Total pages in book: 74
Estimated words: 68913 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 345(@200wpm)___ 276(@250wpm)___ 230(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 68913 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 345(@200wpm)___ 276(@250wpm)___ 230(@300wpm)
“An older male?” My heart sank. It couldn’t be Cole then. Not that his men would be helping him set up a tryst with his own little sister. They all believed in that stupid bullshit about the Unbreakable Laws like everyone else in the Pack did.
“The male you’re going to see tonight has already watched you, er, perform in the past,” Kurt went on, sounding more and more uncomfortable. “You’re going to perform for him again so he can decide if he wants you.”
“Decide if he wants me?” I exclaimed. “He doesn’t get to say if he wants me or not! I’m not going to allow myself to be married off to some old man!”
“The terms of your mating will be up to the Packmaster, not you,” the Alpha guard growled. “He is your last living male relative and he has the right to choose your mate.”
“That’s bullshit and you know it!” I yelled, getting really angry now. I knew there was some kind of antiquated law on the books that had to do with the male relative of a single female being able to choose her mate but nobody ever used it anymore. At least, my adoptive father hadn’t.
It was one of those silly old laws that nobody bothers to take off the books because they’re so out of touch with today’s societal norms that nobody even pays any attention to them anymore. Like all those states that still have laws against oral sex. I mean could you prosecute somebody for giving their partner a blow job? Sure you could. But would you? Of course not! Because that would be ridiculous.
“The Packmaster has ruled that if the male who sees your performance likes you, he may have you as a mate,” Kurt said, still staring straight ahead as he drove. “He asked me to convey to you that if you had not decided to expose yourself in public, the Council wouldn’t have felt it was necessary to find you a mate.”
“Basically, you brought this on yourself,” the Alpha guard added helpfully.
“Look, I made the choice to strip for my own reasons,” I snapped at both of them. “It’s my body—I get to choose what I do with it.”
“I’m afraid that’s not how the Packmaster sees it,” Kurt remarked. “He told me to tell you that you’re going to pay for your poor decisions tonight.”
“Kurt, come on—you know this is bullshit!” I leaned forward, trying to catch his eyes in the rearview mirror. “That law about the male relative choosing a female’s mate for her is so old! I mean, nobody even uses it anymore.”
“Well, it’s getting used now,” Kurt said shortly. “Sorry, Delilah—there’s nothing I can do,” he added and shrugged. He had an unhappy look on his face, when I glimpsed it in the rearview mirror as though he didn’t agree with what was going on, but he kept driving just the same.
I slumped back in my seat, barely noticing as the dark streets rushed past the windows. Who was this “older male” I was going to meet and what kind of show was I supposed to put on for him?
I was afraid to find out.
7
DELILAH
Kurt drove me to an apartment building in downtown Tampa, not far from the Riverwalk. It was a local hotspot that was growing by leaps and bounds, now that so many people were pouring into the city.
Tampa used to be a fairly nice city to live in—I mean, aside from the heat and humidity and the threat of hurricanes. It was big enough that there was always something going on and some new restaurants to try, but small enough that you could get across town in under an hour.
All that had changed now, however. The traffic was horrible, even at night and on the weekends, and home prices had been driven into spiraling heights of insanity. My little townhouse that Cole had bought me was now worth three times what it had been but if I had sold it, I would scarcely have been able to afford to rent an apartment in the current housing market.
Other prices had gone up too—my groceries cost me twice what they used to. Gas was ridiculously high. All because we had gotten listed as one of the best places to live in the country—a “hidden gem”—and everyone had decided to move here.
Why do people always ruin everything?
But it wasn’t the awful downtown traffic I was concerned with at the moment. I was wondering who I was going to meet and trying to remember if I had seen any older male Weres in the crowd at The Doll House during the three sets I had done. Well—more like two and a half since Cole had come in and dragged me out of the last one halfway through my set.