The PlayLion Billionaire: A Paranormal Billionaire Romance (7 page)

CHAPTER SIX

Robert sat back from the table at his home, closing his eyes and taking a deep breath. He would be meeting with the elders soon; he wanted to be prepared but he knew that he was facing an uphill battle. It had been three days since he and several members of his Pride had taken out the interlopers who wanted to remove Robert from his position as Alpha, three days since he had come clean to Olivia. The entire Pride now knew that Robert had found a mate but the Pride also knew his mate was an outsider.

And he had other issues to face. Someone—or several someones—had been reporting on him to Peter and the other lions that were in the renegade’s band, meaning someone in his Pride had betrayed him. Robert needed permission from the elders to be able to root out who it was, as well as to punish them. Robert’s hands tightened into fists, remembering what Peter’s group had done to Olivia. She was still recovering from her injuries; they had not been severe but because she was not a were-lion, her healing process was slow. Robert himself only had a few deep scabs from the bites and scratches he had borne fighting and killing the renegades who had taken his mate with the intention of overthrowing him.

Katarina and Alexis had leads, but Robert couldn’t follow up on them until he had permission from the elders to cleanse his Pride of betrayers. He also had to think about how to convince Olivia to make their union together permanent. She had accepted the fact of his nature on the surface but he knew that the shock of being abducted, of being attacked by lions that could transform back into people, had colored her acceptance. He knew that there would inevitably be a fallout, as the facts of life filtered through Olivia’s brain. Once she was fully recovered from her injuries, from the concussion she had received, Olivia would have more questions; she would start to wonder.

Robert threaded his fingers in his hair, exhaling. He could still feel the lingering effects of the rage that had overcome him, knowing someone had taken the woman he loved. He wouldn’t be able to get past the anger until he was able to rid himself of the people who had betrayed him.

He had insisted on Olivia coming to his house when she was discharged from the hospital. She had fought him on the issue, pointing out that he had apparently killed the dissidents who had abducted her but Robert couldn’t bring himself to tell her that there were people within his own Pride who were still interested in attacking her, bringing her down. He had no doubts that those who had turned against him would continue to work against him. Olivia was safer with him, until he was able to ensure her safety.
Even then,
Robert thought idly,
I don’t want her to leave. I want her to stay right where she is.
He smiled to himself. One benefit of convincing her to stay with him was that he had also been able to convince her to stay in his bed.

Robert shuddered as a rush of heat ran through his spine, thinking of Olivia curled up in his bed, sleeping. Her scent was already drenched into his sheets, and as he moved around the house, Robert could follow the fine thread of her pheromones from one room to another. He breathed in, sorting through the various scents of his house, finding Olivia’s sweet smell nestled in it. Robert breathed it in, allowing it to calm him. When the elders arrived, he would need to be able to convince them that by rooting out the traitors and getting rid of them all served to protect his mate’s safety, his status as an Alpha, and the stability of the Pride.

There was a knock at the door, and Robert stood, opening his eyes and moving out of the kitchen quickly. He glanced at the time; if it was the elders, they were early, which could be a promising sign. Robert brushed imaginary lint from his clothes and walked through the hallway, stepping quickly to the door before enough time had passed to persuade his visitor to knock again.

On the other side of the door, Robert took in the sight of three women and two men; one of the women was his mother. He raised an eyebrow, opening the door wider to admit all five into his house. The elders were of his mother’s generation though older than she was, but young enough that the term “elder” sat strangely on them. The two female elders wore their hair short, cropped close to their skull in bright orange and red. The two male elders, men who had known his father, who had been concerned about Robert’s leadership to begin with, wore their thick hair in almost-manes, flaunting the fact that even in middle age, they had not lost a single thread of it.

“Mother, it’s good to see you,” Robert said, leading his visitors into his kitchen. “Your timing is interesting.”

One of the female elders smiled. “We thought since she is the dowager Alpha female, it would be best to include her in this discussion.”

Robert glanced at his mother, holding her gaze for a moment.

“You mean, she’s as worried about the fact that my mate is not a were as you all are,” Robert countered.

“It is a concern,” one of the male elders, his dark brown hair shot through with gray, said. “But it isn’t as though lions have never taken human mates.”

“With the situation within the Pride as unstable as it is, we wanted to make sure you know what you’re doing.”

“I called you here to discuss the instability in my Pride. Most notably, the fact that someone in my Pride is apparently a traitor.”

“Then the situation with your mate is relevant. She isn’t a were-lion. That would only give further incentive for instability, for someone to attempt to overthrow you.”

“I make her my mate, I bring her into the Pride, and I get rid of the dissenter, seems like that will stabilize everything to me.”

“You got rid of dissenters before,” the female elder with bright red hair pointed out. “And they came back to bite at your haunches. We want this over with. We have all of our kind to think about, not just your Pride.”

“Then give me leave to investigate who it is that betrayed the Pride. I am not interested in exiling them.”

“You can’t summarily execute members of your own Pride, Robert,” the other male elder said firmly. “Simply executing them will only increase the odds that your Pride will fall apart, and the rest of the groups do not want to have to deal with loose, unaffiliated lions any more than they have to.”

“Then I will put them on trial, and then execute them,” Robert suggested. “If I can’t manage to gather enough evidence to prove they’ve betrayed me, I am obviously not Alpha material.”

“That is what I would say,” the first female elder, with orange hair, said with a little smile. “Robert, we understand that you’re not ready to settle down. We understand this was thrust upon you before your father could prepare you for the drawbacks to being the Alpha.”

“My father prepared me quite well,” Robert said, a low growl entering his voice. “As long as I have a mate and a prospect of siring more members for the Pride, there can be no reason for anyone to betray me again. Allow me to take the measures I see fit, and the Pride will stabilize. You can have your precious peace.”

“The rest of the Pride may not accept her,” Robert’s mother said. She looked at him without wavering. “She isn’t one of us. I can accept the fact that you have identified her as your mate, but there will be some who will say that the fact that you have mated to a non-were means that you’re not fit to lead.”

“Let them say it to my face,” Robert said, the growl in his voice intensifying. “Let them say it to my face and challenge me. I am not banishing any other members of the Pride. In the future, if someone challenges me for the leadership of my family, of my Pride, I will fight them to the death.”

“There is also the matter of assimilating her,” the red-haired elder pointed out. “You have kept her status as quiet as you possibly can…but she has not come forward into the Pride as your mate. That tells me that she has not decided to make a commitment to you.”

“She needs time,” Robert said firmly. “And while she is taking her time to decide to commit, I need to stabilize my Pride. You have to give me that right.”

“No executions without trial,” the older of the two male elders said. “Whoever it is within your Pride that sold you out to the renegades, you put them on trial in front of the whole Pride and you’ll allow the Pride to judge them guilty or innocent.”

“I accept that,” Robert said, though the thought of possibly letting the culprits go, even for a short time, even long enough to put them on trial, made his blood start to heat up with the desire to immediately go out, hunt them down, and kill them without asking permission. “I will put them on trial, and when they are proven guilty, I will execute them in full view of the Pride.”

“And full view of your mate,” the red-haired elder said. “She must be incorporated into the Pride before you can make these judgments.”

“She may not have decided by that time,” Robert said, feeling his anger rising higher and higher.

“Then you will have to wait until she has decided. We are not going to give you free license to go on a witch-hunt until your mate is official. Take your frustrations out elsewhere.” The elders stood; Robert’s mother did not.

“If there’s nothing further to discuss, we’ll leave you to plan your strategy and speak with your mate and your mother,” the male elder with silver-streaked hair said. “If you attempt to take care of this outside of the rules we’ve set, you will be taken down and your Pride will have to elect a new Alpha.”

Robert’s lips moved into a snarl, and he felt the change crackling inside of him in reaction to the threat. He suppressed it with an effort.
Control of the change shows your mastery of both natures,
he thought firmly. They were words that his father had spoken to him over and over again from before he had ever made his first transformation into his other form. The elders nodded to Robert’s mother, nodded to him and left the kitchen, escorting themselves out of the house in near-total silence.

Robert sat down heavily, forcing himself to breathe deeply and slowly, regaining his self-control by inches. “I would like to meet this woman you’ve chosen,” his mother said, sitting down across the table from him.

“She’s still recovering from the injuries she sustained thanks to that abduction attempt,” Robert told his mom bitterly. “I doubt she feels up to meeting more lions just now.”

“If you have Katarina and Alexis working on the issue of who betrayed you and the Pride, you’ll have to work quickly with your mate to convince her to join us,” his mother pointed out. “Otherwise, you’ll both continue to be open to attacks. I don’t want to see my only son killed just as he’s settling into adult life.”

Robert held his mother’s gaze. “Let me see if she’s awake,” he told her, standing up slowly.

*

Olivia stared at her computer screen, pretending she was analyzing the information sent to her for the charity outreach program she was working on. She had been given the clearance to return to work, both by Robert and by the doctor who was taking care of her injuries. She should have been happier than she was.
I’m having sex with a man who can transform into a lion at will. I have met his mother, who can also transform into a lion at will.
When she had come back into consciousness at the hospital, it had seemed so much easier to understand, to wrap her mind around; after all, she had seen lions turn into humans, and humans turn into lions. Only a crazy person would assume that evidence before their own eyes—evidence confirmed by other people—was wrong.

But after a lifetime of being told things like werewolves and shape-shifters were purely the province of fiction, it was difficult to believe she hadn’t suffered from some kind of serious brain damage to have seen what she did. In the days since her abduction and rescue, she’d peppered Robert with questions about his existence: if there were were-lions, there must be other types of supernatural creature. He had confirmed that there were indeed other varieties of people who transformed into animals: were-bears, wolves, foxes and even reptiles.

But the fact that her now-boyfriend was a shape-shifter who could become a lion almost paled in comparison to the fact that she was apparently his mate.
His mate. How can he even know that? How am I supposed to react to that?
She swallowed, reaching blindly for her cup of coffee. She glanced around the office, bringing the mug up to her lips. She hadn’t asked Robert how he knew for a fact that she was his mate; in truth, she didn’t entirely want to know. The possibility of staying with him for the rest of her life was frightening not only because of the great unknown of his nature but also because she had not seriously considered a lifetime partnership with anyone.

It was as though she had gone from single to engaged in the span of a day. Olivia set her coffee cup down and tried to bring her focus onto the work in front of her. In the past, whenever she’d had to deal with overwhelming personal issues, her refuge of choice had always been work: school work, her part-time job, anything to distract her from the howling mess inside of her mind. But work now reminded her of the person who had gotten her the job. Olivia worried at her bottom lip. She couldn’t help but admit to herself that she had been attracted to Robert from the very beginning. She couldn’t deny the fact that she wanted him. But did she want him enough to want to spend every day of the rest of her life with him? That was a question she couldn’t answer.

Her phone rang, and Olivia glanced at the caller ID on the screen. It was Robert. She smiled slightly to herself, taking a deep breath. “Yes?” she said, wedging the handset between her ear and her shoulder.