CHAPTER THIRTEEN

 

Riktor stormed into his office and sat down behind his desk. “I can handle this myself. I don’t need her help.” Riktor glared at his brother.

Ace sank down into a seat across from him. “I know you can, but Michaela could help us. At least keep people off of our back with her connections. Look.” Ace sighed and sank down deeper into the chair. “I don’t like this any more than you do. But the little I’ve seen of her, she’s quick on her feet and makes you, well…we’ll discuss that later. It’s going to take time to get this marriage annulled or at least get her to agree to a divorce. We should take that time to use the connections she has to force Winthrop down.”

Riktor shook his head. “Winthrop won’t back down, regardless. He’s desperate. While you and Michaela were having your little tete-a-tete this morning, our financial department called and let me know all Winthrop’s credit cards had been declined. But I instructed them to let him go, regardless. He owes us well over five thousand dollars, including the plane ride to and from the island.”

Ace whistled. “He’ll be desperate, all right. I wonder how many other people he owes money to. But that still doesn’t explain why you’d turn down Michaela’s offer to stand with you. She’s here, and she can help you. Stop being so damn stubborn.”

Riktor glared. “I can talk him—”

Ace stood up, placed his hands on the desk, and leaned over it. “Don’t you dare finish that sentence. I know all about Winthrop. You can’t talk him out of anything. Owing us money won’t make him back down. In fact, it will make him more likely to fight you. He has the experience. You don’t. This isn’t his first rodeo. This will be yours. I’m not saying you can’t win, but, again I remind you, this isn’t Winthrop’s first alpha fight.”

Riktor gritted his teeth. “Don’t you think I know that?” Riktor pushed back his seat and stood. He paced behind the chair. “I’m being backed into a corner, and I don’t know how to get the hell out of it. If I use Michaela’s offer, the Shaws could use that as grounds to challenge the annulment or the divorce. If I don’t, I lose an advantage. And don’t get me started on this marriage to Michaela.” He paused and glanced down at his hand. “I’m not going to deny there’s an attraction, and my wolf believes her to be our mate.”

Ace’s eyebrows shot up. “You really are in a mess. Maybe it’s time to face your wife and negotiate for her help. Then afterward you can talk about your marriage. But first and foremost you must think of your pack and what’s best for it. Not your feelings.”

Riktor sagged back into his chair. “You’re right.” A rising sense of anxiety and fury threatened to overwhelm him. He couldn’t find breathing room around either of his problems.

“Michaela is a reasonable woman. All my sources say so. Pick your poison. Which can you handle first and which can you put off for a time. The full moon is tomorrow night. I’ve got a telecom meeting with a client, who’s bringing his daughter to the island next month. We’ll meet for dinner with Banan and discuss what you want to do.” Ace stood up. “I’ll see you later. Talk to Michaela, see what she has to say. She knows more about this than anyone, having already taken on two alpha challenges.”

Riktor stared at Ace. He sat up straighter. “What?”

Ace grinned and nodded. “Yup. My buddy from Boston told me that Winthrop had challenged her when her father left the country on business, and she was challenged a second time by some young pup trying to make a name for himself. She dispatched both of them. Just thought I’d mention that.” Ace winked and left the room.

Riktor sank deeper into his seat, ruminating over this new information. How long he’d been at it, he didn’t know when the door to his office opened. Amber strode in with a pile of folders and placed them on his desk. She brushed back a strand of hair. “All of these contracts are ready for your perusal and signature.”

Riktor glanced up at the young werewolf and nodded. “Thank you, Amber. Take the rest of the day off. I’ll be busy with this.”

Amber nodded. “Thank you, Mr. Brody.” She turned on her heel and rushed out of the room.

For the next few hours, he worked through the folders, absorbing the information, making notations for changes, and adding his signature where needed. By the time he finished, it was dark outside, and he hadn’t eaten lunch. His stomach rumbled, and he felt a hunger headache starting. With a groan, he pushed himself up, sorted the folders, carried the finished contracts out, and placed them in Amber’s inbox.

He left his office behind and headed to the dining room. Michaela waited for him by the front desk.

“Finally!” she said. “I thought you were going to starve yourself to death. Come on. We need to talk.” She grabbed his hand and pulled him toward the casual restaurant.

The softness of her palm pressed against his. An electric shock rushed up his arm. His heartbeat picked up. Within him, his wolf pressed against the barrier keeping him inside. Tingles raced all over his body. His awareness of his surroundings increased tenfold. His cock thickened, and the atmosphere around him grew heavier, hotter.

He tried to pull away, but she tightened her hold on him.

Flashes from their night together popped up in his mind.

“Marry me.” The words whispered in his head, in his voice.

Shit, I did ask her to marry me. What the fuck was I thinking?

He stopped short. A burst of arousal hit him hard. His cock jerked. He caught his breath and let out a groan.

“Fuck,” he whispered.

She grinned. “Starting to remember? Maybe we should take this to a private place, hmm?”

Ace walked up beside them, a no-nonsense look on his face. “Actually, he needs to have dinner with his brothers.” He reached out and took hold of Riktor’s free hand.

“How about this? We all have dinner together? I’d love to meet Banan.” She beamed at Ace.

Ace growled. “No fucking way are you getting near Banan. Look, I’m willing to work with you on the alpha challenge, but the Shaws are still the enemy. Let. Him. Go.”

Riktor’s inner wolf began to growl, surprising him with its readiness to leap to Michaela’s aid. He managed to keep it muzzled inside, just barely. The strength of the feelings inside him was unsettling.

Michaela raised an eyebrow at Ace. Amusement sparkled in her dark eyes. “Fine.” She released his hand. “But this isn’t over. We’re family after all.” She moved away from Riktor, taking her heat with her, but not her scent or the need to take her again.

His body went cold at the loss of contact with her.

“Mate.” The word rolled around his head on a low growl.

Riktor shook off Ace’s hold. “We need to include her in this discussion. As much as we don’t like it, she is an asset, and we need to use her.” He took a step away from both of them. He glanced from his brother to Mickey and once more to Ace.

Ace grunted. “Your call, Alpha.” Ace turned on his heel and stalked toward the more formal dining area.

Riktor pivoted to face Michaela and pointed at her. “Behave. We have very little time as it is. For now, we work together. We’ll deal with this marriage later. Now come on.”

He strode after Ace, sure that Mickey would follow him.

Riktor didn’t hear the tap of her heels behind him. He glanced back at her.

She remained where she was, at the entrance of the restaurant.

He paused. “Coming?”

She raised an eyebrow at him before she moved toward him. “Let’s get a few things straight, hubby. ‘Please’ and ‘thank you’ goes a long way. Next, I have a lot of input to offer that your brothers don’t have, so a little respect wouldn’t kill you. Also, you may treat this like a temporary thing, you can shrug off the challenge, but it’s a hell of a lot more complicated than that, and you are way out of your depth.” She pointed a well-manicured fingernail at him. “I am your wife, your mate, and your equal, regardless of how stubborn you want to be about it. So can that macho shit of ordering me around. That crap won’t get you far with this new status you hold, and it certainly won’t earn you bonus points with other alphas who know me.” She stopped in front of him. “I will not be sidelined or treated as a liability. And as for what little time we have, it’s you who is wasting it by trying to make it a boy’s club and excluding me because of my perceived cooties. I don’t have to take part in this, and I could just call my lawyers and have them draw up the divorce papers and take you for everything you have, including this resort. I don’t have to attach my name to any of this. So you need to respect that I’m not just risking my physical safety or comfort. My name, my pack’s name, my father’s trust in me, everything we’ve worked for could go up in flames if you fuck this up. I’ve survived and come out on top after both my challenges and have the scars lined in silver to prove it. This time you follow my lead.”

She moved around him to follow Ace.

A combination of newly found respect and another wave of desire hit him at the same time.

“Mate,” the wolf whispered in his head once more.

Riktor grabbed her wrist, stopping her. “I…I don’t know what to say. I just want to keep my family safe. My brothers safe. They depend on me.” Emotion welled up inside of him. The confession came out strained, but a sense of relief lifted a burden off his shoulders.

“That’s what every good alpha wants for their family, their pack. You’re at the beginning of yours, and your father did a piss-poor job of preparing you. He got your head into the business angle, but not the other things. You’ll learn. You just need to accept help and advice from your mate.” She shrugged. “But we can discuss it in full later. Right now, I’m hungry, you haven’t eaten, and I’m pretty sure Ace will think I’ve kidnapped you and dragged you back to my suite to have my wicked, wicked way with you.” She winked at him. Her stomach rumbled, punctuating her point.

Riktor let go of her wrist and grabbed her hand. He held her gaze. “Thank you.”

She shrugged. “No problem. You’re buying me two big bacon cheeseburgers. No veggies except for deep fried potatoes and a strawberry milkshake.”

He chuckled. “That will be the only thing you, Ace, and Banan can automatically agree on. Food.”

He guided her around the various diners until they reached the private room in the back. Ace and Banan were already seated. Ace was recounting to Banan his earlier conversation with Michaela.

Banan peeked up at them through a thick fringe of dark hair. “Is this true? Is she really going to help us?”

Michaela sidled up in front of Riktor before he could respond. “Yes, yes I am. We’ll discuss the marriage and all that after the challenge is over. For now, I’ll help with the strategy and put in a few phone calls to increase pressure on Winthrop.”

Banan licked his lips. “And you think this Winthrop will play dirty, bring someone else into the fight with him?” Worry darted through his eyes.

Michaela took a seat next to Banan. “Yes, it’s his MO. He’ll always take the easy way out. He wouldn’t be challenging Riktor if he didn’t have something up his sleeve.” She glanced around. “Before we go any further, can I order? I’m starved.”

Riktor signaled a server, who came over and took all their orders. Once that was over, Riktor settled in a chair next to Michaela. Ace raised an eyebrow at him. Amusement warred with concern on his face. Riktor ignored him.

“Fun fact,” Ace said. “Riktor’s name is actually Roderick. When Banan was little, he couldn’t pronounce Roderick, but he loved the name Victor, so he just combined the two and came up with Riktor.” Ace nudged Banan, who flushed a bright red.

“Shut up,” Banan muttered.

Michaela chuckled. “My favorite cousin couldn’t pronounce my name, and since she loved all things Disney, she started calling me Mickey, and it stuck. My mother was appalled. She’d done a deal with my father, that he was allowed to name the first child and she could name all the rest. I’m actually named after my grandmother on my father’s side of the family.” Her grin widened. “Anyway, and for the whole nine months, they went back and forth about names. My father had originally wanted to name me Perry, after Perry Mason, his favorite TV lawyer.” She let out a musical laugh. “My mother was not having that.”

“Wait, who?” Banan asked.

Michaela’s eyes grew round. “What do you mean…you don’t know who Perry Mason is? When this is all over, I’m going to drag you to my suite, and we’re going to binge watch the whole series. All nine seasons of it.” The server put a large double bacon cheeseburger in front of her. Her stomach gave an unladylike rumble of need. “Oh, God, that looks heavenly.”

The men laughed. “Let’s dig in,” Ace announced.

“Now, now, boys, manners. First we say grace. Bow your heads. I’ll start.” Michaela grabbed Riktor’s hand and gave it a squeeze. “We thank the Lady for this bounty placed before us. That we may continue to grow strong and thrive. We thank Diana and Hecate for their protection and grace. May we continue from strength to strength, and may we prosper. So mote it be.”

Everyone muttered the last part.

“Didn’t know you were religious,” Ace said before taking a large bite out of his own burger.

“Not really, but mother always did a blessing before we broke bread with strangers. She said it was a way to bind us together and calm the atmosphere so we could eat in civility and friendliness and spread goodwill all around. Just thought I’d do that here. That, and it kept me from devouring this food on sight.” She chuckled.

“We never had traditions like that growing up,” Banan pointed out.

“That’s because Father thought all that kind of stuff was useless,” Ace put in. “You know I’ve been to a lot of werewolf households, and they don’t really do that.”

Michaela shrugged. “Mom was a traditionalist. Dad, not so much, but he went along with it for her. My childhood was a mishmash of beliefs and traditions. Like, we didn’t do Thanksgiving or Halloween, but we did Samhain and Yule. And we made offerings during Beltane.”

Banan frowned. “We never did that after our mother died. In fact, I don’t even think we celebrated Christmas.”

Ace shrugged. “Mom was more about that stuff, and when she died, Father buried himself in his work and didn’t let us acknowledge the holidays. His way of controlling us. Now that he’s gone, we can restart all that if we want and do it our way.” Ace reached over and patted Banan on the back.

Banan ducked his head. “I’d really like to celebrate Halloween and Samhain.”

“You just want all the candy,” Riktor teased. “But we can do that. Now.”

A sense of yearning started in Riktor’s gut for the life that Michaela described with her family. The Shaws seemed so close—not the monsters his father had described to them while they were growing up. When the after-dinner coffee came, he wasn’t ready to break up the party, but when Banan yawned, Riktor knew it was time to go.

Banan glanced from Riktor to Michaela to Ace and back to Riktor. “Should we have breakfast together and go over strategy, since we didn’t get to do it during dinner?”

Riktor nodded. “Yeah, we can do that. Go get some sleep. No playing video games OK?”

“Yeah, yeah.” Banan blushed.

“Come on, Ban, let’s get you tucked in and I’ll tell you a bedtime story about the time I got shitfaced and talked my way into an arm-wrestling contest.” Ace wrapped an arm around Banan’s neck and pulled him out of the room.

“No, don’t corrupt him!” Michaela followed them out with Riktor at her heels.

“Too late!” Banan sang out with a laugh.

Riktor caught up with her at the elevator. “Thank you,” he said to Michaela.

She grinned at him. “For what?” She slipped an arm through his. “Dinner was nice. We need to do that after you win.”

“Do you think I can?” Worry fluttered in his stomach. “This is my first official alpha challenge. Ace and Banan just accepted their roles in the pack. My father prepared me for everything but this.”

She shook her head. “He couldn’t have prepared you for this.”

They stepped into the empty cabin. He pressed the button for her floor, and the doors slid shut with a thunk.

She snuggled up to him even more. The side of her breast pressed against his arm.

“Alpha challenges can come at any time, at any age,” she said. “As long as there is a full moon, and it gives you plenty of time to get a second and order your affairs, that’s all you need. You know how to fight, right?” She let out a soft yawn.

“Of course. Ace made sure we could defend ourselves physically. My father taught us how to defend ourselves financially.”

“He wants money,” she said. “You could try buying him off.”

“I might be a new alpha, but I know you can’t let a challenge to your pack and leadership stand. I’ll lose all respect, and I’ll face even more challenges. No, he needs to be faced head-on. “It’s what I need to do to protect my pack,” Riktor said.”

She looked deep into his eyes and nodded. “I was hoping you would say that.”

The cabin stopped, and doors slid open. They stepped out onto her floor and headed straight to her suite. When they reached the door to her room, she turned to him.

“Coming in?” Her dark, seductive voice wrapped around his cock. It jerked, and a shot of fire lit up his insides.

He wanted nothing more than to pin her to the wall and capture her perfect lips. But as badly as he yearned for that, part of him was focused on the coming fight. He had his pack, his brothers, depending on him.

She seemed to read the conflict inside him. Her smile was gentle…and more than a little wicked. “It’s actually normal to feel horny before a fight. It’s your wolf’s way of letting off steam before the challenge and to calm you down, so you sleep.”

He folded his arms across his chest and leaned against the doorway, watching her. She truly was beautiful. “You certainly make a compelling case.”

She let out another laugh. “With the full moon and a challenge on the horizon your wolf is trying to focus you. Like I said, nothing prepares you for a challenge. So. Coming in?”

He reached out and gently traced his thumb along her cheek, reveling in the smooth warmth of her skin. “I want nothing more than to carry you inside, tear off that dress, and make you scream my name as I give you the fuck you earned a thousand times over.” He held her gaze. “You’re changing things, Michaela. Every moment I spend with you changes me.”

She took his hand and gently but irresistibly tugged him inside. “Stay with me tonight. We don’t even have to have sex. I just…need you here. It can help ground your wolf to be around its mate. Calms you down, centers you.”

He allowed her to lead him to the bedroom where she took her time undressing him. He pulled her to him, reveling in the heat of her body, how she fit so perfectly against him.

Michaela cuddled up to him. He wrapped his arms around her and buried his head into her neck.

For the first time in years, he felt calm despite the oncoming challenge.

He could get used to this.