Page 3 of Beast

“I’ll take that bet, Cian,” my father replies, his voicethick with pride. “There’s no way my son lets a consort that beautiful getaway. She saved twenty children from the civil war. She’s a healer and aphilanthropist. She’s everything a vampire could want in a consort. Sheilareminds me of my wife. She’s quiet and elegant. She’s a true lady.”

“Now, you see editing can really change a person’sperception. They leave out all the bitchy parts.” I tug at my collar. Is it hotin here? It feels really hot.

Sheila read far too much of her own press material. She’sstuck-up. When the cameras weren’t rolling, she barely talked to me except toask about my cousins. She was interested in the true kings of the Seelie Fae.Not so much in me.

It doesn’t matter. I know what’s coming. At the time, itseemed like a funny adventure. I didn’t expect everyone to get caught up in it.I certainly didn’t expect my parents to get invested in a made-for-DLrelationship.

My sister stands, glaring my way. Her mouth thins as shestudies me, and I feel five years old again. When Susan wants to get judgey,she does it with everything she has. “You asshole! Ci’s right. You dumped bothwomen. How could you?”

I point to the screen where the quiet, demure consort isslapping me silly, completely forgetting that oath she took to do no harm. Shepushes me back until I fall ass-first into the romantic koi pond that wouldmake an awesome place to propose had I actually fallen in love with someone.“Does that look quiet and elegant? They don’t show you the fact that she triedto throw one of the cameras in that pond with me. She tried to electrocute me.And they totally made her look like she wouldn’t put out in the fantasy suite,but she did.”

Susan gasps. “You slept with her?”

I shrug. It should be obvious. I spent six weeks shooting areality DL. What the hell else did I have to do? “I slept with all of them,sis. Haven’t you read the tabloids? My point is she’s nothing like mother.Mother would never try to electrocute a man.”

My mom stands, her gray eyes stormy as she stares my way.“Maybe you don’t know me as well as you think. You wouldn’t like what’s goingthrough my head right now. I have to make sure my clothes are ready fortomorrow’s luncheon. I will have many questions to answer. The Malones arecoming over. Their JT recently married a consort, a lovely woman from the Earthplane named Dana. I thought I would be able to announce your engagement, too.”

The Malones run a rival corporation. My mother and AvaMalone are friendly but deeply competitive. It will bother Mom to have tolisten to Ava rave over her son’s new consort. She brings herself up to herfull regal height and saunters out of the room with dignity.

The room is buzzing all around me as many of the corporateattendees follow my mother out. Some stop to shake my father’s hand, theirsympathy utterly apparent. Damn, I am truly fucked. I’m going to have to charmthe hell out of my parents.

Susan follows our mother, giving me a look that makes metake a step back.

“Man-whore,” she accuses as she stalks past me. Like I said.Judgey. And a little hurtful.

Colin hurries to catch up, but not before throwing me aslightly sympathetic look.

“We’re breaking up?” Cian asks, sounding disappointed. “ButI wanted to watch the episode where all the women yell at each other. It’s myfavorite part. I still can’t believe they found twenty females who wouldactually fight each other to date Dante.”

His lovely wife takes his hand. She seems to understand thatthe evening has taken a distinctly bad turn. “Come on, baby. We’ll watch it inour room.”

Beckett stands with them. I can’t miss the way he slides hishand playfully across his wife’s curves. Beckett Finn is a happy man. BeckettFinn is a man who isn’t about to get his ass chewed out.

I sigh as the Finns leave, and I’m alone with my father. Theroom, which was alive and full moments before, is now as quiet as a tomb.Someone has been smart enough to turn off the sound, but the video is stillrunning. It plays pictures of me and the women I turned down one after another.

Yep. That’s never going away.

My stomach sinks as I look at my dad. I love the man, Itruly do. But I don’t understand him most of the time. Donald Dellacourt tookDellacorp from a small-time cattle farm to one of the largest conglomerates onthe plane. A few years back, he handed over the daily operations to Susan. Idon’t blame him. Susan is a better CEO. I wish my father could see that I havesomething to provide, too.

Like tabloid scandals and a constant stream ofmistresses.

“This is the end, son.” My father doesn’t yell. It’s a badsign. Donald Dellacourt is a larger-than-life man. He yells. He screams. Italmost never means anything. When he’s quiet, that’s when I know I’m introuble.

“The end of what?” I hear the irritation in my voice. It’s atypical reaction. I’ve never been one to take punishment well. “I’m thirtyyears old, Dad. You can’t send me to my room.”

“I can kick you out of your room.”

I swallow once, and then twice. He’s joking. He isn’tactually going to kick me out of my home. This is beyond bad. “You can’t beserious.”

My father pours a couple of fingers of Scotch and takes along swallow. “I am deadly serious. By your age, I had already founded acompany, married your mother, and we had Susan. I’ve given you all the time youneed to mature, and you keep acting like an idiot. Tomorrow morning, you’regoing to be utterly reviled in the press.”

He’s worried about that? I’ve weathered many a scandal.“They’ll find a new story the day after. It’s not a problem, Dad. I’ll go downto the surface and pose with poor children. I’ll donate some meal pills to thehomeless shelters. It’ll blow over.”

My father brings his fist down on the bar, making thecrystal shake. “It will not blow over! It won’t blow over for me or your motheror your sister. All of your life you’ve had everything given to you. You wentto the best schools. You’ve always had the best money could buy. You never haveto go to the surface for anything but a photo op. I lived on the surface, son.It’s harsh, but it makes a man out of you. If I don’t do something about it,you’ll stay a boy the rest of your life. I don’t want that for you.”

I don’t like where this conversation is going. I have plans,big plans. Plans that do not involve getting cut off from my inheritance.

Six months before, something amazing fell into my lap, andI’m close to a major breakthrough. “Dad, give me three more months. Thesunscreen Meg brought back is going to sell like gangbusters. The bio-med guysalmost have it reverse engineered. There are some compounds in it that don’tnaturally occur on this plane, but we’ll make it work.”