I set the paper down. Myhands were shaking. The only thing they didn’t know about me was my age. Iwanted to be strong. I was sitting in front of the Alpha of one of the biggestpacks in the world. A tear slid down my cheek.
He cleared his throatuncomfortably. “I’m sorry,” he murmured.
I nodded slowly. I couldn’thave a mating ceremony. I couldn’t have children. Oh God. Now that I knew Imight not be able to have children, it was the only thing I wanted. A son or adaughter, with Kai’s dark eyes and laugh, with my smile and my hands.
“So if I marry Kai–”
“The ceremony will activate yourfertility and your blood will change. We suspect that will then be the changeneeded to give female vampires fertility.”
“You suspect. But you don’tknow.”
He ran his hands through hishair. “We are ninety-nine percent certain.”
I stood up and folded thepaper placing it inside my pocket. “I’m keeping this.” I started towards thedoor.
“So what are you going todo?” He trailed behind me.
“If there’s one thing Iwon’t do, it’s live in fear. I’ve spent too much of my life doing thatalready.”
“Then RAIDOS will kill you.That’s their backup plan. You get married. They kill you.”
My hand stilled on thedoorknob. I leaned my head against the cool wood. What the hell was I supposedto do?
I could feel his father comeup behind me. His voice was soft, understanding. “When the rogue werewolf burstinto my house and attacked my family, I felt helpless. I watched my wifewreathe on the floor screaming in pain. Kai fought the werewolf hard, he nearlydied of blood loss. My daughter didn’t make it. I vowed that day to never feelhelpless again. So I put myself in a place of power. I created a life for myfamily to ensure we would never be hurt like that again. You are my son’s matewhether you have a mating ceremony or not. You are my daughter-in-law.”
I turned to face him, tearsswam in my eyes. I never had a father I respected but I respected him. He washard around the edges; he was stubborn and he was controlling, but he was agood man.
He placed both hands on myshoulders. “As a council member I am telling you not to marry my son. You willbring danger to yourself, your pack, and our kind. As your father-in-law, Iwant you and my son to be happy. I want you to have children and experienceevery beautiful thing that life has to offer. Whatever you chose, you will havemy blessing.” The kiss he placed on my forehead was so quick I couldn’t be sureit happened. The door opened behind me and Raj ushered me out.
I decided to hold off ontelling Kai what happened until we got home. I needed to think. He wasn’texactly easy to persuade. Asking for time to think before telling him somethingbought me about five minutes before he pestered me again. I finally had to snapat him.
“It’s bad, okay! It’s sogoddamn bad I can’t bear to tell you! Just give me time to figure it out. Iwill tell you when we get home,” I screamed at him in the hotel while we packedour things.
He looked at me with anunreadable expression. “Are you in immediate danger?”
I lowered my head. “No.”
“All right.”
I zipped my bag up.
“I’m going to wait in thelobby for you.” I rolled my bag down the hall and was smashing buttons on theelevator when Tara spoke behind me.
“Hey, Aurora?” The elevatoropened. She followed me in with a duffle bag over one shoulder.
Of all the people to see. “Hey.”I forced a smile.
“I wanted to ask you aboutyour pack mate, Max. He’s cute. What’s his story?” She smiled shyly. I promisedKai I wouldn’t tell Max I had found his mate. I said nothing about not telling Tara.I might regret this later.
I pulled the stop button onthe elevator.
“I’m going to tell yousomething and you cannot act on it. You cannot repeat it. Do you understandme?”
She swallowed and backed upa little.
“Do you know what my giftis? That I find mates?”
She nodded.
