Echo Book 2

50. Welcome

I wiggle all over Tim in the morning. "Woman, you are teasing hard this morning."

I giggle and put it in my mouth.

"Oh, you're going to get it hard now."

After a very good wake up, we end up in the dining room with nobody in it. "Make them all come eat breakfast."

They come in slowly. Malax is carrying papers. Zion and Tobias come in sleep pants. They lay their heads down.

"You boys have a fun night?"

Hunter laughs. "They got stuck giving Nadine's mates motorcycle lessons. There are a lot of them."

"Dipak and Tre got on the bikes, and it was like they had ridden them all their lives. Some of the others were quite scary."

Zion rubs his face. "Tye nearly killed Marcus. Marcus took the keys and ran away with them. That's the only reason we got to go to bed."

Tim nods. "Her mates are all over in ages. Tye and Johen are the youngest. They seem to get in the most trouble."

"They were fun. But damn. You can't be a pro in 1 day. You learn the basics then practice for years. They were being dumb."

"Dipak will sort them out." Malax smiles. "Did you 2 have fun yesterday?"

"I did. I got to see huge mansion houses on the coast. We rode around there for a long time."

Zion nods. "Then we had a picnic in some guy's driveway."

Tobias smirks. "I fed them. You didn't say where. It counts."

"Yea, that counts."

The ship dings. "Arrival in 20 minutes. Please proceed to the command area."

"Where are we arriving?"

"Resort planet. We need to check the rooms and the progress of the city. Then we can plan the meeting for the throne."

I stretch. "Sounds good. I'll be in a bikini today."

"Me too." Eriska shoves some eggs in her mouth. "On the beach. We need the sun."

"Don't be naked. There are too many people here." Eriska glares at Tobias and jumps up. He grabs her dress before it flies off. He points at Zion. "TEENAGER."

"That's probably true." She sits back down.

I shrug my shoulders. "Probably shouldn't be naked."

Malax gets out his phone. "The rest of the throne is coming too. All of them. Not just your sisters and their mates. We're getting everyone. Except Kane and Mary. And if things are going well, I may bring them over too. I'll ask how it's going. Woman, is your dad on the throne?"

"If we make him a king, we may be able to get suppra's cheaper." Tim gets some eggs.

"It's worth looking into. We don't have our throne set. We need to do that."

"Me, Tim, Echo. On top."

"Kane, Mary, Omar, Rye, I have no idea if Hunter is on it."

Victor raises his hand. "I want to be on it."

"You're already on Kehlani's."

"I want to be on it."

"Zion, you are a human teenager."

"Didn't matter when I was blowing people up yesterday."

"That's true. You work for the throne. You're not on it. You have to be a vampire to be on it."

"That's bullshit."

I side eye him. "My throne outranks everyone. I cannot have a human outranking vampire dragon kings."

"Ok, that I understand."

Tobias puts his head down again. "Why do you need people on your throne? Or how many do you need?"

"My throne takes care of everyone. We deal with everything. Step in where we have to. I need people to do stuff and things. Like make a vacation planet for all the planets. And track down someone's parents on a planet we've never heard of."

Tim smiles. "Evacuate an entire planet before it blows up. Then make sure they set back up following our laws."

Malax gets a paper out. "Send in a nanny to make sure everything runs smoothly for parents to be turned into vampires. The list of what we do is extensive."

"Will you be taking planets?"

"I don't think so." I shake my head. "I want to unite everyone. Not rule. But I imagine we'll get a few anyway."

Malax nods. "You all keep us busy. I can tell you that much."

Zion smiles. "So I work for the throne and not Phade?"

"You work for Phade. I put you in the system. I'll have stuff for you to deal with at Phade when we get back to our planet. You also work for the throne. So, you're going to stay with us for the time being."

"Am I on your throne?"

I shake my head at Eriska. "You would be on Kehlani's as their mate. You're a queen on her throne. On mine, you would only work."

She jumps up and down. "I NEED A CROWN."

Tobias rolls his eyes. "We don't actually have crowns, woman. We use fake s**t out of the tablet."

"UGH." I slam my head down.

Malax nods. "And now we have to crown everyone for real."

Tim laughs. "Ping for gold mines again."

"Yes, sir."

"I'm going to go call your dad, woman. I need to know if he's on the throne."

"Tell him we'll make him a king."

"If we make him a king, we'll have to make every damn person on the throne a king."

"Kane's a king already. It would be Omar and Rye. I don't think they'll care if you crown them."

"That's true. We can add more tiers as well."

"Make a worker tier."

Malax nods at Zion. "Everyone, give me 20 minutes to make this call, then meet in the shuttle bay."

20 minutes later, Malax gets in the shuttle with us. "I have good news and bad news."

"Good news first."

"I got us our own suppra making lab. We have to make him a king for it, and I agreed to only make suppra's for the throne people. Nobody outside the throne and we cannot make them for profit. He wants to be the only one selling them."

"That's some pretty damn good news."

"It really is. But bad news. We are going to have a 5th tier. That's where everyone else is going."

"What?"

"Top tier. Echo and us. 2nd teir. Omar, Kane, Mary. 3rd teir. Nadine, Kehlani and their mates. 4th teir. Victor, Miculai, Frode, Rye, Braxtin, Etc. 5th tier, Our workers."

"Why is that bad?"

"I talked to her father for so long, I don't even remember. And each of the tiers can have its own advisors and ranks set up. But we are not going to acknowledge them. This is it for us. 5 tiers."

"You won't acknowledge my advisors?" Victor scratches his head.

"Not as rank on the throne. They would be your advisors, but I'm not titling them or paying them. If you want to pay them, you pay them."

"You're going to pay 5 tiers of people?"

I shrug my shoulders. "Kind of."

"We mine our own through Kehlani, but we have to pay her."

"How much did you mine last year?"

"50,000,000. We're only allowed so many mines."

"How much did you pay her?"

"20%"

"Damn. Yea, we're changing that."

"Like higher or lower?"

"We'll lower that percent. I'm thinking 3 mines maximum. You will be paying us 10%."

"Damn. That's a lot better."

Zion nearly jumps on the table. "AND WHAT DOES TIER 5 GET?"

Malax tries not to laugh. "We need a meeting. If I remember right, you want 1k a week."

Tim nods. "You're workers. Not kings. You need a job. We should pay them by job."

"Some we can. Some are going to stick with us."

"You'll have to pay them their own amount. If we hire someone to watch a ship for a few days, that's not going to be paid very much. But if we drop someone into a war zone and leave them to save the queen from explosives, then drag her around a continent for a whole day searching for someone's parents. That's worth a lot."

Tim nods. "He did save her from explosives."

"I had guts in my hair and blood running down my back."

Malax writes something down and gives it to Tim. He nods. "2,000,000 first year?"

Zion falls off his chair then jumps up. "YES. I'LL TAKE IT."

Malax shakes his head. "2 mil now. You get paid again in a year. Make it last. Do not go spend it all today."

"Where the hell's he going to spend it? We are on a planet alone."

"She does have a point." I laugh and get out of the shuttle. "Welcome to the beach."