Disguise

Others

Flora's POV

"That's your big plan? A party?" I didn't even bother to keep the incredulity out of my voice. Reece's expression turned smug, instead of offended. "You're just saying it like that because you don't want to meet my parents."

"I- That's not true!" I sputtered, annoyed that he was taking this so lightly. "I just think we should be playing things down! Not inviting the possible people into our world! Or did you forget what happened the last time a Nihl and a King threw an officiating party?" I said icily, half terrified and the other half dubious.

Grey shook his head at me, "I think it's a great idea. We take the fight to them!" He spoke with renewed energy and I was left stupefied. These people had death wishes. "Why are you worried Flo, we won't let anything happen to you!" Dani added, supporting her mate and her King. I narrowed my eyes at them, and then turned to my last hope, "Surely Sienna, you don't agree with them? You're a practical person. You know this is a stupid, stupid idea." I was literally feeding her the words.

"Sorry, Flo. But we've been far too long under their control. They're always one step ahead of us and I've had enough of that. If they think they can threaten our Queen's safety, then they've got problems coming!" She blazed, her hand tightening around her mate's.

"Actually, I think this is a bad idea." Surprisingly, Nate was the one who spoke up. All heads turned to him and Xena, but nobody thwarted him. Everyone waited for him to give his explanation patiently.

"Like sienna said, they're a step ahead of us every time. We already considered that there's a mole outside of this room, but we don't know who. Are we really willing to take such a big risk to lure them out? We have a few leads, a pool of suspects from the Elders – with the help of Mr. Staple – but besides them we just know pawns in their game. Isla, Alpha Deta, Brianna, how many more will get sacrificed if we do this?"

His words halted everyone. Xena was looking at him in awe while everyone else's gaze was downcast. I could feel their minds collectively processing this information. Pitting odds against one another and trying to come up with the best possible solution. There was none. I moved a little in my chair. This dining table, which now served as a makeshift meeting room was full of tension and somehow, I felt like I was in the middle of it. I knew that if I put my foot down, they'd never go through with this plan, because whoever these people were, they were ideally only trying to get me out of the equation.

Initially, I thought that they wanted the throne and wanted to get Reece out of the equation, but if that were true then they had plenty of occasions to poison him with more than just a love potion of sorts. But they didn't. Maybe because if he died then there would be another King somewhere and they'd have to kill him too. Or maybe because they didn't care about the throne, but just had an intense hatred for me, a...Nihl. The word felt strange against my tongue. I had identified as a human all my life. Then I find out that there's so many more things and I belong to the population that was supposed to be extinct. Life sure knew how to throw me a curveball.

"Although it seems like Nate has a point, I feel like it really boils down to this; we don't have any other option." Noori broke the silence in the wake of Nate's speech. Slowly, everyone looked up, listening to her. Her gaze met mine and I nodded, as if to say, 'go on, change my mind.'

She swallowed, not used to having so many important people listen to her with a hundred percent attention.

"The point is that we don't have much choice. They're obviously closing in on us. They know we know since Brianna's death, since we have Isla, since there is an APB out on Alpha Deta. There's not much longer they can hide, and the best thing we can do is let the showdown happen in a controlled environment – ours."