Page 23 of Mated

I am her first wolf. Her first lover. Her only lover, too. Her mate, forever.

That is a lot to tell a woman who seems to be as sheltered and innocent as she is. There’s so much to learn about her. We may have bonded deeply in the animal sense, but there is a great deal we don’t yet know about each other’s human lives.

There will be time for that later. For now, she needs to sleep.

My phone rings while she’s still in the shower.

It’s Abel and I answer, because there’s a chance it’s important.

“Yes?”

“How are you, brother?” There is a light chuckle on the end of the line, as if Abel finds this very amusing on some level.He wants to gossip. They say men don’t do that sort of thing, but they haven’t met my brother. He never met a piece of information he didn’t immediately sock away.

“Good, Abel.”

“Are you going to take her to the country estate today?”

“Once she’s had a sleep, yes.”

“Shall I set the conclave in motion?”

“Not yet, Abel. I want at least a week or two to settle with her. We need time to get to know one another.”

There is a pause on the line.

“Abel…”

“I might have already set the conclave in motion,” he admits. “I was excited for you, and I know that there’s supposed to be a conclave as soon as possible once an alpha meets his mate. And you did tell me to take care of everything. I thought that might have been one of the things I was supposed to have taken care of. So the staff is at Denholm already, the rooms are being aired, the kitchen is setting up for a banquet tomorrow night…”

“Tomorrow night!? She’s still going to be sleeping off her first shift… she’s not going to be in any condition for that kind of social pressure. Call everybody and postpone it by a week.”

There’s another long pause.

“I can’t really do that. The entire pack has mobilized.”

“Unmobilize them.”

“That would be very irregular. No conclave has ever been postponed. This way, you look eager to present her to the pack. If we push it back, it might look like there’s doubt.”

“And if she’s half-asleep, exhausted, and has little to no control of her shifting, that’s going to make her look like she’s not alpha female material.”

“She’s not. She’s a domestic dilute. But she is your mate. Do the same thing with her as you do with everyone and everything else. Be determined to get your own way no matter what.”

If I didn’t know better, or if I were the type to be suspicious, I might think that he is trying to sabotage me.

I have started pacing back and forth outside the bedroom.

“Fine. The conclave will go ahead. But I will not be following whatever schedule you set. Run everything else to do with this by me first, Abel.”

“Very good. Do you want me to call you every ten minutes, or every five minutes?”

“Don’t call me that much. I am going to be focusing on Kira. Leave me messages, and I will get back to them when I want to, I mean, when I can. Don’t finalize anything until I approve it, understand?”

“Understood,” Abel says.

I return to the bedroom and find Kira in the process of crawling into bed. Abel’s shenanigans melt into insignificance as I see her sweet face turn to me with an expression that is half-pleased, and half a little concerned.

“I’m sorry,” she says. “I was going to get into bed quicker, but then there was a…”

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