"So what are you doing?" Waylon asked. "It sounds like you're setting the stage to seize swathes of land for a new kingdom for the queens."
"Yes," Esther said. "That's exactly what I'm doing. And not only have I set up the land, I also have the army. We have a secret arms factory and each factory has a militia. Eden Park alone has five thousand souls on standby ready to fight for the queens and a number of defensive features."
"An army!? Esther, are you saying this whole thing was a front for a shifter army?"
She nodded. "This is what I wanted for Mina and Alistair, and...all of you. Of course, I've had to be very secretive even when they were growing up. Phew..." She started pulling down her hair, which was in two coiled bun-braids. "There is a real joy in having come to this moment and telling you."
"So...now what?" I asked. "Humans still outnumber shifters by a lot, so what does this army do?"
"Well, Frankie, you're the tip of the spear," Esther said. "You just need to figure out where to go and they'll follow you."
Where do I even begin? Like I knew how to lead an army?
"For now, they will protect you," Esther said gently, like she realized I didn't have that answer on the tip of my tongue. "You're safe here. No one here will betray you because you are their hope. We need to gather the three of you together, and then you won't have so much on your shoulders alone. Still, I should make it clear what we're up against.” Esther dug a laptop out from her bag and opened it to face us. "Randall Bloom. You already know of him."
"Yeah." Ian grimaced. "I met him at a party."
"I hate this man so much," Esther said, turning the laptop back to herself. "He's just awful!"
"So what do we do about it?" Flor asked, still slouching against the wall by the windows. "We all know he's a douche, so tell us something we don’t know.”
"He's never liked shifters," Esther said. "But I didn't realize how dangerous he was for too long. In the last five years anyone paying attention now knows that social media algorithms are deliberately manipulated on his sites to emphasize that shifters are violent, dangerous, and animalistic, and that humans are doing them a favor by 'employing' or ‘breeding’ them. In real life, by the way, he comes off like this totally chill dude who is into meditation and surfing and wellness..."
"God, yes," Ian said. "He is dripping with that vibe. Darius and I could tell that in two minutes.”
"Hive, in particular, has been very insidious since Viktor Castella was elected," Esther said, referring to Bloom's most popular site. Despite the cute little bee logo, I'd always thought it seemed creepy. Shifters stayed away; most of us didn't even keep social media accounts because we didn't trust how they could be used, even the ones created by and for shifters.
"Viktor scared Bloom, I think," Esther said.
"He's not stupid," Waylon said. "But how do we deal with a guy like that? He might be tech’s biggest attention whore, but he's not some crime boss we could just take out, or a politician we could ruin. He's a billionaire with a company humans are addicted to. They won't stop using his services."
Esther's little smile of response was downright devious. "Mina could take him out. Well--" She snapped the laptop closed like she had abruptly had her fill of Bloom’s picture. "The puzzle I want to figure out first is how it is that he seems to know about the queens. He's as human as they come, but he seems to have his fingers in this. Al told me everything that happened at the hotel...and that he was there."
"He knew I was a consort," Ian said.
"He has a sorcerer working with him," Waylon said. "I'd bet on it. Maybe a traitor in our own ranks. I guess most people can be bought."
"And he was fine with Shaw's shit," Flor said, his tone acidic on his lush mouth. Damn, I did have such a thing for snarky words coming from pretty lips.
"He is a pig," Esther said. "There are plenty of rumors about his parties just being orgies where women are treated like dirt, so no surprise he has no problem with...as you say."
I suppressed a snicker. Poor little Esther, she didn't like saying 'shit'.
"So that's that and it's all...something to keep an eye for now," she said. "But try to rest up first. This is your home as long as you need it. I'll be in and out and please tell me if you need or want anything at all, or tell any of the staff. I expect this might take our entire lives to accomplish!"
"So, no pressure or anything, huh?" Waylon asked, coming to my doorway after we’d been shown to bedrooms in one wing of the house.
"Oh, yeah. Lead an army to, what? Conquer America? You might be glad you can't see me because how haggard will I look at the end of this lifetime?"
"Not very, if I can keep you nice and satisfied," he said, coming up behind me and putting a hand up just the very edge of my pants, scratching my tailbone lightly.
I arched my ass toward him without thinking about it. "I'm really tired," I protested.
"Oh, please. You had a nice long nap on the plane. Anyway, I think I deserve something for being so gracious."
"No one who has to declare how much they deserve something deserves anything," I said, and I knew I should leave, but now he was running his hand up my shirt, along my spine.
"You don't want to sleep alone, do you, pussycat?" he whispered huskily.
It was certainly true. I knew I could have crawled into Ian's bed, but he had zonked out immediately, and we just didn't have that routine--yet. Although it was only a matter of time. "No..."
His fingers tangled in my hair, gently pulling up at the base of my scalp, relaxing me, before he pushed my head down. "I want to feel that tongue," he said.
The way he asked made me wet, made me want to obey. Just to see the pleasure on his face. I sank to my knees and unbuttoned his pants, while his hand was still clutching my hair. I released his cock and gave it a long, slow lick from the base to the tip, and then I teased the sides of the head.
"Oh, fuck." He shuddered with pleasure and I savored his vulnerable expression, his soft groans. I gripped his ass with both hands and started taking his whole length, running my tongue all along his cock, feeling him trembling for me.
He tasted so good, already familiar to me, masculine and heady, and I suddenly could hardly wait to make him come, to make him melt at the sensation of me.
As I pumped my mouth over his cock, I reached over my head and started stripping his shirt open.
In that moment he was putty in my hands and I yanked his shirt off his arms, then returned my hands to the tight muscles in his ass. His breathing came faster and I knew I almost had him. His knees bent a little as he came in my mouth. I gave him a last long, slow lick and he growled, almost with pain, at the scratch of my tongue on his sensitive skin.
"There," I said.
He crept backwards until he gently bumped the bed and then dropped onto the mattress. He beckoned a hand to me. "Come here. Don't be over there acting all cool."
I was glancing at myself in the mirror, slipping out of my sexy top and skirt and pulling on the pajama top folded on the bed. I crawled up into his arms and let him hold me. He caressed me, and it was a little sexy but not too much. he let me think for a minute. One of the best things about Waylon was that he had a good sense of when to be quiet.