Chapter 26
Chapter Twenty-Six
I nervously twist my hands, and Story pats my cheek. “Everything is going to work out, you’ve done as much as you can. It is now all up to fate.”
I nod. Shit, I feel sick.
“Yeah,” I whisper. I know Story’s trying her best, but fate has never been my friend.
The bell above the door jingles, and the first of the shifter councillors prowls into the room.
It’s showtime.
He glances around the café with disgust and makes his way to the table that I’ve prepared for this meeting. I can see his bodyguards outside through the café’s large window. One of them gives me an assessing look. I give him my back.
The councillor doesn’t even glance my way as he wipes down his seat with an embroidered handkerchief before he sits with a put-out-sounding grunt. Henry Phillips. He’s a big cat shifter and a total slime ball.
The unicorn shifter sweeps in next. He at least gives me an acknowledgement, even if it is a look of contempt. He sits without preamble and quietly greets the other councillor. Outside, the guards have grown and we now have a magnificent collection.
The dragon comes in next. Considering his height and the breadth of him, you’d think he’d be noisy, but he isn’t.
Everything about him is silent. The bell doesn’t dare make a sound as he opens the door and ducks inside.
His silver eyes immediately meet mine. I greet him with a warm smile.
Even with his scary reputation, I like this guy.
“Miss Dennison,” he says, his voice a deep rumble.
“General, thank you for coming.” I show him to the table, which is tiny compared to the size of him. Crap, I don’t know whether to ask him to take a seat—it’s not like you can boss an ancient dragon shifter around. The extra-large chair creaks a protest as he sits.
The rat shifter is next, Councillor Harrison. He doesn’t say a word to anyone, and he looks uncomfortable as he takes a seat. It’s clear from his body language that he doesn’t want to be here.
Finally a wolf shifter prowls into the café.
He walks through the door as if he owns the place, and his eyes land on me with a biting glare.
Councillor Charles Richardson. He’s a real piece of work and a real player.
He doesn’t think twice about using people as pawns around his game board.
It’s a shame he hasn’t realised he stepped onto my board tonight.
Tilly bustles around, getting the shifters some drinks, and I shuffle closer to the table.
“Okay,” the unicorn says. “We are here at your request, Miss Dennison. I don’t know what you think the change of location will achieve, and although Xander insisted, we will not pander to you or your childish threats. You are not in charge here.”
Okay, so the unicorn shifter isn’t beating around the bush. That’s fine.
I nod. Hopefully, my face looks gracious, and I am adequately hiding the fact that I want to leap across the table and smash the evil shifter in the face.
I refrain, as that wouldn’t be a good start to this farce of a meeting.
I can feel anger pricking over my skin, and my entire body is stiff with nerves.
I feel like I’m already caged.
“We’ve decided,” the cat shifter says, directing his words at Xander, “as the vampires have pulled their claim on the girl, we are no longer in need of your service. She will leave here tonight with me in my protective custody.”
No, I will not. Who the hell does this guy think he is?
I know his name and his history but only ’cause I checked him out online.
You can find all sorts if you know where to look.
He hasn’t even introduced himself, yet he expects me to totter along and follow him home.
I’m glad they’re not looking at me at the moment because I’m livid.
I can’t believe I’m being treated like a child by a bunch of entitled men sitting at a table without a functioning brain cell between them.
I lock it all down. Thank God I’ve been doing that for years. I bite my bottom lip to keep my runaway mouth closed. Not yet, Tru.
Give them enough rope to hang themselves. That was another thing my grandad liked to say. I’ll stand here and watch them wrap the rope around their own necks.
“Why is that? Why, Phillips, is she going with you?” the dragon asks the cat.
The cat shifter sniffs and fidgets in his seat.
“She’s an unusual hybrid. We want to see how that looks at a DNA level.
The early tests are incredibly promising.
I’m able to get that information better than anybody else.
She will come for further invasive tests, biopsies”—ah, the lab rat approach—“then, when we have all the relevant information, we will match her with a mate.” He nods at the unicorn shifter.
A not-Xander-like snarl rips out of his throat. “A mate? What if she is unwilling?” He moves to stand in front of me, blocking me from the view of the men at the table. “May I remind you that Tru is a child. She is only seventeen.”
I roll my eyes and shuffle to the side, and there he goes, ruining it again. He was doing so well, so grrr and protective. Then the guy makes out I am a toddler. I guess to him, an angel, I am.
What a depressing thought… Unrequited love is a bitch.
Not that I love the big oaf. Nope, not at all.
I am just having a love affair with his blood, that’s all.
“So the whole mating thing will not be happening until she is old enough to consent. She can stay with me until she’s ready to make that decision. And I will accompany her for any of these tests.” Xander attempts to get in front of me again, so I poke him in the ribs.
“Stop it,” I whisper.
“She’s no longer your concern, and her being willing doesn’t matter,” the cat shifter says as he sniffs again.
The guy really should have used his posh handkerchief on his face instead of wiping down the chair.
All that sniffing is gross. The creepy cat waves his hand in the air at Xander with clear dismissal. “We take what we want.”
It suddenly feels like the café is too small for the disruptive energy rolling off the angel and the dragon.
“When does it ever matter? These females are becoming too uppity. They need to take a leaf out of Charles’s book.
His daughter Elizabeth does exactly what she is told,” the unicorn says.
“This one will learn to behave and will do as commanded. For the good of all shifters.” He points in my direction.
Both the dragon and Xander growl. “It matters to me, and no doubt the populace,” the dragon snarls. “You will not force her. You cannot force any female. Let me be frank with you, councillors, I will not allow it.”
“Come on, General, the girl is not worth the fight. She’s a nobody.
We are well within the law, and the laws are there for this very reason.
” The wolf shifter smiles creepily. “You know you can’t stand up to the might of the shifter council.
You’re powerful, but you’re not that powerful.
” Charles Richardson, the wolf shifter, has royally fucked up.
Obviously, the wolf shifter didn’t take any of our histories seriously because he has forgotten what the silver dragon is capable of.
The rat shifter, who has yet to say anything, leans away from him, his eyelids peel back until the whites of his eyes are showing.
Crikey, the angry energy emitting from the dragon could boil a kettle. It almost makes me want to drop to my knees. He could cleave the guy in two with his power alone. Yet apart from the rat shifter, these men are so far up their own arses they can’t see the very danger that they are in.
“We will match her to a strong mate. If she doesn’t produce a child within a year, we will try another shifter.
We have fair processes in place.” The unicorn shrugs as if this is a normal conversation.
I shiver and step closer to Xander. I grab his large hand.
The angel holds my hand back like a lifeline and, for good measure, tucks me against his side.
“We could always pass her along even when she produces a child.
The child, of course, will remain the property of the father.
There are a lot of good shifters that need an heir who can shift.
From our initial reports, there is a seventy-five percent chance the children will shift.
That is incredible news. There is also a fifty percent chance the children will be female. Fifty percent.
“You know that’s unheard of. With our female birth rate so low, for many years we’ve been on the edge of extinction.
It seems whatever hampers the breeding of shifter females will not affect her.
It’s something to do with the vampire blood within her.
” The unicorn nods at the cat shifter. “I am sure Councillor Phillips and his medical team will give us the explanation.”
“Look, General, this is for the greater good. Even you can see that. No one will miss her. No one will care. But she could be an enormous factor in helping a whole species—our species—and I’m willing to do anything, even if you’re not.”
Okay, that’s it.
I wiggle out of Xander’s comforting hold. “So you gonna what, rent me out, like rent a room? Put my uterus up to the highest bidder?” My nonchalant tone masks the fact that I’m speaking around a huge lump in my throat.
I’m proud of myself that my voice sounds so calm. The unicorn shifter turns his head and glances at me. The look on his face is as if he’s forgotten I was even in the room.
This entire conversation is worse than I expected. Sick, horrible fucks… And to think I was feeling guilty about what I was going to do to them.
“Yes,” he says, his voice firm. I maintain eye contact, but out of the corner of my eye, in my peripheral vision, I see Xander is taking a step forward. I hold my hand up to stop him.
I’ve got this. I have to believe I’ve got this.