7

“I’m sorry about last night,” Lucca said when I went to find him the next day.

“It’s more than understandable with all you’re going through,” I forgave. “I just wanted to make sure I didn’t push you or—”

“No, not at all, cream puff,” he whispered and then gave me a huge bear hug. “I love you, Tams. I’m not mad. This was the right call. We did the right thing, and I know—there’s no resentment here. I just—I feel guilt that I didn’t do it on my own when I should have for you. I hate this is how it ended up and he didn’t take the pass you gave him.”

“I know. I know,” I comforted, hugging him back as he started crying. I kissed his hair and let him know I was there for him. “I wish it had turned out differently too. I was willing to give him that pass if he really turned things around. Maybe he can after paying for his sins. I—he didn’t see it as a pass but invalidating the severity of what he’d done.”

“Yeah, he really did. That’s the perfect way to put it.”

“What can I do?” I asked. “How can I help?”

He sighed and rubbed my back. “I don’t know. Forgive me if I get a bit lost in you? I don’t want to mistreat you, but my head is—I wanted to feel good last night, and—I was selfish and—I can’t backslide either and—”

I leaned back and brushed my lips over his. “You’re not. Lucca, you’re not.” I gave him another kiss. “Now is the time to listen to me, okay?” I waited until he nodded. “You’re not backsliding because we’re talking about this. You’re not brushing it off. You’re not excusing your behavior or demeaning my feelings.

“You’re admitting you weren’t giving me your full attention or your best. I’ve done the same. You respect me enough to admit it and apologize just as I have. That’s why this is different. I’ve wanted to get lost in you as well but not been able to focus or worry about your enjoyment. That happens. That’s being there for your partner and I’m not mad.

“You’re going through something big, so you get the pass as long as you keep understanding it’s a pass.” I went on when he flinched, not meaning it to sound pointed after what we’d said about his dad. “And it’s fine. It’s not been months. It’s more than understandable, okay?”

“Okay,” he whispered and pulled me back into a hug, burying his face in my neck. “All I want is you. I keep wanting to just run away and have snuggles with my cream puff. I’ve been listening to how much my dad was really up to, and I just want to wash off all the ick with you naked against me. It’s all—I do want to get lost in you, not just anyone.”

“I know. I felt you there but just lost. It’s really okay, you stupid bear,” I promised, glad when he chuckled. “How about you let Harry out and we have breakfast outside before we have to go be adults?”

“That’s perfect. He keeps wanting snuggles from you too.”

Which was how I ended up eating breakfast from his lap. Goofy damn bear.

When we were wrapping up, I rubbed his snout. “You were the first shifter I ever saw and now you’re my favorite. I have faith in you and that you can get through this. You’re the right bear to right the ship and get your sloth back on track. Let me know whatever you need and make your mate proud, okay?”

“Fish? Harry get fish like dragon gets? You love Harry now like him, right?”

“I’ll get you some fish from Faerie,” I promised. I couldn’t say the rest. I’d known River longer, and things were different between us. River had always been in my corner—sometimes more than Hudson—and Harry had fought against me and caused trouble.

Not even about the shit with Mason.

“You don’t love Harry like you do dragon.” He sounded so sad that it killed me.

“I’ve loved River longer. Our love is deeper,” I explained. “He never fought me and has always been on my side.” I grabbed Harry’s snout when he went to turn away. “But it’s not a competition. You’re the only bear—the only shifter I love. I have faith in you, and that’s a lot given where we started and how often you fought me.”

He nodded. “Harry was jerk. Fair. Dragon was never jerk to you. Sorry. All confused. Alpha was bad Alpha, and now we be Alpha, but you are queen. Harry not used to that.”

“Yeah, me neither,” I chuckled pulling him down to kiss his snout. “We’ll just keep moving along and making progress. We’ll keep being good to each other and making sure we’re the right team, yeah?”

“Yeah. Lucca very sad. He thinks you’ll leave him because he didn’t understand Alpha was so bad. He cries to Mom that Alpha will cost him happiness.”

“We’ll figure it out. He came through in the end, and that’s what matters.” I moved to finish cleaning up, and then I had a naked Lucca plastered against my back.

“Thank you, cream puff,” he rasped as he held me tightly. “Thank you for always understanding me and giving me the chances I don’t deserve. Thank you for seeing me when others don’t. Thank you for knowing how much you matter to me.”

“Lucca, Lucca wait,” I moaned as his hands moved all over my body and his lips kissed along my neck. I gasped as his fingers went under my panties and touched me, shuddering against him.

That was how we ended up having sex against the wall of my kitchen… And I was late to my first meeting.

“I apologize for being tardy,” I said as I walked in with my security.

“And sexed up,” Neldor drawled. “Fix your hair, Tams.”

I shot him the look he deserved even as I turned to one of the women on my detail basically asking her to help me. “I have a mate who is going through hell with his family and taking over leadership of his sloth earlier than he expected. He’s worried about it breaking us when most of his father’s crimes were against me. Yes, the comfort turned physical.”

“We all understand, Your Highness,” someone promised. “The prince is simply jealous.”

“Yes, I am. Thank you for stating the obvious and rubbing salt in my wound,” Neldor replied sweetly even as the temperature of the room dropped several degrees. “That helps the mood of the meeting given how serious the topic is.”

“Enough,” I cut in. I gave the person who snarked a warning look. “I appreciate you trying to shield me, but I can handle my own issues, and I don’t appreciate anyone taking shots at my second. Don’t do it in the future.” I didn’t even wait for a response before focusing on Neldor.

“I apologize,” he said sincerely before I could even blast him. “I’m constantly hounding you to take more time for yourself and do better for your stress and mental health and then I pick on you publicly for taking time for your mate. I need to check myself and my behavior. It was over the line.”

“Thank you,” I accepted, studying him closely. “Are you okay?”

No. It was on his face, but he didn’t want to lie to me.

“The prince has gotten an excessive amount of flak from people about the range of ordinances around the dark realm,” Taeral answered for him. “Not that he had anything to do with that or probably realized any of it given he hadn’t even had his wings yet. The people they want to yell at are gone, and what does logic matter when anger is involved?”

I nodded. “You are to soak in my family’s hot spring since yours hasn’t been reactivated yet, and you’re taking the rest of the day off after this meeting.” I raised an eyebrow when he opened his mouth. “That wasn’t a suggestion, Neldor Donovan. It’s an order. And yes, I can. Do it, or I’ll knock you out for a few days to rest and have the demigod sit on you.”

Neldor’s mouth fell open, but several people burst out laughing. He finally agreed, but there was promised retribution in his eyes.

Yeah, yeah, his idea of punishing me was giving me an hour of oral sex.

Punish away.

I sat down and pulled out everything I needed. “Now, there were twenty families who survived and had their holdings of Earth as part of the entities known as the light and dark fairy trusts. Eight light, twelve dark. That is—”

“Yes, and while we understand why you wanted us—” one of the very, very old men who was the head of one of the dark fairy families interrupted.

“You have clearly lost your sense to cut off the princess,” Neldor said with a chuckle. “Not even the nobles are so brazen and daft. I rarely do it, and I am a royal like her. I suggest you apologize and let her finish.”

“I do apologize, Princess,” the man said, his tone deadpan.

Yeah, right, like he meant it.

Like I cared.

“As I was saying, that is wonderful to hear as originally it was reported all forty families were lost,” I continued. “And yes, I wanted all parties caught up to the world and time to review what had been done with the holdings over these twenty-plus years now. None of it was touched besides paying the very minor human taxes that Geiger worked that way.

“I changed certain investments and rolled things over for the light fairy trust once I was found but never spent anything from the estates besides those confirmed lost. Neldor did the same.” I glanced around the room. “Our involvement gained you a lot. We breathed new life into your investments and expanded your portfolios instead of leaving them stagnant.”

“We had the ability and authorization to per the trust. I want to make that clear that Lord Geiger did exactly as the terms of the trust stipulated and was to oversee everything as it was but not touch it beyond handling any human matters,” Neldor added.

“None of us would think otherwise of Adrian Geiger,” the head of a light fairy family said. She nodded to me. “And what you did was impressive, Your Highness. Truly. Especially for someone who was behind in your schooling at that point as I understand you were. It speaks to your immense intelligence and savviness. All of what you have managed does. Our family thanks you.”

“I’m glad you appreciate it, and I was glad to do it.”

She smiled at me. “But you want us to now pay our fair share.”

There was no reason to deny it. “Yes. The families who didn’t survive basically gave their full estates to me and then Neldor, and we have been funding the reopening of Faerie and supporting our people with all of that. Plus, our own family finances. Starting companies and killing ourselves pumping money into Faerie.”

“And you are not receiving the support you were hoping for from the people with the deepest pockets,” she surmised. “But you hope those who were loyal enough to both crowns to put the trusts together at the suggestion of our queens would publicly back you.”

I studied her a moment. “I didn’t really think about whether it was public or not. Honestly, it would be better for you if it was otherwise, people would assume it’s still all from Neldor and me.”

“The average person is getting fed up that the prince and princess are the only ones putting so much money towards restarting all of Faerie,” Shael said bluntly. “The nobles who lost their positions didn’t lose all of their wealth. They were fined some or whatnot, but they are basically protesting by doing nothing and living lavishly in their castles.

“The princess cannot seize their assets unless they commit crimes. The ones who committed the crimes were arrested and punished, but the whole family wasn’t involved. So it would be seen as overreaching if she did more. Especially after all of the corruption she has already cleaned up.”

“They’re waiting for you to fail or implode so they can say clearly your way failed and then pick up the pieces,” the woman stated.

I snorted. “I have no idea what people with that big of egos really think. They weren’t the ones in charge, so even if my current managers fail, we’d have to restart the legal process of picking new heirs of those families—it would be a mess. Either way, I’m not going to fail.”

She was quiet for several moments but then chuckled. “No, no, you will not, Your Highness. I know a predator when I sit in front of one. Your mother was powerful and intelligent, but she was not a predator. She was…”

“You won’t offend me,” I promised, realizing that was her hesitation.

“She was a mediator,” she stated after a couple of beats. “I think in another life she would have been a great, great healer. She focused on the wound and picking up the pieces. You are the predator who claims her turf and protects those she should, will listen to suggestions, but will eat anyone who threatens what she’s built.”

“You’re smarter than most ancients I’ve met,” I praised. “They normally let their age and absolute certainty they know more blind them to the truth right in front of them.”

“I find that’s more idiots putting importance on a certain appendage that I don’t have, Your Highness.”

People were shocked she said that, but I burst out laughing.

I really liked her.

“I find the same,” I agreed with her. “Let me be clear that I am open to discussions. And this is most certainly not some sort of extortion where you won’t get your estates back if you don’t agree to terms.” I glanced around the room. “You all know you have to pay more taxes than what Geiger managed with the humans.

“That’s normal, and you would normally. Things aren’t what they were, and something like this hasn’t happened before. So we need to acknowledge that and figure out how to handle it. I’m certainly not going to just demand twenty-something years of taxes right now.”

“Though she could,” Neldor reminded them, clearly picking the role of being the bad cop to my good cop on this given how things started. “There’s also the issue that some of you had vastly different tax rates given what the corrupt nobles or ancients strong-armed from the queens.”

“And you would like to wipe the slate clean and have us support your new proposed tax rates?” someone else asked.

I met the man’s curious gaze. “No, I would like you to invest in Faerie and will offer you a deal of a decreased tax rate for the taxes you will owe—even if not what some of you were paying—and for the next ten years.”

“You have my full attention, Your Highness,” the woman purred.

Good because she was the head of maybe the wealthiest non-noble family in both realms.

“Now that we have cell towers and electricity in Faerie, the way we live will change,” I told them. “But we don’t want it to change with the greed of humans—or even supes. There are rules against bringing in products from Earth. We have pictures, maps, and more of all of the cities and areas in both realms that were destroyed in the war.

“Some before and just never fixed up. We’re doing a lot, but we can’t do it all, and we need more. If we do what we hope to, life will be better for the average fairy and hobgoblin, and the new level of what’s considered ‘poor’ won’t be all that poor, always comfortable and not scraping by. But I want to make sure this is handled correctly and not taken advantage of.”

“Our families are known for companies and knowledge of the human world. We would be the best option for importing, say, electronics into Faerie,” she surmised.

“Yes, but I won’t allow some ridiculous markup like what happens for products from Faerie,” I said firmly. “I’m fine with everyone making money, but no gutting people. Even like humans do. There are tons of everything that the markup on them is ridiculous . Nothing should ever be marked up a hundred times what it costs to make.”

“Agreed,” she said firmly. “At most, probably twenty percent.” She held up her hand when others scoffed. “We would take the hit for the moment, building new shops and whatnot, but we would make it up in the long run being the only providers. There won’t be any competition undercutting us. Paying better wages to our workers, but we get whatever tax discount.”

“Yes, that is the idea,” I confirmed.

She smiled at me. “But I bet you have more than just that up your sleeve for us, don’t you, Your Highness?”

“Yes, several things actually,” I confirmed. “A business opportunity to start a company that sells directly to supes and comes with Guardian protection like our other ones that help fund our projects. But also, a sort of travel agency for fairies who are not well versed about Earth.”

“You mean like an all-inclusive stay?” she asked. “This new Airbnb, but we own the homes and set it all up for them?”

“Yes, exactly like that,” I confirmed. “We have several homes from the trust that are ours, but we want to allow Guardians to use them for vacations or holidays. We don’t have time to manage them, and there is more than can be done. Speaking from experience, some of my own detail like nothing more than using my home in Italy and eating at all the local restaurants.”

I smirked when a few of them chuckled having done just that a week in February for their break.

“I would be more than willing to discuss that, and not for money making, but as a show of dedication to the men and women who will now be the protectors of Faerie and peace ,” she said firmly. “I believe a lot of us will have a change in attitude towards our military since there won’t be wars but protection.”

“I hope so because they have been killing themselves to make sure we’ve reached this point,” I said firmly. “They want peace more than most.”

“I believe that, Your Highness.” She went on before anyone else could interject. “What of this business idea?”

I ran my tongue over my teeth. “It might come off a bit crass especially if you’re still getting used to the way things are now, so I ask you give the idea a chance.”

“It’s really smart, especially given our reputation for being fabulous lovers and romancing better than any other supes can,” Onas admitted which seemed to shock the dark fairies in the room. He simply shrugged as if to say a good idea was a good idea.

I pulled a few things out of my bag and set them on the table for all to see.

Or more specifically, magically pressed flowers only found in Faerie held in acrylic frames.

“The idea is—there is a large population of fans Tamsin’s detail has,” Neldor told them. “Men fall all over themselves when Ara walks by.”

I snickered when she rolled her eyes. “I get asked daily if you will sign your page of the calendar. You have fan pages on supe social media. So do most of the captains I’ve trained with.”

“Yes, Dalyor is always so popular,” Neldor bit out.

“Actually, Agis is at the top according to Izzy,” I chuckled, nodding when he did a double take. “Tall, dark, and mysterious is a huge sexy cliché. The man barely talks and normally just grunts.”

“So this is like how humans buy merchandise from the bands they like?” one of the dark fairies asked, looking skeptical.

“Sort of, but more like how people buy the K-pop idol cards and signed stuff of their favorite or actor,” I clarified. “But it’s more romantic. Just like my paintings are supposed to be a blessing on their home, this could become the new thing to bless someone’s love life. I heard over and over again that fairies like to heal wounded hearts, and a fling with a fairy would…”

“Yeah, we know even if it’s not really flattering,” Neldor drawled.

“It was meant as flattering,” I promised. “What I heard was romantic and a bit like a normal woman would dream of a movie star sweeping her off her feet like in that movie. Someone got screwed over by their lover and they needed a fairy to come heal their heart and build back up their self-esteem.”

“I’m a bit shocked that you would prey on that feeling and try to capitalize on it, Your Highness,” a different man said.

“I’m not.” I frowned, glancing at Neldor. “Am I?”

“No, you’re more—not Only Fans, but something more innocent than that. And you’re certainly not forcing anyone. Guardians would line up to do this to help fund whatever to help Faerie.” He snapped his fingers. “There’s a thing in New York about auctioning off a date with hot firemen. It’s more like that. The proceeds go to charity.

“It’s all in good fun or this would be like a guilty pleasure. A secret wish they could have a date with a hot Guardian that’s too old for them or whatever. I don’t know, but it’s the dream, but really buying the magic and instead of a bouquet of flowers. It would be popular.”

“Izzy said she’d melt if Claudia gave her one,” I muttered, staring at it. “It would even be cute to figure out how to do it between lovers. The best gift Darby and Julian would give me was those magical roses at breakfast. I wish I had known how to preserve some of them like this.”

I blushed all the way to my ears they were so hot when I realized what I’d said.

Luckily, no one lingered on it, and we kept on topic. Most of them were hesitant, but the fairies who had been awake longer loved the idea. The woman who kept jumping in to support me said she would take on the task and not keep any of the proceeds even as long as we had people help get it all going.

Perfect. Better than perfect.

We discussed other ideas and proposals. They promised to think about what I’d suggested and get back to me with where they landed.

But soon. Faerie needed it, and they wanted to get back to their lives as well. Their new lives at least.