Total pages in book: 135
Estimated words: 128061 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 640(@200wpm)___ 512(@250wpm)___ 427(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 128061 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 640(@200wpm)___ 512(@250wpm)___ 427(@300wpm)
Act with decorum, I told myself. Act with decorum!
“What can I do for you, bub?”
I couldn’t help myself.
Anger heated his eyes, and his expression turned to granite. His wings fluttered, though, indicating he was not as self-controlled as a shifter would be.
“I got your package,” he said curtly. “Enlightening.”
I shivered. He’d gotten the information about Pierce, but also a little surprise hinting that we knew an enormous secret he was keeping from the world.
“Was it?” I arched an eyebrow. “I expected you to have a better grasp on what goes on in your territory, home, and with your affiliates.”
Now his eyebrows lowered and one of his fists clenched. “How did you acquire that information?”
“By doing my due diligence. You know something about that, don’t you? I noticed the two woods used in the sculpture you sent me. They nearly matched the inner construction of my house. Very clever.”
He held out a paper bag. When I didn’t reach out to take it, he shook it at me, stepping forward to push it into my chest.
Without moving, I threw up a magical blockade. His knuckles hit off the spell, and sparks flew. He let out a yelp, jerking his arm back to cradle it against his chest. Apparently he was not fond of electrical charges. Baby.
I tsked at him, so incredibly in control of this situation that I surprised myself.
“No touching,” I said. “If you have something to show me, you may take it out of the bag and hold it up.”
Shaking with fury, he threw the bag onto the ground. I could hear the baby rattle inside.
“Is this blackmail?” he demanded. “Because you won’t be hurting me if you bring this information to light. You’d be hurting my family.”
“I wouldn’t be hurting anyone,” I replied, my resolve hardening. “The honorable thing to do would be to tell your family, not to mention your cairn. I can’t imagine any of them would like to hear about your mistress. Sure, you’re not the only cheater, but messing around while your mate is sick? Telling your mistress she’ll take your mate’s place once she dies? Of course, we both know you’d never let that happen. She’s got almost no status and not a lot of world experience.”
I paused for a moment, allowing the beat of silence to stretch. The worst was yet to come, and we both knew it.
“You wanted to get an heir from her, and you did. If your mate had succumbed to that nasty bout of pneumonia, you could have run with your plan and told everyone your mistress was a surrogate. That you and your mate had made the arrangements together. But she didn’t die. And now you’re not sure what to do, because your mate would never have agreed to the arrangement. Especially since you gave that surrogate a child the old-fashioned way.”
“What do you know about any of this?” He pushed closer to me, anger lining every inch of his face. His eyes raked the air in front of me; he knew I was protected. Knew he couldn’t do whatever he was envisioning.
“I know you’re screwed,” I said, ripping the magic away and closing the distance. I poked the center of his chest, and he took a step away from my heated rage. “You got the timing all wrong, and now you have a baby you can’t use. You have a mistress you are still banging who’ll talk if you turn your back on her. Your cairn’s status hangs in the balance, because these are certainly not the actions of a stable leader. You’re not a very good one, either, anymore. Your worsening management is dropping the cairn’s overall profitability. In other words, you’ve slacked off, Withor, and instead of replacing yourself, you kept pushing forward. Now you’ve got a real clusterfuck on your hands.”
I kicked the paper bag, making it fly off the porch. The rattle broke free and smashed against the concrete, breaking in half.
He studied me for a long time. I held his gaze, daring him to get aggressive. Daring him to try to push me or punch me or fling me as I could tell he wanted to. Unlike the shifters I was accustomed to, he broadcast every thought that flashed through his head.
He must’ve known I was ready to fight, though. He must’ve suspected I would blast him across the yard. He held his position, not even bending forward over me.
“What do you want?” he finally said. “What is it going to take for your silence on this matter? You need guardians, is that it? You’re trying to establish a cairn with a bunch of shifters, so you must need guardians.”
When I didn’t speak, he tried again.
“You want more direction on that textile information, then.” His eyes pinged back and forth between mine. “You obviously have the notes my production cairn let slip, but you don’t have the people to make sense of them. Fine. I can put you in contact with that cairn.”