"To the board, I will only say this once. This-" He motioned to Nemia. "-is Nemia Bohdan. My long sought out mate. She will be Queen of Romania and rule along side me in a time within her specifications. If anyone here disagrees, leave now." No one moved, really even breathed for a moment.
The two that had been talking to the left straightened their backs and looked Nemia up and down, the one who had specifically called her a whore spoke up first. "My King, not to overstep but.. if she is your mate, where is your mark on her? Should it be visible at all times?"
"You meant to overstep, Julianos. You always do, don't lie. But yes, her mark will be visible. Once she takes the mark. The decision of when that occurs has been left up to her. Is that a problem?" Dorian seemed to grow in size as he stared down the one he named Julianos, his presence thickening in the room.
"So she is an unmarked mate being brought to a board meeting?" Julianos pressed, his slippery voice reminding her closely of Donovan's.
Dorian growled lowly in warning, letting the room know he was close to the edge. "Is that a problem?"
Julianos raised his hands defensively. "Not at all, My King." He snickered, not taking his eyes off of Nemia.
A woman towards the right spoke then. "Aren't you Donovan's prize?"
Nemia's head whipped around, her eyes landing a glare on the woman from which the voice came from. "Excuse me?" She growled lowly.
The girl flinched. "I mean no offense, it's just what Donovan calls you. His prize. You're his best asset. He goes one and one about his petite, red haired prize. You must be her. None of us here have met the one he spoke of all the time, my guess was because he didn't want any of us trying to steal you away from him."
Nemia wanted to be sick at the thought that Donovan has walked around with his board member saying she was his prize. She swallowed done the bile threatening to shoot up her esophagus. "I was never his prize." She spat out and Dorian put a possessive arm around her waist.
"And he'll never have the chance to say that again." Dorian growled, his gaze leering across the faces of each member in the room.
There was multiple gasps and confused looks waving across the room.
"What?"
"Did something happen to him?"
"What do you mean?"
Several members started raising questions, retaliating against dorian's comment about Donovan.
"What has happened to my brother?" Julianos asked, silencing all the others.
Brother? Nemia looked back over at Julianos. Really looking at him this time, noticing the same sharp nose and amber eyes Donovan had. Julianos' hair wasn't ash blonde like Donovan's, but more of a dirty blond look.
Dorian stared at Julianos. "He is dead. He committed treason. I only thought he was siphoning money out of the C.J.L.S. but it was far greater." Nemia watched as he scanned the room full of faces. "He acted against our own. Malcolm Jianu. All of you knows that name. The ringleader of an attack that decimated an entire pack house in our own land. The Silverbacks, once a great and formidable ally, gone. Donovan worked in the shadows behind Malcolm, hired him from God's knows where and ordered the attack on our people. My people. Though, he had also ordered there to be one survivor."
Dorian glanced down at Nemia before continuing while Nemia watched, enraptured like many others in the room. "That survivor was Nemia. But to the rest of us who had no knowledge of Nemia, which was most of us and the council didn't announce her most of us didn't even know there was a survivor. She was placed in Donovan's world, vowing to get her vengeance on the wolf who destroyed her family. But the whole time, she and the council was being puppeted by Donovan for his own personal gain." Dorian's eyes shifted to focus on Julianos again. "For ten years he led her astray, promising she'd get to catch the one criminal she so desperately sought. For ten years, he deceived her and many others. Letting Malcolm in and out of the city whenever he chose. For ten years, he sought out a means to drain Nemia for her powers."
Suddenly, Dorian's nail extended on his right pointer and he reached over, slicing her shirt open to expose the mark of Sol Invictus, Solis' mark. There was a wave of gasps that swept across the room, a few standing abruptly and pointing towards her mark. "That's the mark of Solis!" The woman that has called her Donovan's prize exclaimed loudly, being one to stand and point.
"Sol Invictus, blessed be by you!" Another cheered.
Nemia's mouth was agape slightly. Does everyone know more about this mark than me? She thought, though her defensive was on high alert as she noticed the glare coming from Julianos and the other male he had been confiding with just earlier.
Dorian commanded silence once more by raising his hand to silence them. "Donovan wished to claim her God given powers for himself. He's made a ploy to. I'm also positive he wasn't working alone in this ploy." His eyes cut to Julianos again. "Should I find any other board members are involved, there will be very serious repercussions and will meet the same fate as, or similar to, Donovan."
There was another wave of quiet murmurs among the others, aside from Nik who sat on the other side of Dorian. A glance around Dorian showed Nemia a cool, neutral expression. He seemed different, being more professional now than she's seen from him so far. Though this was the first time she'd seen either two of them conducting an official business meeting and not them rattling away in their own.
"Okay, so my brother was killed for treason yet there is no viable proof?" Julianos cut in after the others started to quieten again.
"There is always proof." Dorian commented and opened the laptop directly in front of him then. It was connected to the projector, Nemia realized as the projector screen clicked on and Nik stood, moving over to the windows and shutting the blinds to the incoming sunlight.
All attention switched to the screen flashing across the wall to, what was now Nemia's left. Suddenly, Nemia saw herself along with Dorian and a chained Donovan. It was the start of their interrogation. She didn't even realize there was a camera in the room anywhere but it made sense for there to be one. From the angle, it was somewhere in the top right hand corner of the room on the door side.
Nemia and Dorian sat down then as he pressed play and the revelations of last night was played out for the board to see. Nemia drained all emotions out of her face as she receeded into her mind while the video played. She knew the ending and didn't need to see or hear it again. Didn't want to. She could feel the heavy tug on her heart. Her fault. The words still echoed loudly in her mind. Absentmindedly, she reached over and grabbed Dorian's hand. No, not her fault. She thought strongly, it was Donovan's doing for selfish gains that never would have worked out for him in the end of he had ever tried.
She glanced up at the screen when she heard gasps coming from others. It was at the point that she was tapping into that new ability for the second time, leaning into its power. Just before she tossed him like a ragdoll and spun around on Dorian. My eyes .. their glowing the same white as my hands. Her free hand rose to the edge of her right eye socket as she stared at herself in the video. She didn't know her eyes had changed.
Dorian glanced over at her and gave a reassuring smile as he squeezed her hand gently and placed his other hand on top of their interlocked fingers. Her lips twitched into a small smile of her own. A feeling of security washed over her, seeing how he didn't seem to be affected negatively by her newfound ability. Which made her wonder what other abilities she may have hiding under her surface given to her by Solis.
She glanced away from the screen and to Julianos who was watching intently at her display of power, his gaze cutting to hers cooley. The guy he had spoken to earlier staring at her now as well and both of them having the look of an envious fool. Her eyes narrowed on the two of them and she curled her top lip and scrunched her nose as if she has smelled something foul.
Turning her focus back on the rest of the group and shying away from looking back at the screen. Heading it was more than enough. Julia had already dusted Donovan with Honesty's Soot. And he had just spoke out of hiring Malcolm to decimate the Silverbacks leaving only Nemia alive for his disgusting hidden agenda.
Nemia closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Its okay.
Dorian stopped the video just as he started to lunge at Donovan where he ripped him apart. Not playing the moment of Donovan's demise. "There is the proof." He stated plainly, emotionless.
Julianos sat back in his chair with a sigh. "I see." He glared at the two of them. There was nothing he could do for a defense on Donovan like he wanted to contest, Nemia could tell that infuriated him beyond anything else. Deep down though, she had a feeling that she had just became someone else's target for selfish gains though as he licked his lips while staring at her.
Nemia shivered and looked away. God's is the whole Torrish family this disgusting?