Page 16

Inside my office, I sat down and pulled open the spreadsheets I needed to go over, including schedules I had neglected since leaving to find my mate. As I did, a breeze of coconut assaultedmy nostrils upon entering the room. The urge to take a deep breath to settle myself before looking up at the one person I hoped to avoid today was strong. I didn’t have time for this.

“Morning, Alpha. How is the day treating you?” Nova, a somewhat dominant female of my pack, called out as she walked over to my desk.

When my eyes glanced up at her, it took a lot of energy not to roll them at her outfit alone. The tank top she wore cut far too low and exposed a lot of her breasts, making it look like a hungry infant would want to be fed at the sight of her. The black skirt she had on left little to the imagination as well. Nova liked to wear her long, blonde hair straightened so it fell to the middle of her back and over her breasts. Then she caked on mascara and lipstick to accentuate her gray-blue eyes and full lips.

Nova has wanted me as her mate for as long as I’ve known her. There was a time when I considered having a relationship with her after a one-night stand, but I couldn’t handle her attitude.

“It’s treating me just fine, Nova. What do you want?”

She propped herself on my desk, hiking up her low skirt a little more. I was pretty sure I could see the strap of a red thong under the small amount of fabric of her skirt. Males may like when females did this, but I wasn’t one of them. Kylie wore more conservative clothes, and that’s what I preferred. Still, I needed to send a few omegas to get her clothes so she could finally leave the suite.

Well, maybe I could keep her in the suite for another day to spend some time getting to know her.

Nova wagged her eyebrows at me. “You know what I want.”

I sighed because I should’ve guessed she’d be like this. This was practically a weekly occurrence at this rate. “I found my mate, Nova.”

She scoffed. “Some mate. She looked frightened to be around us. Is she human?”

This time, I growled. “No, she isn’t human. She’s an omega who was abused by her former pack. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to complete paperwork before I can return to my suite for the day.”

Nova leaned over toward me, flashing her breasts as she did. It was hard to ignore how close she was to me. A growl escaped me as she reached out her hand to touch mine. I didn’t like being touched unless I initiated it first. You’d think she knew that, considering she grew up with me.

She didn’t react to my flinching away from her touch. “You know, you are the king, Max. A king needs a queen at his side. Not some weak omega who wants to cower away from her pack instead of embracing it.”

My eyes met hers, and I dared her not to break away from my gaze. If she challenged me by holding my stare, no one would question why I tossed her out of here on her ass. Luckily for her, she dropped eye contact within seconds, but she made no movement to leave me.

“What part did you miss about how she was abused in her former pack? Of course, she cowered away from our pack. Thepower our pack holds is much greater than hers. We are the monsters she fears since she’s only been shown violence.”

Nova straightened herself and narrowed her eyes at me. “That’s the problem, love.”

I growled. I wasn’t her love.

“Why aren’t you asking yourself why she was abused? Did you ever think she wasn’t fulfilling her duties to the alpha? Omegas are punished all the time throughout your kingdom for not completing their duties or displeasing the pack.”

I snarled. That’s news to me. The treatment of pack members defined the alpha. If I had alphas out there mistreating their pack, I wanted them dealt with.

“If you believe the treatment of pack members should be like that, you need to be removed from my kingdom.”

She shook her head and laughed. “Oh, Max, that’s in every kingdom. There’s a hierarchy, and omegas are low for a reason. Even the omegas here are made to clean, cook, and take care of the pups. That’s how it is everywhere.”

“Yes, but if they don’t finish their duties for the day or make a mistake, they aren’t beaten within an inch of their lives and thrown into a damn dungeon.”

Nova looked at me again and sighed. “You are a king, Max. Someone who has to take care of every person in your kingdom. That’s a large task, and you need someone by your side who can help you through it. Is she really someone who can helpyou when she can’t even stay in the same room with this pack without hiding behind you or our new beta female?”

I pointed at her and growled. “Watch what you say around me about my mate. The fact that she can still be in the presence of beasts like us after what she endured is a testament to her strength.”

“Yet she couldn’t defend herself against any of them? Doesn’t that mean she hasn’t been properly trained, too?”

“Who cares?”

Nova hopped off the desk and put her hands on her hips as she glared in my direction. She wouldn’t meet my eyes, but she looked past me to avoid angering my lycan. Oddly enough, he didn’t seem all that defensive, even with someone speaking ill of our mate. Something I thought would rile him had him sleeping inside me.

“This pack will care. Your kingdom will care. How would it look for the king to have a queen who can’t do much for the pack? Don’t think we haven’t noticed she could barely stand without help after a few hours of talking to us.”

Damn. Kylie wasn’t fully on the mend and needed more time to rest. Nova didn’t need to know that. If she wanted to claim me as her mate, she could challenge Kylie for it. I was pretty sure my mate would lose that fight. Not only because she was still weak from what she experienced… Nova was right. Kylie didn’t seem to know how to defend herself. She wasn’t properly trained.

Had I made a mistake by bringing Kylie here?