“She wanted to meet some of the people from the realms the Council oversee,” Tavlor answered smoothly. “And we thought it prudent to her education that she meet you.”
“You mean control, don’t you?” the shifter corrected him with a bitter tone. “She needs to meet the people and the realms she’s going to control.”
Tavlor didn’t blink, of course. Didn’t even flinch, like he expected this.
I couldn’t help but take the bait. “Exactly!” I exclaimed. “But can we go back a step, Robert? Why would you assume I’d jump at the chance to be High Warlock?”
Assuming I’d read him correctly in what he’d just said.
He moved on his large armchair so he was facing me directly. The original softness and warmth was gone from his face, and there was now an aged weariness I hadn’t expected to see.
“The High Warlock has an enchanted life. Power. Wealth. Status. His own realm,” he said. “What isn’t there to jump at?”
I wrinkled my nose, trying to remind myself that he and his people had been suppressed by the Council for a long time, longer than I could imagine. “You mean the rules and regulations? The fact that the Council will use me as a puppet and essentially, I’ll have no real power? Or the fact they want to marry me off to some... asshole of a Warlock I’ve never met? And I have to produce the next one, of course. A boy. Only one child. It’s all in the contract. I know that means nothing to you...”
I let my words hang in the air, because he was a man. He’d probably mate with anyone, not caring who it was, if it meant good things for his people.
“But I’m already in love,” I continued, “and I don’t want to give him up just because of some stupid rule in an ancient text that has nothing to do with what I can do for the people in my realms.”
Robert slid forward, sitting on the edge of his seat. “What did you just say?”
I grinned. “Um, which part?”
“You said that the High Warlock is just a... puppet?”
I shrugged. “Yeah, pretty much. The Council pulls all the strings. And that is so not the way I roll. Even if I did accept the position, they’d probably have me kicked out within the week for stirring things up.”
Robert hadn’t taken his eyes off me, and as he swallowed awkwardly, I noticed a woman hanging around in the background. She kept looking down at her hands, trying to busy herself, but I could tell she was listening in.
I glanced up at her, then back at the Alpha. “Do you get to choose who you marry?”
His demeanor changed completely at my question. He sat straighter, prouder, and held out his hand. The woman who’d been hanging around in the background stepped forward and took his hand.
She stood tall and proud. She was also visibly pregnant, her bulging belly pressing against her long, thin dress.
“Hello. I’m Ava,” I said with a smile, wondering if I should stand up as she was, but deciding it was better to stay seated unless requested to change.
“I am Jennifer. The Alpha’s mate.”
Something tickled in the back of my mind, an old lesson of my mother’s. “Do you mean, fated mate? Or... how does it work here?” I lifted my hands. “I grew up in a totally private realm with only my mother for company and she wasn’t exactly forthcoming about all of this. So please excuse my ignorance.”
“How do you know about Fated Mates?” the woman asked, cocking her head like a bird.
I shrugged. “I remember my mother teaching me something about it when I was young, and it stuck.”
Bella had dismissed the notion as nothing more than biological urge while Courtney was young and thought it was gross. “It was such a beautiful ideal. Though, I’m not much of a book worm and don’t remember all the details, I’m sorry.”
The mate and the Alpha exchanged glances, then she spoke. “Yes, we are fated mates.”
She looked considerably younger than the Alpha, but what did I know about wolf genetics and aging?
“And is this your first child?” I asked, gesturing to her swollen belly.
She laughed. “No. We have five others.”
“Five.” I gaped at her. “Wow. You’re amazing!”
Her face lit up with a smile, then she tugged her smile down as she looked at her mate with regret. It was obvious they had no intention of liking me.