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“But you could do it?” Duke asked.
There was another pause and then she nodded. “I can, assuming that someone in my book of possible mates is actually Benecio’s match. I can’t just pull a name out of the air. It has to be someone I’ve talked to and put into the book. The match-making power is akin to magic, but it’s not something I can manipulate if it’s not meant to be.”
Demi’s heart clenched and hope rose within her. “So, you’ll help us?”
“I will. But don’t get too excited,” Abbie cautioned. “It may not work. And if his heart is not receptive to matching, if he’s fully obsessed with you, I may not find anyone at all. I can only do what I can do with the match-making power.”
“I just want you to try,” Demi said. She squeezed her mates’ hands. “If it doesn’t work, then we’ll have to figure out something else.”
“The something else,” Duke said, “is that our people will defend our borders and our members. This seems like a Hail Mary to me, but if it gets him to back off, then I’m all for giving it a go. But we will fight if we need to. His threats will not go unanswered.”
“Plus,” Titus said, “anyone else feel bad about potentially matching some innocent female up with this asshole?”
Demi grimaced. She did feel bad, but she’d feel worse if her friends and family were hurt because Benecio refused to see that what he was threatening was obscenely crazy. And maybe he was only being an asshole because he was lonely, and once he was matched with the right female for him, he wouldn’t be so awful.
Duke stepped out onto the front porch. The room was quiet while everyone waited for him to come back inside. Abbie picked up the huge book that she kept potential matches in. Demi had never come to Abbie to be matched, so her information wasn’t in there. It was a mystery to the pride what was actually in the pages of the book, but she’d heard it contained photos and information about the matches from not only the Kedrick pride but others in surrounding states. Abbie didn’t just match whenever she felt like it, though. She waited for a male or female to come to her to be matched, and then she would reach out to the person she matched them with and arrange a meeting.
Demi had always thought the process sounded very cold and clinical. There was a contract both parties had to sign. No mention of love or even attraction.
Duke came into the house and said, “I told Benecio that I want to talk to him. He said he’d only agree to it if Demi is there.”
Rhaider and Rafe both snarled.
Duke put his hand up. “We knew this would be a possibility, so save the growling. We’ll bring Abbie with us and Demi and her mates will be there. We can hope that Benecio seeing that Demi is officially mated will make him see the light.”
Demi had a hard time not rolling her eyes at that. She doubted Benecio could see anything except what he wanted, and that was her.
“If he doesn’t,” Duke said, “we’ve got our secret weapon—Abbie. Assuming she can find a match for him, we can appeal to him to stop the foolishness of bringing war to our pride and meet his match.”
“And if that fails?” Demi asked.
“Then we fight,” Byron said. “It’s not ideal, but we can’t allow ourselves to be cowed over a delusional male.”
Demi leaned her head against Rafe’s shoulder. “I don’t want anyone to get hurt because of me.”
“It wouldn’t be your fault,” Rafe said. “It’s him. He’s driving this. No one should be able to force another to enter into a mating, and his people are going along with him, which makes them all culpable.”
“We’ll fight with the pride because you’re our mate to defend,” Rhaider said. “If he’s smart, he’ll take the match if Abbie gives him one, or he’ll see the truth and bow out gracefully without fighting. Whatever happens, we’re going to keep you safe.”
“I can fight too, you know. I’m a kickass lioness,” she said, letting out a growl.
“We know,” Rafe said with a smile. “But we don’t want you to have to.”
She nodded. “Okay. You have to be careful, though. I just got you both.”
“We will be,” Rafe said.
“We’ll meet here at seven tomorrow morning. It’s a half hour drive to the meeting place.”
Duke and the males left, her father following them out to speak to Duke further. Demi looked at Abbie.
“Are you okay with this? I didn’t mean to spring it on you.”
“I am,” Abbie said. She closed the book and laid her hands on it. “I just don’t want you to be disappointed if it doesn’t work. Lions are predators and prone to aggression. This Benecio fellow may be too far gone to see any way other than fighting to get what he wants. It may be more about ego at this point than anything else. Some prides have a constant turnover of alphas as the lower ranked males look for any weaknesses as an opportunity to take him out and assume leadership.”
“You’re going to make me feel sorry for him,” Demi said with a grimace.
“Well, that wasn’t my intention,” Abbie said.
