Page 66 of Knowing Trust

But she was making over a hundred grand less than the others.

Oh, and the second guy was being fucked by one of the station’s executives… One of the male executives. The guy who said shit against Geiger and other homosexuals in the supe community was a bottom to keep his job. That was just fucking priceless.

I honestly didn’t care who topped or bottomed in a relationship. I didn’t think it mattered. It did in this instance because he didn’t think he was actually gay. He was attracted to women but loved being fucked. He hated the man who did it, wasn’t attracted to him, but loved the feeling of being fucked while throwing out gay slurs daily.

I didn’t even know what to say as he rambled that confession. Like… Wow, bro. Seriously, he had issues.

Two hours in I swallowed a wince when Geiger showed up with Captain Dalyor, Rafe, Kerym, and Agis. Damn, someone had let something slip and they were all tattletales too.

I wasn’t the only one who looked busted.

“Anyone else snitches and tells anyone, I will strip them of their titles and ranks,” I warned, my tone cold.

“I apologize, Your Highness, but we’re not enough for the information we’re getting,” one of the captains apologized. “We made them swear to keep this secret.”

“I feel the same,” Claudia added. “That was why I made the call.” She shot me a look that she wasn’t kidding and I missed something. “Can I ask questions and they will respond?” She waited until I nodded and moved by the top female of the group. “Tell us again who you were having an affair with and why you hate the princess so much.”

She named someone and people went pale. Clearly, I’d missed something.

The captain handling her dipped his head to me. “You were focused on the other woman’s fixation with your mate, Your Highness. This woman having an affair on her mate isn’t remotely the worst of their crimes.”

“So it’s who the guy is,” I surmised, glancing at Claudia.

“He was a commander of the Underground,” she told me. “You recently took him out.” She nodded when I couldn’t hide my shock. “And she knew. She was working with him. How her name didn’t come out in all of this—”

“Runes and magic aren’t perfect,” I answered with a shrug. “The mind is a terrifying and impressive thing, Claudia. People can frame things how they want. I see it all of the time. I still see people frame me as trash and an unknown because that’s how they first saw me. They cannot process the changes and learning more.

“Putting them under runes won’t make them tell us that I’m a princess. Their truth is still that I’m an unknown. The same could be said for that man. She wasn’t this person to him. She was—whatever she was. That’s the problem with only relying on runes and magic. That’s why our investigations take so damn long and have so much paperwork. We don’t only rely on magic.”

“Well said, Your Highness,” Dalyor praised. “Now, I want to hear about which one is a threat to your mate.”

I went over to the second woman and smiled. “This one. This piece of trash. She’s completely in love with my dragon. And my warlock. Oh, and just because she’s a greedy one, she wants Neldor now too.” I reached out and tapped her nose. “And she’s an idiot. Tell him what happens if you mate Neldor?”

“I’ll become Queen of the Dark Realm.”

And just like when she’d said it earlier, everyone laughed. Those of us who had already heard it didn’t laugh as hard, but the new arrivals lost their shit. The woman still didn’t understand why we were laughing.

“Now, once again, let’s try and listen to me,” I said as if I was speaking to a three-year-old. “We have laws in Faerie. The queen can only be a fairy because she is queen ruler. There is no position of king in Faerie. It’s against the law. No man may be of a higher position than queen ruler as stated by the gods.”

She frowned. “That makes no sense. Neldor rules the dark realm.”

I studied her a moment. “How high is your IQ?”

“She really is that dumb,” the first guy drawled. “Both of them are.”

“I’m the only one with any intelligence,” the lead woman grumbled. “And I’ve been repeatedly told that I needed to stop showing that and downplay it if I wanted to keep this job. I fucking hate the executives. I should have branched off years ago.”

“You wouldn’t have made it without us,” the first guy chuckled.

That threw a match on the powder keg I’d been building, and I accepted food as the two of them yelled at each other. They let out everything with the runes making them say too much. I watched them like a tennis match.

“Can I get Izzy for this?” Claudia asked me quietly. “She’s really going to be upset we excluded her from this drama when others have joined. Plus, she keeps up with the gossip.” She gestured between the two now screaming at each other. “We don’t. I have no idea who half of these people are. Izzy would.”

“Good point. Yeah, have Ara assign you someone to slip away with.”

We were recording it all so we could dig into it, but all the fairies there had no idea what was really going on. The other three were reacting though, so it had to be good.

Another twenty minutes and Leigh moved over by me. “There is a reason we didn’t want more people and those closer to you, Your Highness. They would stop the rest of this, remember?”

---