AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I shot her a quick message before turning my car around.
“Sleep well, my sweet Blossom.”
I decided to head toward my father’s compound instead of going back to the club. I needed to be sure things were calm and there was nothing I needed to protect her from. I couldn’t risk her getting scared off again if I wanted to convince her to be mine forever and let me claim her.
***
I put my hands behind my head as I leaned back in the chair across from my father. The man was in his office so many hours of the day I didn’t think he ever slept. When I asked him about it once, he’d told me the wicked never slept because their deeds haunted them in their dreams.
While I wouldn’t consider my fatherwicked, the comment convinced me he still had a conscience buried in there somewhere. Our enemies would never believe it though.
Sitting back, my father sighed and ran a hand over his face.
“These little shits keep nibbling at us. Taking small bites here and there, then disappearing before we can track them down and do anything about it.”
He was talking about the Walkers. They’d been making themselves more of a nuisance over the past few weeks, but nothing had been big enough to call up the forces to move against them.
“Maybe they’re trying to get your attention. Could they want to work a deal?”
My father snorted, giving me a stern look from beneath his bushy brows as he lit a cigar.
“I don’tdealwith upstarts. If they’d come to me proper, I’d have considered an arrangement, but I’m not going to look the other way as they start pecking away at my borders and stealing my product.”
I let my arms drop as I leaned forward with a frown. It sounded like he was considering making a move after all, but I didn’t want that to happen. Especially not while I was trying to win Cadence over about it not being too dangerous to be around me.
“Starting a war with the Walkers is going to cost us more than what they’re doing to us.”
Grunting, he pulled the cigar from his mouth to let out a cloud of smoke.
“I didn’t say anything about a war. I’ve got Dimitri breathing down my neck, and he’d use a fight with those upstarts as a chance to attack me from behind.”
My breath caught, mind suddenly whirling. I must have missed something if my father thought Dimitri was considering an attack.
“Dimitri has been your partner for years.”
He scoffed, fixing me with another stare.
“So that means he wouldn’t exploit us while we’re distracted? He’s been sniffing around a little too much lately.”
I knew he was right. All our allies would turn in a heartbeat if they thought they had a chance of getting away with it. That was the way it was in our business. We were lucky our men were loyal because my father was fair to them, or we’d never be able to let down our guard.
“Keep your enemies close, eh?”
I leaned back again as I huffed and shook my head, but my comment brought a look to my father’s eye that made my gut clench before the other man even opened his mouth.
“We could use a fresh tie with Dimitri. He has that pretty daughter—”
“No!”
I jerked upright in the chair, barely holding back a snarl as I glared across the desk. I knew what he was suggesting, and if I hadn’t met Cadence, I would have considered it even though the girl was only a beta.
Alphas and betas married all the time, that was why mating and marriage were two different distinctions. It wasn’t unusual to make strategic marriages to protect the family, but I’d already made my decision about who would be by my side, and I wasn’t going to marry one in name while mating another.
Cadence deserved better than that.
My father steepled his fingers in front of him, a slight lift in the corner of his brow letting me know I had his full attention now, and I wasn’t going to get away without an explanation for my outburst.
“Is there someone else?”
