What is she thinking? She’s thinking something… I was disciplined not to sweat even as I was wondering where I might have messed up.
“Hello?” Waylon answered, and I was smacked again by what a sexy voice he had. Why did such a jerk have to have a sexy voice?
“Hi, Dad. I’m at a party in the city, like a big house party, and the dude’s mom wants to know if I’m really twenty-one.”
“I’ll talk to her, Pumpkin,” he said, with a level of sarcasm in his soft-and-rough, low voice that was hopefully Dad-like enough for Esther Merryweather. At least she would probably think I had a hot dad.
Esther took the phone. She smiled. “Is this Waylon Silver?” she asked.
“Are you shitting me?” I said to Ansel, immediately knowing that he and Waylon had made a mistake.
“Fucking a,” Ansel said. “Time to run.”
“Stop!” Esther yelled loud enough for all to hear.
Esther had already grabbed my arm. Ansel helped me pull back, and my arm slid out of my glove. I ran, holding onto Ansel, only to find ourselves blocked by a muscular guard. He had a gun, which he casually unholstered but didn’t point at us. “Miss, I’m going to need you to just calm down and put your hands on your head.”
I looked at Ansel pleadingly. “You motherfucker,” I said.
“Your expression is so sweet and your tone is so mean,” Ansel said.
“I never get in trouble! I’m really careful. I trusted you to know what you were doing and she already knew Waylon was on the other line?”
Esther had caught up to us while we were blocked by the guard.
“Don’t be scared,” she said. “I’m a friend. I like shifters.”
“Oh, ya do,” I said, not really asking a question, just trying to keep from rolling my eyes.
“I want to help you.”
Something wasn’t adding up here. But I also wasn’t interested in doing the math. “I don’t even care, I just want to go home! This is all his deal!” Damn right I would throw Ansel under the bus. I should never have trusted Waylon. Either he set me up, or he made a huge mistake that I didn’t want to die for.
“You’ll be okay, Frankie,” Ansel said. “I’ll get help.”
“Who?” I snapped. “Waylon? What’s he gonna do?”
The bastard poofed into a bird and flew on out of there. The guard lifted his gun. He tried to shoot Ansel and I couldn’t help but wish they’d clip him before he got too high so he’d be in this with me, but the shots didn’t even get that close to him as he soared away.
“You want to help!?” I said. “By shooting him?”
“I do want to help. The gun doesn’t hold bullets, just tranquilizer. He roped you into something, didn’t he? That young man? And Waylon?”
“Yeah…apparently.”
“You’re with us now,” Esther said. “Brandon is going to collar you. It’s just so you won’t be suspicious to others, so don’t be afraid.”
Collared. Like a dog.
Every instinct in my body was telling me to get out of here, and also that it wouldn’t be as easy as I thought.
Chapter Twelve
Frankie
The collar locked around my throat and had a GPS device inside of it. Not as brutal as the bands that would crush a bird’s wings, but pick your poison. Brandon did seem apologetic for having to do it.
“If you think being nice to me will make this any better, you’re a moron,” I raged at him as he had to get another guy’s help to get the collar on while he pinned me down. I was wrestling them as much as possible, flailing and kicking and squirming around, and no one was better at that than a cat.
“You’re quite the spitfire,” he said. “You’ll adjust to life here in no time. Esther’s a great boss and all around person and she’s advocated for shifters her whole life.”
“Oh boy. Yay. I’m so excited. I’m not going to parade around Eden Park singing a happy song. I’ll kill myself first.”
They ignored me as all the party guests were now watching the scene and gossiping about it. “She was a shifter the whole time…” “I thought her and that guy…” “Yeah, kinda weird…” “Never seen ‘em before…”
I didn’t know what would become of me now. Ansel left me high and dry, and I guess he’d tell Waylon, but what could the two of them do? When you came down to it, they were a couple of punk kids. Esther Merryweather was an influential multi-millionaire human with her own security force. Even if Waylon told Roy, and even if every shifter leader in Brooklyn got together to rescue me (doubtful), they probably didn’t stand a chance.
I was going to have to cooperate. For now. And Esther could sell me off to someone worse if she decided I was too much trouble. This was my worst nightmare. I could hardly stop cursing.
Esther approached me with a smile that was still sweet enough that it might trick anyone into trusting her. “Take a deep breath,” she said. “You know I don’t have much of a choice.”
“You could easily let me go home to Brooklyn.”
“You came after my Mina,” she said. “But we might be friends and allies, once we have a chance to talk. I know you must think I’m some evil rich human. I don’t blame you.”
Friends? Allies? I had to be on guard and not allow myself to be seduced by her wealth or faux kindness, because if she was a friend or an ally, she wouldn’t have Mina captive here, and she wouldn’t essentially run shifter zoos.
“Well, that was more exciting than we expected!” Esther told the guests. “Back to your partying, kids! It’s all under control.”
But it was clear there was some other hubbub going on toward the front of the house that had nothing to do with us.
“What’s happening? Is someone out there? Is that Waylon?” Esther took my hand and I stumbled after her through the crowd.
Alistair came rushing down the stairs, his footsteps sharp, and all of the partygoers, even the drunk ones, were consolidating around us. “Mom—there’s a car outside like something out of the Great Gatsby.”
“Oh my god. It’s really happening this fast?” Esther let go of my hand and looked toward her son. “Watch the girls.”
What is ‘it’? What is happening?
Alistair’s hand dug into my shoulder and held me in place. I was just trying to survive each moment as it came at this point. I had lost all control of the situation. Esther started to march forward to meet the guest but he was already coming through the doors.
President Viktor was here.
He scared me more than any person in the world, because if he found out I was one of the Shifter Queens…
Just when I think I’m already in deep shit…
Chapter Thirteen
Frankie
I knew Viktor’s face, of course. It was all over the papers and magazines on a daily basis, the most famous face in Istara. Viktor cultivated an image that was ageless, timeless, and mysterious. I was surprised that he wasn’t especially tall in real life; in fact we were probably around the same height. I expected him to be physically imposing. I couldn’t believe no one had ever mentioned that he was actually kinda short.
Then it occurred to me that it didn’t matter. Not one iota. He had enough presence to fill the ceilings of this grand old house. All he had to do was glance side to side, scoping out the room, and drunk girls backed the hell up into each other.
He was on enemy soil, being here. I wasn’t even sure he was supposed to be here outside of official business. But he walked in like he owned the place. I was surprised the music didn’t screech to a halt.
He was wearing a brimmed hat that he took off as he got close to Esther, and it wasn’t a fedora some hipster asshole would buy new, but something right off the set off an old noir movie, paired with a black trenchcoat. His hair was so white blonde that you could hardly see his eyebrows, and his skin was similarly almost translucent. His eyes were pale too, but his expression was cool and dark as a new moon night. Basically, he looked like a white cat turned human. Viktor was pretty yo
ung for a president; in his early forties, but he looked more like someone with a century-old soul in the body of a twenty-five-year old. Like a high elf trying to cosplay as people, maybe.
We all had a long time to take him in; at least, that was how it felt. Like everything paused for a very long second.
“Good evening, Ms. Merryweather,” he said. “I’m Viktor Castella.”
“Uh—yes—I know who you are.”
He gave her a little quirk of his lips. Of course he knew she knew. He was just being polite. “Do you know why I’m here?”
“No.” She looked at me.
I moved behind Alistair. Don’t look at me! I don’t want anything to do with this guy!
Alistair, to his credit, did actually provide me cover. He crossed his arms. “This seems very unusual,” he said. “For you to come unannounced to Manhattan and right into our house?”
“I have that reputation,” Viktor said. His accent was slight, but definitely European. Unlike America, there was no requirement the Istaran president was from Istara, because really, all shifters were united in their outcast state. “For being unusual. I’m sorry to interrupt a party. Maybe we could speak someplace quiet for a moment.”
“Yes, uh—“ Esther seemed stuck. Maybe she was thinking she should throw him out. Or maybe she didn’t want to be alone with him. I wouldn’t. But then, she didn’t want him blabbing out anything important to a crowd of wild college students. She looked around, and I think she was checking to see if Mina ever came downstairs. She hadn’t. Then she looked at her guards. “We’ll meet in the library. Please…make preparations.”
“Yes, madam.”
“All right. It’ll just be a moment. Alistair, take your pet upstairs. Would you like a drink, sir?”
Viktor raised an eyebrow at the plastic cups and the scent of beer and sickly sweet cocktails. “Not at present. Excuse me, Alistair, is that your pet? Mina? I would like her in the room for our meeting.”
He was referring to me.
Mother and son exchanged a look. Their eyes sparked.
“Yes, of course,” Esther said.
“I’m not—“ I started, but Alistair gave me a look so dark I shut my mouth.
“Yes, you’d better remember your place,” he whispered.
This was spiraling from bad to worse, and fast.
“Alistair, please…” I tried to find some angle from which to protect myself as I followed him upstairs. “I don’t know what’s happening, but I don’t want to go with him.”
“You want to stay here, then? He would take you back to Istara. If that’s the deal he wants. My guess is as good as yours. He’s your own kind, isn’t he? Maybe he’s looking for Mina for the same reason you were, and if he thinks you’re Mina, then that seems like a win for everyone. You go home with him and we keep Mina.”
“Going with him is not going home.” I swallowed. “He’s scary.”
“Do you think your own president is a murderer? Once he finds out you’re not Mina and we just used you, he’ll probably let you go. There’d be no point in keeping you.”
“But—“
Alistair looked at me carefully. “Unless you’re not all you seem either.”
“I’m—well, I’m a spy, obviously. I don’t know if he would appreciate a spy in his house.”
“I’m sure you can talk your way out of it,” Alistair said.
Alistair has zero suspicion that I’m one of the shifter queens, I thought. If he did, he wouldn’t let me go. Or does he know and he just doesn’t care about anything besides Mina?
That just confirmed why I didn’t want to go with Viktor, even if he was my own kind. Just one look at Viktor in the flesh and I knew he would know what I was. Once he got me home and turned his full attention to me, he would crack my secret wide open. I could just tell. It was better to take my chances serving as a pet, because at least here I was pretty worthless. Once any of these people found out the power I held, I would never ever escape the life of being a pawn on the board of wealthy people’s chess.
This is so beneath my dignity, I thought. But I have to do it. It’s still better to stay here than to end up in Viktor’s clutches.
I summoned up all my acting chops and let tears start to gleam in my eyes. “Alistair…please,” I said. “He really scares me. Just because he’s the Istaran president doesn’t mean he’ll be good to me. Men like that…they…they won’t hesitate to take advantage of a girl like me. I never meant to get caught up in any of this! My boss makes me spy, and once Viktor finds that out, I’ll be in big trouble. And he’s going to make me tell him everything. I don’t want any of this. I just want to be a normal girl, like…like…at this party… I was even starting to think me and Mina…could be friends…and I’ve never had a friend…”
Maybe I was laying it on too thick.
Or not. Alistair seemed to have a glaring soft spot. He let out a small sigh. “Shh. They’re coming. I’ll see what I can do.”
Esther showed Viktor to the library, down the hall. He followed at his leisure, taking in the house. “You must be a fan of the Impressionists, Ms. Merryweather.”
“Oh—ah—yes.”
“As am I. I don’t care if it’s gauche to say so,” Viktor said. “And they fit this house very well.”
“I just know what I like,” she said lightly.
“Although I do prefer Monet’s late period,” he said, moving on from the painting of water lilies in the hall. “The art is not as beautiful, of course, but it lays bare the frustrations of an artist whose body betrays him of his ability to create.”
“I see. I’m not sure I’m familiar with his later work…” Esther actually giggled nervously, and it was obvious he was throwing her off her own game too. I wasn’t even sure how. It was like the dude was a mind reader who knew just what to say to make people flustered. “Well, have a seat, Mr…or, President Castella.”
“You can just call me Viktor,” he said. He took the leather chair with grace and stretched his arms across the chair’s arms before putting his hands together in his lap; that was also very catlike. One of his nicknames was the King of Cats. I see why…
Esther sat behind a desk, and Alistair and I just hovered behind Viktor like we wanted to disappear into the bookshelves. If I could have shifted into a bookshelf, I would have done it.
I could see Esther gaining some confidence behind the desk, girding herself to battle against him. I was rooting for her, although I wasn’t sure why. She just stuck a collar on me. I guess I just rooted for the underdog, anyway, and she looked very petite and feminine paired with him, with her long straight hair and youthful features. Viktor, meanwhile, had an eerily perfect bone structure; high cheekbones, regal temples, a nose that was sharp and distinctive in a good way, adding to that elven air he possessed. He looked as cold as marble.
“So, speak,” she said. “You came to me, in this highly unusual move, and I can’t imagine we have any business with each other.”
“I hear that Mina has been your son’s pet since childhood,” Viktor said.
“Yes.”
“There are rumors in circulation that Alistair is in love with Mina. I know that’s considered a taboo in your world.”
“It is considered a taboo,” Esther said. “But I support my son loving anyone he wants to love.”
“Ah. I’m pleasantly impressed.”
“But not what you wanted to hear, I’ll bet,” Esther said, with a little smile of her own. “I won’t sell Mina for any price.”
“When love is involved, I understand,” Viktor said. “I suppose love is more important than freedom, is it?” He glanced back at me.
“I will give Mina her freedom,” Alistair said, stiffening. “When she’s married to me, she certainly won’t be a pet. I never wanted that.”
“You answer for her. Interesting…”
Alistair took a step closer. “If you’re just here to try and buy my fiancé, and insult me because I won’t let you—“
/> “I said nothing of the sort,” Viktor said. “You do answer for her. I’m just curious if she would agree.”
Alistair looked at me.
“To buy a girl, to choose her based on your own preferences, to raise her alongside your son, and then to claim that marrying her is to give her freedom…well, that is an interesting balance of power,” Viktor said.
“You are insulting my son and myself,” Esther said. “Just because she’s been here a long time doesn’t mean he doesn’t love her.”
But Mina doesn’t love you, I thought. Viktor’s right on the money here.
Only, if he thought I was Mina and I said something, I wouldn’t be helping Mina at all. If I told Viktor the real Mina was in another room, then either Esther and Alistair would punish me, or I’d be in Viktor’s hands anyway, and I still felt this might be worse. I was really in a pickle here.
“I still haven’t heard a word from her.”
“I do think that, um, Alistair will give me freedom and love,” I said. “Best of both worlds.” I hoped I didn’t need to pretend to be Mina for very long.
“I see.” His right eyebrow twitched. He didn’t buy one word of that.
“And were you planning to buy her?” Esther said. “Is that any better?”
Viktor looked a tiny hair pissed off now, and just that slight widening of his eyes was scary. “You accuse me of being no better because I would offer you money for her?”
“Well, what were you going to do with her? Why do you want her?” Alistair said. “It can’t be from benevolence, considering how many other shifters are much worse off than Mina. You want my girl, specifically.”
“Yes…I want her,” Viktor said. “Because she comes from a sacred line of healing witches and I knew her people. There are certain clans of shifters who protect the old ways. Old magic. She has great sentimental value to these people. She is their future. They love her without knowing her, because her blood is their blood. And it pains them to see her torn away.”
“It would pain me to see her torn away,” Esther retorted. “The answer is no and I would like to ask you to leave now.”
Black Queen: Stray: Fated Mates Paranormal Shifter Romance (Shifters Among Us Book 1) Page 8
