Chosen Thief (11 page)

Queen Ruckler cleared her throat. “She’s not the only one. The last woman, I had to literally kick out on her ass when she hid down the hallway from you in a spare bedroom.” The Queen’s eyebrows rose in my direction as she popped an orange slice into her mouth. “That one was a real-life stalker…and daft at that, because she used the phone to call the kitchen and
order room service — which we do not have — when she started to starve after a few days.”

I choked on a laugh, glancing at Brann.

He shrugged his huge shoulders, stating frankly, “Brains weren’t really a requirement for what I wanted from her.”

Sin started laughing, but I shot him a look since I had dealt with many of those women in my time with him, and he shut up prettily, even giving me
innocent green eyes.

“But it is good to know this is just part of the grieving process.” Brenna patted Brann’s shoulder then glanced at me. “How long did that patch take you to get over?”

Sin gurgled but he quickly pushed it down, with an apologetic glance at me, before peering at Brenna. “Sometimes the person’s already past the grieving process…and they just enjoy sex,” a glance at me, then
to her, “a lot.”

“Alrighty,” I mumbled quickly, not really up for this discussion anymore in front of the Kings and Queens. I stood from the table, jerking on Sin’s shoulder. “Let’s go buy you a car.”

Sin stood…and slapped my ass when I turned away, murmuring, “Now don’t be shy, Caro. A healthy sex life is nothing to be ashamed of.”

I swayed my ass, glancing over my shoulder at him. “And if
you plan to have sex in our bed, I suggest you shut it.”

Sin grinned, his shoulders shaking as he glanced down at my swaying ass, making a production of it. “Have I ever told you—”

I cut him off, looking forward again. “Yes, Sin. I’m sure you have.” But I stopped dead in my tracks when Aria walked in…wearing actual clothes. She was seductive in a black long-sleeved V-neck, matching long skirt
with a slit up to the thigh, and black thigh-high boots. Provocative, yes…but they were actual clothes. I blurted honestly, “You’re even more beautiful with the respect.”

A very slow smile graced her features, which to me appeared completely sincere. “Thank you.”

After two weeks of being the Elemental Prodigy, you would think I would have learned what ticked off my King by now but…nope. Today I was learning how quickly I could run from an infuriated water Elemental, who kept shouting and throwing up walls of water to try to stop me. I dodged another one, twisting and darting out the back door while shouting back at him, “Dammit, I didn’t
know! Calm down!” The sun was bright and threatened to blind me, but I squinted through it, racing toward Sin where he, Brenna, the other Prodigies, and the three other Rulers were sunbathing around the pool.

“Get back here, goddamn it! You are going to fix this mess, Caro!” he bellowed at the top of his lungs not too far behind me.

I dodged another wall of water, shouting, “Sin! A little help
here!” Suddenly I yelped, but I instantly closed my eyes and held my breath as the ground swallowed me whole. The earth was soft as satin around me as I was tunneled — it was like quicksand pulling me through at warp speed — before I was spat out directly behind Sin. I stood up, brushing dirt off as I tried to catch my breath. I peeked out from behind his bare torso, feeling his power sizzle around
me, and saw he had placed a dome around us that was in constant motion: tiny bits of earth flew in a counterclockwise motion, except for the top that swirled in a clockwise motion. Sin’s eyes were glowing bright green as he stared at the infuriated water Elemental closing in on us.

“Care to explain why you’re frightening Caro?” Sin asked slowly to King Collins, and he didn’t sound very pleased,
since he was talking through clenched teeth.

King Collins stopped and stared at the dome surrounding us, pretty much like everyone was doing, but he cocked his head, muttering, “Well, that’s a new one.” He shook his head, then peered at Sin. “Drop that now. My Prodigy,” a quick glare at me, “and I have some business to take care of.”

Sin crossed his arms. “And you can fuck off. She’s not going
anywhere until she wants to, and I’m pretty sure she doesn’t since she’s digging her nails into my back.”

I glanced at my hands. “Oh, sorry.” I patted his back, happy I hadn’t pierced his skin. Peering around Sin’s arm, I told King Collins, “I didn’t know I was talking to the President of the United States. I thought it someone pranking you. I swear!”

The other three Rulers’ jaws dropped, and
Queen Cooper asked King Collins slowly, “What did she say?”

“You. Really. Don’t. Want. To. Know,” he growled, fists clenched, turning back to me. “You will call him back and apologize. Then you will call his mother, and his father, and apologize. Then you will call his secretary, his hairdresser, his tailor, his three mistresses, his alcoholic son, his Secretary of Defense, and fuck all, his
goddamn dog groomer and whoever else I didn’t hear you verbally bash, and apologize to every single one of them…because it was a planned telephone conference for me…
live on the fucking radio
!”

There was a very long beat of silence as my stomach dropped, then Sin murmured, “Well, I don’t believe I’ll be dropping this anytime soon.” Another pause. “Caro, please tell me with all that, you mentioned
his terrible penchant for comb-overs.”

“That was the part about the hairdresser,” I mumbled, wanting to hide under a rock for a very long time.

“
This is not humorous!
” King Collins bellowed, his eyes beginning to glow.

King Zeller’s lips were twitching, and his shoulders were shaking hard, but he stepped forward and placed a hand on King Collins’s shoulder. Instantly King Collins’s eyes stopped
glowing and his whole body relaxed. King Collins muttered something to King Zeller, who eventually nodded. King Zeller glanced at us, stating in a controlled voice, “We’re going to be inside…for a bit…while we work through the best way to fix this.” Spring green eyes fixed on me. “But whatever we decide, you will do it.”

“Jesus, I really didn’t know it was him. He sounded all nasally and sloshed.
I thought it was a prank — the person was trying too hard to sound like him.”

King Zeller’s nostrils flared, and it appeared like he was trying to control himself. “I understand, but in the future it would probably be best to assume it really is
the most powerful man in the world
than to not when you’re answering King Collins’s phone then insulting him on the air…in what will surely be worldwide
news in a matter of minutes.” A pause. “Even if all of what you said is correct.” His lips twitched, but he quickly turned his head and hid his expression as he guided King Collins inside the Manor, a hand on the King’s shoulder, the Queens following behind.

Once they were indoors, Sin dropped the protective dome and I banged my forehead on his back, moaning quietly. “I really messed up this
time.”

“Sounds like it.” He paused, then he stated loudly, “Anyone got a radio close by? I’d love to hear that phone conversation.”

I growled as London murmured, “Yeah, here somewhere in my bag.”

Shoving away from Sin, I straightened my skirt and shirt purchased by the credit card — which came with a limit — I had been given two days after arriving here. All of the Prodigies received one for
their time and service to the crown. I marched to the door the Rulers had gone through, not even glancing at anyone else. I knew I was going to meet my maker as I waited outside the conference room the Kings and Queens were in, because I had really messed up. King Collins hadn’t even heard half of the degrading things I had said, and I was sure he shortly would.

“Want some company, Felon?” Brann’s
deep rumble startled me from behind where I sat on a small blue couch. I was holed up in the Elemental section in one of the back living rooms — one of the tiny ones made for privacy — later that evening, watching one of those old, black-and-white, gooey joyful movies.

Quickly glancing over my shoulder, I saw Brann was leaning against the white doorframe wearing a pair of black flannel pajama
bottoms and a grey t-shirt, both of which stretched over his muscles to perfection, and no shoes, his feet bare. I blinked, my gaze swinging back up to his eyes. I had never seen him dress casually, not even getting a good look at him in his swim trunks today. “Slumming tonight, Wolf Man? No hot date?” Because, yeah, he did have a lot of females going in and out of here like his sister had said.

He shrugged one shoulder. “I needed a break.” His amber eyes stared me straight on, and he asked gruffly, “Do you want company or not?”

“I’m worn the hell out after today, so I won’t be good company,” I muttered, turning around to the television. I had told the truth, all the conference calls I had made to rectify my blunder making me exhausted. “But you’re more than welcome to stay if you’re
quiet.” I waved a hand behind me. “And shut the door. I don’t want anyone else coming in here wanting to talk to me.” Because just about everyone and their damn brother had tried to give me advice today, or tell me of their life experiences on their first mess-up, trying to make me feel better. “I fucked up and I know it, and I don’t want to talk about it anymore.”

“Message received,” Brann stated
after a moment, and I heard the door shut before his surprisingly — for such a large man — light footfalls on the green carpeting brought him closer. He came around the side of the couch and sat down tiredly, taking up the rest of the room and practically squashing me against the armrest. He kicked his feet up on the table, and I saw they appeared to have been pedicured, not at all unattractive.
He tugged at the blanket I had around me. “Give me some of that.”

I blinked, then I glared at him. “Get your own, Wolf Man.”

He tilted his head on the couch sleepily. “It’s the only one in here, Felon.” A pause, and his lips curled. “Or is hoarding items a trait you learned in the slammer?”

I snorted, but after glancing around I saw he was right, so I started unfurrowing myself from the blanket.
“No, I was kept in solitary confinement for almost the entire time I was in there, so I didn’t have to share anything.” I tossed some of the blanket on him.

He stared at me, not taking what I offered. “Fuck, you’re serious.” A slow blink. “That’s a long time to be alone. How the hell did you keep from going insane?”

I bared my teeth at him. “I didn’t.” A sweet smile. “Now please shut up so I
can watch the movie.”

Another slow blink, amber disappearing only to reappear to the world. “I’m sorry. That had to be awful.”

I stared for a long moment, seeing he was being honest, so I stated truthfully, “Sometimes it was, and sometimes it wasn’t. The quiet was a blessing but also a curse.”

He nodded once. “I can see both sides to that. There are days I wish for nothing but peace and quiet,
but on the other hand, there are days I just need interaction with others to keep sane.” He paused. “I know what it’s like to go insane after a traumatic event. It happened to me after Dakota died.”

I scratched my forehead, evaluating him. “Kill anyone?”

He gazed at me for a full minute, his amber eyes immeasurable, before turning his attention to the television. “Yeah. Six guys in a bar. Their
only misfortune was to be sitting at the table next to me while I got drunk. Queen Ruckler covered it up and paid off their families with a small fortune for their silence, but I got lucky because all six guys were loser drunks and apparently dragging their families down, so they didn’t care too much they were gone with all that cash in their grubby hands.”

I waited a long moment as I let that
register, unsure of how he felt about it because he stated it all so factually. “Wanna talk about it?”

“No.” He got more comfortable on the couch, lifting the blanket I had placed on him then stealing more of it as he covered his legs and chest. “I don’t condone what I did because they were innocent, and I’ve already dealt with those demons, but killing people who deserve it…oddly, I have absolutely
no issue with. It might be the Shifter in me, but killing,” a shrug with a yawn, “is just part of life. The weak versus the strong, and all that.”

My eyebrows rose as I snorted, and I stole a bit of the blanket back, trying to resituate myself to a comfortable position since he was hogging everything. “A hardcore, snobbish wolf man. You just might do all right as King.” I yawned as his wolf growled
quietly in irritation. “Do be quiet now. I want to watch this sweet-as-sugar, happy-happy movie.”

“Whatever, Felon,” he rumbled, his head falling on top of mine where I had ended up resting it on his shoulder. “Quit asking questions, and I will.”

So I did. And he did. Then, somewhere between singing numbers in the film, I heard him start to snore very softly, which made me smile because it sounded
like a content wolf. And just a bit later, sleep’s fog dragged me under, too.

King Collins’s voice entered my previously peaceful dream, shouting, “Wake the fuck up!”

I mumbled grumpily, “I don’t want to dream about you. Go away.”

The hot, hard body under me jerked, and I groaned, slipping back into my cozy but now slightly violent dream, and Brann’s voice, sounding gravelly and sleepy, rumbled
into it like a voiceover, stating, “This isn’t what it looks like.”

I sighed, enjoying that tone. “Now you. You can stay.” And he did, his face appearing hazily in the warm fog that was trying to pull me under as something tugged at the back of my mind, trying to lift me away.

A feminine snort echoed inside the fog, turning into Queen Ruckler’s voice as she stated, “Not what it looks like, huh?”

There was a pause, then Brann’s voice stated, “She’s dreaming. Just talking in her sleep.”

I froze, the fog parting abruptly as I realized that in reality I was lying half on an enormous, hard body that was much larger than Sin’s, with my face stuffed flush against the heated flesh of a male neck. I sniffed and found that it smelled faintly like the forest, so faintly I probably wouldn’t have
noticed if my nose wasn’t smashed against it. Heart rate beginning to gallop, I slowly unthreaded my left hand from where it was buried in the curls on the guy’s head, then I patted the hard pec I wasn’t lying on, which was massive. “Shit.” I sucked in a large breath. “Brann?”