Page 185 of Drama Queen

“Well, technically you weren’t,” the doctor said unhelpfully, although Leonard suspected the man was only trying to make her feel better. “You were under the effects of mating hormones,which not only clouded your higher reasoning functions, but also lowered your inhibitions. Given what I know of Ms Diaz’s condition, the fact you resigned and then withdrew it, and are now acting in her stead until she can return to work, and your change in habitat seeing your own home is no longer safe, it’s a wonder you were able to think as coherently as you have been. That’s a lot of stress and a lot of change in less than a day.”

“I can’t go out there and say that,” Charlotte protested. “I can’t say I was having a bad day so I mouthed off, and I certainly can’t say that I was lost in a haze of hormones and not able to think clearly. That’s only going to validate their claims that we’re nothing more than beasts.”

“Oh,” Dr Watson replied. “Well, yes. That would be somewhat awkward.”

“I can’t do this!” Charlotte wailed, pure panic on her face, even as her expression continued to brighten. “I can’t fucking do this? I need to resign, and you need to find another pro tem. It’s the only way we’re going to shift the focus away from me and back onto the topic. We need these changes to start happening. We need our lives to matter, and this is the most horrible yet perfect opportunity for us to show the humans that we should have the same rights they do! We can’t do that, if people keep focusing on what’snothappening in my vagina.”

Dr Watson snickered, but Leonard gave her a look that promised what wasn’t happening in her vagina, soon would be. Just as soon as they could get in front of this disaster.

He recalled a conversation he had with a similarly panicked female just five years ago. New to her job, and newly rejected, Grace Diaz had been falling apart. It had taken Leonard days to coax her back into some semblance of the powerhouse he knew her to be, and in his heart he knew that if anyone could help Charlotte right now, it would be his old friend and the biggest pain in his butt, Grace.

Deciding upon a course of action, he pulled out his phone and found her number, hitting the button to call her before handing it to Charlotte. Confused, she took it from him, looking at the screen with a growing alarm.

“What the fuck are you people doing over there, Leonard?” Grace growled, even as rumbled complaints registered in the background.

“Is she talking to another fucking male again?” someone groused.

“Fuck her harder, and get that phone out of here. I don’t care what the hell is going on out in the real world, right now her attention should be on the three men giving her what her body needs, not adding stress to her life!” a second voice replied.

Leonard smirked. Charlotte’s face had turned from horror to intrigue, clearly curious about what her boss was getting up to. Distractedly, she put the phone to her ear. Good. It wasn’t much, but it was a start.

Charlotte

While she couldn’t dismissthat both Leonard and Dr White were present and listening, Charlotte could no longer repress the desperate anxiety that was threatening to overwhelm her.

“It’s Charlotte,” she said quietly. “Grace, I fucked up. Like really fucked up. Like I make you look like a demure kind of lady, fucked up.”

The only sound down the line was masculine moans and the slapping of flesh on flesh. Damn, couldn’t they stop for just five minutes?

“I’m gonna mute you for a minute,” Grace said, crackling on the line telling her the woman had failed to do just that. “It’s Charlotte, and for once she needs me. Make this a fast one boys, and then get me something to eat and drink. I’m parched and I’m starving.”

“Come on guys,” a male voice replied. “If she wants to come fast, then it needs to be a group effort. Don’t hold back, either. I think little Gracie needs to remember who’s in charge during her heat.”

Oh. Em. Gee.

Quickly Charlotte punched the button to mute the call, looking at the two men beside her with wide eyes. “Who the fuck is she with?”

Leonard smirked. “Three fox shifters. They’re triplets, actually. She said it makes it easier, because she can switch between dating the three of them in public, and nobody is the wiser. It means she can date multiple men, something her wolf wants since she can’t have her mate, and yet still keep it all under wraps.”

Without even having to think about it, Charlotte had an image of the guy, or guys as it turned out. Even she hadn’t noticed there was more than one of them. Grace had used him, well them, as her ‘arm candy’ as she liked to call it, on more than one occasion.

“But how does she hide that they have different names?”

“It’s surprisingly easy, and probably another reason she settled with them. Grayson, Grady, and Graydon. They all respond to Gray.”

She squinted at him, noting the amusement on his face. The man was far too smug about this, and also far too knowledgeable. “How do you know so much about it?”

“Grace is a very old friend of my family. I’ve known her all my life. When she fell apart after her mate rejected her, her parents came to me for help. After all, I was the president, and she was the elected representative to humans, we were seeing each other on a daily basis anyway.” He sighed, lost in memories for a moment. “I think they hoped we would get together.”

Her owl sat up straight, clearly pissed at the comment. The trouble was, somehow, Leonard knew.

“It was never in the cards,” he reassured her, only embarrassing her further. “Grace is too dominant for me. Don’t get me wrong, I want my mate to submit, but I want to have earned that privilege too. I also don’t want a submissive matein general. Grace would have torn my head off with some of the stuff my lion pushes me to do. Like this whole scene just now? She would have ripped me a new one already.”

Okay, that was true. Not only did he not smell like a lie, but she knew her boss well enough to verify it. Still, it rankled that people wanted him to look elsewhere for a mate, no matter how inappropriate the match. Bonny Kelsing was only the beginning when it came to the lion shifter community too. Lionesses would pressure him, a strong leader, to spread his genes far and wide amongst the available females — fated mate or not.

The phone in her hand flashed, then flashed again, catching her attention.

Incoming call: Grace Diaz. Accept? Decline?

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