Black Queen: Stray: Fated Mates Paranormal Shifter Romance (Shifters Among Us Book 1)

by Lidiya Foxglove

  “Lessons? In what? I’m not going to any lessons.”

  “Do you have an education?”

  “In the stuff that matters, sure.”

  “Different stuff matters here,” Mina said. “It’s sort of like learning to be a princess. It’s fun.” She paused. “It’s sort of fun.”

  “Oh, so not…algebra or science or something. Table manners? Dancing? That crap?”

  “A little of everything, but mostly…entering society. They might not expect much from you anyway. You’re a cat and everyone knows you can’t tame a cat.”

  I don’t know if you can tame a bird either, really, I thought. But it does sing if you put it in a cage.

  I smoothed my hands over the wrinkled dress I slept in and followed her downstairs. The smell of the French toast smacked me to alertness, it was just too good.

  “Good morning,” Alistair said. “Mom went to work already. I’m supervising things here. Frankie—” He stopped. “Your name is Frankie?”

  “Uh, yes.”

  “Is it short for Francine or something?”

  Anyone who called me Frances was going to get flipped over a table. “Just Frankie.”

  “All right. Well…Mina has tutoring every day and you can join her. I notified everyone that you are obviously behind in what she’s been learning so they’ll have extra materials for you. They’re very experienced in helping shifters work toward careers and more prominent positions in society, so please…make use of them. My mother pays them a lot of money and now she’s paying extra for you.”

  I was pulling out a chair and now I twitched a little, terrified by this idea. Maybe Esther does know I’m a shifter queen after all. She’s treating me way too nicely to be some rando. And she already knew Waylon sent me. She knows more than we think, doesn’t she?

  I needed to get out of here more than anything else. I needed to get home. Would that be enough? Maybe I needed to…leave Brooklyn?

  That was too much to think about.

  I wondered if Roy would send some of his team after me when he realized I was gone. I’d always wondered how much he really cared, and I might be about to find out, but I’d rather escape on my own.

  Alistair picked up his phone. He was watching a news report. Randall Bloom was seen leaving the party with several of the most notorious hunters in New York. Activists are calling for a boycott of Bloom’s social media empire and Bloom search engine, but so far Bloom has not retracted his statement, and as he is reporting record profits, the calls may go unheeded…

  “Oh, Al, turn off that depressing stuff. I heard you met Viktor Castella after I went to sleep,” Mina said.

  “Yes. He was here,” Alistair said.

  “Why?”

  “Some business matter.”

  “I hear he’s a total shark,” Mina said. “Is she making some deal with him?”

  “No. But he isn’t that impressive in person,” Alistair said. “He’s short, frail, weak, and pretentious.”

  I snorted.

  Alistair shot me a look.

  “Yeah, right,” I said. “You and your mom looked awfully nervous when he was here asking about Mina.”

  “We didn’t look nervous. I was annoyed and startled because I don’t think we should deal with him.”

  “He was short,” I said. “But frail and weak? You can tell yourself that. You know it’s not true. Or do you need me to inform you?”

  “So he…asked about me?”

  Alistair’s eyes launched daggers toward me. “As a courtesy toward another shifter,” Alistair said.

  “I read an article about him one time,” Mina said. “His family were albino show cats.”

  “Yikes,” I said.

  Alistair had a slightly pained expression, as I remembered that Eden Park had a whole cat show. They would probably love albino cats, wouldn’t they?

  “In Russia or something. One of those countries that was part of Russia maybe. And his dad is rumored to be some Italian…what’s the word? An oligarch? He was human and super-rich and raised Viktor to be a human for the first eight years of his life. And then his parents got murdered. It was a super interesting story but he does sound like a guy who would do anything to get ahead. So it’s probably good that you stay away from him.”

  “I’m sure,” Alistair said. “It sounds ridiculous. What tabloid did you read that in?”

  “I don’t know. It was at the dentist. Vanity Fair, maybe. I’m sure you could look it up! I don’t think it’s a secret or anything.”

  “I don’t care,” Alistair said. “I don’t want anything to do with him. He runs Istara like a mob boss.”

  “Everyone who runs anything in Istara runs it like a mob boss,” I said. “We don’t have a lot of choice because you humans are always trying to keep us from making money the nice way. It’s not America. It’s basically a third world country.”

  Alistair gave his head a tiny shake like he was reseting the conversation. “Well, anyway, you’re here now, Frankie, and you’ll have new opportunities if you stick with us. We should enjoy this breakfast before the day’s agenda gets underway.”

  “Agenda?”

  “Every day has an agenda,” he said, and he sounded ever so slightly weary.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Frankie

  The day started out in some ritzy exclusive gym in which we seemed to be the only patrons. Reserved hours, I guess. Mina dragged her feet and groaned her way through changing into workout clothes. “That was such a big breakfast…”

  “Yeah.” I was definitely feeling stuffed as I peeled on the clothes provided for me. They were her extras and they looked like dance clothes. They were a little saggy and loose on me. I didn’t have her long, elegant torso and legs.“Maybe you should have done all of this part first.”

  “That’s what Alistair said but if I don’t eat first I’ll faint. And I wanted a special breakfast since you’re here. Any excuse to get my stuffed French toast. Anyway, Alistair pretty much does whatever I want as long as I don’t shirk on the schedule otherwise. He would never have any fun if I didn’t make him. Man, if I had all that money…” She slammed her locker shut.

  “What would you do?” I asked.

  “Well, he has parties but as you saw, he doesn’t actually party. He just has parties for the social status. He hates parties. He’s so driven. Except…what he is driven to, your guess is as good as mine.”

  “Winning you?” I said. “He seems awfully possessive.”

  “I’m already won.”

  “You don’t love him. He wants to win your heart.”

  “Well, it hardly matters. He owns me.”

  “He does not,” I said. “Don’t just give in like that.”

  “That’s some big talk considering you’re now captured with me,” she said. “He owns you too.”

  “No one fucking owns me,” I said. “Or you. Don’t talk like that.”

  “I bet you’re trying to plot an escape,” she said with a sigh. “Good luck with that. It could be a lot worse. At least he’s stinking rich.”

  “But you still don’t want to sleep with him,” I said.

  Her cheeks turned pink. “Shut up. You don’t know anything about it.”

  “I heard you fending him off. You don’t have to lie to me.”

  She tossed her blonde hair and stalked toward the door. I guess I was laying down too much truth on her. It was one thing for her to refuse Alistair, but another thing for me to start pointing out the obvious.

  Alistair was already working out on his own, running on a treadmill with a totally focused look in his blue eyes, his brown hair falling sweaty all in his face, his concentration only broken for a brief second to look at Mina as she danced on by him, light on her toes. Otherwise he was watching the news again. I watched him for a second. He had a nice body, a six-pack and legs as nice as Ian’s, but the rich kid attitude ruined it, and I gave Mina some kudos for not falling for good looks. I guess she’d known him too long, anyway,
since they were kids. But I thought Ian was cute even when we were kids…

  The gym had a lot of the usual equipment but also some private rooms for specific classes, by the looks of it. It was very spacious for a New York City building. Behind a class door was a small room with a barre for ballet practice and a private instructor was waiting for us, introduced to me as ‘Miss Lucille’.

  “Uh…I don’t know any ballet,” I said.

  “It’s okay!” Mina said. “Just follow along as best you can.”

  “We can do an overview of the basics today,” Miss Lucille said, strict but accommodating. “Take your gloves off, please.”

  “I’d rather not…” I didn’t like humans to be looking at my missing fingertips.

  “You’re declawed, aren’t you? The gloves are distracting.”

  “I’m not trying to become a ballerina,” I said. “I’m just here with Mina.”

  She let it go, but I felt really uncomfortable already. There was no reason for her to look at my bare hands. It was like she just wanted to put me in my place right off the bat.

  And so the first hour of hell passed. You would think cats might be good at ballet. I was pretty flexible, but that was all I had going for me. I didn’t know what I was doing, and I didn’t care either, because I just felt silly. Ballet seemed so showy. I would rather have watched Mina, honestly. She was so graceful and her entire aspect changed from kind of a ditz to this super focused, passionate beauty with a long neck and amazing control of every slender muscle in her body.

  Miss Lucille snapped her fingers at me and then grabbed my head and forced it into position. “Don’t slump!”

  “I’m not a ballerina!” I growled. “I never asked to take this class! Could I just go out there and use the gym equipment?”

  “From what I understand, the Merryweathers are very kindly taking you in,” Miss Lucille said. “And I’m sure Ms. Merryweather would want you to take ballet. It will give you dignity and poise.”

  “This is stupid,” I muttered. “They’re not ‘taking me in’; we just met.”

  Miss Lucille smacked me right across the face. “Stupid?” she said. “I would keep that talk to yourself. You’re not in Istara where you can say whatever you want. You are being given an amazing opportunity. Now, arms up.” She gave me a nod that was also a challenge, that if I dared to back talk her again I’d get worse.

  I was so damn close to striking her face right back, but I knew it wasn’t worth the drama it would cause. I swallowed down a sour taste.

  Mina didn’t seem to even notice all this. She was just dancing to the tinny Tchaikovsky coming from the boombox. This was normal to her, like, just a slap, whatever. When she saw my face with a red mark across my cheek, she bit her lip. Miss Lucille stepped out for a second.

  “She used to be a principal with the New York Ballet, so…you know, she’s just prickly, but I’m still lucky she was willing to teach me,” Mina whispered. “She’s like that with everyone. Not just shifters.”

  “Right…I’m so sure.”

  “No, it’s true, Frankie. Haven’t you ever seen a movie with a tough teacher?”

  “I don’t know. It feels different to me.”

  I felt bruised down to my soul. This was everything I hated about being in the human world. It was one thing to sneak in here, knowing you were in enemy territory, trying to get in and out with minimal contact, hating the humans all the while. Now I was supposed to not only take it, but appreciate it?

  I looked up and saw Alistair standing outside the glass watching Mina. I almost jumped. Last I saw he was lifting weights. Now his eyes followed her every move and she didn’t look at him but nevertheless seemed aware he was watching. Her moves seemed more self-conscious, a little more sexual.

  Oh, what the fuck? She’s going to tease him?

  I guess it was her way of gaining more control over him. It made me cringe to watch, though. I couldn’t see myself ever trying to seduce a man I hated. It felt dirty. I just wanted love that started with friendship and felt as easy as a broken-in pair of boots, like I dreamed of having with Ian.

  “Beautiful, Mina,” Miss Lucille said.

  “Really!?” Mina beamed.

  “Of course, today’s class was beneath what you have learned, so I expect nothing less. I’ll see you on Thursday.”

  Alistair was waiting for her as she walked out and immediately put a hand on her waist. She ducked out of his grasp. “We need to hit the shower,” she said lightly.

  “Me too,” he said, but he still said it so intensely that I hoped the showers were far apart. “Frankie, you look upset.”

  “Oh, she’s just mad because Miss Lucille snapped at her like she does,” Mina said. “She did great today. Come on, Frankie.”

  Upset? Yeah, I was pissed.

  “We’ll go shopping now,” she said, while we rinsed off in adjacent shower stalls. I was very glad I had privacy. “And get you all dressed up and then we…” She paused. “Well, you won’t like this part, I bet.”

  “What?”

  “We go scouting. For Eden Park. Esther wants me to be involved with the company, so I go with Al and make decisions with him about recruiting. The parks are always looking for new employees and Esther likes to give shifters better homes with her if they’re talented people in a bad situation. So…like…we go to a cat cafe and look for really beautiful, extroverted cats.”

  My stomach turned. “I’m not doing that.”

  “But we get to help people. It’s actually pretty fun.”

  “I don’t want to set foot in a cat cafe.”

  “They have bird cafes too. Or…you just hate the whole thing, don’t you?”

  “Obviously! Mina, I can’t accept this place,” I said. “It all makes me sick. I’m not even sure why Esther and Alistair took me in.”

  “That’s just how Esther is,” Mina said. “She likes to take in strays. Maybe she’s not the most perfect person in the universe, but you know, she inherited Eden Park from her father, and she’s made a lot of changes. She’s very kind. She makes mistakes, sure, but thanks to the Merryweathers, I have all sorts of opportunities to study my dancing and music and live the life I want. I guess you live in a world where everyone is perfect and no one ever messes up or takes advantage of each other.”

  “No,” I said. “Far from it. But at least I’m with my own kind, and we’re all on a level, you know?”

  “I’d rather try to reach a higher level,” Mina said.

  “You’ll never reach it,” I said. “Isn’t that obvious? People here are always going to treat us like crap.”

  “Let them,” Mina said. “I will still have everything I want.”

  “Like Alistair?” I said.

  She turned off the shower and shoved the curtain open. When I opened my curtain she was planted right outside with a towel wrapped around her. “You think everything is so great in Istara,” she said. “Good for you. I’m going to tell Esther you want to go home.”

  “Great! I do want to go home, obviously. I hope you have that kind of influence with her.”

  “I don’t know why you were poking around,” Mina said, “but I want to say something, okay? I feel sorry for you. You seem like you’ve had a really rough life and you don’t trust anyone and you’re probably always scrabbling for your next dollar too. I have a wonderful life. If I have to marry Alistair, it’s okay with me. You don’t understand our relationship. It’s just that I want to make him chase me as long as I possibly can. I don’t want him to think I was easy to win.”

  “That’s fair,” I said. “You’re right. I can’t judge. Maybe you are happier than I am, and maybe you always will be, with Alistair. I just have a different idea of what love looks like, and to me, it isn’t a feeling where I would shove the guy away and fight with him for years. I want to be with him…all the time…when I’m in love. And when he’s far away, it’s like he takes a piece of me. But even then, I would rather him be happy even if it’s not with me. To me,
love feels like warmth and joy and trust, not material wealth.”

  Her eyes were rimmed with red, her chest heaving just once. “To me, love is dance and music and being surrounded with beauty, and it’s not a boy at all. It’s just something I feel all for myself.”

  Well, I had no snappy reply to that. Sure, she was right. I didn’t have time to pursue things for myself. I wasn’t surrounded by beauty. But I also didn’t need those things. I would never sacrifice my personal independence and endure being slapped or treated like a lesser being, even if my view was always the apartment building next to mine. And loving Ian was enough, even if he was far away. It made me feel good, just knowing he was safe and happy somewhere.

  “I will talk to Esther, okay?” Mina said. “I promise. I’ll plead with her to send you back to your people. But she won’t be home until tonight. So in the meantime, can you just go along with Alistair and me and not say anything? It’s just one bird cafe. We’ll go to the Shangri-La, okay? It’s a really nice place. So it’s hardly the end of the world to go there.”

  “Okay,” I said, mainly because I didn’t want to seem like I was overly sensitive. Maybe she was right. Maybe it was a really nice place. It wasn’t like I had ever been to one before. I’d just heard the stories.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Ian

  It would take me twenty-four hours to get home at the last minute like this without breaking my entire bank account. That was a lot of time to think. A lot of time to ponder why I had just leapt on a plane without even thinking about it for a girl I was supposed to forget about.

  She just has a hold on me. I can’t help it. It’s been like that ever since the day I realized she wasn’t a kid anymore. Jeez, maybe more than that if I had to admit it. Maybe since forever.

  I’d been trying to outrun it. Ignore it. I knew how hard my parents had worked to give me a better life and here I was studying in Germany, where everything was definitely better than it was back home…but never feeling right here.

  I tried to tell myself it was homesickness, but all I wanted was Frankie.