Page 18 of Tamed for Her Pleasure

My father raises both brows. “He certainly is… This is what you want?”

It is not really a question, although it is phrased as such. I have already surmised he has set in motion life-changing events because he believed it was what I wished.

Okay, maybe a little of his haste might be relief in finally gaining a match for me that comes with benefits.

I nod, finding it hard to meet his eyes—which is not me at all. Nor is the heated blush creeping up my cheeks. “He made an impression upon me.”Impressionseems an inadequate word to describe Alfred. He must be seven feet tall if he is an inch, yet that is not the only reason my eyes slide back to him. “He disciplined me,” I blurt out, thankful that no one is close enough to hear this before I go for broke, and add, “I probably deserved it.”

My father chuckles. “That was more detail than I needed, especially when one is a king who does not like the thought of any man disciplining his beloved child, whether or not she deserves it.”

“It wasn’t right to keep the omega nor to offer her up for political gain.”

His expression softens. “I know you do not always agree with my actions, Penelope. A king holds power through many and various means. It is a precarious balance, and the ground can shift beneath you anytime. I was still weighing up my options when the decision was taken off my hands.”

There is no mistaking the dry undertone of his words nor the part I played in forcing his hand.

“I have lost one alliance and gained another in the stead,” he continues. “Perhaps a more powerful one.” He stares across where Alfred stands among his men. They are all big strapping alphas, and Alfred stands above them all. “You wrong one barbarian, and you wrong them all, it would seem… and shifters and centaurs. I believe the strength of our kingdom has grown by a considerable amount. Now, we need only to civilize the brute you would marry.”

“I am not sure if that is going to be possible,” I say honestly.

My father only smiles. I know he loves me well, but he also understands the political game. The legacy my grandfather left has continued to flourish under my father’s rule. “Being a successful ruler is about more than holding power. At times, we must play games that do not fit well with our ideals, not because we are cruel, but because we must if we are to survive. And this is about surviving. I am a powerful king. Ours is the largest kingdom. Yet, we still answer to the high king, who is distracted by the lover he has taken. I would have our kingdom prosper through the good times and the more challenging ones.” His eyes turn distant as he surveys the horde before us. “This alliance will do us well. It will make those who would seek to challenge us think twice. Stories of this mighty army and our alliance will soon reach our neighboring kingdoms and the high king himself.”

Snow begins to fall.

I see Alfred move away from his people, and without even cursory hesitation, his eyes find mine.

My breath catches. He is such a primal male; one my body is doomed to react to in an equally primal way.

I have had lovers. I know what other men’s cocks look like. But none of them were alphas. I cannot imagine how my body might be conquered by that monster that swings between his legs.

He is all very proportional, and he is a very big man. I am strong and supremely fit, but I am also small. I don’t quite know… cannot quite work out how we might couple, how all of him might fit inside me without a great deal of pain.

Fears aside, I know alphas take beta mates. Never once have I backed down from a challenge.

I’m not about to now.

Alfred

Matters are progressing with the necessary speed, given the weather is closing in. My instincts want to take my woman to my clan and claim her there, but I also recognize she is an only child and heir to a Hydorian kingdom.

If I want her, I must relinquish my world and go to hers.

My clan is my life, my home, and part of my blood.

But I also see that through this, I will also serve the clan, for the alliance does not only benefit Louie but us.

Us?

What is us anymore? The lines feel blurred between the two, and likewise, between the future I expected to live and the one stretching out before me.

“She is your one,” Jack Ralston says, providing an unexpected source of counsel as the sides mingle on the grassy, snow-covered plain leading to Pershore. Carts laden with supplies have begun arriving, and after gathering the bounty, the clans, herds, and shifters begin to disperse.

My eyes go to Penelope, looking more fucking scandalous than any clanswoman dressed in hide ever could in the black leather assemble she favors. I want to peel her out of it again andtake her on the snowy ground so no one is mistaken about my claim.

I turn back to Jack. “I never expected I might feel this for a beta—this compulsion that cannot be denied.”

“To an outsider, your actions might seem strange, to relinquish your role as clan king for a woman you only met yesterday,” he says. “But to an alpha, and more so a clansman who likewise met his one while stopping to get his horse shod, it does not seem strange at all.”

“It was like this with your Hazel?” I ask.

---