Page 46 of Retrograde

“I think that—” Dray started to say.

“I’m sorry, Alpha, I think you’re under the misconception you’re here as my advisor or that I was asking opinions instead of here to report on what you’re working on for me and Thovudin,” Sagan said evenly. “I have advisors. I said I understood where you were coming from—not that I agreed or would change my plan.”

I wasn’t the only one who had trouble curbing their reaction. She’d just thrown down for Dray to step back over the line and into his place.

Wow.

She didn’t even wait for his response before focusing on Joris for his update on the temples situation. Dray swallowed down his annoyance, but it was hard to be an asshole when she wasright.

Lunch was delivered and the reports given about the elder houses in the capital were promising. Sagan launching an auction website to handle their belongings was beyond smart and the goodwill she would receive donating the proceeds to the programs the elders had pushed to cut funding to… Chef’s kiss.

“Where are the dumplings?” Onyx asked as he lifted the empty platter and glanced between our plates. “This thing was full of dumplings or am I hallucinating?”

Everyone kind of shrugged, but I had to cover my face because I was losing the battle with laughing.

“You ate a whole platter of dumplings?” Onyx asked me. “Is that what’s amusing?”

“It wasn’t me,” I chuckled and then burst out laughing when Sagan simply reached for her drink and said nothing. “Talk to the dumpling vacuum over there.” Her lips twitched and then I really lost it.

“I don’t know what you mean,” she lied out her ass.

That was it, I had to push my chair back and lean over I was laughing so hard. It took me a few moments and I ignored everyone looking between us with confusion. “It was the only time I saw your mother lecture you about your table manners.”

Her face softened. “And your mother interjected for them to let me be a kid and have some fun.”

“She loved you so much,” I whispered. “She would bring that up every time we had dumplings. Father too. He would joke that nothing was more impressive than how quickly you could eat dumplings and no one would even notice.” I pointed to thelargeplatter Onyx was holding still.

She snickered and then chuckled. “I didn’t eat thewhole platter.”

“Half?” I pushed.

She ran her tongue over her teeth and looked equal parts amused and ready to pound me. “I didn’t count.”

Yup, I lost it, and again when she ordered someone to smack me.

“You’re such a snitch,” she grumbled good-naturedly. “Seriously? In this group?”

“Oh come on, they’re here to try and mate you,” I defended, gesturing to the prospects. “Like they wouldn’t have figured it out? Anyone who pays any attention would have noticed.”

“Like you do?” Thorn challenged, crossing his arms over his chest and staring me down.

I raised an eyebrow at him and my dragon got annoyed even. “The queen doesn’t like hot coffee like you kept trying to fix for her as pathetic peace offerings for whatever happened. She likes espresso drinks and the extra shots to be frozen into cubes so as she drinks it, it gets stronger instead of the shock of super strong coffee to start.

“She likes high protein breakfasts and actually prefers her lattes with protein shakes. Carbs and fruit as her morning snack, and then a big lunch after training, while she prefers lighter dinners. She prefers sweet snacks over salty unless upset and then she likes salty, crunchy snacks. She also prefers to rotate her dinners between chicken, red meat, and fish. She—”

“Okay, stalker,” Myriam cut in, not hiding her shock.

“Forgive me, but I know the same about Princess Treena,” Davian cut in. “Most of our staff does.”

I shot him a grateful look but then did a double take when I saw the surprise on Sagan’s face. “I was in all of the briefings about your school life, Your Majesty. I visited you there several times to check on the private security protecting you there and the schools’ systems. I saw a lot.”

“What else?” she asked, searching my face for… Something.

“Honestly?” I hedged, waiting until she nodded. “You need to assign one cleaning staff for your suite. You hate your space being invaded, and the reason you can’t decorate or getcomfortable is because it doesn’t feel like yours and too many people are in and out of there. I even heard some talking about it being a hodgepodge of stuff from other rooms.

“That will irk you and you won’t settle. You loved that no one knew anything about your rooms or apartments at school and even handled the cleaning yourself mostly. You want to assign someone to be your personal assistant to handle things like that, but you don’t want to upset Raquel or Myriam like they’re not doing enough for you.

“You’re also annoyed that no one is making your training and physical health a priority when you need that for your mental health. Also, you just really enjoy training and working out. You’ve wanted to suggest some of these update meetings are done while on runs or even sparring, but that wasn’t what your father did, so you worry how people will react.