Page 67 of Her Lawless Prince

Payton took a deep breath. Since she’d already made a scene and stopped the reading, she might as well speak the truth. “Enough of this torture. We all know you were sneaking prisoners on-world. We have the logs. Save face with the universes and get off our planet already.”

“Payton,” her father stated sternly, the single word a warning.

General Griggs and her pet ass kisser glared at her. Payton fought the urge to leap over the table.

“Princess Payton, would you please check on the transmission,” King Kirill added, his words gentler than Falke’s.

Payton forced herself to stand, torn between the need to jump over the table to slap the general and the needs of her people. “My apologies for speaking between the designated discussion pauses.”

The low words rolled from her throat like a sharp-edged stone cutting its way from inside.

Payton stiffly walked out of the conference room.

“She’s passionate in her opinions, but she’s not wrong,” King Ualan said. “We have proof that off-world prisoners were being brought here against the terms of that agreement.”

When the door opened, Justina pushed up from where she sat on the floor against the wall to greet her. The door closed. “What’s happening?”

“I lost my patience,” Payton said. “They kicked me out.”

“You lasted longer than I thought you would.” Justina gave a tight smile as if she wanted to laugh, but the situation wouldn’t allow for it.

“I make a horrible ambassador,” Payton agreed. “But that soldier kept droning on reading that stupid Cysgodian-Qurilixen Settlement Agreement word for word. Then everyone pauses and debates what is read even though everyone knows the Federation is in the wrong. It’s like they keep hoping they’ll discover a loophole that lets them take over the planet. There are intergalactic laws against this kind of drawn-out torture.”

Payton stared at the door, trying to hear what was happening on the other side. Her shifter hearing should have been able to pick it up, but a light buzzing filled her ears instead.

Justina pointed to a device on the wall. “Noise dampener. They placed it as soon as the meeting started.”

“I should have kept my mouth shut.” Payton frowned, angry with herself. She reached to pull the noise dampener off the wall, but it zapped her fingers with electricity. Her claws automatically extended from her fingertips and fur sprouted up her arm as she jerked her hand back.

Justina lifted her hand to show red fingertips. “I tried that already.”

“All I had to do was keep my mouth shut,” Payton whispered, angry with herself. “Why couldn’t I keep my mouth shut?”

“Some people are of physical action. Some are of talking. You never struck me as someone inclined to the art of conversation.”

“That’s a nice way of saying I’m a freaking space cadet.” Payton considered charging back inside.

“This is too important.”

Nyle’s words echoed through her, and she felt like she’d failed him.

“I failed him,” she whispered.

“Who? Yevgen?” Justina asked.

Payton shook her head. “Nyle.”

“Oh.” Justina placed a gentle hand on her shoulder. Payton hadn’t heard the woman move behind her. “You married the wrong man, huh?”

Payton nodded.

“Then fix it.” Justina gave her a firm pat.

Payton took a deep breath. “I told Nyle that I love him, and then I came here. I can’t shake this feeling that I’m going to be made to choose between him and everything else.”

“I know shifters generally live for hundreds of years, and that gives you a sense of all the time in the universe, but take a page out of the Cysgodian book. Time is never what you think it is. If you are with the wrong person, fix it. If you’re in love with this Nyle, make it work. If you’re—”

“A princess with more than my own selfish desires at stake?” Payton interrupted.

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