“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.”
She dug her heels in, but he was so much bigger than she was. He simply hauled her along. “I’m not trying to fight. I’m trying to be alone. I want my own room. You have enough rooms that I should be able to have my own.”
He turned on her, his face a mask of irritation. “Now you want your own room? Really? Just a couple of weeks ago we had far too much space. Now I’m encroaching on yours?”
A few weeks ago she’d thought life would be different. “It’s only for a little while.”
His brows made a curious V on his forehead. “What is that supposed to mean? Is this some shanimal thing?”
And she hated that. She pushed away from him. “I am not a shanimal. I am Kaja. If you can’t use my fucking name, then don’t talk to me.”
Yeah, she’d learned how to curse, too. And it felt good.
His jaw hardened. “Kaja, do you want to explain what this is about?”
“I want to leave this place.”
He crowded her until her back was against the wall. The door to their room was so close. If she could reach it, perhaps she could bar his entry.
“Really? And where do you plan to go, consort? You don’t know how to drive. I doubt you could find your way around the house, much less the city. So, I have to assume you have a place in mind. Did I turn my back too soon? How have you been spending your days, Kaja? Or, should I ask who you are spending your days with?”
He ground the questions out of his mouth as though each word hurt to say it. Kaja was very confused. “I have spent the days with your mother or Susan.”
“Yeah, that’s what I thought, but now I have to wonder if you’ve met another vampire. If you have, you should know I’ll kill him before I allow you to leave me.” His eyes deepened to the rich green of the forest. She could feel his persuasion creeping in. He wanted her. It rushed against her skin like a wave, but she wasn’t buying it. He wanted to fuck. It didn’t mean he wanted her.
“I’m not meeting some other vampire.” Kaja nearly spat the words at him. “I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but they don’t exactly want to welcome me. I’m the Beast, remember.”
It was what they had called her when they weren’t laughing. They had called her a beast, and humiliation had washed over her. All she’d thought about as they had taken her picture was getting back into Dante’s arms.
It was dangerous to forget he didn’t really love her.
His face softened. “Kaja, they’re stupid. Is that what has you so prickly? It will be yesterday’s news in an hour or so. They’ll find something else to pick on. Now, be a good girl and go have your supper and go to sleep early. In a few weeks, things will calm down, and we can take that trip we talked about.”
That was what he’d said weeks before. Their “trip” kept getting put off. And she knew her status as an outcast and beast wouldn’t blow over. “No. I want to leave. I wish to leave this plane. I want to go back to the forests.”
“No.” He turned and walked into the front room of their apartment.
“What do you mean ‘no?’” Kaja asked.
He walked toward the bedroom. “It means what I said, Kaja. You’re not going anywhere. You’re my wife. You’ll stay with me. Now, I’m done arguing with you. You can eat supper or go hungry, but you’re not going to leave.”
He dismissed her so utterly that Kaja felt something nasty start to kick around her brain. She looked around the apartment. It was so perfect. Perfect art. Perfect furniture. Perfect rug. Everything was in its place, and that was what Dante was trying to do with her. She had her place, and she wasn’t to leave it.
Kaja picked up the glass vase Dante claimed was a masterwork and threw it across the room. It shattered when it hit the wall. Something about the destruction made Kaja feel satisfied. And it did what she’d intended. Dante turned, his eyes wide.