“What do you mean?” Dante felt a righteous indignation starting.
“My father, he attempted to become First. He lost. The pack executed my brothers and my father. My mother died while birthing me. I was alone. I was female. They allowed me to live, but I had no real place in the pack.”
Her words were even, as though she was working hard to cover her emotions, but Dante could feel her hurt. He thought about the strange connection he’d felt to the female from the moment he’d seen her. He didn’t like the restless feeling it gave him. He preferred to think about screwing her. That didn’t bring forth any odd, protective instincts in him. He understood sex, but he felt the need to set the ground rules first.
Kaja was smart. She would understand the bargain he wished to make with her. They could be partners.
“I’m sorry about that, Kaja. I don’t pretend to understand your people, though I suppose my people are just as brutal in a way.” When a rival corporation went under, no one came out to help the family. He recalled a man he’d gone to school with. He’d had a bad run and ended up moving down from the penthouse almost to the street. Dante was sure no one he knew had spoken to the man again. They weren’t so different.
She sighed and wriggled against him. “Now I am here. Stellan was right. It is good that I left my home. I will be your mate. I will make sure you have the finest meat and the nicest bed to nest in. I think the fat one will make a good feast. I will catch him for you tomorrow.”
Dante stopped. “Are you talking about Rhys?”
“I do not know his name. He is small and vicious, but has much meat on him. Now that I am out of that odd cage, I will surely be able to catch him for our meal.”
“Whoa, sweetheart. You can’t eat the gnomes,” Dante explained quickly. She turned her head to face him and seemed very confused. “The gnomes are our friends. We can’t eat them.” She still looked unsure. He decided to follow some of Beck’s advice. He allowed his voice to deepen. “You will not eat anything that talks back, Kaja.”
Her lower lip pouted sweetly, but she nodded. “Yes, I understand. I do not see why, though. They do not even have fangs or claws. It would be easy to…”
“I said no, Kaja,” Dante replied firmly. He pulled her back into his arms. He rather liked being forceful with her. It was nice to have someone take him seriously for a change. He let his arms drift around her torso. She needed to fatten up a bit, but she was a lovely armful all the same. She relaxed against him as his palms found her round breasts. She gasped a little as his thumbs drifted over her nipples. “Kaja, did you have a lover?”
She seemed very distracted by his fingers plucking at her nipples, but managed to answer. “Only one. Only the Second ever managed to catch me and hold me down for the mating, though he required help. I eluded the rest.”
Dante’s hands stopped, but only briefly. He was rapidly discovering a distaste for whatever plane she had come from. “Do you intend to run from me, sweetheart?”
He wouldn’t allow it.
Her sigh was happy. “Oh, no. You have claimed me. You use my name. I eluded the others because they did not intend to claim me. They wanted to use me and then move on.”
A nasty feeling hit Dante square in the gut. He was using her, but she was going to use him, too. She would get something out of their little arrangement. “Look, Kaja, maybe we should talk about things for a moment. We might have very different ideas about how this whole mating thing works. We’re married, in a sense, but we should keep it light, you know? Married people on my world don’t necessarily stay together forever.”
She sat up suddenly and turned. Dante was surprised at the loss he felt. Her eyes were wary now and steady on his face. “Say what you need to say, Dante.”
He swallowed a hefty amount of Scotch. Kaja might be uneducated, but she was far from stupid. He thought briefly about lying, but he owed her the truth. “Look, I was ordered by my father to find a consort. You’re the first one I saw, so I bought you. The truth of the matter is I don’t really want to be married. I don’t see the advantage.”
Her face went strangely blank. “You do not wish to mate with me.”
That wasn’t exactly correct, as his dick would attest. “I would love to fuck you, sweetheart. We just don’t know each other well enough for me to think I’ll never, ever want to fuck anyone else. In fact, I can pretty much guarantee that I will. I’ve never been very good at keeping it in my pants, so to speak.” He gave her a little smile, trying to coax one out of her. “It doesn’t mean we can’t have fun. We’ll be married, but we can do as we like. I need for you to live at home with me for a while, but after that I’ll buy you someplace nice.”
It was a good plan. There were still places on his plane that were wild. Once his father decided to scoot his unsuitable daughter-in-law out of the family, Dante would be allowed to buy some land and settle her there. He could still visit. They were married, after all. Besides, if she was on the surface, there would be very little chance of her encountering another royal who might decide to take his chances with adultery. Dante found he didn’t like the idea of his wife fucking around. “There are some really nice places. Most of Canada is still a brutal hellhole, excuse me, lovely wilderness. We can get you a nice cabin up there.”
She stood suddenly and grasped the towel.
“Hey,” Dante protested, pulling at her hand. “I thought we were talking.”
“I am tired. It has been a very long day,” Kaja said without a hint of emotion. “Which corner is mine?”
“What do you mean which corner? There’s a perfectly fine bed here, Kaja.”
She shook her head. “I am not First. You will have the bed, and I will find a corner. I prefer a corner.”
He had a sudden flash of intuition. She preferred a corner because she would only have to protect her front. He got the feeling Kaja slept with one eye open. He sighed inwardly. He’d made a mess of this. He should have been less honest. It would have been kinder. He could have eased Kaja into the life he wanted, but no, he’d bungled it. “You sleep with me, Kaja. I am your husband.”
She shook her head. There was a wealth of sorrow in the gesture. “No, you are like the rest. You would use me and cast me aside when you are finished. I cannot risk it. If a pup were to be born, she would be outcast, too.”
Dante stilled. He hadn’t even thought about children. The women on his plane used birth control until such time as they desired children. He had never had to think about it. Kaja wasn’t on anything. If he had slept with her, he could have made her pregnant. If he wasn’t ready to be a husband, he was really unready to be a father.
She wrapped the towel around her middle. Her eyes studied him, and he had a bad feeling she could almost read his mind. “See, you do not wish for my pups.” She stepped out of the tub. “I will speak with your Second. I will go to these woods of his and be alone. I will cause no trouble.”
Dante was on his feet in an instant. He didn’t care about his nudity. He wasn’t about to let her run off to some faery forest. “You are not going anywhere with my cousin. I bought you, and you’re coming home with me. I’m sorry I’m not Prince Charming, but we’ll find our way. If, and it’s a mighty big if, you become pregnant, I would never deny our child. Our child would be a royal. He would have the best of everything. He would not be outcast.”
He would attempt to avoid it, of course. He doubted he could live apart from her if they made a baby. He wouldn’t have his child grow up in the wild, and he couldn’t imagine having to separate a child from his mother. Kaja would just have to adapt. He reached out and grasped her hand. He was surprised to find it was shaking. “Kaja? Are you all right? Sweetheart, you’re burning up.”