Yes sir.
Osiston walks me to the elevators and we move silently to my room once we are on the family floor. I don’t know if his silence is comforting or imposing, but I do know that I am tired. I am tired of having to fight with these guys who think they are better than me because of my age, my gender, my size and who knows what else they are judging me for. It will never go away and I can keep my face at least passive in their presence, but it takes a lot of energy.
Before I can even think any further on the topic I am wrapped up in a hug and squeezed so tight, I think a rib may have cracked. Xander’s pine scent washes over me and it takes me a second to respond. I just realized he wasn’t down in the meeting with us.
“I’m glad you’re alright. It was hard to watch you be taken away after all of that.”
“I’m glad you were able to get to me in time. I think if they would have tried to double team me I would have been a goner. I really do need a ton of work, that was ridiculous. I have never been so out classes in my life.”
“What are you talking about? You handled the whole thing really well.” Oscar is trying to lift me up, but it feels like pity or a participation pep talk. “I didn’t even smell them come up behind us. There is no excuse for that.”
“None of us scented them, that’s not on you.” He argues back.
“The problem is, I can scent everything even when others can’t. There has only been one other time I couldn’t catch a scent.” I look right at Xander hoping he understands. “I need to have Mina work me over. I should have never gotten bit like that.”
“Did I hear my name?” Speak of the devil.
“Hey! Are you okay? No one would tell me what was going on with you.”
“Yeah, it really wasn’t that bad, but that little b*tch had something on his claws so I wouldn’t stop bleeding and I had little slashes everywhere. It took both Doc Gannon and Doc Sylvia hours to figure it out. And of course they had to take a million samples to study.” We all laugh.
I’m learning I’m not the only Guinea pig when it comes to the Docs. They are fascinated by everything.
We head into my room and I fill everyone in on what happened at the meeting, which wasn’t much on my end, but Xander looked more and more angry as I told him how some of the Alphas behaved and reacted.
“Something is going on. Several of them have been questioning my dad more and more lately. I’ve never heard of anyone questioning the king, ever. Why are they starting now?”
“It’s clear they think that their opinions are important and carry more weight than they probably do. Are they trying to shift towards a democracy? Or maybe a type of monarchy that is actually run by them with a King to throw to the wolves when something goes wrong?” I am just thinking out loud, not really paying attention to what I’m saying.
“I don’t think that you’re far off, actually. With the constant meetings and forced mate stuff they are definitely aiming for some kind of control. I just don’t know why the shift now.”
