Page 169 of Drama Queen

Still,it was good to know where the woman stood. The next couple of days would be a trial by fire, but they’d let Charlotte know exactly what she could expect from her.

“Good, then consider the next couple of days as your job interview. I’ll be assessing your attitude, your ability to fit in seamlessly with what I need, and your ability to anticipate not only the mood of the room, but the needs of the people in it.”

“No pressure,” Bonny said with another bright giggle.

Charlotte fixed her with a steady gaze. “Bonny, I want to make this absolutely clear. With lots of pressure. The news hasn’t leaked yet, but an absolute tragedy happened this morning, two young lives were lost, one shifter, one human. Tensions between our peoples is at an all-time high and the incident took place in Branxton. What we do in the next few days will determine the course of human-shifter relationships for the next few centuries. You don’t get much more high-pressure than this, and if you can’t keep up with me, I need you to step back and get out of the way right now.”

Bonny blinked at her. “Someone died?” she whispered. “How awful.”

That’s what she took from everything Charlotte had just said? There was no way this was going to work.

Sighing, Charlotte looked up and down the hallway, trying to find some sign of where it was she was supposed to be going, because Bonny hadn’t even begun to move in either direction.

“Okay Bonny, I can see this isn’t going to work. What I need right now, is for you to focus long enough to get me to the conference room. I’ll take it from there.”

“No, wait, I can do this?” Bonny pleaded, gripping onto her arm. “I’m the right person, you’ll see, just give me a chance.”

If anything, she was only making herself look worse.

“First of all, let go of my arm. Now,” Charlotte said coldly, her anger beginning to rise. Movement from the corner of her eye had her turning defensively, only to relax when she saw it was a security guard rounding the corner.

“Ma’am, let the acting senator go right now, and step back toward the wall,” he said in an authoritative voice.

Bonny jumped as though stung, but only clutched at Charlotte tighter.

“No, no, you’ve got it wrong, I’m not hurting her. I’d never hurt her. She just needs to listen to me for a second,” Bonny explained frantically.

A second guard rounded the corner, the two of them advancing steadily.

She could see exactly how this was going to play out. The foolish younger woman was already panicking, and the threat posed by the two larger male shifters would only make her beast more upset. This would make her begin to shift, her claws would come out, digging into Charlotte’s arm, albeit accidentally, but wounding her enough that not only would she have difficulty typing, but possibly also to the point where she wouldn’t be fit to attend the press conference.

Which meant she had to prevent it, before things could become overly-complicated, and this stupid young woman ruined her own life with charges of assault and more.

“Stop right there,” Charlotte commanded, the authority in her voice making the men halt immediately. “Bonny, you are not in trouble, but if you don’t let me go now, you will be. Do you understand?”

Bonny let her go like she was diseased, even going so far as to leap back a step or two, before raising her hands in the air. “I didn’t do anything,” Bonny protested. “I just needed her to listen to me.”

Now that the other woman had let her go, Charlotte was able to examine her properly. Her pulse pounded at her throat, her pupils were dilated three times the size of a human’s, and highlights already brightened her blonde hair. Her lioness was close to the surface, clouding the woman’s thoughts, likely since she’d scented the president. It meant she wasn’t as stupid as she appeared to be, just heavily affected by the man’s natural pheromones.

“She’s in a hormone haze,” Charlotte said with a sigh.

The guards looked around, confusedly. There was nobody else near them, so they didn’t understand what was going on.

“The president was just here, talking to both of us,” Charlotte explained. “She’s a lioness. I’m telling you, she’s in a haze. One of you needs to get her down to medical and supervised until she snaps out of it. The other needs to show me where the damn conference room is.”

The guard who first rounded the corner gave a flick of his head to the other one, who stepped forward and put an arm around the bewildered woman’s shoulders.

“Just go with him, Bonny. You’ve had a funny turn and he’s going to get the doctor to check you out,” Charlotte told her gently.

“But I need to tell you something,” Bonny said, becoming agitated again.

“You already did, honey. Don’t you remember? You told me all about it, and then you had your funny turn. So, we’re going to look after you, and when you’re feeling better, you and I will have a cup of tea and a good old chat and see what we can work out, okay?”

“Oh, okay,” she replied, settling again. “I’ve got to go now, but we’ll talk later.”

The guard at her side waited until the lift doors had closed behind them and the light had flickered down two levels before speaking to her.

“Are you really going?—”

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