May 9, 2023

Queen

It had been a few hours since I had spoken to or even seen Syn. He hadn't made any attempts to reach out- not that I wanted him to anyway. I was fuming. I couldn't imagine him opening up and sharing a fear with me and then turning around and doing just that.

After the things Sebastian did, I tried my hardest not to close myself off from the world. I pushed it so far to the back of my mind hoping that I would just forget it. That didn't work. Instead, I began to see any men that I didn't know personally as a potential threat.

...Syn knew that. He told me that he understood and that I didn't have to worry and yet, here we were.

He wanted to "talk", but I couldn't see a way for him to explain away the fact that he completely did a one-eighty on me after talking to my brothers once. It was stupid.

I didn't like feeling unsafe in a place I should've been comfortable.

Paris knocked on my open door and peeked his head inside. "Hey," he said.

"Hi."

"Syn just left."

"Oh."

"I was just letting you know...so you could stop hiding in your room."

"I'm not hiding," I muttered.

"Yeah, whatever," he said. "We're all downstairs trying to cook dinner but we can't figure out how to use the grill. If you don't come downstairs and help us we may burn the place down."

"What makes you think I know how to do it?"

"Because you're a woman."

"Seriously?" I asked.

"No. Cain always does it for us and you're his sister. I assumed he taught you. Was I wrong in that assumption?" He questioned, glancing around the room before looking at me.

"No, you weren't wrong..."

"Then come help. You can meet everyone too."

"I don't-"

"I don't care. We're hungry and you're the only one with the knowledge to feed us. If you don't come down, we'll come up," he said, "with the grill!"

I blew out a breath and looked down at Saint who was fast asleep. I wasn't really doing anything. And I didn't know Paris well enough to know if his threat was a bluff or not. Seeing as I'd be stuck with all of them because of Syn, I figured I'd at least need to be on a first-name basis.

I picked up Saint and carried him to his room before gently closing his door and heading down the stairs. I took slow steps, not in a rush to get there as my nerves ran wild. I rubbed my palms along the side of my dress and took a deep breath. I could hear their loud banter and husky laughs as I walked down and silently feared stopping all of their fun with my presence.

With that thought, I almost found myself turning around and going upstairs, but it was too late. I had already been spotted. "There's the woman of the hour!" Someone yelled in a thick accent.

I froze, grimacing to myself before finishing the rest of the steps. Besides Paris, I spotted four other men in the living room. The closest one to me was the one that called me. His sandy blonde hair flowed down to his shoulders and his eyes were a bright blue. He wore a leather jacket and black tee shirt accompanied by dark jeans. Not to mention, the man was larger than life. Literally. He was one of the taller ones and probably the most muscular. He had to be the muscle of most operations.

"Hi," I said.

"Hello, yourself," he said. He wrapped an arm around my shoulders, ushering me deeper into the large room and I scurried beside him to keep up. "Everyone, look who I found!"

My eye caught Paris who was sitting on the edge of the table with a bottle of water and he gave me a small smile. It was different from his usual smug ones. It actually seemed sincere.

"Rem, leave the poor girl alone. She looks terrified," another gentleman said as he approached us. He was a lot smaller than Rem, yet he still towered over me. He took my hands into his and smiled. "Dorian," he said. "Don't let Rem frighten you. He's huge, but I can guarantee you that there's not a single thought behind those eyes."

"Oh, fuck off," Rem laughed, slapping Dorian's shoulder and practically flinging across the room. Everyone laughed at the display and I tried to hold back my own. Dorian stood himself up and scowled at him. "He likes to call me dumb," Rem told me. "But the truth is he wishes he were as smart as I am."

I laughed softly and looked up at him. "What is Rem short for?"

"You want my full government already?" He raised a brow.

"No, I was just-"

"Ignore him. He's messing with you," the man lounging on the couch spoke up. I noticed then that everyone was wearing the same all-black ensemble. He however seemed to be the only one lax enough to have his jacket off and feet on the table. His arms, neck, and small parts of his face were painted with tattoos. He had silver piercings on his brow, bottom lip, ears, and nose. Those however weren't the most remarkable things about him. He had a piercing shade of grey eyes that I had never seen on anyone before. "It's short for Remy."

"Oh, okay." I nodded.

"I'm Greyson," he said. "You can call me Grey I'd you'd like."

Fitting.

I nodded. "Nice to meet you guys."

"Forgetting one more person," Paris spoke up, smacking a gentleman sitting at the table upside the head.

"Ow! What the fuck, Ris?!"

"Introduce yourself."

The man turned in his seat to look around the room and when he saw me, his eyes widened. "Would you believe me if I told you I had no fucking clue you were even in here?"Everyone including myself burst into laughter but the man seemed serious. "I apologize." He rubbed his head. "I was a bit occupied."

"With the fucking chicken." Paris scoffed, crossing his arms.

"Hungry-ass," Dorian teased, making the man in the chair roll his eyes.

"It's not my fault you people won't feed me." He rolled his eyes and stood up, wiping his hands before walking toward me. He held out his hand but quickly dropped it nervously. "I...umm," he stuttered. A moment later he dropped to one knee and bowed his head. "Silas Hudson, at your service."

Rem snickered from behind me and Paris held back a laugh. I tried my hardest to hold back my own, acknowledging how sweet the gesture was.

"This fucking dumbass," Dorian whispered to himself, running a hand down his face.

Greyson threw his jacket at his head. "Yo, get off your damn knees, Silas. Giving the girl your full name like a fucking weirdo. At your service," he mocked, earning a round of laughter from everyone in the room including Silas. I was relieved to see he wasn't just being ganged up on. This was how they operated.

"Oof," Silas groaned as he looked up at me. "I knelt on my bad knee. Would you mind...?

"Oh, of course." I moved towards him, wrapping an arm behind him and he put a large arm over my shoulders. With another groan and my assistance, he was back up on two feet.

"Thanks." He shook my hands in his appreciatively. "Silas," he introduced himself again.

"You told me," I laughed. "I'm Queen."

At my introduction, there was a mix of responses throughout the room.

"Oh, wow," Greyson shook his head.

"Oh, how you wound us, Queen," Rem held a hand over his chest.

"Damn...that's just cold." Dorian shook his head.

"W-what happened?" I asked.

"You didn't introduce yourself to anyone...except Silas," Paris spoke up.

"Oh!" I said when I realized what happened. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to." They all messed with me, pretending to be hurt for the next few moments and I relaxed a bit. My guard wasn't completely down, but they seemed pleasant.

"Can we eat now?" Silas spoke up. Everyone groaned at his mention of food once again and he raised his arm. "What?"

"Let's start cooking before he gets cranky." Dorian signed, pushing his dark hair out of his face.

With my assistance, were able to start the fire on the grill and lay the ribs down. All the other food was completely ready so it made me wonder why they didn't just skip the ribs, but I figured they just wanted a reason to have me come down.

While the food was cooking, we sat in the living room. I silently listened to their amusing conversations, only speaking up when I needed to. In the short hour they spoke, I learned more than I thought I would.

"How did you guys meet Cain?" I asked.

"Well the four of us met him first," Greyson said, excluding Paris. "Cain robbed a convenience store near this alley where we set up our things. We literally saw the motherfucker run down the street with a mask on and duffel bag at his side."

"He's the fugliest runner I've ever seen in my life." Dorian shook his head and took a sip of his beer. Everyone laughed at the mention of Cain's run and I tried to think back to any time I'd seen him run. I realized I hadn't for the most part. Cain wasn't a runner. He was the suave walker that would come in after his men rolled in guns blazing.

"Anyways," Greyson continued. "Because of the robbery, the police came to the area and we were forced to move. We were moving our shit one day and he just walked up on us and dropped the bag of money on the floor. He apologized and then pretty much walked away. The rest is history."

"I don't get it..." I whispered. "Did he come back and you guys became friends?"

"No," he said. "We didn't have anywhere to go so we just all followed him and hoped for the best. A few years later we met took in Paris. And now here we are."

"You make it sound so simple," I said.

"Because it was. Common experiences bond people together. Enough bad shit happened to us all that we practically became family," Rem said.

"Cain is our brother," Greyson said. "He always will be. So in a way, you could even consider us your brothers."

They all grunted and nodded in agreement with him and I cringed. It was sweet, but... "I already have one too many brothers."

"Another five of them won't hurt then," Paris said.

Ugh.

"And how did you meet Cain?" I asked him. Greyson had already explained how the rest of them met, but Paris wasn't included in that story. I had a sneaking suspicion that his may have been darker.

The rest of them men turned to him and I took note of their curious gazes. Did they not know either?

Paris smiled, looking down unstoppable his drink as he shook his head. "I'll tell you one day."

"No, he won't," Dorian spoke up and I raised a brow. "You're better off trying to get a cow to fly than have him tell you anything."

I smiled, letting go of my nagging curiosity before glancing at Paris. "I'll hold you to that 'one day'." He nodded back at me in agreement and I tore my eyes away from him.

We all talked until the food was ready. A table was prepped on the large patio and we set everything down before sitting and eating. I had to admit that there were hardly many dull moments with them. They had more than enough stories to last a lifetime.

"So, tell us," Silas spoke with a full mouth. "How did you end up with Lucifer's son?"

"Silas," Greyson scolded him.

"What?" He chewed his food. "I'm sure we all want to know. She's so nice and he's...not...nice."

"Silas, dude," Rem spoke, giving a look to silence him.

"It's alright," I said. "I don't mind answering." They all looked at me, waiting for a response to Silas's question and I shrugged. "I just fell in love. You can't really control who that happens with."

Everyone remained silent for a moment and I looked down at my food, blankly playing with it with my fork. "Awww," Rem said from beside me as he nudged my arm. "That's adorable."

"He really cares about you," Greyson finally added after resistance to wanting to get into a conversation about Syn. "Anyone can see that. I've never been through a fucking vetting process so tiring. He must've talked to us for how long?"

"Hours!" Silas groaned, rubbing the back of his neck. "He was kind of scary too. Gave me the heebie-jeebies."

"He wasn't that bad," Dorian grumbled.

"No, he was worse," Rem shivered from beside me. "There isn't much in this world that can scare me...but that man..."

"Terrifying," Silas closed his eyes and whispered.

I wanted to speak up in Syn's defense but I couldn't truly know what he said or did to them. People saw different sides of him than I saw and it'd be unfair of me or invalidate everyone else's experiences.

"But he must be a good guy, right?" Greyson asked. "For you to be with him."

I nodded. "Yes, he's great."  They went on to each talk about how he did multiple background checks and interrogations on them in the span of a few days. Hearing how hard he worked to make sure only people he trusted would be around me and Saint made my heart sink into a bottomless pit of guilt.

I had a right to be upset, but he didn't deserve me completely flipping on him as I did. He was doing what he thought was best under the circumstances and if I was being honest, I was a bit selfish. There wasn't only me that he was trying to protect. It was Saint too.

We all heard the front door open and shut and the conversation ceased. Paris craned his neck to look into the house, yet when he looked back at us, there wasn't a fearful look. It was more so prepare yourselves.

I turned to see Syn set his car keys on the counter and slowly remove the jacket from his suit. He looked tired. Thinking about it, he actually looked tired a lot these days. He rolled up his sleeves and ran a hand through his messy hair before walking toward us with his dark jacket in hand.

Everyone at the table except for me stood up at his presence and Silas and Rem fumbled over the words to say to him. "W-we we're just about to leave," Rem said, laughing awkwardly as he looked around the table.

"No need to stop on my behalf. Enjoy yourselves. I just wanted to check-in." Everyone sat back down and I finally looked at Syn who sent a glance my way before turning around and heading back in. Almost everyone let out a sigh of relief at his exit. I didn't feel the same way they did though. I loved being around him.

I sat quietly, not quite sure what to do next as the conversation continued to flow at the table. My eye caught Paris's however and he tilted his head toward the inside of the cabin. I looked at him lost for a second until he rolled his eyes and mouthed a sentence I immediately understood...

"Go to him."

꧁꧂

Author's Note
You ain't gotta tell me twice, Paris😭

How did y'all feel about the new body guards? Does anyone have a favorite so far?👀😈

What do y'all think will happen when Queen talks to Syn?

Lmk your thoughts ❤️