Chapter Thirty-Two

Storm pulled into the hotel parking lot the next day, finding a space easily enough, and turning off the engine. He was driving one of Python's cars, the red one Pax had been in before, and he knew how fussy Python could be about not getting it scratched, so he made sure he didn't park anywhere near any other vehicle or the entranceway which was subject to traffic.

"Are you going to be all right?" he asked, knowing it was about the tenth time he'd said those exact same words since they got up that morning, but feeling the need to say them again.

"I'll be fine." Pax was dressed very subdued for him, in just a plain black shirt and matching pants. "This won't take long. Did you want to wait in the car, or…"

"I'm coming up with you. I will likely get stopped at the door to the suite, so I'll wait in the hallway. But you'd better believe if you yell, I'll break that fucker down to get to you."

"What can they say that will make a difference to the way we live our lives now?" Pax patted his cheek, but the smile was sad, and Storm's crocodile rumbled deep in his chest. "They have never been interested in me before. I'm sure this will be just one of those, ‘oh, now we've seen the omega' type things. They'll tick it off their to-do list, we'll tick it off ours, and we can all go our own way after that. Shouldn't take more than five minutes."

Storm wasn't so sure. Pulling his mate close to him, he said gently, "Remember who you are to me, to your friends, to the people who care about you. No matter what they say, or what they can tell you about your past…"

"I don't think I want to know." Pax's eyes were bright with unshed tears. "It mattered to me once, when I thought it would make a difference to my life, but it really doesn't matter now. I'm an adult with a mate I love. The only reason I'm going through this farce of a meeting is because of you and our friends. I will do anything to keep you and them safe. You have to know that."

"Which is why we love you." Storm sighed, and then pressed a kiss on his mate's forehead. "We might as well get this over and done with. But promise me, if you need me, if they say anything at all to upset you, then you yell and I'll come."

"Oh yes, I can see the headlines on the news tonight. Crocodile runs rampant in Big Sky." Pax managed a chuckle. "Maybe you could go for a swim in the hotel pool after you've chomped on pixie royalty."

"There'd be too many chemicals in the water for me, precious." Inhaling his mate's scent one more time, Storm reached behind him, opening the car door.

Once they were out of the car, Storm took Pax's hand in his as they made their way across the parking lot, into the hotel, and through the lobby to the elevators.

"I'll only be five minutes," Pax repeated as the elevator doors opened. "You could wait down here."

"I'm going to lurk in the hallway right outside the suite. I have to make sure you don't get distracted by a sweets trolley as you make your way back down to the lobby," Storm teased.

"I'd bring it with me. You can provide the diversion while I run out to the parking lot with it."

The issue was Storm would do that too, even though he'd promised Cyrus before they left that he wouldn't do anything to bring attention to himself. Mates come first.

/~/~/~/~/

Pax didn't like the man at the door that looked at Storm as though he was a piece of gum on his shoe. He didn't like the fact the man announced him as "Pax, the pixie you felt you needed to see" after he'd closed the door on Storm's face.

The hotel room was huge, opulent, and probably appealed to people who thought their bank balance made them important, but Pax wasn't impressed. He focused on the four people who were in the room. Two of them, a man and a woman who were seated, and two men who were hovering over the back of the couch.

"You wanted to see me." Pax spread his arms. "Well, here I am. Was there anything else? Only my mate and I have a date planned at the bowling alley this morning."

"It is customary to show respect when introduced to the king and queen of your kind." The man who'd opened the door sneered at him as he went over to stand by the kitchen counter.

"I haven't been introduced, have I? I have no idea if this is the king and queen or not. They could be the staff having a morning tea break for all I know."

"I see Lady Rose was right, Edgar." The woman spoke in soft tones, but they had an edge to them. "This one has been done a grave disservice, to have such a distrust for our kind."

"It's not distrust of pixies, madam." See Pax could be polite. "It's just I have no idea what is going on or why you wanted to see me. As I am sure, if you are the king and queen as implied, that your time is valuable, I'm being respectful of that."

"Have you no wish to learn of your family connections and where you came from, young man?" Edgar sounded as though he was speaking through a long pipe – his words hollow and distant even though he was only ten feet from where Pax was standing.

"Can you tell me that information?" Pax countered, tilting his head slightly to the side so he didn't appear aggressive.

"Regretfully no," the queen said, causing Edgar to look at her sharply. "However, in your status as a pixie omega, which I believe Lady Rose informed you was exceptionally rare for our kind, we believe…"

Pax assumed she was using the royal "we." Or maybe she was referring to the pixie community as a whole. It's not like he would know.

"We believe it would be beneficial for you to spend time with our tutors. You could learn some of the intricacies of our ways, become familiar with our customs, and perhaps over time, that information will become apparent."

He wasn't a shifter, but Pax knew BS when he heard it. "I would have to discuss such an arrangement with my mate," he said smoothly, figuring that was more polite than just saying no. "He travels a lot for business and prefers for me to accompany him, which might make regular study sessions difficult. Perhaps you have an online course I could attend instead?"

"This tutelage would have to take precedence. That is not negotiable," the woman said. "Omegas have a very special place in our society and at the moment you are the only one we are aware of. Your powers will be extremely beneficial to the work the royal family does within the community.

"As to the little matter of your shifter friend, we have systems in place to deal with inconveniences like that. We do understand, indeed the Paranormal Council goes on ad nauseum about it, but we recognize that as you had the misfortune to allow that animal to claim you, that both of you would die if separated. But we can arrange alternate accommodations for him, allowing you to visit him once a week for a few hours. We have found in previous cases this has been sufficient to prevent any undue harm on both parties."

Pax couldn't believe what he was hearing. His yell, the one Storm was waiting for outside, was right there on the tip of his tongue, ready to burst free. He had no doubt his mate would come in, kicking down the doors in his new Italian loafers, all guns blazing if necessary, to protect and care for him the way he had from the day they'd met. He also knew that Storm doing that would cause no end of trouble for himself and their friends. He wasn't deaf. He'd heard Cyrus's warning to his mate.

Sometimes heroes could be quiet, and sometimes they even wore sneakers. Pax glanced down at his. "I respectfully decline," he said raising his head again. "I have no wish to spend my time with tutors. I definitely have no wish to be separated from my mate. Indeed this meeting has already caused me to be away from him for too long."

"You are in no position to refuse young man," Edgar said, waving his hand at the two men behind the couch. "My men could restrain you in an instant."

"And the moment they come toward me in any show of force, my mate would be kicking down this door and you'd better believe he has friends in high places." Letting out a long breath, Pax said calmly, "I am an adult. I have been hidden from pixies my whole life, under the guise there was something wrong with me – something I believed with my whole heart until my mate showed me how wrong those feelings were. It could be said that hiding me might have been the only decent thing the man who insisted I call him uncle did for me. I am not a commodity. I am not a tool to be used by people who care so little for me that they would separate me from my mate. I am Pax, no family name apparently, and this meeting is over."

Pax did bow, just a little one, before turning toward the door. It seemed like the right thing to do.

"Don't you want to find out who your parents are?" The woman called out to him. "If you spend time with us, we can find that out for you. If you leave now, you might never know."

Tapping his chin with his finger, Pax turned and walked toward the couch, stopping about three feet away. He bent slightly, ignoring how the men behind the couch stiffened, looking the woman in the face, starring into eyes he saw in the mirror every morning. Then he tilted his head and looked at Edgar who hadn't looked at him once. And there's the nose.

"I already have my answers," he said softly, before straightening up. "But I won't tell if you won't. Goodbye your majesties, if that's who you are. Don't bother me again. My mate and I have busy lives with people who care about us."

Grumpy features already had the door open by the time he got to it, and Pax didn't look back as it closed behind him. He flew across the hallway and into Storm's arms.

"Did you hear everything?" He asked as Storm hugged him tightly.

"Yep." Storm leaned back long enough to pull the small earbud from his ear. "We can tell Cyrus those new listening devices work like a treat. He and the Paranormal Council are going to be very interested in those pixie shifter policies I heard about. I imagine you're disappointed though. Are you all right?" Pax let himself be turned and they made their way to the elevator.

"Yes." Pax surprised himself at how true those words were. "I'm fine now, and I have you and…and…"

"You want donuts?" Storm teased.

"Not just donuts." Pax shook his head as they got into the elevator. "I want to see one of those sweet trolleys you mentioned. Where can we find one of those?"

"Probably down by the kitchens or in the dining hall." Storm's reflection in the elevator walls showed his surprise. "Are you genuinely going to make off with one?"

"Well, I would suggest that we rent a room here and get one through room service, but the rooms appear very bland, and the beds have probably got those firm mattresses. I much prefer our little house. So, are you game? I could be invisible, so no one will see me. Want to get the car running?" The elevator had stopped and the doors opened.

Storm chuckled. "I'll pay for a room booking anyway. That should cover the cost of the sweets. Don't get caught."

"They'll never see me." Pax laughed as he vanished from sight. "Hurry, go get to the car. I've got sweets to liberate."