now was not going to make that happen. Plus, I didn’t think this problem was going anywhere fast.

“We need to head out, but if any of you ladies need anything, let me know,” Nic assured them. “Reach out to any of the leadership, and they’ll know where to find me.”

Jackie and Holly nodded while Drama looked like someone pissed in her coffee. Holly surprised Nic with a hug, and it took her a second to respond, but she gently patted the woman on the back until Holly released her.

Stepping forward, I grabbed her hand, drawing her away from the ladies and out the door. I walked faster than was needed as I headed for the parking lot and the garage that held our bikes.

“Worried we might get stopped again?” she teased.

“If it’s not you that’ll get stopped, it will be me,” I pointed out. “It’s odd for us not to be available and working from the moment we wake up to the moment we sleep. Everyone is going to need to make some adjustments, not just us.”

I typed in the code, and the door lifted, revealing our six bikes where we’d left them last night. Hopping on my ride, I backed it up, shut the door, and patted the back seat. “Take a ride with me?”