A/N: Here's the new Chapter! Which also means the four chapters are up on my Patreon for early access as well as the bsp;to vote on the dire of the story!

  I think I've been hyping this party up for like 40+ chapters now lmao.

  -x-X-x-

  “Your Invitation, please.”

  Even as the doorman takes the invitation from Thaddeus’ outstretched hand, his gaze lingers on Natasha for a moment. Not all that surprising, really. She knows how good she loht now. Bck is, and always will be, her color. On top of that, the strapless dress she’s wearing is desigo atuate her already perfect curves even further.

  Finally, the doorman’s eyes leave her and move to the invitation, before cheg it against the tablet he’s holding in his other hand. After a moment, he simply nods aurns the invitation to Thaddeus.

  “Wele Chad Cummings, White Pawn. You may enter.”

  Thaddeus tenses up at the use of his gover name, but thankfully it’s not so fan event that everyone o be announced. In the end, the young man decides to let it slide and they make their way into the party from there, Natasha hanging off of his arm like the beautiful accessory she is.

  They make for quite the matched set, really. Her iight bck dress, him in his perfectly tailored all-white suit. He awn of the White Queen after all, so he had to look the part.

  As they ehe Ga proper, Natasha flicks her gaze around minutely, taking in the sights and cheg to see just how much… iheir entrangenders. Fortunately, the answer seems to be ‘not much’. Some eyes turn their way of course, and some even linger for a moment. But those that linger only seem to be doing so because of Natasha’s looks. Very few pay Thaddeus himself much attention, and those that are staring don’t seem tasha for who she is.

  No, ihey study her like a pieeat, and as she and Thaddeus make their way further into the party, she picks up more and more ‘admirers’ along the way. Hyenas one and all. No doubt they would already be lining up to approach her if she wasn’t hanging off of Thaddeus’ arm.

  Not that his presence would keep all of them at bay. Oh, he was certainly physically imposing enough, being one of the tallest and most impressively built men in the rge ballroom. Still as soon as they realized he was nobody special withiructure of the Hellfire Club itself, Natasha anticipated getting plenty of unwatention tonight.

  But not yet. For now, they had a moment to themselves, each grabbing a champagne flute from a passing server and sipping from it gingerly as they made their way further in. Well, Thaddeus sipped from it. Natasha simply preteo drink. Best not to let anything cloud her judgment on a night like this.

  Part of her still bemoaned her failed manipution from back when Thaddeus first told her his iions ing her along tonight. While SHIELD was very happy to hear that Natasha had gotten close enough to Thaddeus to secure this invitation, and would no doubt be very ied in whatever she told them about tonight… Natasha would have preferred to use this opportunity to cut ties.

  It wasn’t anything personal, at least on her end. It was simple pragmatism. Right now, she was torween two loyalties. The first was to SHIELD, who she owed quite a bit fetting her away from the Red Room. And they aimed to squeeze every st ounce of that debt out of her. But the sed was to Thaddeus, who might just have a shot of giving her a ce at motherhood, the ohing she’d secretly wanted lohan anything else.

  She would betray SHIELD in a heartbeat for that opportunity… rather, she already HAD betrayed them. And the lohis whole charade went on, the greater the ce that they would find out about her ge in allegianatasha o be out from under SHIELD’s thumb before her womb was healed and she wound up pregnant… which she imagined would happen any day now, really.

  Every time she and Thaddeus fucked, she got stronger, faster, better. At this point, Natasha could put her fist through a crete wall, albeit with siderable effort. She was more than the Red Room had ever intended her to be at this point. But… surreptitious ss had showed she still wasn’t healed from the st procedure that they’d performed on her. She still hadn’t recovered the ohing she wanted most… the capacity for childbirth.

  On the one hand, Natasha found herself ping at the bit in a way she’d rarely done in her life. Oher hand, it was for the best really. After all, once she was firmed pregnant, the clock would start. She would o enact her pns to get away from… everyone basically.

  Still, tonight could have beealyst for her cutting ties with SHIELD. If Thaddeus had taken the bait and goh her suggestion, Natasha could have ted on him and Emma Frost to help her go to ground and hide from SHIELD. Then, when she was finally healed and firmed pregnant, Natasha would only have had to escape from Thaddeus and Frost, a much easier set of circumstances.

  The most irritating part was Thaddeus didn’t even know he’d stymied her. Even now, she could tell he didn’t realize her true desires. No, in the end he’d shut down her pns because he actually didn’t care all that much about the other parts of the Hellfire Club. He was happy to let her report to SHIELD on what she saw here tonight in order to keep up appearances with them.

  Frustrating but not unsalvageable. Though, even as that thought passes through her head, Natasha sees the first of her many admirers finally beginning to approach out of the er of her eye. It would seem that word of who Thaddeus actually is has spread through the party by this point. As a lowly Pawn in the Kingless side of the Hellfire Club’s Court, Thaddeus’ influend power ractically ent.

  Natasha readies herself for whatever might e . If need be, she would allow herself to be peeled away from Thaddeus’ side, both to protect her iment in him and to gather more information for the iable report to SHIELD.

  … However, before the first man even reach them, he suddenly seems to trip over his ow… and right into a server carrying a fresh tray of finger foods. Natasha doesn’t bother schooling her rea. After all, tonight she’s supposed to be Natalie Rushman, RA… and Natalie would definitely go wide eyed at the embarrassing sight.

  “Oh my god sir, I’m so sorry!”

  “Get off of me!”

  Food has nded all over the man iion, and as he pushes the server away and stands up, some of it is… well, sauough to be stig to him. He tries to brush himself off, but to no avail. The damage is done and in more ways than one. Natasha tell as much when the man lifts he head and winds up making eye tact with her.

  One look at her wide eyes and pitying gnd he scowls angrily before turning and walking away. Obviously, the moment had been thhly ruined and he wasn’t going to try to seduce her off of Thaddeus’ arm now that he was covered in food.

  Of course, that was just the first of several… not that any of the others fare much better. Natasha finds herself watg from her periphery, actually struggling to make it seem like she doesn’t notice all of the is that suddenly befall anyone who shows her even the slightest i. It’s holy rather… strange.

  Before any of her admirers close in on her and Thaddeus and make a py for her, some form of misfortune always winds up redireg them. For some, it’s as simple as being interrupted and drawn into a longwinded versation by someohey seemingly ’t ignore on their way to her. For others, it’s just as embarrassing and humiliating as the first, sending them skulking off in disgrace at having itted this or that social faux pas.

  It takes Natasha far too long to realize Thaddeus must be doing something. But before she lean in and ask him directly if he has some sort of hand in it, there’s an annou. She and Thaddeus might not have been important enough for one… but the King and Queen would be, of course.

  “Announg Sir Sebastian Shaw, your Bck King and Dame Emma Frost, your White Queen!”

  They also don’t e from the entrance, but rather down the massive, bifurcated staircase in the ter of the room. Natasha has to admit, Emma is giving her a run for her money in the pure white dress that the blonde is wearing. Meanwhile, Sebastian Shaw cuts quite the imposing figure in his bd red suit, practically oozing fidence as every eye in the party turns to him and Emma.

  There’s polite g from all involved while the Bck King and White Queen of the Hellfire Club desd the stairs. Natasha and Thaddeus join in as well, though Natasha feigation when Shaw’s eyes fall upon her and affix there. There’s the briefest of pauses before he leans over and whispers something to Emma that seems to arm the blohough she hides it quite well with a smile and a whisper back.

  A moment ter and Thaddeus suddenly whispers to Natasha. He barely moves, doesn’t eveowards her… but his words reach her ear all the same.

  “Shaw has made you.”

  Ah. That expins the look. Natasha doesn’t stiffen, though it’s a hing as she barely moves her mouth in her response.

  “In what way, exactly?”

  Because there were differeo this clusterfuck. If Shaw knew she was SHIELD, they were probably all dead. But if…

  “He reizes you as a Bck Widow, somehow. He asked Emma how I had mao snag one of your kind. She feigned surprise and , telling him that you’re just my dorm RA.”

  Ah. That wasn’t… terrible. But it did mean that Shaw believed her to have infiltrated this party through the Hellfire Club’s member. And that, it seemed, was a bridge too far. The Bck King steadily begins to approach, with Emma brought along for the ride hanging off his arm.

  Somehow, she doesn’t think whatever Thaddeus was doing before is going to be quite so effective now, especially against a man with single-minded focus like Shaw. No, she’ll have to figure out how to py this. If they’re lucky, then Shaw won’t expose her in front of everyone and dress Thaddeus down for falling for her tricks. But she’ll have to act fast and make it clear she knows that the Bck King knows who she is. Perhaps she offer him her services in a surreptitious mao appease him so he doesn’t make too much of a se…

  … But before any of that happen, before Shaw and Frost even reaatasha and Thaddeus, something happens over at the entrance.

  “Wait, you ’t-mmph!”

  Blinking, Natasha turns her gaze towards the door along with everyone else just in time to see the stra of sights. There’s a blond man in a white suit that gives Thaddeus’ attire a run for its money. Streaming into the ballroom oher side of the maher men dressed in white, wearing masks… and wielding rifles.

  But the strahing of all is the blond man’s hand, currently c the face of the doorman. It’s not human at all… rather, it gleams iificial lightning, clearly made of metal. Sneering, the blond man begins to squeeze.

  “I am Donald Pierce, White King of the Hellfire Club. I assure you, I certainly .”

  The doormas out a muffled scream and iually cws at the metal hand, trying to pull away but to no avail. Finally, there’s a squelg noise as the skull gives way under Donald Pierce’s metal grasp. The doorman’s head is pulped in it’s ey before the blond finally releases the corpse and allows the body to drop to the floor.

  Nobody tries to stop him, likely in part because of the dozens of masked gunmen dressed in white that now lihe party’s walls, all of them looking more than ready to shoot anyone who dares to make a move.

  Flig the gore off of his metal fingers, the self-procimed White King strides into the Ga, an arrogant smirk on his face as he eventually finds himself standing across from Sebastian Shaw and Emma Frost. Natasha and Thaddeus have been pletely fotten by the Bck King at this point in time. Instead, every ounce of Shaw’s attention is focused on this newer… on this challenger.

  “Pierce. Ever the cockroach, I see.”

  Shaw’s drawl draws a bark of ughter from Donald Pierce, even as the blond man sneers and ches his hands… both of them metal, Natasha finally notices, into fists.

  “Did you think I would let a filthy mutant kill me? Did you think that your vaunted power was enough to put down ME?! Your reing has e, Shaw. The White King has returned!”

  Despite the boasting, despite the implicit threats, Shaw looks pletely uurbed.

  “You are no lohe White King, Pierce. You were spiring against the Hellfire Club, and for that I removed you from your post.”

  Now, Pierce gets truly angry, stabbing a metal finger in Shaw’s dire.

  “That is not your call to make, Shaw! The Bck King does not have the power to remove the White King from his position! And I did not spire against the Hellfire Club. I simply sought to purify it of the tainted rabble that had ied it over the years! YOU are the threat to the Hellfire Club here, not ME. And tonight… tonight, the iion will finally be excised.”

  Shaw looks more amused than anything else as he gazes around at the forces Pierce has brought to bear against him for a brief moment. When he looks back to his terpart, he doesn’t seem at all worried.

  “You haven’t brought enough men.”

  Gnashing his teeth, Pierarls.

  “Them? They’re just insurance. I don’t hem to deal with you. No, they’re just here to make sure no oerferes. I’m going to deal with you myself, Shaw. Right here, right now. My exalted sce against your filthy mutation for all to see. Ond for all, all will know you for the pathetic piece of scum you are!”

  Oh wow. That was… well, it was better than being stu a kill box as Pierce ordered his guo open fire. But not by much. They were still surrounded, and while Natasha was more fident of her capacity for tanking bullets than she’d ever been before… if Pierew he was dealing with mutants tonight, there was no telling what sort of ammunition those rifles held.

  Still, this was between Shaierce. They didn’t have to involve themselves… right? Natasha go Thaddeus, just to make sure they’re on the same page.

  -x-X-x- The Vote: [X] They're on the same page, Thaddeus isn't going to step in here - 91%[ ] They're not on the same page, Thaddeus decides to make a spsh by stepping in - 9%

  -x-X-x- If you'd like to read more of my work not seen on this website, check out Hentai-Foundry. and QuestionableQuesting. where I have over a thousand stories!

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