Page 3

Opening the door to the boardroom, I took a deep breath. I wasn’t expecting for this meeting to be productive, considering that it was our first. I wanted everyone to feel comfortable with each other before we got down to business.

I felt the eyes on me as I made my way to the empty seat in the back of the room.

Exo and Maxim followed me inside, the former taking the seat next to me with gusto while my assistant sat in the chair in the corner, away from the table.

There was a table for him to place his laptop on, which he did immediately.

He’d be recording the meeting, which made me feel a little at ease.

This was just like any normal meeting I’d been a part of.

Except I was in a room full of creatures that could kill me in an instant if they really wanted to.

My seat squeaked as I sat down, turning all heads in my direction if they hadn’t been already.

Just as I was about to open my mouth, the door swung open and a woman covered in blue and green scales from head to toe, with long blonde hair tied back in a ponytail, came bounding into the room.

Her pink dress was glued to the curves of her body and I could tell she was used to holding attention .

“Sorry I’m late!” She gave me a gentle smile, recognizing me from the auditions. I grinned in response as she took the only remaining empty seat on the other side of the long oval table.

“We were just going to start, so you have perfect timing.” I glanced over at Maxim and gave him a nod, which was our predetermined cue for him to start recording things, writing everything he heard and recording the audio as a backup.

We’d need both written and audible sessions to log for the House and I wanted to make sure there was no error in what we were doing today.

Wrangling twelve creatures that were all looking to me as their guide was nerve wracking. Reminding myself that this was just like a House meeting but with way less people, I rolled my shoulders and sat up straight.

“Thank you to everyone for being here and congrats on being a member of ORBIT. I’m happy to have you all here.

” They clapped, which I hadn’t expected, but it felt nice all the same.

“My name is Wallace Watson and I’ll be the human representative here guiding us to work out any and all issues arising in the Orb communities in conjunction with the human community. ”

They made a few musings about how great this was going to be, mixed in with some doubts.

I expected as such. Something like this had never been done before.

Once ORBIT identified a prevalent or ongoing issue, we'd team up with local law enforcement to find a plan of action.

These assembled Orbs were from all over the country, not just local to D.C.

Thoughts of dealing with a crazy air traffic bill zoomed through my head.

Thank goodness Exo had other connections to private planes other than Kroven, the sangamar we'd briefly collaborated with in the early beginnings of ORBIT.

But even still, we were looking at constant traveling if certain circumstances couldn't be avoided.

I was glad some of these Orbs could fly or they could help afford some variant to make travel a hell of a lot easier.

“Why don't we start by getting to know each other? How about we go around the room and state your name and your species? That way no one, my superiors included, can claim confused.”

A roll of shrugs and nods went through the board of creatures and I looked to Exo, hoping he'd heed the hint and start us off.

Catching the brief smirk and eye roll from him, Exo cleared his throat. He folded his hands together, resting his chin on them to command attention.

“My name is Exo, and I'm a sangamar.”

Next to him was a woman with a platinum blond updo, gaudy jewelry, and beautiful beige skin that reminded me of the family chihuahua I'd had growing up.

She gave a grin, revealing enlarged incisors and canines in her mouth.

Her ears were pointed like Exo's but were slightly larger in size.

Gold earrings dangled from them and made noise every time she shifted her weight in her chair.

“I’m Francyn!” Her saccharine voice held an accent, southern and sickeningly sweet.

If I had to offer a guess, I'd say she was from Louisiana or somewhere much farther south.

I didn't even know Orbs could have accents like humans.

Day one and I was already learning knew things.

“And I'm single, just to get that out in the open.” She winked for everyone, and I had to stifle a laugh as groans resounded around the room.

“Well, you can't blame a gal for tryin! I'm also a Libra with a pension for shopping, and—”

“Sorry, Francyn.” I interjected. “Not to cut you off, but—”

“Oh, I'm sorry, honey! I could just keep yappin’ for days. I'm a proud lycanthe. Sorry about that, y'all!”

A grumble came from the guy next to her.

His skin alternated color, like vitiligo, and it intrigued me just as much now as it had during the auditions.

I'd never seen his species before, and he wasn't hard to look at either.

Most of his skin was tanned, but there were certain areas that were a deep ocean blue.

He had an uneven splotch around his neck that stopped in haphazard spots that lead to his chest. I couldn't see his arms and legs now as they were covered by the vibrant blue suit he was rocking, but I remembered seeing the splotches of blue skin down both his arms and legs.

He'd explained that he could produce gills on his neck once they came into contact with water, as well as fins down his arms and scales would slick down his legs.

I really wanted to see his transformation in action, but obviously it was rude to ask him do so.

“I’m Ekan and I'm an eamesr.”

Thankfully, he'd given us the spelling of that during the hiring process. They all had, for names and species. I just had to assure myself that Maxim had taken copious notes and knew how to correctly spell everything.

“My name is Shelvi,” A woman with beautiful caramel skin spoke from Ekan's left, and if she didn't have dark red metallic barbs decorating her otherwise humans ears, no one would have been able to decipher her from one of us. Well, that and the fact that she had neon yellow irises. Not golden, not amber. But a striking yellow that could take someone’s breath away if they weren’t expecting the shade to announce itself. “And I’m a hjarq.”

The man next to Shelvi had red hot skin and a tail that split into three pointed arrows.

The standing ovation of his features were the three horns that stilted out of his head, one on each side of his head and one directly in the middle, just above his forehead.

He’d opted to wear a brown trench coat that covered most of his inhuman but perfect skin.

“I’m Agemot and I’m a stellymn.”

“I’m the angel to his demon,” The man next to him cooed, plastering on a smile that oozed a level of confidence I could only dream of acquiring.

He grabbed Agemot’s hand and squeezed it affectionately.

He didn’t push the touch away but Agemot didn’t look thrilled about it either.

“My name is Kloan. I’m a caeboros and Agemot’s bratty boyfriend. ”

As a roll of laughter played itself around the room, Kloan waved like this was his personal stage and the rest of the ORBIT members were simply his audience.

His skin was beautiful, almost like tiny little specks of glitter screamed from the pores of his otherwise human looking tanned skin.

Kloan also had a large purple gem embedded in the center of his forehead, looking like an amethyst that couldn’t help but catch the light.

I knew he had feathered wings too, but they were retractable, as I’d learned during the interviewing process.

Thankfully, they were retracted at the moment, otherwise the gorgeous purple feathers would be taking up the entire corner of the room Kloan sat in.

“The first day and you’re already a nuisance.” Agemot rolled his solid black eyes, devoid of a pupil and a halo of white the only other color amongst his eyes. “I apologize for Kloan, presently and in the future.”

“Oh, come on.” Kloan laughed. “I’m just charismatic. I can’t help it.”

“It’s fine,” I chimed in, gesturing to the person next to Kloan so we wouldn’t be in the introduction stage for the next hour.

A woman with leaf green hair in a perfect French braid shook her shoulders before speaking.

Her skin was a trade off between white and dark brown, like the trunk of a birch tree, and twice as textured.

Her skin gave the effect that it would feel just as coarse as the trunk of a tree if one dared to tremble their hands against it.

Twigs with pretty pink flowers grew out of her dark green eyebrows and her eyes looked like glowing pink jewels stuck within her sockets.

“I’m Berthyll, a tythwig of the birch tree variety.” She smiled warmly around the room .

Next to Berthyll was a human. At least, they looked exactly like a human.

There was nothing distinguishable about them whatsoever that they were anything other than human.

With dark hair that fell in slants across their scalp and obscured their face, they had skin a little darker than mine, which wasn’t hard, considering the fact that I was a redhead and was plagued with the stereotypical fair skin. Their green eyes mimicked my own.

“I’m an olatsma,” They explained with the clearing of their throat. “My name is Ozmo and my pronouns are they/them.”

“Clearly not proud to be an olatsma.” Ekan scoffed, folding his arms over his chest.

“Fuck off,” Ozmo fired back, already rattled by their fellow Orbs words. “I’m proud to be what I am, I just don’t feel the need to rub it in everyone’s face.”