Page 34 of Wild Wolf Betrothal

“I think that sight seeing with Dean would be the better option for you,” Lucy said. “You don’t want to see me mean.”

“I’ve seen you mean. You don’t scare me,” Micah teased.

“You should be very scared,” Lucy replied. “I’m terrifying.”

“You keep telling yourself that,” Micah said.

Lucy checked her watch.

“Ooh, I would love to continue to sit here and scare you, but I need to get to work. There are thirsty people out there in the world,” Lucy said.

Micah stood up and brushed a kiss across her lips. She smiled at him, touched his cheek briefly, and headed out the door.

He sat back down to finish his orange juice. She didn’t pull back when he kissed her and she touched his face in a way that she had never done before last night. Maybe she was starting to feel something for him in spite of her best efforts not to. There was still a long way to go.

His room felt cramped. He wasn’t used to being inactive. Deciding to take Lucy’s suggestion about exploring the nearby sights he picked up his phone to call Dean. Just as he did, his father called.

“Ugh,” Micah said to himself.

He thought about ignoring the call, but that wouldn’t make his father go away. It was better just to deal with the man and get it over with.

“Father,” Micah said. “Good morning.”

“Good morning,” his father said. “How is your vacation going?”

“It’s going well,” Micah said.

“I know that you are there to try to convince Lucy to come back with you and go through the mating ceremony.”

“I figured that you did,” Micah sighed.

It wouldn’t have taken a genius to figure out where he went and why.

“How is that going?”

“Everything is going fine,” Micah replied.

He felt no need to tell his father that he had been making baby steps toward capturing Lucy’s heart.

“What are you going to do if she doesn’t agree to go through the mating ceremony?”

“Then I will return home, take my place as alpha, and do my job,” Micah said. “I’m not going to force her into it and I’m not going to threaten her if she doesn’t, because it wouldn’t work. Even if it did, she would resent it, and both of our lives would be a living hell. I don’t want that for either of us.”

“You have to have a mate,” his father said.

“I will deal with the situation later. The world will not come to an end if I don’t have a mate as soon as I take the office,” Micah said. “I’m not going to go through a mating ceremony with someone just to make everyone else happy. I would rather refuse to become the alpha rather than do that.”

His father was silent, because he knew that Micah didn’t make idle threats.

“I need to be going,” Micah said.

“When are you going to be back?”

“In a week or two. Not much longer than that,” Micah promised.

His father grunted and hung up the phone.

“Good bye to you, too,” Micah laughed.

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