Though the words were teasing, the sentiment underlying them was real and painful. Grabbing her arm, he dragged her down onto the bed with him.
For a moment she lay stiffly by his side, then her body started to relax into his. Wrapping an arm around her seemed to be the most natural thing in the world.
“While you’re here, you’ll never be alone,” he said.
“I’ll have to enjoy it while I can.” He frowned at the words, but she’d already moved on to another thought. “Your whole clan is here for the retreat?”
Allowing her to change the subject, he nodded. “Most of them. Some members are abroad or too far away to make it, but the majority try to come when they can. It’s the only time in the year we’re all together, after all.”
“Are you really okay with this?” she said, tilting her head up to see him. “Lying to your friends, your advisors?”
He was silent for a long moment. “They didn’t give me much choice,” he said at last. “The last three women they pushed me toward were unacceptable.”
“Why?”
He exhaled. “Their candidates housed very submissive wolves, which in theory makes sense. It’s widely believed a larger gap between dominance levels in wolves leads to a happier mating. Two alphas or two submissive wolves don’t balance each other out. They are constantly hampered by the similarity of their inner animals. It’s what tore me and Lisette apart.”
Her small hand pressed against his chest, over his heart, and he reached up to tangle his fingers with hers.
“Having watched that train wreck,” he went on, “my advisors decided I needed a docile mate. They keep sending women after me who have far less dominant wolves.”
She snorted. “That would bore you silly in a month. You need someone who can go toe-to-toe with you.”
His arm tightened on her. “Exactly. But I also need someone who doesn’t raise the hackles on my wolf.”
“You should have looked to the rest of the supernatural world earlier if that was your criteria. You need someone strong without an inner animal chained to the dominance hierarchy of a pack.”
“Perhaps,” he agreed, his fingers stroking up her arm. “Outsiders are rarely welcomed into a pack. And almost never into a ruling pair.”
“So you’re telling me I’m in for a hell of a ride while I’m here.”
“Yes.” He turned to look at her. “When we made this bargain I didn’t really care about how hard this time would be on my fake mate.”
“I’m tough,” she replied. “That’s why you picked me, isn’t it? I can hold my own.”
With her so close, smiling so widely, he had no choice but to lean over and kiss her. Need pulled at him, but he did his best to keep himself in check. This was neither the time nor the place to give in to his baser instincts. Not with his pack waiting for them. Even so, he allowed his lips to trail over hers, enjoying a brief taste before he had to pull back.
“I’m glad you’re here,” he told her, meaning the words more than he should.
Her cheeks were a rosy pink as she smiled at him. “Because I’ll be able to play this part convincingly?”
“No,” he replied. “Not just because of that.”
Her lips parted silently as she stared up at him. He drew his thumb over the smooth skin of her cheek, marveling at how perfect she looked lying next to him here. No other woman would have fit so easily.
“We should go,” she whispered. “Let the others know we’re here. Right?”
The question sounded as if she were hoping he’d disagree with her. If only he could.
With a sigh he pulled them both up. “Yes. They will have seen the car. No use hiding.”
She nodded, drawing in a deep breath. “Then let’s go get started.”
Time to put their ruse to the test and see if his pack really would believe he’d fallen head over heels for a witch.
In her teenage years, Chloe used to have nightmares that she’d walk into a room of her peers and silence would fall, all eyes on her, as if they knew the secret she was trying to hide.
Today she lived that fear.
When she entered the main hall, her hand clasped in Kieran’s, a room full of werewolves eating dinner were stunned to silence. Chloe stared at the rows of tables, packed full of people who had been laughing and talking when they’d walked in. Now she could have heard a pin drop.
Undaunted, Kieran pulled her forward to the head of the hall. As she followed him, the weight of dozens of eyes landed on her.
Show them your mettle, she instructed herself. He’d had picked her because he needed a woman who could stand up for herself, even against a room full of disapproving wolves.