The huge meeting room was as impressive as she’d expected for a seat of power—bright white walls, a long wooden table on a dais where the elders sat, the shiny dark marble floor covered with a soft red rug, and gold-leaf details adding an air of wealth. The lighting was mellow but bright, almost like sunshine, and sound carried easily around the room without echoing, which surprised her given the size of the place. The ceilings were arched overhead and painted with a beautiful mural of a nature scene filled with tigers.
The rows of seating lining the two shorter walls of the long rectangular room were filled to bursting with people, all but two of them men. And one of the women was Alexis. Rose could only assume they were all tiger shifters. Since arriving, she hadn’t actually encountered a tiger walking through the huge corridors, though. She wasn’t sure why, but she’d imagined the place full of free-roaming big cats.
Zoe focused exclusively on the ceiling mural while the elders debated her future. Rose couldn’t blame her. Most of the surrounding crowd was staring at Zoe with an unnerving intensity. Rose couldn’t be sure what any of them were thinking, but the atmosphere of the room was charged.
Rather than glare off all the staring strangers, which Vlad was doing for her anyway, Rose kept her attention on the group of officious elders talking over each other in a cacophony of noise. She’d made a few attempts to speak, but there was no hope of getting a word in while they all tried to out-argue each other, so she gave up and instead studied them.
She refused to let them take over her daughter’s life, but they would have to be a part of it—if Vlad was right—so Rose wanted to know what kind of people she was dealing with.
Elizaveta Chernikova was hard to miss, being the only female elder, but Rose suspected she’d be hard to overlook anyway. She was a tall, slim woman with sharp, angular features and beautiful white-silver hair. Her blue eyes were narrowed at the moment, and she was the only one not speaking. She wore a beautifully tailored white pants suit and a black silk blouse, an outfit that spoke of power and wealth.
Despite knowing she was an “elder,” Rose found it impossible to tell how old she was. The silver hair, pulled back into a severe bun, was the only sign of advanced age. Her pale features were mostly smooth, with only a few lines around her eyes and mouth, a mouth that was set in a firm line that gave away nothing of what she was thinking. In fact, beyond the slight narrowing of her eyes, she showed no sign of emotion at all.
Rose had to force herself to look at the others. Elizaveta was a powerful presence and Rose kept finding herself watching the older woman for signs indicating her thoughts.
There were eight others at the table—a full house, according to Vlad. Despite the formal introductions, though, she’d completely lost track of most of their names. She’d made a point of remembering who Qiang was since he’d requested a private meeting with Zoe. And she’d managed to retain the name of the last elder introduced—Pavel something-or-other—who spent most of his time glaring at Elizaveta. But the rest, she just couldn’t keep track of, so she’d assigned them numbers based on where they sat along the dais, with Elizaveta being One and Pavel Nine.
Of those unnamed elders, one stood out for being outspokenly pro-hybrid—that was Elder Three. He kept staring at Zoe with a sort of awe and admiration that made Rose very nervous. Elder Six was blatantly anti-hybrid and made no effort to disguise his feelings. The rest were much more difficult to judge. Each one argued multiple sides of the debate and often contradicted themselves—she suspected sometimes just to be contrary.
She was almost grateful for Six’s obvious disdain. At least she knew where he stood.
Seven’s arguments were quieter than Six’s, but no less violent in intensity. Rose didn’t know how he felt about hybrids in general, but he definitely didn’t think their presence was the answer to the biological problems faced by the tigers. He waffled a little when it was pointed out that Zoe could shift, and it was this point that finally brought the attention of all nine elders squarely to Rose and her daughter.
“Show us,” Seven demanded. “Shift.”
“No,” Rose answered. “She’s not a trick pony here to amuse you.”
Vlad settled a hand on Rose’s shoulder but didn’t otherwise comment. Seven lifted his gaze to Vlad.
“Your father would be disgusted by this…child. How does that make you feel?”
They were all being very careful not to call Vlad Zoe’s father out loud—at Rose’s insistence—but they kept dancing very close to the line, and every time it made Rose cringe.