9

Break ended and Izzy and I headed back to school, but I was pretty much done with the semester. My master’s project was finished and graded since it was about reforming the government, and my people were overwhelmingly supporting my changes. It was all graded by Sontar and Edelman, so it was basically a rubber stamp since they both knew how hard I worked.

I probably should’ve been nervous given the final vote of confidence before my coronation was finalized was next week, but I wasn’t. It was obvious I would get over half of Faerie to vote for me. I didn’t care about being the most popular queen ever.

I cared about protecting my people and making their lives better.

And Izzy’s was done early too mostly because she was Izzy. But also because she’d had her paper on auras published in a magical journal, and her council wanted her at the center of their program to have underperforming witches and warlocks team up with a fairy. Magically underperforming witch or warlock.

For now, it was going to be a summer camp, and only one student was to be nominated from every teacher for grades four through eight. They had to be driven students and do well academically, so the position couldn’t be bought or the teacher and school would be excluded from any future programs.

Still, people would bastardize it or test us, but it had potential. That was all I really cared about, and Izzy was always for helping people especially those like her who had been in rough spots.

My meeting after classes had been canceled for one reason or another—I’d honestly forgotten and simply been relieved because it was a boring one. So I decided to take the afternoon for myself and my dogs.

Only to be greeted by their super horrible breath.

I huffed at them that they were gross knowing that they’d been chewing on cows and their bones. I lectured them that they needed more veggies and fruits or I wouldn’t give them love anymore. And definitely mint. Then I told my detail we were going shopping instead, ignoring their laughing and all the puppy eyes pointed my way.

Fine, we were going shopping for dog toys and breath treats but whatever.

We did the portal dance and arrived at a pet chain store. I went to the correct aisle and started looking at options trying not to laugh how ridiculous it was that I was looking at breath treats for fae dogs that were hellhounds of legend.

“Please don’t do this,” a woman whimpered from the next aisle over.

“I said shut up,” a man hissed.

My feet were moving before I even made the decision. I noted the audience the scene had before stepping up next to the woman but partially blocking her. “She said to leave her alone. Do you need it said in a different language or just translated to asshole?”

He didn’t even spare me a glance. “This doesn’t involve you. Butt out, bitch.”

“Who the fuck are you to tell me what is or isn’t my business?” I chuckled darkly.

That was the right chord to strike with him, and he focused on me instead of trying to intimidate her. “I say who can be involved in my business and it’s not you. Now get the fuck out of here and keep your nosy ass out of my shit before you get hurt.”

I snorted. “A guy with a tiny penis like you can’t hurt me.” I smirked at him as steam about came out of his ears. “And I don’t care about your business. I’m involving myself in her business. She said to leave her alone.” I turned my head a bit to see her better. “You want him to talk to you or be here?”

It took her a few tries to make her mouth work, but she did, and that was impressive with all the fear coming off of her. “No, he’s breaking the restraining order.”

“Shut up, cunt,” he snarled and reached for her.

I smacked his arm away before he even saw something was happening. It hit the shelf hard and he hissed in pain, my death in his eyes. “Try to touch her again and you’ll leave here broken, not just in cuffs.”

“How about I touch you and show you how stupid you are for getting involved?” he snapped.

“Then you’ll leave here in a body bag,” I purred.

He was stupid and still came at me, and my security had him restrained and on his knees before he got close.

“Aww, you guys are no fun,” I bitched. “I wanted to see how he’d look as a pretzel.”

“You pay us so you don’t have to do that, Ms. Vale,” Ara reminded me looking like she was losing the battle to not laugh.

The police arrived and we told them everything that happened… Including my biggest complaint about the whole thing.

“Yes, and please make sure it’s noted that the store employees were standing there not doing their jobs and simply watching,” I told the officer, glad when his lips twitched. “They were right here at the checkout, all grouped together and watching her be harassed and touched and did nothing.”

“We don’t get paid to be involved in—” the guy I was really pissed at started to interject.

“Your job is to make sure the store is a safe environment for the people in it,” I snapped. “If you don’t think your compensation is enough for your responsibilities, go find another fucking job. Don’t stand there and not do it after saying you will and accepting the money for it. That’s called being a fraud—agreeing to terms you were never going to do.”

He glanced at the other employees and snorted. “Right, but you’re only saying it to me. So because I’m the man here, I have to put myself at risk and—”

“No, because you’re the one with ‘manager’ on their fucking shirt,” I drawled. “Any of you should have announced you were calling the police if he didn’t leave. But you didn’t. You stood there and watched the show like disgusting monsters enjoying him being vile. If the world was actually fair, you’d be getting in as much trouble as he is.”

“We didn’t do anything,” one of the girls drawled.

“No, you chose to do nothing,” I corrected. “You made the choice of inaction. You act as if you simply didn’t help yet or your lack of action wasn’t a choice. It was and the wrong one. One that will cost you your jobs. I’ll make sure of it.”

“You don’t have any right—” she started to argue.

“There was a customer not ten feet from you being harassed and touched and you stood there and watched!” I blasted. “Another customer had to step in and help her, my security calling the police. You didn’t even tell him to cut it out. The fact you’re defending what you did is what will make me go for your jobs.”

“Because it means the next customers won’t be safe and you’ve learned nothing,” Ara said, her tone disgusted. “Even if you were women scared because the guy was clearly crazy, there are three of you, and he was hurting one woman. What the fuck is wrong with you to just stand there and watch? You didn’t even try to record it to help her later or for proof.”

What else was there really to say?

“Apparently, I really can’t ever just leave things be,” I mumbled as I went back to my shopping wanting my easy afternoon with my dogs even more now.

Ara snorted. “If you ever doubt you’re a fairy, just remember this moment.” She met my gaze when I looked at her. “You’re a fairy through and through, Tamsin. You always have been. We can’t leave it alone, even when we get so much wrong. It’s why we get so much wrong sometimes. We’re all passion and fight.”

“Sometimes we need to be a bit more logical and take a step back to see the full picture,” one of the other guys agreed. “But none of us can ever let it go. I started problems the first time I was on this planet when I was a kid and my parents brought me. I saw something horrid and immediately tried to stop it. When my parents told me that I couldn’t, I never wanted to come back here.”

I frowned. “What could have been that bad? Why wouldn’t they let you help?”

He swallowed loudly and his eyes looked haunted. “Because there would be no way to explain how we saved all of those Jews from being rounded up, and there were so many Nazis with guns that even my two parents couldn’t stop them and protect me.”

My eyes went bug wide. “You witnessed part of the Holocaust?”

He nodded. “News didn’t travel like it does now and—my parents had no idea. It used to take some time to get approval to travel here if you weren’t on the list to do it regularly. My parents are no one, just a cute couple who have a stall at the market and sell for farmers. Dad wanted to take me to Mom’s favorite bakery in Germany. We arrived to find horrors.”

“Wow, that’s—talk about crazy timing. What did you do?” Ara asked.

“We left and my dad immediately reported it,” he answered. “And we did what fairies always do. We got involved the best we could.” He nodded when my eyes went even wider. “We’re sneaky fairies, Your Highness. We saved someone here and there and got people over the border when we could. We blew munitions and saved the wounded.

“We can’t just change it all like we’d want to. Humans would know about us then, but there’s a reason there are legends about us and humans think we’re angels. We get involved. We can’t just stand still when there is injustice. Hopefully, we will start to learn to think a bit before we act going forward. I think you’ve shown us that will do more in the long run.”

“Hopefully, though I need to take my own advice as well,” I admitted.

He snorted. “You admit that which makes you worlds further than most fairies I know.”

“Do I get cake for being so awesome then?” I asked when I realized I was hungry.

“Yes, that’s exactly how it works,” Ara teased.

Nice.

We got a bunch of breath treats and the huge rawhide bones that even the fae dogs had to slow down to chew and that helped their teeth. Then we loaded up on the super big squeaky balls since they were hard to find and they had them in stock.

And my dogs kept popping them when they got excited.

The loveable twits.

One of the women said she wasn’t going to ring me up unless I promised not to get them in trouble.

“The police are still right outside,” I reminded her when I got annoyed. “Would you like me to get them to report this or what?”

“Hell, I’m recording it to play for her boss’s boss,” Ara chuckled.

She called us both useless whores and quit on the spot.

Sure, yeah, we were the problem.

The dogs were thrilled when I came back, and all promised to eat more veggies and do better cleaning their teeth. They even suggested I make chunks of ice for them to gnaw on and they would be good pups and eat them.

Seriously, they were too fucking cute. I couldn’t believe I’d ever been terrified of Chief or any of them.

Neldor showed up looking a bit panicked right when I was about to wrap up. He came over to me and put a barrier over the two of us.

“Spit it out, Nel,” I chuckled when he simply stared at me.

“I didn’t know what was going on. I didn’t do it. I just found out and immediately came to tell you,” he blurted, waiting until I nodded. “Apparently, the thing at Artemis tonight—some of the fairy students have older siblings coming to attend.”

I nodded. It was basically the Power Playoffs for the fairy students of Artemis since they couldn’t join in with the regular ones. It wouldn’t be fair and someone could accidentally get hurt. But it was something they should still experience, so we were having an abbreviated one just for fun at night.

“Apparently, I’ve been involved with several of those people and they’re attending the function. Plan to make a scene,” he blurted so fast that it took me a moment to catch it.

I nodded. “When did you touch any of them? That you know of at least?”

He frowned. “That’s it?”

“Yeah,” I chuckled. “I just need information. You didn’t do anything besides have a past. If bitches are going to be petty, and—why is that your fault? You’ve had to deal with years of rumors I’ve fucked just about every man I’ve come into contact with. I didn’t do anything wrong, but you still had to suffer that. I’m not going to blame you for the petty of others.”

“Okay, yeah, good point, but I just freaked when I heard some of the Guardians talking and not sure if they should warn me or if it was rumors and—”

“Nel, info,” I cut in.

“I haven’t been with anyone since before the war,” he said firmly. “I met you as a baby and—we discussed my few hookups because I thought feeling the mating bond with a baby was fucking insane. But the war started not long after. That was it.”

I nodded and kissed his cheek. “I would never hold the petty and stupid of others against you. Just leave it be and I’ll let you know how it turns out or if some of your ex-lovers are ash.”

“Oh boy,” he sighed as he took down the barrier.

I made a few stops along the way before arriving at Artemis. I was overloaded with snacks and treats for my party since this was the only break most of them had for the day and I was always up for eating as well.

“Make sure everything’s ready and people are behaving as they should be,” I told Ara and my security as I handed the bags off when I saw there was a welcoming party for me.

Of the petty kind.

Several women who were dressed to the nines in Faerie fashion to show their wealth and beauty.

I slapped on my fakest smile as they all gave shit bows to me and lame greetings. “You should make sure you’re brushing up on the changes to the world before you visit here again. Wearing clothes like that to an event like this makes you severely out of place, and that draws attention we don’t want when you blend with humans.

“You basically are ready for a wedding or formal event when this is a college-level sporting one.” I gestured to the jeans, Artemis hoodie, and cute boots I was wearing. “This is appropriate and expected. A nice sweater to dress it up would fit or cargo pants. Some casual and sporty. Make sure you take note of what others wear and ask questions of your advisors.”

The annoyance coming off of them as I won the first victory in this battle was amusing… Especially when a group of guys walked by and one muttered asking if they were going to a ball later or something.

Shit, I couldn’t have done better if I’d planned it.

I simply raised an eyebrow as if saying the guy proved my point.

One stepped out from the group and gave a condescending dip of her head. “Thank you for your tutelage, Your Highness. We were raised that fairies always wore their best and presented themselves as our best versions to always represent our people and world.” She eyed me up and down. “Clearly, things have changed.”

I chuckled darkly. “No, you simply misunderstood the lesson. The clothes don’t make you your best and the proper representation of our people. I could be naked and still be one of the classiest people here and behave as I should in a dignified, mature manner.”

“Yes, it wouldn’t matter much given how much of your body both worlds have already seen,” she purred, clearly thinking it was a win for her.

“You want to judge it when you benefitted from it?” I snorted when she frowned. “All of that money went to Faerie. I did it for Faerie . The hobgoblins and fae dogs. It was jobs so more of them could be freed and have somewhere to go. It was money so we could rebuild Faerie that was destroyed when I was a baby.” I tilted my head and studied her. “What have you done to help?”

“And clearly, you wouldn’t be willing to do as much for your world and people which is why she’s your leader and you’re just starting trouble with her,” Izzy mumbled as she joined us. “Prince Neldor had people bring over food and said he’d be waiting for you after this?” She glanced between us and snickered. “I see. Have fun.”

“I always do,” I purred, studying the women. “Well, go ahead and get out whatever you’re plotting. My time is valuable and I’m busy.”

They were less than thrilled that I clearly knew what was up, but they took the opportunity when I waved them to go ahead. They had obviously plotted this out because one went to replay a few minutes of her sexcapades with Neldor before the next one did.

They knew I was listening, but it was hysterical because what if I hadn’t been? Their whole pathetic plan was contingent on my having my telepathy on.

Seriously? That was all they had?

The best part? I wasn’t the only one who was using telepathy. That was one of the stops I made. I wanted more Guardians at the event since it was young fairies gathering and showing off their skills before they had their wings. We were allowing the broadcast on our network only so we could cut anything that shouldn’t be shown.

But I wanted to make sure people weren’t recording or streaming otherwise, which was part of the rules to attend. Yeah, like rich assholes listened to that normally.

So I had secured more Guardians to roam around and listen… And if they also caught these bitches being petty, all the better.

A few Guardians walked by and snickered at the women, giving them amused looks. Then a few more made disgusted noises and shot them withering glares. It went on several more times before the idiots finally realized that others were seeing their sexcapades they were projecting to someone’s mate.

And their reactions were priceless. Truly.

They looked equal parts ready to explode and melt into the ground.

“See, that’s what happens when you play in the kiddie leagues and go up against a pro,” I taunted in their minds… And only their minds.

Then I projected to them a few days ago when Neldor jumped me in my study when I was super stressed. I let them see how he just feasted on me until I was crying for him to stop and it had been over an hour.

And that I couldn’t take anymore.

But he begged to keep tasting me, keep feasting on my dripping pussy because he needed it.

“Not quite the picture I saw of your interactions,” I taunted them. “So he might have done better romancing you all, but I much prefer my outcome instead of yours with the player playing the field.”

“You’re just making that all up with magic,” one accused. “You’re more than powerful enough to make us believe we were there with you and experience the same.” She quickly added on a “Your Highness” when a few people gave her shit looks.

“You’re right, I could.” I put a barrier up around just us and called Neldor on speaker.

“Hey, hi, baby doll,” he answered immediately. “Did you talk to Izzy?”

“Yeah, but I got held up dealing with your petty past,” I grumbled, putting on an act while smirking at them.

“What can I do to make it better, My Queen?” he asked, his tone worried. “Let’s go take a soak and I’ll take all your stress away. Let me feast on you. Please? I’m so hungry for you.”

“Just me?” I pushed.

He snorted. “I might have performed oral sex before to be a good lover, but you know I love the taste of you. I never enjoyed it like that—I didn’t know it could be so enjoyable, but the way you get into it—fuck, I’m so hard thinking about it. Tell me whatever you want tonight to make it better and I’ll do it. I need to taste you, Tams. Please?”

“I do like when you beg,” I purred. “How about you find something creative to eat off of me and then we have that Memphis barbeque for second dinner? Then, if you’re really good, I’ll—”

“No, just you tonight, My Queen,” he growled. “After barbeque, I’ll give you a massage, and if I’m lucky you will straddle my head and let me feast on you for all the dessert I ever need.”

“Deal. See you soon.” I met each of their gazes individually. “He has a past. He was honest about that. I don’t give a shit. I give a shit that you’re childish and petty enough to try and make a scene and tear down another woman instead of support what I’m trying to do for Faerie. That’s why I embarrassed you, not because you fucked my mate before I was born.”

I left them standing there with their mouths hanging open and went to join the others.

And yes, I collected on everything Neldor had promised on the phone and then some.