Willow licked his lips and set the picture back down on Gideon’s file, “Where’s Lest LeNore? I swear I checked three days ago and he was there in the system. Lest was the best candidate for Lawrence.” I reached over and took Gideon’s picture to stare down at his big smile. He looked happy, had a lively twinkle in his eye, maybe a bit mischievous, but still...happy. And much closer to my age.
God. What the hell?
“Lest has withdrawn his application,” Marge said coolly.
Willow froze. “Whaaat?”
Marge shook her head. “I have no idea why. She wouldn't say, but apparently, the Matriarch is absolutely livid. My contact thinks the two of them are in a pissing match, I think he’s looking to switch clans.”
“WOW. Okay.” Willow blinked and closed the file to set it on the desk, leaning back in his chair to look at the file I had in my hands.
Twenty-five. Six foot five. Much better candidate material, especially when everyone else were freaking children.
The rest in the file was surely informative, but made zero sense – ‘Natural dental’, ‘Juvenile wired, mature muzzled’, ‘one inpatient, partial’, ‘Juvenile Feral/Civilized’, ‘Blood Kin reared’.
I took the picture and then handed Willow the file so that he could bend over it, reading it carefully. “Twenty-five is way older than I thought...I don’t know.” He sighed again, rubbing his forehead.
“Twenty-five is plenty okay to me,” I said then, stopping myself from saying that I would be very comfortable with an older man.
Willow frowned. “Class A are...the least stable Novus, Lawrence. We’re talking about a substantial difference in the quality of life for you between mating with an A at twenty-five versus waiting seven or eight years until the eleven or ten-year-old is eighteen. Vast difference.”
“Will I get Joy sooner with Gideon versus…” I reached for the file and opened it, looking at the eleven-year-old. “Mr. Saint?”
Willow stuck his tongue in his cheek as he seemed to think about it. “I wouldn’t be able to push the paperwork through as quickly, no.” He hesitated before saying “It’d probably take a few months.”
“Then I think you know my answer, Willow,” I said gently. “Getting Joy as soon as possible is very important to me.” I swallowed thickly. “I don’t have control over much of anything, and I know very little of this world, but moving forward would be substantially less stressful for me if I had Joy with me, so I have to disagree with you. My quality of life will be so much better if I have Joy sooner rather than in a few months….I’d go out of my mind if I had to wait that long. I’d probably sooner find a way to track her down myself and – and steal her than wait that long.”
Willow shook his head and looked back down at the file. “Speaking of going out of their mind…” He looked up to Marge. “Let’s go over Gideon.” She nodded and leaned forward to stare at her screen. I looked back to the file in Willow’s hand. “So he’s been MAN of Greater Lake for eight years-” He frowned and looked to Marge, “He’s muzzled?”
“And still held his position. That’s impressive!”
“That’s fucking psychotic.” Willow hissed. “How is that even possible?”
Marge shrugged and turned her gaze back to her screen.
“What does muzzled mean?” I asked Willow quietly. “I don’t understand most of what his file says...”
He sighed and shoved a hand through his hair, looking stressed. “So…” He licked his lips, “It says Natural dental? That means he didn’t have his teeth filed down to look more sapien, which most Novus do – that’s what a Novus orthodontist does, among other things. But he didn’t get that done.” He flicked the picture in my hand, right on Gideon’s big smile.
“I see…” So they could have their teeth filed to look normal. That would make it harder to tell at night who was who, I suppose.
“Juvenile wired means he had his jaw wired shut as a child for the obvious reasons-” Willow looked at me, “He was a biter.”
“A biter?”
“If he had his jaw wired shut as a boy, then that’s what it would be for…which makes his complete lack of circuit history even stranger – children that are bad enough biters that they get wired are usually excellent and reliable fighters and are put right into the circuits. And seeing as he is muzzled – still has to have his jaw immobilized in a muzzle when he leaves his house – he likely proved he was less impulsive, but he hasn't been given the all-clear to have complete freedom. They probably put him right into the Peace Keeper academy as soon as he got the muzzle, and given he’s a juvenile wired, he's probably a tracker. His class can latch onto scents very efficiently.” He looked up to Marge, “Maybe that’s why he’s kept his position...he’s the better tracker than the others?”
She shrugged a shoulder. “It’s a possibility…”
Willow frowned and looked at me. “Males assert their dominance by biting, so Gideon having to stay muzzled at all times outside of his home...it means he’d be using other methods to keep everyone else in the city in line…” He frowned. “He must have a very scary reputation if no one is willing to mess with him.”
“I thought males were...very strong?” I said uneasily. “I would imagine that would be enough to...um, keep people in line.” It was enough in the colony.
“Well yeah, he could easily smack others into place, but even a class A can be outnumbered if a trio of other male Novus chooses to challenge him, so I don’t think that’s the reason. If he’s had the city in a chokehold for eight years while being muzzled…” Willow shook his head. “It’s very, very strange and makes me very, very nervous.”
“Would it make him a bad mate?” I asked lightly.
Willow frowned. “Not necessarily…”
“Then what else is there to learn about him from his file?” I asked with a little smile, wanting to press on. The others were just not going to freaking happen, so if I was going to make a match today, it was with Gideon.
Willow’s frown deepened as he dropped his gaze to Gideon’s file. “One inpatient, partial. It means as of ten years ago, he had one inpatient stay at a treatment center-”
“Absolutely normal for his class type,” Marge said. “And the partial meant he was only there when he had to sleep, so likely it was just to sort out his medications.”
“Medications.” I parroted.
“Mm-Hm. To stabilize his moods.” Marge said as she stared at her screen. “Standard procedure.”
I gave a short nod. “Will Joy…?”
“Absolutely.” Both of them said, Willow adding “Starting at about sixteen, likely, and she’ll stay on those until she either finds a mate or, you know.” I gave him a questioning look and he met my gaze. “She dies.” I nodded slowly and looked back down to the file, Willow frowning as he lifted the page. “Where’s his school record?”
“It’s all there.” Marge supplied. “He stopped going before he graduated primary, but he gained his primary and secondary certificates at nineteen, so...tutors.”
Willow grunted at that. “He unnerves me, Lawrence,” Willow said lowly as he took the picture from my hands to stare at Gideon’s big smile. “I know you're eager to get Joy back-”
“I’m not eager,” I said plainly, Willow looking at me. “I’m desperate.”
Willow let out a long breath, “And I get that, but,” He licked his lips and shifted, “There are a couple red flags here that might influence how Joy turns out under his influence – and I know,” He said, cutting off my attempt to explain that I would be on top of her at all times, “You are going to take great care of her, but you aren’t a Novus. A Novus requires a Novus guardian to correct them and teach them what is and isn’t allowed, which is something you will never be able to do beyond words. And words are great, but they aren’t going to do anything while your three-year-old is throwing a fridge at you because you told them no cookies before dinner. A parent is the difference between raising a respectful member of society and a ….feral terror.” He said, scowling down at Gideon’s big grin. He rubbed his hand against his cheek and looked at me then. “Gideon is a risk.”
“It’s my only option right now,” I said quietly. “The others are not candidates for me. They’re not. I-” I laughed and looked to the files on the desk, “I don’t even know why they were sent over.”
“It’s curious,” Marge mumbled as she stared at the screen, “But two of those boys were added to the system yesterday, sent over a few hours ago….and given Lest withdrew from the system, I wonder if the Matriarch shifted things around once she heard Lawrence was open for a mate.”
I frowned. “Do you think...she possibly sent over three younger candidates knowing that I would say no?”
“Long engagements are not entirely uncommon in Campora, though they have fallen out of popularity in the East,” Marge said dully as she stared at her screen.
“But not in the colony. We don’t marry anyone younger than two years at my age and usually don’t marry someone with more than a five-year age difference until after the eldest is thirty.” I said carefully. “Is that something the Matriarch would know?”
“I wouldn’t say she would do something like that…Lovina wouldn’t manipulate the system like that. She’s very righteous in her old age.” She frowned, her eyes narrowing. “I wonder if they allow Peace Keepers access to the profile system…”
“You think...Gideon did that?” I glanced down at Gideon’s big smile, frowning before I looked to Marge and her contemplative look.
“Twenty-five, Class A,” Marge mumbled, “Novus males have done more creative things than surround themselves with much less appealing candidates -” She frowned and leaned back in her seat, “Actually, there was a romantic comedy that just came out that wasn’t unlike this...the Novus male kept ensuring his Sapien female business partner kept getting set up with duds so she would lower her expectations and find him appealing.” Her frown deepened as her gaze cut to her screen, her eyes narrowing. “Huh.”
Willow frowned and hung his head briefly before he lifted it, looking to the ceiling with a frown. After a long moment, he nodded hard and sat up straight, looking at Marge. “Arrange a meeting. If Gideon misbehaves during the meet-up, I don’t want to go through with it. He needs to prove that he’s going to be able to treat Lawrence properly – he’s a very special case, and his niece is a potential future FAN, so that means he needs to be a proper guardian to her,” He shifted, “Show a certain level of maturity. And control.” He tacked on.
I nodded at that, agreeing. “And if he doesn’t behave?”
“Then we go from there.” He said to me before he looked back at Marge. “Why don’t you put out feelers and see if your contact can’t twist the Matriarch’s ear and find out if there is any other candidate possibly to streamline Lawrence getting Joy back as quickly as possible?”
Marge nodded and began typing. “I’ll see what I can do – we can have a meeting arranged for tomorrow if you’d like.”
“The sooner the better,” I said with a smile, Willow nodding grimly.
Marge smiled a little and stood from her desk, pulling a card from a cardholder near her screen to hand it to Willow when he stood as well. “Take this, call the number, and tell them Marge sent you. They’ll know what to do. He needs to be cleaned up so we start looking our very best for our meeting tomorrow night.” Her face tightened then, “And get him something to help him sleep. He looks like he needs it.”
I chewed on the inside of my cheek as Willow chuckled before they talked about times and places to meet, and while they did that I looked down at the picture of Joy.
Soon.
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