Page 1 of Dark Princess Emerging

1

SYSSI

The sounds of the cappuccino machine thumping and hissing were even more soothing to Syssi than her favorite Mozart piano concerto because they signaled the start of her evening with just her mate.

Given Kian's frown, though, they weren't having the same effect on him.

His expression as he looked at his phone indicated that clan business was once again intruding on their family time, and on a Sunday evening, that was worrisome.

It must be an urgent matter for anyone to bother him now.

When the cappuccinos were ready, she carried them to the couch. "Bad news?"

Kian set his phone aside as he took the cup she handed him. "It was just a text from Onegus about a matter I asked him to investigate." He took a sip and sighed. "Superb as always, my love. Thank you."

"You are welcome." She sat next to him, cradling her cup in her hands and hoping he would share with her what Onegus had reported so she would know whether she needed to worry about it or not.

Not knowing made her overactive imagination go places that were probably much worse than what Onegus had found out.

"It took a long time for Allegra to fall asleep tonight," Kian said as he wrapped his arm around her shoulders. "Was it because of my bath-time story?"

She cast him a reproachful look. "You need to tame your Captain Grouchy Face stories and make them more age appropriate. Allegra was overexcited and only relaxed after I readPuss in Bootsto her again."

The illustrations in the book never failed to make Allegra smile.

"I'm sorry," Kian said, but judging by his sheepish smile, he wasn't sorry at all.

Her husband was on a mission to prepare their baby girl for a future as the clan leader, and he used his bath-time stories to convey complicated issues and teach her cause and effect. The problem was that Allegra was much too young to understand the cautionary messages in these tales, and her father was much too stubborn to accept that he needed to wait a few years before their daughter was ready for them.

"Bad guys snatching children is not age-appropriate for Allegra, even if Captain Grouchy Face saves the day, beats up the snatchers, and returns the children to their parents."

"Noted." Kian took another sip of his cappuccino. "How would you tell the story? Should the bad guys snatch a favorite pet instead?"

He was incorrigible. "Stick to Captain Grouchy Face saving cats stuck up trees and helping find lost pets."

"Boring."

Syssi laughed. "I like boring. Boring means that nothing bad is happening. Give me boring all day, any day." She glanced at his phone and decided that she wasn't going to wait for Kian to volunteer what was so troubling about the text. "So, what was so urgent that Onegus was messaging you on a Sunday evening?"

"I told you about what Roni's discovered. Onegus has been working on the organizational chart through the weekend. We've been brainstorming ideas for how to restructure our operations to deal with the pedophilia ring while maintaining our fight against trafficking without reducing the number of rescue missions. At least not significantly. We are also undecided about who should lead the new operations. Onegus suggested Peter, but I'd rather it was led by a Head Guardian. I told him to speak to Bhathian."

"Bhathian is in charge of the training programs," Syssi pointed out. "He can't do both."

Kian nodded. "We can put Kri in charge of training and move Bhathian to lead the new effort. I'm also deliberating whether we should put another Head Guardian in charge of the trafficking operations. That will free Onegus from the day-to-day scheduling and organization and allow him to focus on the big picture for both divisions."

"You should do that." Syssi took another sip of her cappuccino and put the cup on the wood saucer, which was a permanent decor piece on the coffee table. "I also think that the two divisions need separate names, and they shouldn't be the trafficking division and the pedophilia division. That just sounds nasty."

"They deal with nasty stuff."

"I know." She leaned her head on his shoulder. "But the people who are doing the fighting are not nasty, and they need their divisions to have names that they are proud of and are motivated by."

Kian snorted. "These are not high school football teams. Our Guardians don't need any of that to do their jobs. Their motivation is their sense of purpose."

"Symbolism matters, my love." She lifted her head and turned to face him. "I would even go a step further and commission two different styles of uniforms. When soldiers go into battle, they rally under a banner and wear specific insignia. It builds unit cohesion and strengthens resolve. You might be right about our Guardians not needing it, but since you are including the new Kra-ell recruits, it might help them integrate better and reinforce their loyalty. They are proud people, and titles matter to them."

"You make a valid point, my wise mate." Kian kissed the top of her head. "So, what names would you suggest?"

"Frankly, I hadn't given it any thought before. It just occurred to me now that you started talking about organizational charts." Syssi thought of borrowing names from famous football teams, but nothing really resonated with her. "We can keep it simple.How about Saviors for the teams saving victims of trafficking, and Avengers for the teams taking out pedophiles?"