King Tomb (Forever Evermore, #3)(46)
Elder Merrick resituated himself next to me, turning so he was facing me. “I heard some interesting news this morning regarding a Shifter…Mr John Smith.”
Ah. “Yes, I was aware of the situation.” I had spent the previous fifteen minutes diffusing a slight uprising from a few Shifters who had seen King Zeller…well, ‘brutally bashing John’s head in’ and ‘unfairly slapping him in silver cuffs’ by their accounts. And I had called John to make sure he was okay, which he was, if slightly confused and irate at being ambushed and held as he had been. I wasn’t positive he had believed the bogus ‘mistaken identity’ excuse I had given him, but he hadn’t pushed for any further explanation. “It’s been handled.”
Elder Merrick’s eyebrows quirked. “You may want to talk with King Zeller about his lack of control and discretion.”
“Like I said, it’s been handled,” I stated bluntly, not appreciating his input.
“What’s been handled?” King Zeller’s voice rumbled behind us as he moved past the tent flap of the conference room no longer dressed in workout clothes, but in — yeah, I stared — his dark silver robe, a silk, sapphire blue billowy shirt, and…oh, God…black leather pants. Year-long iced control kept me from ogling him, but I did peek over when he turned to take his robe off, hanging it next to the other coats.
My mind…just…went blank.
Well, not exactly blank. More like a zillion naughty ideas flew through my mind in rapid fire, like a reel going so fast I just kind of zoned out as my peek turned into a flat out stare of his ass. I had never checked it out before, but the me of the present most definitely agreed with the me of the past.
His ass in leather was absolutely God’s finest work.
Fucking hell, that was just…yummy.
“Um…” I tried to speak, unsuccessful in remembering what he had asked as he hooked his robe on the old-fashioned claw. “What did you ask?”
His ass flexed under that soft leather, and I blinked, hardly noticing the file in my lap fall to the ground as my fingers went numb. I sucked in a harsh breath as heat swamped me, and squeezed my eyes shut. Gave my head a decent shake. This was really not the time.
Yeah…didn’t stop me from opening my eyes again to the ass I wanted to sink my teeth in to.
King Zeller’s voice skimmed across my nerve endings like heated silk. “Queen Ruckler?”
“Present.” And his ass was like a present, all gift-wrapped in buttery leather.
He chuckled quietly, all rumbly and cocky as hell, but I didn’t care about his tone when his action caused his ass to visibly flex again.
A hard thump on my forehead had me snapping my attention to Elder Merrick. “What the hell?” I rubbed my forehead, since he hadn’t hit me softly.
He thumped me again, eliciting a growl from me. “Control and discretion goes for you, too, Queen Ruckler.”
My lips pursed when I exercised my normally well-honed self-control to not gaze at the first-rate ass of God’s across the room, since I could see from the corner of my eye he hadn’t moved, his perfectly spiked red and black head of hair turned, green eyes peering over his shoulder at us. “Fuck off, Merrick.” And I firmly ignored how my cheeks flushed in mortification, having been caught acting like a…girl…drooling over a hot man.
And really, it was my first time seeing his ass, so ogling couldn’t be helped.
When Elder Merrick only continued staring at me, all alpha, I mumbled, “Won’t happen again.”
His lips pursed before he sighed. “I’d like to believe that, but—” He gurgled. Stopped. Waved a hand and muttered, “Never mind. Just watch yourself.” His attention turned to Ezra. “And you,” his eyes narrowed, voice turning growly, “don’t ever pull that shit with a Shifter again or you’ll have me to deal with.”
Still from the corner of my eye, I saw Ezra pivot and pull a file off a shelf. He sat at the conference table opposite me, stating, “If this is what you two were discussing before I arrived, Queen Ruckler’s correct. It’s been handled.” A pause, his voice flat. “And don’t threaten me.”
Ignoring their little battle of alpha dominance, I lowered my legs to pick up the file on the ground. And almost dropped it when my hand started shaking again. Quickly, I altered the file to my other hand, fisting the involuntarily trembling one before shaking it out, my muscles tight. And paused before sitting back up, seeing Elder Jacobs, who was sitting on the chair on the other side of me, watching the action. Slowly, his eyes rose to meet mine, and one yellow eyebrow cocked.
Lips pursed, I sat up, kicked my boots back onto the table, and ignored him. “King Zeller, I wanted to talk with you about how heavy your ranks are with Vampires.”
Ezra grunted.
Nice.
“I’m going to want to change that.” No point in beating around the bush.
His green eyes lifted from his file, meeting mine. “We haven’t lost a battle or mission yet.”
True. “But your casualties could have been less with a more unified structure of multiple factions leading the forces.”
He further relaxed onto his chair. “Are you telling me your previous camp didn’t have more Shifter Commanders than any other faction?”
I could tell by the challenge in his eyes he knew the answer already. “My camp had about forty percent Shifter Commanders, which is only fifteen percent off where it should be ideally for a unified four way split between factions, whereas yours has close to sixty percent Vamp Commanders.” I shook my head, eyebrows rising. “You’re limiting yourself, and this camp, by not using the talents of the other factions.”