Page 3 of Coveted

“If I may?”

Varner cleared his throat, straightening when Vax’s eyes landed on him. The man was always meticulously polite, but Vax had a feeling that the beta thought he wouldn’t like what was said next.

“Perhaps if you wore the robes,lookedlike them, they might take you more seriously? And perhaps you could try to act more like they do…”

Vax scoffed as Leir huffed a laugh. It was the same thing Varner had suggested before the meeting, but Vax had no use for the Chancellor’s robes. He was a miner turned pirate. Son of a miner. He’d been smuggling goods in to help his people long before he’d killed Trevin Osmel and taken the Chancellor’s position. He was not some stuck up politician. He didn’t need stiff, fancy robes to reassure him of his position, or his right to make decisions on his planet’s behalf. If someone else came along who could do a better job than him at taking care ofallthe people on Farcon 1, he’d gladly step aside. Until then, the people he represented gave him all the power he needed.

“We’ve had this discussion, Varner. Fancy clothing does nothing, and acting like them is the last thing I’ll ever do.”

The words held the edge of a growl, his irritation getting the better of him. When Varner’s lips parted to speak again, Vax raised a hand and cut the beta off. He’d already made up his mind on the issue, and talking about it further only wasted his time.

“The miners are doing better with the changes you’ve made, have you asked them if they mind working longer hours?”

Vax swung his gaze to Leir, brow raised. He’d worked so hard to cut back the hours the miners were forced to work, it had never occurred to him to ask if they we willing to do more.

When he didn’t respond right away, Leir assumed his answer and shrugged.

“Wouldn’t hurt. With better conditions and wages, it’s not such a hardship to work a few extra hours. Even if you only add a short shift, it might help ease the others off your back until you can get a new shaft ready, and more people trained.”

Vax nodded, seeing the wisdom in what Leir was saying. When the workers were putting in eighteen-hour days in tunnels on the verge of collapse it would have been ridiculous to ask for more, but since he’d cut their shifts down to only twelve and increased safety measures, there may be some willing to put in the extra time. He wasn’t sure about letting them take the extra six hours back, even though that still left them with ten hours between shifts, but an extra three or four could help.

“I’ll send a message out to the Camp Directors, and you can feel around when you go back, and see if there’s enough interest to make it worth coordinating another shift. Even then, I can’t run the refinery without a full staff, so it’ll only speed things up so much.”

Leir nodded.

“So, once you know there’s interest in an extra shift at the mines and get that going, make finding new people for the refinery the next task. If you can get enough to run a full second shift, production should be up enough to get the other Chancellors to at least listen to what else you need to make things go faster.”

The tension in Vax’s shoulders eased as he turned to look at his Chief of Staff.

“I’ll get the call put out as soon as I get back to my office. Do you need anything else from me?”

Varner stood but waited for Vax to shake his head and flick his fingers in dismissal. Vax didn’t mean to be an ass to the man, but he didn’t have the patience for all the niceties Varner insisted on.

With the immediate issues settled, he sucked in a deep breath and relaxed further into his chair, studying his former captain. He wouldn’t have called them friends back then, but working together since the rebellion had only increased his resect for the other alpha who’d mellowed a bit after claiming his mate.

“How’re Elise and the baby?”

Leir’s lime green eyes lit up, a grin cutting across his face. At one point they’d fought over the unclaimed omega, but seeing Leir’s happiness made Vax glad things had worked out the way they did.

Didn’t mean Vax wasn’t a little jealous.

“Perfect. She’s already talking about the next one.”

Vax’s eyebrows shot up.

Claiming an omega was something every alpha dreamed of, but Vax wasn’t so sure about the babies. They were needy. And clingy. And took all the female’s attention. One seemed like more than enough, yet Elise was talking about more when she’d just delivered their first?

Leir chuckled at his expression. He knew how Vax felt about children.

“It’s really not that bad. To be honest, the delivery was terrifying, and I can’t imagine how she could want to go through that again, but the rest of it…”

He trailed off with a goofy smile on his face, shrugging again.

“You’ll have to have one someday if you want someone to follow in your footsteps and take over this place.”

Vax’s expression hardened, and he shook his head as he leaned forward to rest his arms on the desk between them.

“Being Chancellor of a planet shouldn’t be something passed through a family. The best person for the job should have it, and they need to prove it before being given the power. That’s another thing the others are pissed at me about. I’m‘setting a bad example and giving people ideas.’”

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