The woman from earlier spoke up first. "Do we have an open investigation now of the whole board?"
Nemia let go of Dorian's hand as he leaned forward and propped his arms on the tables edge. "Should I?" He questioned back with raised brows, looking across the room full of faces. Most of the members shook their head solemnly, some with more of a fearful look.
Then Julianos and the other beside him smiled, shaking their heads no. "Of course not, King Dorian." Though even as he said it, Julianos gave Nemia a greedy gaze.
No matter what the conclusions were today, Nemia was going to keep her guard up when it came to Julianos and his brash looking friend.
Dorian cleared his throat, bringing all attention back to him including Nemia's. "Then I shall close the current investigation but I will be monitoring closely." The room seemed to relax slightly with that being established. "Now, on to other matters. Malcolm Jianu is still at large and committed treason on multiple accounts, his newest one being what happened at the formal. All of you are already well aware that he was there and set a detonation off that contained a varied paste meant to harm and kill more of our people. Three of my own loyal maids were killed in this heinous act of violence. Though it goes farther than that. Everything that happened at the formal was strictly a distraction so he could get to the lowest dungeon."
He glanced around the room yet again. "His true goal for the formal was to release our most deadly prisoner that's been held here for nearly 400 years." Murmurs started again, but Dorian pressed on through their speculations to confirm to some of who he meant. "Kyth is at large and is believed to be with Malcolm. We believe Kyth will be going for the witches that took his true form, we have the advantage since I know the location of the stoned bodies and he doesn't but... Who knows how much time we truly have."
He paused again and let the murmurs start and die out again. "I had Nik make arrangements shortly after the information was found for extra guards and protections to be placed around the location that contains the witches. So there was more time bought but I need each and every one of you to dig deep and find them. We cannot afford any more failures in finding Malcolm now since the world's most evil dragon has been let loose by him."
"King Dorian, sir?" A small soft spoken woman called on him timidly.
"Yes Greta?" He answered, glancing over to the one who spoke.
"Donovan was our best tracker with his bounty hunters capabilities of finding anyone across the world was the best we had. What are we to do without him?" Greta questioned nervously.
Nemia spoke up then. "I've been his bounty hunter for the past ten years, but even I still haven't found Malcolm even with my personal investments in finding him. He's like trying to catch smoke. Though maybe that was only because Donovan was good at covering the tracks Malcolm left. I still plan to search for him though, nothing on this earth could ever stop me from that. Donovan was just a middle man, now you get just me. I just need to know who I'm answering to now." She glanced over to Dorian then, the last statement hinting at him to make a decision.
"Donovan is no longer with us and so his position does need to be filled. I think that position should be filled by the person he so desperately desired. I state here and now, Nemia Bohdan should be the new Head of the Bounty Hunters Division of C.J.L.S., does anyone oppose this? She's more than showed her worth."
Another wave of murmurs started and then one by one, the board members agreed to Nemia being the new Head. All the while Nemia's mouth hasn't quite shut all the way, slightly agape as she stared at Dorian. By the time the approvals got down to Julianos and his little buddy, Nemia managed to gather herself.
"I suppose our vote doesn't matter either way, may as well make it unanimous, what do you say Borash?" Julianos asked the large man next to him. At least she knew his name now.
Borash threw his arms up with a harsh laugh. "It's unanimous, the open seat goes to the late Donovan's prize." His puffy cheeks took over his eyes as he grinned widely.
Dorian growled a warning next to Nemia but she just shook her head. "I thank you all for voting for my approval as Head of the Bounty Hunters division... But I did not ask for this, I'm nothing but a bounty hunter myself. I don't really think I should b-"
Dorian cut her off with a raise of his hand. She narrowed her eyes at him, but silenced herself nonetheless. "You are meant for far greater things than any one of us could imagine. But Nemia, you have to make those first steps into your destiny, your fate. The Head of an office at C.J.L.S. is just the tip of the iceberg. It's also a field you know very well for only ten years of service and have had a unstoppable reputation when it came to bounty hunters. Though there was never a name to go with the face of the relentless bounty hunter." He laughed lightly. "What I'm trying to say though is take this as a gift to dip your toes in the water of command, because eventually it'll be much more the just a group of bounty hunters."
Nemia sighed and stared down at her hands folded in her lap for a moment. Taking in a deep breath, she nodded and brought her gaze back up to meet the others. "Okay, I'll do it."
There was a breath of relief that washed across the room when she accepted. "But first, I need to know the names of my, now, colleagues. You all know my name, it's the least I can get back. I've picked up a few, but to reiterate would be much obliged. We can start with you, Julianos, since I do already know who you are but please also state your department." Nemia waved her left hand towards him, wanting to get his done and over with first so there would be a few minutes of silence from him after he was done.
He sneered, but rose and adjusted his suit casually. "Julianos Torrish. Co-Chief of our Detainment and Transportation Division."
On cue by Julianos' hand motioning towards, Borash rose with a heave. "Borash Grassi. Doubled down at D.T.D. with my partner here." He patted Julianos with an endearing roughness.
The two of them say back down and Nemia's eyes drifted to the next one closest to them. He had dark skin with an almost reddish purple hue to it. His eyes a deep, haunting red. His hair in thick, tight curls almost hid the horns that just barely stuck out past the mass of his hair. He rose just as the other two. "Desmond Abornash, Head of Forensics." His voice was sinfully smooth.
Who knew we had a demon in the mix of our department leadership. Nemia thought to herself but nodded her head towards him. "Thank you."
Moving onto the next, Desmond sat back down and the next rose. This one with surprisingly white hair to look so young and bright, golden eyes. "Nico Presidium. Head of our Special Services." He bowed his head in sentiment before sitting.
The next to rise was a woman, pale in complexion that made the light blue eyes and dark brown hair in an eery clash against her essence. She spoke in a whisper. "Bex Westarian. Co-Lead of Child Protective Services." She quickly sat back down and then Greta rose beside her.
She looked similar to Bex, just with light green eyes and not as pale. She could tell they weren't related though, or even the same species. "Greta Winefeld. Leading alongside Bex here in C.P.S." Nemia smiled and gave a small nod of approval before moving on.
Next, two rose simultaneously. A male and female paired at the hip it seemed. The female was brown eyes and had messy locks of reddish brown hair rolling down past her shoulders. The male, short brown hair spiked only in the front and a matching pair of brown eyes. "Moira and Simon Slavia, Co-Heads of the Civil Department. AKA the complaints department because we all know that's all we ever get." Moira joked and squeezed Simons arm.
Nemia laughed along with her and nodded her head. "That is the name that goes around for that department. Are you two married? How long?"
"Married and mated for life. We were raised together in the same pack house, only a few months older than her." Simon chuckled. "It was a gift from the great moon goddess herself to have made my best friend, my mate." His smile showed a great deal of his love for Moira as he looked down at her. She smiled up at him in a doe like essence.
"The gods sure have been giving a lot here lately it seems." Nemia commented absent-mindedly. She meant to think it, thought that's what she had done till she noticed the couple returned their eyes to her with a look of confusion.
"I don't mean to pry Nemia, but I know how much I couldn't wait to be marked by my Simon... Craved it for the few hours it took. Maybe it was because I was more than happy with who my mate was." She glanced over at Dorian and smiled sheepishly. "Not that you should be upset by who you are mates to, I could name a number of women who is already most envious of you. But my question is... Why haven't you accepted? It's been a couple of days now..."
Nemia shifted uncomfortablely, she wasn't expecting to be asked directly by another board member after Dorian has already said the decision of when was left up to her. Her initial thought was of last night and how if he hadn't of stopped, they wouldn't even be having this conversation right now. Her answer on the other hand couldn't be that.
She glanced down at her hands for a moment and sighed before returning her gaze to theirs, she could feel dorian's gaze scorching the side of her face. Waiting with a baited breath for what she may answer. "Honestly... A mate was the last thing I was looking for when I found it, him. I didn't want to be bound. I wanted to have a clear mind and not worry about bringing the death that follows me into another's life all because of a silly little trick from the moon goddess. I wanted to be able to focus on Malcolm with no unnecessary distractions." Dorian sighed softly beside her, he wasn't listening though. Not really. She was going to have to spell it out instead of hint at the past tense in her words.
"That's what I did want. Freedom. I didn't realize that having a mate, could mean I'd have an entirely different type of freedom. It only took me two days of fighting a losing battle mentally to realize that I should have never fought it to begin with." She turned her attention on Dorian who was staring at her with widened, hopeful eyes. She smiled softly. "I plan to fix that though, tonight if at all possible."
"I can stop this meeting now and go do it now." Dorian blurted, his eyes darkening.
Nemia laughed and shook her head. "There's six more lovely board members I still need an introduction from. Business first." She leaned over and pecked his cheek, giving a subtle wink as she pulled away.