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“Nice.”
Now his mother slapped his perfectly coifed head. “It isn’t nice for Kaja.”
Kaja watched their byplay with growing curiosity.
Dante shrugged. “It will blow over. Something new will happen, and the fact that Kaja’s also a wolf will totally blow over. Maybe I should give them a photo op of me and Kaj playing with a Frisbee in a park.”
“You will not,” Alana said, giving her son a stern look.
“I am very good with a Frisbee. I catch it every time. I am also good with rubber balls,” Kaja added. Dante had taught her several games. Kaja liked them. They were fun. And they allowed her to run when every other time she seemed to be forced to walk.
“Dante! Don’t you dare do that with her,” Alana nearly shouted. “What are you trying to do?”
Dante’s eyes narrowed, and he sat back. “I’m trying to find our way. She isn’t some properly bred Fae consort. She’s different. I won’t force her into some mold because that would make it easy. I like Kaja the way she is.”
But the way she was would get them all in trouble. Even Kaja could see that. She’d learned enough about Dante’s home to know that personal lives affected the stock market, and the stock market was the most important thing on this plane. She still didn’t quite grasp how a list of valuations made the world go around, but it seemed to be the way here. And she was going to cause Dante’s company trouble.
“I will try harder.”
Dante held out a hand. “Kaja, don’t listen to them. You’re fine. And I won’t allow the press to define our marriage. Now, I got a call from Julian Lodge. I’m supposed to meet with him in an hour. It’s something supersecret.”
Alana went very still. “Have you done something you shouldn’t? Maybe we should send you in with a guard.”
Dante frowned. “Julian Lodge isn’t calling me in to have me killed. He contracts out that sort of work. I have a suspicion it’s about Beck and Cian.”
“You’re leaving?” Kaja asked. She only saw him at night, and now she wouldn’t even get that?
Dante’s face closed down. “I won’t be gone for long. Well, I don’t know how long I’ll be gone. And I should tell you now that I have to leave for DC in a couple of days. I shouldn’t be gone long. A week or so.”
Her heart felt too small for her chest. “I will go with you.”
She didn’t fit in here. She’d fit in even less if Dante wasn’t around at all.
“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Dante said, his voice tight.
Alana patted Kaja’s hand, a sympathetic look on her face. “You don’t want to go to stuffy old Washington. We’ll have fun, dear. We’ll go shopping and see a show. But for tonight, I’ll keep you company. Colin should be here soon, and we can all have a nice dinner.”
More shopping. Less Dante.
She’d become an inconvenience. Like she’d been with the pack. These people might be nicer about it, but she was being relegated to the back of the room again. It hurt even more this time since, for a while, she’d believed she might belong.
She would never belong here.
Kaja stood. “Thank you, Alana. I believe I will skip dinner this evening. I would rather go to my room.”
And figure out a way to contact Meg. Meg would be able to tell her how to leave this place.
Dante was on her heels as she walked from the room. “Kaja, you need to eat.”
She continued on her path. “I am fine.”
He grabbed her elbow. “Kaja, go back to the dining room and eat your supper.”
He was using that voice on her, the one that usually had her panting after him. Now it simply made her a bit angry. He was pushing her aside. He had brought her here to this place where she didn’t belong, and now he was leaving her to languish. He’d taught her what she wanted and then took it all away.
“I am going to my room. I will stay there. I will not leave the house again. Now, let me go.” If he wanted to leave her, then she didn’t have to obey his commands. That was another thing she’d learned. She wouldn’t mindlessly follow someone else’s commands. She was the only one who would ever really look out for her, so she was done being meek.
He took her by the elbow and began to walk with her. “Fine. We’ll go to our room. You seem to want a fight. We can do that in private.”
