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Lauren closed her eyes, considered the question, and opened them with a slight shake of her head. “I can’t be certain whether it’s wishful thinking or a knowing.”
“Talk to Gavin about it. Promise me you won’t do something without first talking to him.”
“I have no intention of doing so.”
“That’s not a promise.”
Lauren rolled her eyes. “I promise I won’t do anything rash pertaining to Morella before talking to Gavin.”
“Okay. I realize you aren’t promising not to if he tells you not to, but at that point, he’s aware of it and it’s no longer something I should’ve taken to him.”
Lauren made a note to talk to him about it before Queenie had a chance to. The werewolf’s loyalty was to Gavin, not Lauren.
She kept her eyes on Queenie —allher eyes — and asked, “How is Nick?”
“Gavin divided our duties so we aren’t likely to be in the same room together. As far as I know, he’s fine.”
Lauren considered Gavin’s reasoning, and said, “Gavin doesn’t trust Nick to follow your orders, but your word is supposed to be as if it came from Gavin, when he’s down.” Queenie tried for a poker face, but the hawk saw more than Lauren had ever imagined was possible. “There’s something you aren’t telling me.”
“Please make sure you eat before you go to sleep. Gavin will be annoyed with us both if he wakes and finds out you haven’t eaten enough.”
“Stop. Are you afraid of Nick?”
“In a one-to-one battle, I’d lose. I’m good, but he’s nearly twice my size and much stronger.”
Not an answer. Rather than call her on it, Lauren tried another question. “Is Gavin’s division of labor working?”
“My Master is wise, and he doesn’t set me up to fail in real-world situations. Eat and then sleep. We’ll be fine.”
That was the truth, but it also wasn’t an answer. “Yes or no, Queenie.”
“It’s working as well as can be expected.”
“Tell me the issue.”
“I’m supposed to make sure you get food and rest.” She waved to the closed office door. “I have the situation outside that door under control.”
“You can spend a few minutes telling me the issue, or I can prowl around for hours, talking to people, until I figure it out.”
Queenie closed her eyes a few seconds and opened them with a tiny shake of her head. “I’m responsible for seeing to the humans and non-predatories, and Nick has the predatory shifters on the other side of the underground. Nine of the least dominant of his group have come to my area, which is fine. Happens a lot. The most dominant gazelle will sometimes be above the least dominant wolf in the supernatural hierarchy.”
“He’s ordered them to come back to him?”
She shook her head. “The food was apportioned based on who was going to be where. I ordered it reallocated to reflect where our people were, and he took offense and demanded the food service workers provide the original amounts. Rather than risk a confrontation, I ordered more food from the warehouse. It’s not a big deal. Easily fixed. He’s just being an asshole lion.”
“I want to make you promise me you’ll come get me if he gets out of line enough you need a mediator, but I have a feeling that would go against your orders from Gavin. So, I’ll just say that he’s probably given you orders to do whatever you can to appease him without appearing weak, and that it’s possible the best way to do that will be with me acting as an intermediary.”
“I hope you aren’t of the opinion that the lion would never hurt you.”
“If I challenged him in front of others and pushed hard enough, he might, but I’d have to force the issue, and even then, it wouldn’t be a serious injury. Remember, he’s under orders from his King to protect me above all else.”
Queenie’s body language had been shown her standing strong, as stubborn as the lion she was having trouble with, until Lauren said the last sentence, and then Queenie’s face had relaxed, happy another route was available.
“Okay. I’ll keep your offer in mind.”
Lauren smiled. “You’re just saying that so I’ll eat and go to sleep.” The micro-expressions may have relaxed, but Lauren didn’t think Queenie had any intentions of allowing Lauren to help unless things got a whole lot worse than they were.
“Nick is grumpy and pissed at the world, but I don’t think he’s going to do anything blatant. If he does, I promise I will consider alerting you.”
