unthinkable
The moment she saw Hayley stomping her way wearing a triumph look, she knew her good day was about to come to an end.
More conspiracy theories. Another hairball scam that would get her in trouble with the old dogs again.
"Hayley, you know I'm on my way to committee."
"This is important. We must talk. They know I know, so it's only a matter of time before they try to hide my body."
She used her history book to hit herself in the head repeatedly.
Julian chuckled.
"Come on, Jess. You have to believe me on this."
Jess took a deep breath and counted to ten. "Okay, Lee. What is it?"
"This morning Savion was showing Macie and me around the ship. He was letting us play with the screens in his room."
"Please tell me that's not some kind of dirty talk."
"Gross, Jess. Listen to me. He had files. When he left the room, I looked through some of them. Yours was the very first file."
"Interesting."
"They're lying to you, Jess. I saw it with my own eyes. You have more matches. A long list. And yes, even Julian. If they are lying to you, who else are they lying to? We can't believe anything they've told us."
"Let's don't jump the gun here. Maybe you mixed up the names."
"I'm not a dumbass, Julian. I know what I saw."
She could no longer hear what they were saying. A loud nothingness was filling her head as she glanced around the hallway at the people walking past them. Aliens and humans.
None of that even mattered to her. None of it. She didn't care about the matches. Had Kellum deceived her? If he had then she couldn't believe anything he ever told her.
None of it.
Jess saw Julian's concern. He always believed the best of people. Right now, he would be more worried about her blowing up and taking people out before he'd believed the worst. He would require proof. Not her.
She expected the worse in people.
But Kellum?
Lee looked worried now too, no longer pleased with herself. Jess could only imagine she looked as devastated as she felt.
She wanted to trust him. Needed to. He had become important to her. How could she have let that happen?
"I'm sorry, Jess. You should know the truth, right? I've never trusted these damn aliens. I know you were falling for him."
Was?
Her voice sounded as if it belonged to another. "Dezrick, is it true? Do I have more matches than I was told?"
"I'm not at liberty to say."
His eyes warm and always on her. His feelings unhidden. Why would he lie to her about that?
He wouldn't. Couldn't.
Fear played along her mind and down her spine. If he had, everything that was happening to them would die a slow death.
The same could be said if she couldn't find a way to trust him. Believe in him.
She took a deep breath. Didn't she? As far as she knew, he hasn't ever told her one lie. He was always honest. Just because someone lied, didn't mean it was him. If she was ever going to trust in someone new, it was Kellum.
She started marching, her books thrown down where she'd been standing.
"What do you think is going to happen?" She heard Lee ask Julian.
"Depends if she's pissed or hurt."
"Which one are we hoping for?"
"Pissed. Believe me, we want pissed."
Where in the hell, was she going? When she stopped, Julian and Hayley plowed into her. "Dezrick, why hasn't he been summoned?"
"I'm not at________."
"Get his ass here now." She ordered in a growl.
She heard Julian's sigh of relief as he slipped his arms around her waist. "Babe, maybe we should take this somewhere else. Then you can throw as many punches as you want."
Jess planned on it anyway. She was fit to be tied. Julian was only trying to calm her down before the big lug got here. She knew that, but she also knew that the longer it took him to get here the more guilty he looked. The fear was back ten folds so there was no calming her. When he still didn't come, fuck if tears didn't prick the back of her eyes.
"There could be a good reason."
"And what could that be?" Whatever anger she had felt was gone. She just wanted to see him. "Dezrick, have you informed him that I want him?"
"First I had to inform the advisors and they have told him that he is not allowed to come to you until an emergency meeting can be called. He has refused their request and is coming now."
Not coming. He stood in front of her.
He took everything in at a glance. Three things were clear, he hadn't been informed of what was going on, he didn't like Julian holding her, and he noticed her unshed tears and they distressed him greatly.
"Did you know?"
"Know what, Jessalynn?"
"Did you lie to me?"
"I have never lied to you. There are some things I have not told you, but I have not lied to you. My people do not______."
"I don't want to hear it. Either you did, or they did."
She went at him, but Julian wasn't letting her get too close. With good reason, he was probably afraid she was going to start punching soon. She was surprised as he would be, to know she was only going to take Kell's hand. One look in his eyes and she'd known he hadn't done this, and she didn't like how upset he was getting at seeing how upset she was. Somebody was getting into trouble. "Your people may not lie, but they do falsify documents."
He stepped closer to her. His eyes flamed and were directed over her head.
"Release her now."
"Oh no, you don't. We have bigger fish than that to fry right now."
"Do not ever try and keep her from me." His voice was deadly, and it was a clear threat.
"You don't get to do that. Ever. You have a problem with him, then we have a problem. My people aren't the issue here, yours are." Now he tried to reach for her, and she was the one who moved away.
"Dezrick?"
"The human Jessalynn gets aggressive anytime she feels someone is being rude to______.
"Dezrick!"
"The advisors await you. I am not at liberty to say more."
His frown was dark. "By who's orders?"
"I am not at liberty to say."
He was shocked but when he turned to her the only thing, she saw in his eyes were his feelings for her.
"Jessalynn, I have not lied to you. There are things you do not know but only because I am unable to talk about certain things. I would never hurt you and I want to know who did." He offered her his hand. "Let us go find out."
"Jess, don't go. You don't know what lengths they'd go to shut you up." Was Lee's warning.
She took his hand. "Fine, but we are going to talk about Julian when this is over."
She was so upset she was shaking. As soon as they arrived in chambers, she pulled away from him and put some distance between them.
None of this went unnoticed by him, he reacted like she struck him.
Kellum took his seat. "Dezrick, replay the scene in the hallway."
"I am unable to do that at this time."
Wrong thing to say. His eyes flashed. His voice was calm but laced with barely contained anger. "The only way that would be possible is if my advisors took it among themselves to have certain information banned from me. Which is unheard of. Is that not so, advisor Savion?"
"It is, and circumstances would have to be very irregular for such an occurrence."
"Indeed, it would. I cannot imagine what circumstances could cause my advisors to turn on me, hurt my mate, and break a treaty that has been in place since even your time, advisor Demetruisu."
"We would never had taken it upon ourselves unless we believed it was what was best for our people."
"Tell me advisor Birkett why should I not see this as treason?"
All four men took a deep breath at that word.
Then Kell stood and they took another.
She didn't know what that meant but apparently Kellum wasn't able to stand in their presence. Just like she wasn't allowed to sit. That's why Kell was always holding her at his side.
They lied to her and to him. Her relief was great. Kellum was innocent. She could handle the advisors, but could they handle her?
Jess went to the raised dais and took a seat. For good measure, she laid her legs out in front of her and got comfortable. "If they aren't man enough to own up to what they did, I'll do it."
"That will be unnecessary. Dezrick, you may replay the scene."
Kellum was tight lipped through the whole thing. If he wasn't upset enough, when he realized she had asked for him and they had tried to keep him from her, his eyes went deadly.
And to think, he hadn't even had a temper before he met her.
He didn't speak for several long moments. "How could you possibly justify what you have done?"
"It was one omission, and we did not have to say a false truth. All we had to do is change the test. A lie never passed our lips."
"Do you think that makes it any less a lie?"
"Why did you do it?"
At her question, they looked at each other than at Kellum.
"Answer her. After today she is to know everything."
"That is unwise. We are still unsure of your match."
"You are unsure. Not I. The only thing I am unsure of is my advisors."
"You might not like our actions, but you know our intentions are true. Treason was not committed. You see her as your mate, but as of yet, she is not."
"Nor can you take your rightful position until then so as much as you might want to take measures against us, you cannot."
"Each of us decided that for our people we were willing to face your displeasure."
"And disappointment."
"And all future reprimands."
"Tell her what you did." Kell ordered.
Demetruisu turned to her. "We came here needing mates for our people. Needing a future. A king. Advisors were never meant to rule the kingdom. We never wanted to. We are supposed to advise our king. Give our advice and leave the decision to him."
"We never wanted to rule but we have had no choice."
"In the position, we find ourselves in, our future king is more our advisors."
"You were willing to go against everything we believe in? Everything we stand for?" Kellum ordered an answer as he retook his seat.
"Is that not what we did by coming here?"
"We changed the test, but the outcome would have still been the same. We did not change the numbers. You were the highest."
"Some complications just needed to be removed so that we might have our king."
Kell was watching her. Waiting for her to figure it out. She wished she hadn't. He was king. No, he was to be king.
Freaked out she tried to remember everything she'd learned about royalty.
They were born with a mark. There was a long line of them but most of them had died during their sickness.
She had assumed their king was being kept away from everyone.
That was a reasonable thing to think. Not that he was going to school with them. Not that he spent the night kissing the socks off her.
"Some of us have come to regret our decision. When we saw the complications between the two of you, we feared that we had steered you wrong, future king."
"Some of us feel like we made the right choice. The hard choice. The complications fear us, but we believe in our ways."
"Fear. It would seem Jessalynn was even right about that. What fear does to people. If you had believed in our ways you would have remained true to them. You would have trusted that if Jessalynn and I are meant to be together, if we are meant to rule together, then it would have happened regardless of how many matches she has."
Rule together? Crap on a stick then beat her with it. He wasn't king yet because he couldn't be, not without a queen.
He was still watching her.
"You should have chosen Hayden." Having all the information now, she knew just how right that statement was.
"Half of us agree with her."
"The numbers do not lie."
The advisor in black turned to the older one. "Demetruisu, you know as well as I, that mates are not always the highest number."
"Only when the numbers are close. Not numbers like theirs. The numbers do not lie."
"No, they do not." Kellum spoke softly, his eyes as warm as they'd ever been. "Nor do I. She is my mate."
"You might feel differently once you see the true test results."
He finally looked away from her. "I will not. Do you realize how much harm you have done? How are these people to trust us after they find out what you have done? How are we to build a new world on a lie?"
"None of us believe they should be told. We will vote and we will all agree that this will never be mention again."
Kellum looked at each of them. He did not like what he saw. "You can tie my hands that way, but you will not be able to stop the others from telling more people."
"Kell, they're right. You can't tell." Agreeing with them about anything, left a bad taste in her mouth. "If you want this to work then nobody can know. They will think you've been lying about all of it. Everything will crash and burn."
"Jessalynn, they deceived you. Hurt you. There should be consequences."
"There will be. One day you will be king, and they will be the advisors you don't know if you can trust."
"Your friends______."
"I'll take care of Julian and Lee. This was done to me. Only me, right?"
She received a nod from each of the men. "Dezrick, have they forbidden you to tell Kellum anything else?"
"No, human Jessalynn."
"Anything else they aren't telling me?"
"I am not at liberty to say."
"I knew you would say that."
"Give me your vote. From this moment forth, I will hide nothing from her."
"My vote is no. Not till she is queen. If she is queen."
Kellum growled at the man.
"I am unsure about many things, but you have my vote." Demetruisu voted.
"It would be a very bad mistake. We still have many decisions that need to be made. She is a complication we do not need."
"He has my vote." Savion offered softly.
"You are right about one thing. We do have much that needs to be decided. I will not be forgetting the injustice you did to my mate. Let me be very clear on this. If you ever try to keep me from Jessalynn again there will be hell to pay. She will be your queen, so I suggest you start remembering that. The rest of the meetings for today have been cancel. That will be all."