Chapter 11
Hawthorne
Pheromones.
Damnit, fuck.
I fly out of our secret hive in the garden and look for Dev and Arbor, wiggling as I go to make sure they know we have an issue.
I fly through the window and shift, finding Arbor in the kitchen cutting veggies and being all cute and domestic, and Dev at the computer off to the side working on client invoices.
“Incoming!”
They both freeze and stare at me, then start sniffing, eyes widening when they pick up the same thing I did.
We generally keep lots of windows open to let in fresh air when it’s warm enough, and seeing as how today is beautiful and sunny, all the pheromones from whoever is here to confront us are flooding into our home.
The next thing we hear is the squeal of multiple sets of tires and lots of closing of doors, and I have just enough time to slam back a honey stick and wrap an apron around my hips for modesty before Dev is answering the incredibly rude pounding at the door.
The door isn’t even open all the way before they start talking down to us. “We are here to summon all three of you to The Honeybee Court. It is imperative that you follow my instructions exactly and do not resist. If you do, we will be forced to smoke you out and tie you up.”
“What is this about?” Dev asks, making sure Arbor and I stay behind him.
The messenger is wearing a full traditional bee getup, massive metallic gray parachute pants with a business blazer on top and a black and yellow striped bowtie to denote his alignment. His hair is carefully slicked back and his mustache impeccably twirled, but his face sucks.
“We sent you multiple official correspondences without a single reply. You are hereby found to be in contempt of The Court of Honeybee and have used up all of our goodwill.”
I slap Arbor on the back of the head. “I told you we should have responded.”
He grabs my hand and squeezes it firmly, warning me. But no, we have too much on the line to deal with this.
“We have a queen. We apologize for failing to respond in a timely manner, but we had to be sure that she was settled before informing The Bee Court,” Dev calmly explains. He was definitely the best choice to talk to them; he’s way better at keeping his cool when he’s pissed.
But yeah, he’s pissed.
The bodies on the porch start being shoved to the side and a little angry thing in a bubblegum pink ball gown shoves her way to the front, face nearly the same hue as her clothing.
“I will not be disrespected in such a way! By law, you all belong to me. I will have you so I can beat that bitch Mara and have the bigger colony. This is nonnegotiable!”
Dev looks down at her, placidly, unimpressed. “And you are?”
She gasps, very dramatically, and takes a deep breath before stepping closer to him. “I am Princess Tara, you ass! The queen you will be swearing fealty to. You. Belong. To. Me!”
Dev lets out a disappointed huff and looks to Arbor and me briefly before taking a small step back and then simply shutting the door on her face, taking his time to draw the chain across the door so she can’t reopen it.
“Well. Anyone care for a cup of tea?”
Dev starts walking off with his hands in his pockets, whistling to himself.
The pounding on the door continues. “We can hear you! Get out here and impregnate me, you disloyal drones!”
“Now that’s just rude,” I say as I follow behind Dev.
I know what you’re thinking to yourself; why don’t they just shift and fly in through the open window? Or even crawl through the window I just mentioned a few paragraphs ago was wide open to let in a breeze?
You see, the answer is simple. Bee Court Officials will never, and I mean not ever enter where they’re not invited. Inundate us with mail, sure; actually walk into our house and force us into compliance?
Ah, fuck.
A few bodyguards kick our door open, breaking Aster’s shiny new lock, and that’s so damn mean. That thing meant something to her, you know?
They immediately start firing at us with smoke guns, and I react instinctively, falling to my hands and knees to get away from the smoke while covering my mouth. My hive mates are doing the same, crawling towards the backyard where the air will circulate the smoke better.
All we have to do is make it a little further and their guns won’t do a damn thing.
Ah fuck, they also have tranquilizers.
I have just enough wherewithal to grab my phone and hit the emergency shortcut to call Aster, and it’s actually good I’m slightly psychotic, because I programmed her phone to automatically track us with an SOS signal when I did that.
I’m not even embarrassed I need to be saved by a woman, because she’s going to look hot as hell when she rides to our rescue.
She will ride to our rescue, right?
???
I’m coughing so hard when I come to that I end up vomiting, gasping for air.
I’m still lying on my kitchen floor, which is odd, and I look around, trying to figure out what’s going on.
The tranq dart is still sticking out of my arm, which isn’t that comfortable, but I’m within kicking distance of Arbor so I try to get his attention.
He groans and starts coughing as well, flailing around in his panic and headbutting Dev.
“What the fuck?” Dev splutters.
Well, my hands are free at least so there’s that.
I jump up a bit too quickly and have to shake off the wave of dizziness that follows, leaning on the counter and then grabbing a glass of water from the sink. I rinse my mouth out and refill it again, chugging it all before passing it to Arbor and Dev.
The house looks a mess; the door is hanging open still, and there are big splinters framing the doorway where they kicked it in.
I stumble to the porch and look around, noting that Aster’s car is in the driveway, but her door is partially open and the contents of her purse are scattered all over the walkway.
I highly doubt calling her will come of anything, but I have to try anyway.
“Oh, hey Hawthorne. You guys doing okay? This bitch wouldn’t let me stay and take care of you.”
There’s a somewhat muted scream in the background and a scramble, but then Aster is back. “Evidently The Bitch doesn’t like being called ‘The Bitch.’ Don’t worry; I’m going to get this all sorted.”
“Where are you? Where did they take you?”
“Something about needing to testify that I’m…like…with you.”
I can’t help smiling. She has such a hard time admitting she’s our queen. “They taking you to the court?”
“That’s what I was told. Hey look, just in case enraged princess barbie decides to take me somewhere else, I want you to know how much this short time with you guys has meant. Coaxing your dicks out while you slathered me in honey was seriously the highlight of my life.”
There’s a shriek in the background, and I can only assume that Aster is just doing everything in her power to provoke the princess. We filled Aster in on the basics of honeybee government, so she’ll know that as long as she’s mostly complying with demands from the officials, she’s protected.
She can talk shit all she wants and they can’t hurt her.
“I’m going to grab our lawyer, and we’ll find a way to get to you, okay? It’s kind of a long trip, I bet they have a private jet. Might take us a bit, but we’ll get there. In the meantime, please take care of yourself and stay safe. We love you.”
Aster starts cackling, and I gather that she put us on speakerphone so the princess that ordered all this to happen would hear us proclaim our devotion to somebody else.
“I’m not saying that back for the first time over the phone.
Oh hey, you might want to talk to Anderson and my parents about me being kidnapped— they’re probably going to be super pissed and sic the town on these guys. ”
Because I’m a team player, Dev and Arbor are also listening in on the conversation, biting their nails, and pacing while they try to work out the best first step.
When Aster mentions her parents and the town though, Dev springs into action. He runs into the house and grabs his phone, furiously typing into it.
“I think Dev has an idea.”
“Hmm? Oh, that’s cool. Hey just have him wait for like 2 more seconds…okay, I’ll see you soon!”
Chaos ensues on the other end of the phone call, the sound of tires swerving echoes faintly through the speaker, and then the call goes completely silent.
I stare down at my phone in horror, wondering what the hell just happened.
I’m halfway out of my skin from nerves when the door on Aster’s car shuts by itself and her things start picking themselves up from the ground and jumping back into her purse.
I watch on, fascinated and confused, something pinches my ass, and then there’s yelping from inside the house.
I run back inside, and after the sound of drawers slamming bounces around the walls from the second floor, Aster miraculously appears at the top of the stairs wearing a pair of jeans and one of Dev’s shirts. Her hair is somehow perfectly imperfect and her smile is huge.
She takes in all of us staring at her like morons, mouths hanging open and unable to speak, and hurries to us.
She seems to remember that we were all knocked out and immediately begins spinning us around and checking for damage. She narrows her eyes at the broken bits of wood at the door and curses under her breath.
“Look, we probably don’t have very much time before they get to us again, so I’m going to need you guys to trust me on something. Follow me?”
She walks, none of us follow.
She sighs heavily and turns back to us. “I’ll explain everything in a few minutes, I promise. The thing is, I’m not what you think I am. I mean, I am, but like, you know what? Walk!”
We jump at her sudden raised voice and follow her out of the house, over the hedge, and behind the massive oak that’s been in her parents’ backyard since before any of us were born.
She knocks in a few different places on the tree and then presses her thumb to it, scraping her skin until a drop of blood wells and sinks into the bark, and then a fucking hidden door opens up.
She walks down the stairs that just appeared, out of sight, and screams at us to “Hurry the fuck up!”
We slide down after her and straight into a lounge area. There’re massive beanbag chairs everywhere and one wall is covered in lit up monitors showing nearly every angle of Trash Haven as it flicks through different cameras I didn’t even know the town had.
I look at my girl, mystified. “Who the hell are you?”
She shoots me a shy smile and clears her throat. “Before I can tell you anything, we need to complete the mate bond.”
“Hang on, I’m coming,” I wheeze out as I bend over.