“It’s symbolic, you moron,” she retorted. “Are you so dense that you can’t pick up on that? I’m Braslieu royalty. You have no say here.”
“Tell that to your people. They take orders from me just fine. I think they’ve been craving a man in charge around here since your father died. They seemed…how should I say it? Relieved.”
She longed to scratch that smirk right off his face. “You may have fucked me last night and claimed alpha status, but that doesn’t mean you take over my duties.”
“Actually, that’s exactly what I’ll be doing. I’ll make all the decisions now.”
“No, you will not. We will discuss things together and make joint decisions based on my input. I know this area, this government and my people, better than you. You will defer to me in all decisions.”
Conner laughed and crossed his arms. “It’s not going to work that way. You can tellme everything I need to know, but I’ll take it from there.”
How could she have been so blind? He’d played her last night. Now that he was stuck here, he was playing prime alpha to the hilt. Whatever happened between themlast night wasn’t emotional, wasn’t bonding. She’d been nothing more than a fuck. She meant nothing more than a means to an end, the result being power over the wolves of Braslieu.
He’d done a fine job of lulling her into thinking they’d work together as a team. How stupid was she? One good fuck and she’d given everything to him. No, she
hadn’t
given. He’d taken.
“Get up from the desk, Katya. You’ve had your tantrum, now let me get some work done.”
“Don’t you
dare
patronize me!” She slammed her hands on the desk and stood, leaning over to make sure he understood exactly who was in charge. She bared her teeth, allowing the wolf within her to surface. “I rule Braslieu, not you. I will make the decisions, not you. And I will tell my people what to do .
Not
you!”
She’d shouted the last sentence to get her point across, her voice low and husky
with the change.
But Conner didn’t flinch. Instead, he placed his palms on his end of the desk and leaned over so their noses nearly touched.
His eyes darkened with lupine change, teeth elongating, his jaw jutting out. Claws dug into the end of the desk as he growled a warning. “Don’t undermine what I do, Katya. It’s for the protection of all the wolves here. I am alpha now, make no mistake. I do not need, nor will I ever ask your permission to do what I think is necessary.”
“We’ll see about that.” She turned her head to the door and shouted for her personal guards. In a matter of moments, they came through the door.
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“I want you to remove Conner from the room,” she said, turning to Conner and
offering a smug smile. Soon enough, he’d see who was in charge here.
But they stood there, confused frowns on their faces.
“Did you hear me? Remove him, now!”
“Princess, he is the alpha. We cannot,” Nicolai said, an apologetic look on his face.
“
I
am alpha here and I command you to remove him.”
Jens shook his head, not making eye contact with her. “We cannot. The lupine laws are clear. You have mated with Conner Devlin. He is alpha male and we take our orders from him now.”
This was unbelievable. They looked to Conner, who nodded his head and inclined it toward the doorway. The guards made a quick exit.
Seething fury kept the wolf present. She didn’t even bother to try and hide theferocity of her anger. She had half a mind to pounce on him and
really
let him see how angry she was.
She’d lose the battle, of course. No way could she match his physical strength. But she’d get a few bites and scratches in first.
“I don’t know what you said to them, but I assume you were asking them to move me out of here. That won’t do you any good, Katya. They know who the alpha is now.”
This wasn’t happening. Yesterday she was in charge. Today she was…nothing. And why? Because she’d fucked an alpha wolf?
“I’m not here to harm anyone, baby.”
“Don’t call me baby. In fact, don’t even speak to me.”
He skirted the desk and came around to her side. She moved away.
“Katya,” he said, his voice soft as if he was speaking to a child. “We may be adversarial in the way I got here, but now that I’m in place I want to help. We don’t have to do battle.”
“I’m not doing battle with you, Conner. I’m not doing anything with you. You’ve come in here and taken away everything that is mine. That’s unacceptable.”
“I’ve taken nothing away. Believe me, joining with the Devlins was the wisest decision you could make for your people. They understand that now.”
“I didn’t
join
with you! It was a mistake!”
He stared at her with a blank expression of innocence that infuriated her. She was getting nowhere with this hardheaded American. “Just stay the hell out of my way, Conner. And don’t touch or change a goddamned thing around here! This is my castle, my people, and you do not have my permission to do anything!”
Before she did something incredibly weak, like burst into tears, she stormed from the room, flinging the door open to find Noah, Elena and a dozen of her people waiting outside. No doubt, they’d heard everything.
Elena looked at her with sympathy, as did the rest of them.
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They pitied her! She must look like a fool. Half-human, half-lupine, and wrestling
with female emotions that threatened to send her into a curled up ball of misery.
This was all too much.
“You follow him?” she asked, inclining her head to the closed door.
No one looked her in the eye.
“Cousin, you know the lupine laws,” Elena said, her voice quiet.
“You are all fools,” she spat, not even trying to hide the disgust in her voice.
She turned and walked down the hall with her head held high, refusing to swipe at the tears that pooled in her eyes and slid slowly down her cheeks.
The wolf within her retreated as melancholy replaced anger.
In the blink of an eye, she’d lost it all.
God help her people now, because the Devlins didn’t have a clue.
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Chapter Nine
Conner stood at the window of the office, looking out over the thick green and goldforests below and wondering what the fuck had just happened between him and Katya.
Last night it seemed as if they might have struck a tenuous peace, both in bed and out. They’d shared a night of great sex, followed by an easy conversation that led him to believe things might work out for them.
He’d pleasured her that much he knew for certain. She’d come several times, each time more intense than the last. Then she’d slept soundly in his arms last night, tuckedagainst his side as if she’d spent her entire life there.
He’d assumed everything had been settled between them, but then she exploded because he sat at her desk? He just didn’t get it.
The door opened and Noah slipped in, closing it behind him and crossing his arms.
“Well, you handled that well, brother. Anything else you care to fuck up or wasthat your big one of the day?”
“What the hell are you talking about? You know I’m doing exactly what I’m supposed to. Setting things in motion to protect the wolves here. I’m doing my job, Noah.”
“I know what your job is. I’m talking about Katya.”
“What about her?”
“You screwed up.”
Conner leaned his hip against the window ledge. “How?”
“She was in charge here. You took over without even consulting or warning her
what would happen. Then you made decisions and didn’t ask for her advice.”
“I don’t need her advice. I also didn’t ask to end up here, but it looks like that’s what’s going to happen, so I might as well take charge and get things rolling. I know what needs to be done.”
Noah shook his head and approached, sitting next to him on the ledge. “You don’t know shit about women, Conner. You never have. All you do is fuck them. You never consider their feelings.”
Conner’s jaw dropped. Who was this stranger across from him? Noah waxing philosophical about women’s feelings? “And where did you amass this great knowledge about women?”
Noah smirked. “I pay attention to details. It’s my job to read people so that I canmanipulate a situation. One of the things I’ve learned along the way is how to use a
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woman’s emotions to my advantage. And you learn that by observing, by knowing what makes them happy and what pisses them off.”
“Uh-huh. Well, Katya knew what she was doing when she set out to play her little game. She gambled and long term, I win. I’m the alpha here now, and the sooner she gets used to it the better.”
“This is all because you feel trapped into something you didn’t get to decide for yourself. This is your revenge, right?
“No, this is business.”
“Bullshit. It’s payback. So you’d rather have the princess at odds with you instead of on your side.”
“There are no sides. We’re all the same pack now. She’s my mate. It’s her duty to follow my rules.”
“That’s all well and good for lupine laws, Con, but we’re also partially human. And that means emotion comes into play. Women’s emotions. You don’t want to fuck with those, trust me.”
“I know what I’m doing,” Conner said, moving back to the desk.
“You don’t have a goddamned idea what you’re doing. This venture will be a helluva lot more successful with Katya’s cooperation. Without it, you’ve got one major battle on your hands.”
Heaving an exasperated sigh, Conner looked up at Noah. “So what do you suggest I do?”
Noah’s lips curled in a smirk. “First thing you’ve got to do is pull your foot out ofyour mouth. You’re going to have to learn that being alpha doesn’t necessarily mean that you bully everyone into doing it your way. Besides, Katya knows this area. She canhelp you.”
“I can figure it out on my own. Plus, her people will help me.”
“They will, but only because they’re honor bound to do so. If they see you mistreating their princess, you could end up with a mutiny someday. Hell, Con, youhad her right where you wanted her. Then you had to go act like an ass. You think they didn’t notice how you treated her like she was nothing? Don’t you think they’re going to wonder if you’re really here for their best interests, or your own?”
Noah had a point. Maybe he’d been a little bit too domineering with her. But dammit, it galled him that he’d been so easily manipulated. Maybe he had been lashing out at her instead of acting logically. “I suppose it wouldn’t hurt to enlist her aid.”
“Yeah, if she ever speaks to you again. Hope you got a good fuck last night, bro. It’ll probably be the last one you get for a while.”
Noah turned and left the room, his snicker echoing down the hall.
Shit. He didn’t need this. Why couldn’t things run more smoothly?
And how the hell was he supposed to figure out how to deal with a woman and her emotions? He’d never been able to fathom that mystery before.
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He knew how to treat them in the bedroom. Never had any complaints there.
But business was different, and this was business. Didn’t Katya see that?
He glared at the phone, not wanting to make the call but knowing he had no choice.
Before he chickened out he lifted the receiver and dialed the international codes to the
U.S., hoping she’d actually answer her cell phone for once.
“This had better be good. It’s the goddamned middle of the night.”
“Hello, Chantal.” He ignored her surly attitude. His sister was always grouchy when she woke up.
“Conner, somebody had better be dead for you to be making this call.”
Yeah. Him, if he didn’t get Katya figured out. “No one’s dead. Sorry to disappoint you.”
“Then what is it?”
Her biting tone made him smile. God he loved his sister. He flinched as he blurted
out the words. “I need woman advice.”
He rolled his eyes at the sound of Chantal’s hysterical laughter. Okay, he only loved
her sometimes. Other times she was a real ball-busting pain in the ass.
* * * * *
By nightfall, Conner had at least made some inroads on the construction aspect of
the mission.
That had been the easy part. After Chantal had chewed him a new asshole and pointed out all the ways he’d screwed up with Katya, he figured the hard part wasabout to begin.