Page 25 of Married to the Devil

“Not in such a clean way as that,” I say. By all accounts, Kalos is practically a father to Barnes. The demon will not abandon him just to join with Stella.

But can Kalos afford to keep Barnes in such a rarefied position if he’s emotionally invested outside of his territory?

All fledglings must leave the nest one day, even if they must be kicked from it.

“You expressed concerns about him last night,” Silas says.

“That was before I considered other options,” I muse. There’s a tension in that demon. I sense it as clearly as Stella’s wish to submit. He needs release. And I’ll happily give it if he does what I want. “His presence serves a purpose.”

“I hope that purpose is you actually consummating your mating,” Francesca says.

I focus on her, but she’s unimpressed with my glare.

“She doesn’t carry your scent,” she says with a flourish of her hand. “Not in the way she would if you had been inside her. Any shifter who gets close enough will realize that.”

I tap my nails on the table. “That’s a temporary problem.”

Silas leans back in his seat. “If she lets you get close enough after you left her exposed…”

“It was the most expedient way to get the Council out of our business.” Regret is a bitter flavor on my tongue, but I can’t quite track from what. I did what must be done. She’s mine. “The terms of my mating are of no concern?—”

“Incorrect,” Silas interrupts at the same time as Francesca guffaws.

“The strength of your mating is what’s going to make this territory stable in the long term,” she says. Silas nods to the echo of what he said last night.

“I haven’t lost a territory yet. We will not begin with this one.” But perhaps I…suffered a misstep last night. My inability to control my reaction to Stella had me going too far. I’d needed to claim her and set the expectation of what our relationship would be, but my actions were sloppy. I’d exposed too many of my hungry parts.

I’d forgotten to play nice.

That error brought Barnes into the picture. A castigation and opportunity all at once.

“If you didn’t want your mating to matter, then you should have courted her without promises of territory grabs,” Silas adds.

I flash my fangs at them. “This subject is off the table.”

I know the mistakes I’ve made, and I will remedy them.

“For now,” Francesca says and responds to my glare. “You don’t trust in our counsel because we keep our mouths shut.”

She is correct, but I change topics. “What do you have for me?”

“A couple of Stella’s cousins are the ones who are responsible for the luggage mishap last night.” Silas turns on the projector showing two gangly young men. Identical twins. “Complicating things.”

I almost groan out loud when I see their age, nineteen.Teenagers.

Francesca winces. “They are adults by shifter law.”

“Barely,” I growl. “Do we know if they were directed by anyone who we can actually strike at?”

No one responds well to children being punished. It doesn’t matter if they are legal age or not.

Silas sighs. “Andrew and Caleb Leonid are the sons of Frank Leonid. Though they didn’t live with him even before he fled the territory.”

Stella’s uncle.

“Do they live with an adult?”

“Their aunt, Ariel Leonid. Who, by the way, is requesting an audience with the new lady of the territory,” Silas says.

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