The Alion King(5)
“Oh, yeah?” Karel said sarcastically, raising his brows at the same time. “Doesn’t look like it to me.”
“Get her here. I need her to help me with this. You don’t understand. I’m going to kill the Elder Council if they keep reminding me of my duty to the shifter nation.”
Karel grinned unapologetically. “You knew the rules.”
“Yes. I knew I had to be mated by my hundredth birthday, but this is ridiculous. None of our women have attracted me. Hell, not even the ones from the other clans. They’ve all hosted me to see if they might succeed in placing one of their own in the queen’s seat.”
“Yeah, it's easy to get somebody from another clan. But you know if any of them become your mate, they will feel like they are above the others. We also have our own women who want to be your mate, and you rejecting them and choosing someone else from the other clans would create a big issue here.” Karel sighed and sat. “Not something we need.”
Alyx turned to the bar by his desk. He poured himself and Karel some of their favorite Sidaii wine. “At this point I don't really care if one of our women is my mate or if it’s someone else. I just want to find somebody who is. I am hoping Gerri can help with this. I'm really tired of having to keep meeting people, doing dinners, and not knowing if I'm going to find the one.”
Karel gave him the ‘Really?’ look. “Well, that's your fault for having such a picky lion. You already knew that would be the case when it came to your heritage.”
His parents told him how difficult it was to find the right mate. They suggested Gerri, because she was so good at what she did. His mother told him it would be difficult for him to find the right one in Aurora. Now he knew what she meant. If he didn't find someone soon, not only would he have issues with the other clans, but his own council was giving him headaches.
“Your biggest problem is the fact that if you don’t mate by your birthday, you lose your ability to breed.”
He raised a brow and handed Karel a glass of wine. “Thanks for the reminder. I didn’t really need it.”
“I’m just saying. Hurry your ass up already.”
The royal family needed heirs. Someone had to be available in case something happened to him. Ideally, he needed to have a couple of children to take the throne. That was the main problem. Another problem was all the women visiting and dropping by to see if he’d changed his mind about them. It was getting damn annoying.
“If we can get Gerri to come, I really think you'll have a better chance mating.”
He growled—something he’d been getting really good at. “I don't know what else to do. She thinks I’m some kind of joke. Now I have to wait until she decides if I’m worth her time or not. This is ridiculous. How in the world will I ever get to find a mate if she’s taking her sweet time?”
Karel nodded, his brow puckered in concentration. “Listen, I will give her another call. I will express the urgency of the situation. But I'm pretty sure she already knows that you are, as they say on Earth, ‘up Shit Creek without a paddle.’”
Alyx rolled his eyes. “She taught you that, didn’t she?”
Karel grinned. “She’s fucking awesome!”#p#分页标题#e#
Alyx gulped his wine, the fruity drink sliding down his throat to ease some of his anger. “Real fucking funny. All this just to find my queen. How hard can it be to find one woman to spend the rest of my life with? You’d think it would be easier.”
“For most people it is, but you are a stubborn, annoying, pig-headed lion who can't figure out what he wants.”
Alyx stood again, unable to sit still for long. He prowled around his office like a caged animal. “Don’t hold back.”
Karel stood, placed his cup on a tray to be removed later by the staff, and faced Alyx. “You know this is the kind of stuff you get yourself into. All you had to do was let her try her hand at finding you a mate the first time around. Your mother advised you to. Instead of doing what others, who know better, suggested, you had to be the big, macho man.” Karel shrugged. “Okay, now you get to apologize to Gerri. I’m sure she’ll enjoy seeing you go back to her with your tail between your legs asking her for help.”
“I'm pretty sure she'd love to see that, but I’m not going there. She either helps me or she doesn’t. If she doesn’t,” he pressed a key that made a holographic image of Earth pop up in the center of his desk, “I’ll go to Earth and find my own woman. If I can’t find one here, then I’m sure I can find one there. Our people have done it for centuries. Why should I not be allowed the same liberty?”