Page 90 of Microburst

Rage filled Rigel’s eyes. “Yeah, conflict is one way to put it. Candidates being able to beat each other is another. Thorn Blount punching me and then Onyx Conley knocking me out a few days ago was the last straw.”

“Because you got close to the queen? Was it a warning or—”

Rigel snorted. “No, she wants no part of me. She—like I said, she didn’t hide that she thought I wasn’t worthy of her.”

“How?” Evan hurried on when Rigel chuffed. “I’m not picking on you, but the queen is known as having a tough mask. Just being cold to you isn’t—”

“She said it, okay?” he snapped. “She said I was lucky that Thorn punched me because her dragon wanted to shred my wing. That I couldn’t keep up another time and—”

“Wait, wait, what happened that she was so upset? The queen doesn’t just fly off the handle,” Evan interrupted, a twinkle in his eyes.

That was when it hit me and I breathed what I realized to Treena, knowing a few others with us would hear as well. “Oh shit. That’s June’s friend. That’s why his name is familiar.”

“You’re kidding?” Onyx hissed, bursting out laughing when I nodded.

He wasn’t the only one.

“I said something—it was stupid locker room talk,” Rigel defended. “It was in poor taste and—we were all freaked out about—it’s hard to be there.”

“Of course, of course,” Evan comforted. “We all make mistakes. Violence isn’t the answer for things said.”

Rigel relaxed again, and then the idiot confessed what he said, fully, about trying to catch me naked—all of it. Whining that Thorn punched him and his head split open on the castle’s stone and no one would even help him—yell at Thorn. That it was just fine.

Evan coaxed him into saying more about how I had reamed him about what he’d said in front of June but didn’t name her at least. He even confessed some other crap that I hadn’t known about.

“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” Fraser mumbled, looking ready to bang his head against the wall. “I cannot believe—he’s making your point that he’s not a viable option to be the mate to the ruler of Thovudin.”

Yeah, he really, really was.

“So everyone makes mistakes, and as you said, it’s awkward being there,” Evan guided. “The media hasn’t helped. It had to be hard being one of the lowest ranked.”

“The queen didn’t listen to any of that and I believe her,” Rigel said firmly. “She was mad at the meetings, really mad. She was lecturing all of the Alphas that we all had to be on the same team and stop the bullshit. That this was about what was best for Thovudin, not their areas. She goes on and on about it.

“How she did this all for peace and they’re not being fair and pressuring her. I guess several threatened war to Darren Gurren if she didn’t pick a bunch of us in the end and embarrassed the Alpha families. That’s what I was talking about and—fine, it was stupid, but I thought that was—but she basically dared them to try. She’s kinda nuts like that.

“I mean, she’s not wrong that the Alphas all piss each other off as well, and they won’t go to war against her for another area’s family member to become her mate.” Rigel frowned. “Yeah, that’s actually a really good point. Father would never get involved in that. He wouldn’t really do it for me. He wouldn’t risk the lives of our people and family for that.

“I can’t see it being him. So yeah, it’s a shitshow, but she’snutsbecause people won’t forget this. Like she’s writing checks she’ll get hurt when people cash them later remembering this.” He tilted his head and snorted. “They really should train with her though. She’s unreal. She’s a fucking monster. Like seriously, she is.”

I wasn’t the only one who went tense at that word choice, but luckily everyone else around us ignored it.

“How do you mean?” Evan asked. “We heard that she beat up some Alphas. She’s violent or—”

“She runs like amillionmiles every fucking morning!” Rigel exclaimed. “And she makes us join her now! She said we’re all too self-important for where we are in life and needed to realize she wasn’t lucky that we were forced on her. Someone said something about forgiving her for her upbringing and he would help her become a proper mate or something.

“I don’t know, but it seriously pissed her off. Like even one of the Alphas got mad and said she’s an actual genius with like a hundred degrees and none of us was going to teach her global politics and the next idiot who acted like they were going to be king was going in the ground. But yeah, that was when things changed and she said we needed a reality check.

“No one can keep up with her. When she ran to the front gates—that thing people reported on—that shopkeeper? She thought the woman was hurt?” He waited until Evan nodded, people knowing what happened. “Theancientscouldn’t even keep up with her! She was just gone. Took off and it was insane. We watch her in the weight room and it’s impossible what she lifts.”

“She’s supposed to be the strongest since she’s from the royal bloodline to protect us,” Evan reminded him.

“Yeah, but who wants to be mated to that?” Rigel whined. “I’ve never felt so weak and useless. During the attack, guys who were there were talking about just getting out of the way and letting the woman we’re supposed to be courting protect them! Like it’s so lame. That ancient, Belinda, just chuckles because she uses extra magic on the weights.

“We have no idea what the queen really lifts. I can’t bench what she does before the magic and I’m like a foot taller than her. She never stops working. She’s constantly in meetings. How can we even talk to her? This meeting or that one, and theonly ones who see her are always working with her and that’s exhausting. This was supposed to be fun!”

I blinked as Rigel spent the next twenty minutes “bitching” about me in a way that honestly made me blush. Evan expertly guided him, setting traps for the idiot to fall right into. Rigel admitted he’d been going to that website where someone was posting information about me and watched some of my lectures.

He had even donated to it. He said learning that information about Thovudin’s leader was important and was mad the media wasn’t doing anything besides accusing me of being behind it. He confirmed it wasn’t me, even saying he’d heard me tell people to stay out of it. Not to feed them information, but also not to look into it.