Page 78 of Princess For All

James was close to me once we arrived to meet up with Joel Hart, the head of the huge black bear clan and all of Boston. The five large clans who wanted to join the coven were supposed to get a month trial, but with everything going on and the fact I’d barely spent any time with them, we’d all agreed to extend it to six months.

Half understood, half were pissed.

The heads of the clans of my coven basically reminded them that they took the chance while they waited so yeah, they could wait some more instead of pressuring me… Or they would get pissed.

Joel was fine with it. He was former military and prudent. A few of his adult children took issue with it and I was pretty sure me?

I had no idea and I didn’t really care. I couldn’t keep up with it all.

“Good news and early,” he told me after greetings as he looked over something. “The first batch of blood pressure meds—the ones that eat sodium in the body and were the safest type with the least amount of side effects—passed inspection. So we’ve got it according to the chemists and docs. They also think the inhalers for asthma will be next week.”

“That’s amazing,” I praised.

“It is,” James agreed… As he moved behind me and put his hand on my hip. Okay, so my pretty kitty was marking his territory with another shifter?

He didn’t like me leaving our dates for another shifter?

I wasn’t sure, but I also wasn’t going to try to figure out the minds of men and he could tell me when he was ready. I was just glad that we’d listened to Vanessa and gotten the pharmaceutical company’s labs and… Place? Facility? I wasn’t sure what it was called since it wasn’t really like a typical factory.

We got it back online and were starting to have it working again to make drugs the humans needed. Yay us. That was the takeaway.

“Sometime this week I want you to see Seattle,” I told him. “They’re doing something new with shipping containers and the energy beads. I like the results and protection it can provide.”

“I know the plan, but I haven’t seen it,” he said. “I agree it was a good plan in theory, but vamps—and even some shifters—are strong enough to make those come tumbling down, and then what was it worth?”

“No, they’re not just one line,” James explained. “I would agree then, but they’re side stacking.” He nodded when Joel’s eyes went wide. “Yeah, this tookworkand their people driving trucks all over to collect the beads and bring them to their barrier plans. It works for by the water—it’s solid.”

“Yeah, I’ll check that out. They were smoothing as they went. My only change would be to lay out the area where they’re going first and even it out with paths to facilitate the plan. No shade, improve upon it,” he muttered. He met my gaze. “Something good for people learning to fly choppers to practice lifting off with cargo and placing.”

“He’s right,” James agreed.

Joel’s lips twitched. “Good, you can visit here more often. I look forward to it, Princess.”

James’s hand on my hip gripped harder.

Yeah, this was definitely a territory thing and Joel was interested in me. I glanced at Jamelle and he gave a slight nod… While not hiding that I was a bit behind to just have figured this out.

I simply rolled my eyes. They were all pains in the ass and crazy. Like I could keep straight what was going on with all of them.

We went to a large area where they’d collected thousands of old vehicles and I broke them all down before rebuilding them into shipping containers. This had been on the agenda even before the shipping container wall idea because where to hold all of the energy beads was becoming a problem.

And all the old shipping containers normally had holes.

The little fuckers were just that… Little.

“If you need blood or anything else, I’m more than willing to offer myself, Princess,” Joel said as he moved closer, his voice husky.

“She’s good,” James said, his voice cold.

“You already donated today. I can tell,” Joel countered. “I’m just offering myself for her needs.”

James snorted. “Yeah, just your blood.”

Joel met his gaze before dipping his head to me, like he didn’t want to be rude talking about me when I was standing right there. “No, not just my blood.” He sighed when James growled. “Look, don’t get your tail knotted. I’m looking for a good time—not a long time.”

I held up my hand to James and focused on Joel. “Is that why your kids don’t like me? A few give me shit looks and I heard a stepmom joke that went over my head.”

He did a double take. “Your hearing is better than I would expect someone your age. For the record, I smacked the shit for that. He’s… His mom died right after this all went down. Protecting him. We weren’t together, but—we’ve all suffered. So he doesn’t hate you. He hates everything most days.”

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