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Chapter 8 - White Propositions

Nereyda

The council meeting was boring. There were no other words to describe the monotonous back and forths of the men sitting around the table. Braeden sat next to me but when I took casual glances at him from the corner of my eye, I was pretty sure that he was sleeping.

Simon, still in leopard form stood watch at the doorway. He did not in any way seem fazed by the sluggish conversation but then, I guessed he stood guard in empty hallways a lot. The lack of activity in the room was probably very normal to him.

The verbose 'councilors' as they called themselves had been debating whether or not to trust me for the past hour. Everytime I tried to move the topic along they shut me off, saying that they must tackle one problem at a time.

Most of the members resembled what I had learnt was 'Hawk'; old, scruffy and generally looking like they had nothing to do with themselves save talking all day long. However, there was one young man who looked much more alert than the others. He didn't seem to be paying attention to the oldies conversation, preferring to glare at the dozing Braeden next to me, or look at me with unnerving charcoal eyes.

After a few more minutes of stagnant words, I finally decided that I'd had enough. I had come into the city for a reason and I was not going to sit here while these men put off addressing my plan, quite obviously because they did not want to.

This time when I interrupted everyone listened, especially the young charcoal eyed man. He seemed to be the most attentive of them all.

I started to explain my plan to them for what must have been the fifth time, but this time when they tried to interrupt I was not having any of it. I ignored all of the, "Yes, but excuse mes," and the, "Of course, buts," ploughing on to finish outlining my charity plan. I didn't understand why they were so averse to hearing me out, my idea was going to help everyone in the city, it wasn't going to hinder them in any way.

Perhaps they did not want to listen to me because of my status. Or more likely, they did not want to listen because I was female, and females had no place in politics.

I finished by explaining that I needed a trustee in the city to manage my money and accounts. They all looked at me blankly at this, and I was sure that they were questioning how I could be so naive as to leave all my money in the hands of a stranger. Well, it wasn't going to be a stranger that I left my money with, and I told them so. It was going to be Braeden.

Braeden's head snapped up at the mention of his name and he looked at me incredulously.

"You're going to leave your entire trust fund with me?" He cocked a dark eyebrow in my direction, he seemed more amused than anything.

"Not all of it, but most of it yes," I worked to make my soft voice assertive, thinking of how my mother did it and wishing I was more like her.

He laughed then, a short humourless bark as he prepared to ridicule me and refuse my offer. My index finger scratched my thumb under the table.

The man with the charcoal eyes spoke. "Braeden, it sounds like a good opportunity." He was glaring at Braeden again, trying to convey some message that I could not understand.

My eyes swung back to Braeden as his face paled. His lips lifted at the corners but even from my awkward position I could see that his tight eyes were blank. "Yeah I guess," he said. "I'll be happy to manage your accounts for you."

He didn't sound very happy but I let it pass. For some reason I trusted Braeden, even though I hadn't known him for very long at all.

The rest of the council members were still reluctant to conclude our business but I managed to persuade them in the end. It was agreed that I would visit every Stymie day to make sure everything was running smoothly but in the meantime I would assemble a team to get things going for me.

If I was honest, I wasn't really sure why I had ended up pitching my idea to a load of old bums when I was the Princess and actually owned the city. I had told them exactly that when Hawk in particular was being extremely difficult, saying that I was going to do it whether they liked it or not. I was royalty; I would do whatever I wanted. I did not need some random old men's permission carry out my own business in my own city. Braeden had been extremely amused when I'd said this, sniggering into his hand.

We left the council room now, walking side by side back to the office blocks. He said nothing as we walked, but I saw him sneak glances at me when he thought I wasn't looking. I said nothing.

When we arrived at the office blocks, Braeden took control. He called a few names across the hall and people started rising out of their seats and making their way over to us. Soon we had about half a dozen people ready and waiting to see what we had to say.

Time moved swiftly then. There was a flurry of activity as we congregated in a conference room and I explained the basic outline of the charity. Lena, a dark haired girl suggested that we come up with a name and the charity was soon dubbed 'the Nereyda trust'. Highly unoriginal if you asked me, but I didn't want to waste time thinking about names when we could be thinking of ways to provide for the people.

We sat around a circular table to brainstorm. It turned out to be an extremely energetic process and I soon found my polite demeanor slipping slightly. Braeden nudged me gently when my lips lifted, making me remember myself and where I was.

Lena was a very funny girl, full of bright ideas and really seeming to brim with life. From the short conversation I had with her, I decided that I liked her and I found it rather hard to keep my amusement to myself.

By the end of the session we had a list of short term goals and a list of long term goals. We also had maps of the ways in which we planned to achieve the goals we had listed. I instructed the team to work on that from today until next Stymie when I next saw them.

It was nearing the evening by the time we finished and I knew it was definitely time that I should be heading back to the castle. I had spent all day with Braeden and I was very reluctant to leave him, a fact that he seemed to be aware of. However, as I realised that I did not want to leave him, I remembered the reason I was angry with him in the first place. He had insulted me and then told me to piss off the last time I had seen him. This was reason enough for me to want nothing more to do with him ever, but I found myself wanting exactly the opposite. A foolish notion, I was sure.

We walked side by side along the corridor and back towards the foyer. I knew Simon would be waiting there to escort me back to the palace. We were about six doors away from the double doors into the foyer when Braeden cursed suddenly and grabbed my arm.

I was never sure how to feel when he touched me. In some ways the tingles felt warm and electrifying but if I was not prepared for his touch, the shocks that went through me often felt more like an attack. It felt this way now as he tugged me into one of the empty rooms on the left side.

I pulled my skirts into the room just before he closed the door, narrowly missing having my long dress caught in the door. I glared at him.

What we were doing was entirely improper. Before meeting Braeden, just the thought of being alone in close quarters with a man would have made me blush. However I did not blush now, not even as Braeden's piercing blue eyes penetrated me.

He took two steps forward, backing me against the windowless door. My breath came faster. He placed both his hands on either side of me, thwarting any hope of escape. My head fell to the side as I took in his long fingered, masculine hand just inches away from my face.

"Rey," he said softly, his eyes darting down to look at my parted lips.

"Why do you call me that?" I forced myself to meet his eyes, despite our close contact.

Braeden's body was just a breath away from mine, his dratted black hair falling into his eyes again. My fingers itched to brush the hair back.

"Because," he began and there was a dangerous note in his voice. "You make me feel out of control," he pushed his body flush against mine and I gasped at the heavy heat of him. "Like rays of moonlight," he finished.

My foggy brain could hardly make sense of his words, it was so caught up in the physicality of our encounter.

My leopard pushed towards the front of my mind, encouraging me to feel. She arched her back in pleasure, causing me to mimic her movements. Braeden's breath puffed out as my chest pushed into his. His head fell forward, his hot breath fanning against my neck.

"Rey," my name left his mouth on a plea.

I knew that I should stop but my leopard was taking over. She pushed my hands up to his hair, making me run my fingers through the thick, sooty strands. I pushed the clump of hair back in the movement that I had been aching to carry out ever since I had laid eyes on him.

I saw his fists clench out of the corner of my eye and he raised his head to look me in the eye. I gasped as we made eye contact. If his eyes had been an intense blue before they were now positively liquidating. The aquamarine colour glowed brightly from under his heavy dark eyebrows and I knew that his beast was close.

He made a harsh, guttural sound in the back of his throat before he pushed away from me, freeing my hands from the chains of his hair.

He took several steps back, running his own hand through his hair now that mine were absent. He paced in front of me, muttering incoherently to himself. I knew that he was fighting for control with his animal half.

I slumped back against the door as I watched him, the cool air making goosebumps rise on my skin. My leopard growled with anger at the loss of his heat.

"This wasn't how it was supposed to go," I caught the grumbled phrase as he passed.

I didn't know what he was talking about and I was struggling to make sense of anything what with the strength of my leopard's discomfort clawing at my skull.

"Braeden," my head was splitting open.

He either ignored me or he didn't hear me, continuing his irritated pacing.

"Braeden," my voice was a lot softer now as the world started to ripple and the sounds grew more distant. My knees gave out from under me and I slumped to the floor, my eyes rolling back into my head.

The sea crashed in my ears, each wave bringing a torrent of frothing pain with it. There was no way I could keep composed under the weight of such pressure. I was sure some kind of scream or whimper had left my mouth because the soothing tingles spreading down my upper arm could be only credited to Braeden's touch.

However, the ocean was black and stuck to me like oil, dragging me down, down. Everything slipped away until all I knew was the sea and the sound of my own heartbeat. And then even that was gone. 

--- A/N --- 

Hello everyone! The above chapter is quite short, I'm sorry but it had to end like that ^ Things will be picking up in the coming chapters though so that is something to look forward to. Thanks so much for reading everyone and wishing you all a very happy new year. All my love! - Zoe :)