“Desmond! I thought you weren’t going to show up.”
Kane glared at Max, who smiled innocently before sitting down at the large, oval-shaped conference table. Soon, the directors of the board came filing in, and Kane recognized the tension in the room immediately. On one side of the table sat the leader of the rebel group that Max was clearly a part of. They had been advocating harmful dogma to be resurrected in the curriculum and protesting old laws that protected the youth, hoping to replace them with new laws that would make the lives of the students hellish and confusing.
On the other side of the table sat Franklin Greaves, who was the current head of Stonybrooke University. He had a grim expression on his face, and Kane sat down reluctantly on his side of the table. Everybody was aware of how important it had always been to Franklin, founder of SU, to provide students with a top of the line education that would prepare them for life both inside and out of Stonybrooke. He was a strict, noble man who had always intended to lead the newest generations of shifters in the right direction.
But he was much older now than he had been when he’d started the university long before the shifter wars. Not only that, but he was also ailing, so the rumors had stated, and even now, in front of the delegation, his flesh was a pallid grey. Kane frowned. Franklin should probably be at home resting, not at an emergency board meeting. But the man took his duties seriously. It was inspirational, in a way.
“Welcome,” Franklin finally said once everybody was settled. “This meeting has now come to order. Elis, the minutes?”
Elis, a young man who had been interning with the council, nodded from the corner and looked down at the typewriter, his fingers poised to type.
“As many of you have already heard, there is an unfortunate situation with my health. My doctor has made it abundantly clear that I am to surrender the full weight of my responsibilities and focus solely on my own healing if I am going to survive this malady. It is my mate’s wish that I resign as soon as possible, but as you all know this cannot be done without the proper ceremony. Somebody is going to have to take my place.”
Max grinned and Kane’s heart lurched. If Max and his cronies took advantage of this position, they would surely use their power to corrupt the school so they could mold future generations of shifters.
Kane had never been entirely clear about where it was on the moral and ethical spectrum that Franklin fell. He seemed not to meddle in the affairs of those beneath his position, leaving his moral compass up for debate. Was he a supporter of the rigid dogma of the shifter tradition as Kane was, but flexible to the changes of time, or was he willing to make compromises and bring back dangerous old ceremonies such as the type that Max and his friends seemed to advocate and new laws that would lead future generations into chaos?
If Franklin weren’t so bull-headedly devoted to the pursuit of education and the freedom to draw one’s own conclusions, he would be a much easier man to peg. As it was, he had always been a fierce advocate of teaching the youth how to think, not what to think, and considered it the ultimate form of freedom; something that made shifters superior over humans. But just how far was he willing to go? He consulted directly with Stonybrooke’s council of Elders on many occasions, but he held such a unique position, power outside of the council, that it was impossible to tell.
“So while I am taking my leave of absence, it is important to me to know that I am leaving the students with a worthwhile mentor. That mentor must abide by the Old Laws in order to qualify as a teacher in such a sacred position. In three weeks’ time, I will return and take a look at the candidates. The man who qualifies will take my place.”
The grin on Max’s face grew wider and Franklin snapped his fingers. Elis jumped to his feet and grabbed a stack of papers from the table beside himself and began to distribute them among the men sitting at the conference table.
“For those of you who do not already know, these are the requirements for the men who will qualify for candidacy. If you have not met all of these requirements by the time it is time for me to choose a successor, then you will be immediately disqualified. Is that understood?”
Murmurs of understanding rose in the room, and Kane grabbed the paper that was thrust at him and studied it with a frown. He had to admit he was surprised by the rigidity of the guidelines, but Max and the others seemed to have no issues with them.
As he scanned the list, things went from bad to worse when his eyes finally settled on the last requirement.
Every candidate must be engaged to be wed to a virgin. The ceremony must commence to transfer the sacred rite of power to the chosen candidate.
That meant several of the men there, who were currently married and couldn’t have more than one wife, were immediately disqualified.
As a history teacher, Kane had heard of such old, dogmatic laws being in existence, but he himself had never been on the council himself, or known anybody close to the council. Now, though, he was beginning to see just how relevant his people’s laws still were in modern shifter society. And although most humans would find it repellant, there was a way about the world that they were oblivious to; transference of power through ceremony being among them. Magic was a dirty word to most humans. The only human he had ever seen who seemed to believe in the shifter arcana was Lia.
“Take all of these guidelines into consideration. We will meet again here in exactly three weeks’ time,” Franklin said, standing up with his dark eyes moving from man to man around the table. “You are dismissed.”
Kane stood with a heavy sigh, surprised to see the shit-eating grin on Max’s face. He was cackling under his breath with one of the other men at the table, and caught Kane’s eye. The sheer smugness on his face was enough to make Kane’s blood boil, and he turned and left the room before he put his fist through Max’s face. No need in getting disqualified before he even had a chance to try. But try as he might, he just couldn’t wrap his head around the possibility of finding himself a virgin fiancé.
Kane crumpled the paper up and shoved it into the pocket of his vest. If he didn’t, Max and his evil friends would veer the next generations in an awful direction.
***
“What’s wrong with you?”
Kane glared up at his daughter, who was standing in the doorway of the kitchen, staring at Kane with expectant eyes. He had come slamming through the doorway, furious about the fact that Max and his group of muddy moraled men would be the inevitable mentors of the impressionable shifter youth. The thought riled him to no end. There was no way he could marry another woman. His wife had meant everything to him, and losing her had been like losing a part of himself. It just wasn’t possible.
“I wouldn’t even know where to start,” Kane growled.
“Start at the beginning.”
Kane froze at the sound of Lia’s voice coming from behind Courtney. He glanced over his daughter’s shoulder and met the eye of the young woman, who eyed him daringly, her pale blue eyes sparkling vividly. He hesitated for a moment, lost in the heat of her gaze, before the words began to tumble from his lips as if of their own accord.
“Franklin is leaving, whether temporarily or permanently is hard to say. He wants someone to take his place.”
“That should be great news!” Courtney exclaimed. “You’ve been talking forever about how you wish you had more power at the school. How Max and the others have their minds set on corrupting the young shifter kids they teach. They’re bear sympathizers!”
“I know!” Kane exclaimed, a little more fiercely than he meant to. Lia flinched away from the force of his temper, and he immediately regretted speaking so harshly. “But there’s nothing I can do about it. There’s a list…”
Kane fumbled with the paper he had wadded up and stuffed into his vest pocket and thrust it at Courtney. “I can’t do everything that’s on that list. But I have to in order to qualify.”
Courtney read over the list, and when she reached the end, a chuckle bubbled up from deep within her. Kane raised a stern eyebrow at her, but she met his gaze with dancing eyes.
“You have to marry a virgin?”
“Seriously?” Lia asked, grabbing the list from Courtney and reading it eagerly. “What the hell for?”
Kane prickled. “It’s shifter tradition. A human wouldn’t understand.”
Lia jutted her chin up at him, but he refused to meet Lia’s eyes. Even if she did understand, what use would it be to him? She was just a human child. He didn’t need her understanding or her pity. What he needed was a bride, and that just wasn’t going to happen.
“What about Ms. Alice?” Courtney suggested. “She’s liked you for a while.”
“I am not having this conversation with you, Courtney,” Kane said, trying his best to keep his voice level and steady, despite his profound irritation.
“But dad, we can’t just let Max take over the school! Who knows what would happen!”
“Mr. Desmond, please. Don’t give up hope. There’s got to be a way.”
Lia’s soft voice was saccharine sweet in Kane’s ears, and he growled. The wolf wanted her badly enough that the rest of him just wished she would shut the hell up.
“I am not going to desecrate your mother’s memory by marrying a virgin for convenience of all things!” Kane said sternly. “There will be no other woman for me. Not ever. Do I make myself clear?!”
Courtney nodded grimly, but a grin slowly began to spread across her face. Kane didn’t like the look of it. Not one bit.
“Whatever it is you’re thinking, young lady, I’ll have none of it!”
Courtney’s eyes danced as she looked at her father, and Kane sighed heavily. She was going to come out with her idea whether he liked it or not.
“What if it only looked like a real marriage?” Courtney asked slowly. “It just says you have to be engaged to a virgin. The ceremony is all you really need.”
“I don’t see what you’re getting at,” Kane sighed.
“Well, if all you need is to be engaged to a virgin, you should just pretend.”
“Pretend?” Kane asked, exasperated beyond belief. “I don’t even think I know any virgins!”
Courtney’s grin widened and she turned her eyes to Lia. Lia’s face immediately turned bright red and she backed away as if Courtney’s eyes were on fire.
“Courtney…” Lia pleaded.
“Lia’s a virgin,” Courtney said. “And she’s not seeing anyone. Don’t you think it’s a little bit perfect? It would just be a sham. You guys don’t have to really get married. You can just do the ceremony stuff for the title and then go your separate ways. Just keep up the charade long enough to qualify and take the power over the school.”
The wolf inside him was wild about the idea. A little bit too wild. He met Lia’s eyes, and she held his gaze unwaveringly, despite the deep, attractive flush of her cheeks.
“I wouldn’t ask anybody to do that for me,” Kane said firmly.
“It’s not for you, though,” Lia said quietly. “It’s for everybody. Max is bad news. I know it myself, without even knowing anything about the shifter world that you guys are a part of. If he has the kind of power that Franklin is disposed to, who knows what might happen…”
Kane was deeply surprised by the thought Lia was already putting into this, but he supposed he shouldn’t be. She was one of the most intelligent students he had ever had. There was just something about her that stood out to him. And now he was beginning to see why.
“Really, Lia. Courtney was just throwing ideas out there. You don’t have to feel any pressure to do that. We will figure something out either way.”
Lia took a deep breath and stepped forward, a small line of determination making her lips thin. Kane flinched away in surprise when Lia got down on one knee and took his strong hand in hers. She looked into his eyes, her own dead serious.
“Mr. Desmond,” she said softly. “Will you fake marry me?”
Courtney exhaled, her face bright with delight and amusement, but she didn’t allow herself to laugh, obviously fascinated by her father’s reaction. Kane searched his brain a hundred different ways for any other option, but found he was coming up short. There was nothing he would be able to do if he weren’t able to find a virgin bride, but anybody else he dealt with would want to keep him saddled down for good. At least with a young woman like Lia, she would have her own hopes and dreams to look after. A reason to leave him alone with his devotion to his wife. She would leave him.
“All right, kid. Whatever. Let’s try this. Now get the hell up off the floor.”
Courtney squealed, clearly beside herself, and helped Lia up as Kane turned his back on the girls.
“I’ll get you a proper ring in the morning,” Kane said, not meeting Lia’s eyes. “And you’re going to have to get used to spending your time here, because if we’re going to convince the council that this thing is real, you’re going to have to live with us until this whole thing blows over. Think you can do that?”
“I can handle it,” Lia said quietly. Her gentle voice gave Kane goosebumps and he closed his eyes tightly. He wouldn’t let the wolf have its claim on her, no matter how tempting it might be. She was just a kid. And he wasn’t going to desecrate his wife’s memory with a doomed tryst with a mere child. It just wasn’t going to happen.
Still, Lia’s voice made him tingle all the way down the hall, until he reached his bedroom. He closed the door quickly and sank down on his bed. What in the hell had he gotten himself into?