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“You can’t kill Rocco,” Marco warned.

“I know,” Emilio said, avoiding glancing over at his Alpha in the driver’s seat of his Maserati so he didn’t give himself away.

Emilio did not, in fact, know. He’d fully intended for his soon-to-be husband to meet an unfortunate accident after an appropriate amount of time following the wedding.

Maybe even soon enough that he could take back some of the jobs Marco’s friend Bella had travelled to Europe to complete for him when he’d dropped everything to answer his Alpha’s call.

Over a decade as one of the top assassins in the world meant Emilio was confident he could’ve pulled off killing his husband without anyone realising.

Especially given that only a handful of people were aware of his deadly side hustle.

Marco was one of those people. His Alpha would’ve figured it out, but so long as he had plausible deniability, it shouldn’t have affected the tentative truce with the Elemental Mayhem MC that Emilio’s arranged marriage was securing.

That had been the plan .

Right up until the fiancé he’d never met had turned up to the art class Emilio had been running at the youth shelter a week earlier, and he’d caught his scent.

What were the chances the air witch his Alpha had asked him to marry was his fated mate?

Fate was a bitch. The only small silver lining was that Rocco, as a human, didn’t have a clue.

The last thing Emilio needed was for the arrogant, domineering man to realise his unexpected weakness.

Emilio had no intention of pursuing the bond.

Look what had happened to his father when he’d mated a witch.

The guy had manipulated Gio into betraying his pack and then killed him.

Even without that recent example, Emilio had never intended to tie himself down with the kind of intrusive, permanent bond a mating created.

He had a life he loved, travelling to create the edgy street art installations his anonymous pseudonym was infamous for and practising the artistry of death for money and for his pack on the side.

It was not a life he wanted or needed to share.

The potential mating bond was a complication he didn’t need, and he hadn’t figured out how to adjust his plans yet.

Obviously, his wolf wasn’t going to let him kill the guy now.

The growl inside him at even thinking that made that clear.

He’d just have to get creative about how to extricate himself from this sham of a marriage before his wolf got too attached.

“I’m serious, Emmy. With the tension between the three families and the D-2S terrorists trying to turn us against each other, we can’t afford to piss off the MC. Plus, I have the Supernatural Council up my ass after what happened. He can’t die,” Marco said.

“I get it. My allegiance is with you. I won’t ever betray you,” Emilio said. The silent ‘ like my dad did ’ hung in the air unsaid between them.

Marco took a hand off the steering wheel and reached out to grip his nape, scenting him in comfort. “No one blames you for Gio’s actions. I trust you, cousin.”

That wasn’t necessarily true if the looks his pack had been giving him since he returned were anything to go by.

Some people definitely thought he should’ve known and stopped his dad.

That was fine. He would do anything for his Alpha and his family, but his links to the rest of the pack were tenuous at best, given how long he’d lived away from them.

That ambivalence to the wider pack was another reason he’d only intended to stick around long enough to use his connections to help Marco track down the source of the anti-supernatural weapons entering the city.

The kind of weapons even his pack refused to deal in, despite their hold on the illegal arms trade.

They needed to shut down whoever it was fast before the pack’s reputation took any more of a hit.

Emilio didn’t need the pack to like him.

He just needed to make up for his dad’s betrayal by temporarily marrying his fated mate and destroying whoever thought they could sneak one past his Alpha.

Then he could go back to wandering the world and not have to face the pain of New Trinity City and everything he’d lost there until the next time Marco called him home.

“Are you sure you want to do this today? We could postpone the meeting,” Marco said, clearly picking up on some of what he was feeling through the connection all Alphas had with their pack.

“And risk offending the witches? I’m fine.”

“You’re not fine. We buried your dad yesterday, for fuck’s sake,” Marco growled.

The quiet, sad turnout the day before had made his heart ache.

His family had come to support Emilio, but the rest of the pack had been noticeably absent.

No one mourned a traitor. He was lucky Marco had even let the burial happen on pack land.

Emilio hated what his father had done, but that didn’t change the fact that Gio was the one parent who’d been there for him.

His wolf had howled his anguish to the waning moon, but he’d been reassured to know his father’s body had been laid to rest in the forest of their home.

“Better to get this over with.” Emilio kept his eyes locked out the window at the passing city as he spoke.

They weren’t far from their destination—a bar in the MC’s territory they’d agreed to meet at as a show of good faith. At least the concrete and glass of the city and the tang of saltwater on the air as they neared the harbour bridge would distract him from his memories of the forest the day before.

“It’s just the opening negotiation. If you don’t like what they’re offering, we can take it away and come back with a counter,” Marco said.

Emilio huffed under his breath. “Cuz. You might be a badass, but they’ve got you over a barrel with this one and you know it.

This marriage is the only way to avoid an all-out war between us and it could pave the way for the kind of alliance we’ll need to oust Kyan from the coven when we’re ready.

Plus, we don’t have long if you still want us hitched by the end of the year. ”

“You’re more important. I won’t sacrifice my family for anyone, Emmy. If Blaze thinks he can use this marriage contract to screw you over, he’ll quickly learn just how fucking wrong he is.” Marco’s eyes flashed with the gold of his wolf as he spoke.

“Okay, but let me decide what I’m willing to live with, okay? I need to control that much, at least.”

It was a low blow because he knew Marco felt guilty about the arranged marriage.

He’d yet to tell his cousin about the whole mate thing, but Marco would figure it out as soon as he saw them in a room together and then any guilt he was feeling would disappear.

Emilio’s plea to his cousin was as much to ensure Marco didn’t decide to match-make once he realised who Rocco was to him as it was to help ensure he could smooth things over between his over-protective Alpha cousin and the antagonistic MC President Blaze.

“That’s fair. I’ll only intervene in the terms if I think they’ll put your safety at risk, or if they’re disrespecting you or the pack.”

Emilio hid a wince as they pulled into the parking lot of the bar. The chances of his fiancé doing something Marco deemed disrespectful were astronomically high if their one brief meeting was anything to go by. The negotiation of this contract was going to be a mess.