Page 70 of Dewpoint
“I didn’t like hearing you were unavailable and not responding to my texts,” Onyx admitted. “This latest mess is—even if Joris did the right thing and it’s helped, it’s a lot of stress and I was worried.”
“Oh boy,” Dray grumbled when I flushed and it was probably visible.
I cleared my throat and quickly read over the letter, swallowing down my reaction before addressing the one who brought it. “Your king is fine with my sharing it? It doesn’t say either way and I want to check when he’s showing such goodwill.”
The man smiled. “You are truly the honest woman he said he talked to on the phone, Your Majesty. Yes, by all means.” He glanced at Alpha Dray. “He is loyal even if—he’s loyal to the monarchy.”
But not me. Not yet.
Fair enough.
I handed Dray the letter hoping that it would at least help in changing some of that. Maybe?
“Well done,” I praised Onyx.
“Forgive me, Your Majesty,” the messenger interjected before Onyx could reply. “While Mr. Conley was beyond the king’s expectations, everything in that letter is because of his conversation withyou. You touched our king and gave him hope of a better future for our nations. He is willing to show his intentions and readiness to work for that.”
“He sure is,” Dray muttered as he read. Then he cut me a glance. “Well done. Your father could not have—none of us could have. I have to ask…”
“What did I offer for this?” I nodded when people went tense, but I was fine. “I would want to know too.”
And I would.
“Onyx,” I told him honestly, nodding when he looked at me. “And a few hopeful ideas of how I saw our future relations. That’s all.”
“Ideas that my king has long since wanted and isimmenselysorry hisformeradvisor didn’t handle better with your father,” the messenger informed us.
“I see,” Dray said, his tone now amused. “She was bluntly honest instead of male posturing and it outed a snake that king’s side.”
The messenger said nothing but handed me a folder. “The information you hoped for along with recommendations. Namely, none return to protecting you.”
I swallowed loudly. “None?”
“None, Your Majesty,” he said firmly.
Fuck. Just…Fuck. We’d senttenof my guards with Onyx to be sniffed out—ignoring the pun—by the tigers, and apparently we’d picked the right ones to be wary of. I’d really hoped we’d been wrong about a few.
Because like who the fuck was going to guard the castle at this rate?
“Well, at least the good news came first,” I said tightly, handing the folder to Lydia. “Directly to Benson and with haste. I don’t care what he’s doing, he’s waiting for that, and I want his assessment on how to handle it before dinner.”
She put the pieces together and nodded before focusing on the tigers. “Those of us loyal to our queen won’t forget your help. We’ll make sure you are treated well during your stay. Ask us anything you need and it will be our pleasure.”
“We thank you,” one of them said, clearly in charge of the other guards. “It will be an adjustment, but we’re excited forthe challenge and the hope this brings our two nations closer together.”
Well said.
Especially since the list of what we were getting was good.
First, the king was going to announce publicly that I had offered Onyx’s help as a gesture of goodwill after he sent a representative to my parents’ funeral. That he regretted his relationship with Father and wanted to do better in the future, especially when my own friend was a tiger I trusted to be an aide, so clearly the whispers the royal family disliked tigers weren’t true.
Second, he sent the guards we’d talked about. Over a dozen to be integrated into the castle’s protection and however else we needed.
Third, five of his top investigators and interrogators to help with the elder situation.
Fourth, two of his own pilots who were also certified to do just about anything on private jets. No, I wasn’t kidding. They were full engineers as well and could take them completely apart and put them back together. Plus, a civil engineer who specialized in runways and aviation everything.
Fifth, he was talking to other allies about a fall peace summit. It was already in the works, but he was now adding the idea of Thovudin attending with a delegation of the Alphas I trusted most. The public reason the monarchs would give for the invitation would be that Thovudin had moved past our outdated elder system and could be trusted again.
