Page 58 of Wild Wolf Betrothal

“Dad,” she said.

“How are you doing?” he asked.

“I’m good,” Lucy said. “Enjoying the change in scenery.”

“That’s good. We heard you had a scare the other day. Are you okay?”

Dean,Lucy thought.

“I’m fine. Micah saved my life and took care of me.”

“Speaking of Micah, you need to think about scooping him up and coming home. The elders have decided that they aren’t going to wait around for you to make up your mind. They are already going through the list of eligible women would be suitable as his mate.”

Lucy’s heart sank as she thought about another woman in Micah’s arms and in his bed. She pictured that beautiful red-head in his bed, and a bit of anger flared up.

“Don’t they think that they think that he should have a say in whether he goes through the mating ceremony and who he goes through the ceremony with?”

“It is the custom that the alpha takes a mate after he is anointed,” her father said. “I know that you care about Micah and it’s obvious that he has feelings for you or he wouldn’t have gone after you.”

“I do care about him, Dad. I do love him, but I want to go through the mating ceremony with someone I am in love with and who feels that kind of love for me.”

“Love will grow. Frankly though, you don’t have a lot of time. The ceremony making him alpha is coming up quickly.”

“I know.”

“You need to get your head on straight, Girl. You going through the mating ceremony and becoming the alpha’s queen would do a lot for this family’s status. It is your responsibility.”

“Dad, I need to go,” Lucy said, hanging up the phone.

All of the positive feelings that she had been having toward Micah and the thought that maybe they could go through with the mating ceremony instantly dissolved. She wasn’t going to be a pawn in anyone’s game.

20

Micah

Micah’s eyes were starting to blur. He rubbed them, groaning. A headache was creeping up the back of his neck and threatened to take over his entire brain. A pot of coffee and an energy drink equaled, what felt like, a million emails, some of which were so inane that he wondered whether they were sent just to annoy him. Surely, people couldn’t really be as dumb as some of the emails indicated.

He had one email that asked whether, when he became alpha, he would sanction the idea that all females wear the same color ball gown to the clan gala each year so that the organizers could make sure that all of the women’s and girls’ gowns matched the theme. Micah had to read that email twice to make sure that he hadn’t missed anything. All kinds of snappy replies popped into his brain. He also thought about simply deleting the email and not replying to it, but he had a feeling that anyone who would actually send this type of question would simply continue to email him repeatedly until he answered. Shaking his head, he simply replied, “No. Females should be allowed to wear whatever color festive wear they choose.”

Micah didn’t even say ball gown. He figured that if a female wished to wear a tuxedo to the gala, then more power to her. It didn’t hurt him at all, and it made that person happy.

Then, there had been the endless paperwork, a lot of which should have been delegated.

“No wonder Father has always been so busy,” Micah said to himself after completing the paperwork for some vendor orders. “There should be a person whose sole purpose is to deal with this kind of mess.”

He added that to the long list of changes he was planning to make once he became alpha.

Micah put his forehead in his hand, wondering what the elders and other members of the clan senate did.

“We need a major overhaul,” Micah decided.

His stomach was making loud noises like a semi-truck that was about to blow an engine.

“Food.”

He thought about the restaurant attached to the inn and the other, typical, fast-food eateries that dotted Ivy Springs, but none of it sounded appealing.

“The café has sandwiches.”

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