Page 38 of Fated for his Flame

Dropping Chloe’s arm at the door, I grabbed the handle and flung it open, striding in, eager to get the confrontation over with. I had a mate who needed my full attention.

My father was standing in front of his desk, arms crossed, a ferocious glare on his always stern face. Fires burned in the corners of his eyes, not a good sign. His thick chest rose and fell at a slightly inflated rate.

“What do you—” I stopped talking upon seeing the second person in the room, standing off to the left. “You.”

“Silas,” my father said stiffly, barely holding back his anger. “You know Caine.”

“Of course I do,” I growled, unhappy to see the head of our biggest rival in our house. What the hell was going on?

Caine, who’d been standing calmly against one of the bookcases, came fully erect as Chloe followed me into the room to stand at my side. “What is she doing here?” he snarled, taking a step forward.

“Lay a hand on her, and I promise it will be the last thing you ever do,” I said icily, shifting my body between her and Caine.

Caine stopped short, glaring at me before turning to my father. “She needs to go.”

“She stays,” I snapped before my father could respond. “What the fuck do you want?”

“What I want? What I want is for you to take that insult to my family and get rid of her,” Caine barked. “You reject my daughter and then parade around this pathetic thing in public the next day as if she’s somehow superior? You have insulted my family in public with your actions. You will atone for your actions or else.”

“Fix it?” I chuckled. “Seriously? You’re telling me that? As if I’m the one who organized that party and brought your daughter into it? I didn’t have a damn thing to do with that.”

My eyes never left my father. It was all his fault. How dare he try to lay the blame at my feet! I hadn’t wanted the attention, nor did I want him to try to set me up with anyone. It wasn’t my problem, and I intended both of them to know it.

“Caine makes a good point,” my father said. “You did humiliate his family publicly.”

“Strong word,” Caine said, disagreeing slightly. “But he did insult us.”

I shook my head. “Why do you want me to take your daughter anyway? You two hate one another.”

Caine shook his head in disappointment. “We’re businessmen, Silas. We recognize a smart deal when we see one. Working to bring our houses together will ensure nobody can challenge us. Our only competition will be one another.”

“That’s wonderful for you,” I said, not believing it for a second. Both clearly thought they would get the upper hand. They were playing one another, and both were blind to the fact the other was doing it, too. “But I’m still not doing it. I’m happy with Chloe. If your ego is so fragile you can’t handle it, that’s not my fucking problem.”

Caine stepped forward sharply, leveling a finger at me. “If you don’t, then we will be forced to act, Silas. Your entire house will have to be taught a lesson.”

Drawing myself up to my full height, I walked right up to the head of our biggest rival and stared down my nose at him. “Try it,” I whispered coldly. “If you so much as touch a single hair on her head, I will kill you. I will rip your throat out and feed it to your children before I do the same to them. Every single one of your house will fall before me if you so much as breathe in her direction. This, I swear. Don’t test me Caine. You’ll regret it.”

I locked my gaze on him and didn’t look away. He tried to match my glare, but he couldn’t. Finally, he looked away, stepping past me toward the door, with one last look at my father.

“Two weeks,” he said. “You have two weeks, Azarel. Rein him in and fix this. Or I will.”

Then he was gone. I watched him go, resisting the urge to snap his neck right then and there.

I succeeded. Barely.

“I hate that fucking man,” I snarled once he was out of sight.

“He’s right.”

I spun, my fury fixated on my father now.

“No, he’s not,” I said stonily. “I didn’t insult him. You did. This is your fault. I’m not going to clean up your mistake when I have clearly told you dozens of times already I don’t want your help when it comes to finding a mate. Got it?”

“Don’t you come into my own house and yell at me!”

I lost my temper. “You summoned me! I wouldn’t be here if you could handle this on your own!”

Azarel was in my face in an instant. “This isn’t my problem to handle. You did this. You rejected a perfectly good mate proposal. If you had just made the smart move, the proper move for this family like I tried to get you to do, then none of this would have happened!”

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