Total pages in book: 94
Estimated words: 87848 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 439(@200wpm)___ 351(@250wpm)___ 293(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 87848 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 439(@200wpm)___ 351(@250wpm)___ 293(@300wpm)
“What? Is this funny to you?”
“Your indignation at imagining being considered a bad person just because of a bit of murder is pretty funny.”
“Well. I mean. I have good qualities. I care about people. I try to keep them safe when I can. I was trying to keep Armand safe when I… wait… do you know about the gendarmes?”
“I’ve been made aware.”
“If they hadn’t done what they did, I wouldn’t have done what I did. I solved a problem.”
“Yes, and the fact that you were trespassing in the first place was hardly your fault.”
“Exactly. Armand let me do it.”
“Armand is too much of a permissive mate.”
“I didn’t say that.”
“I’m saying it.”
The problem with this man, aside from everything, is the fact that he doesn’t actually know everything. He thinks he does, but there is much of my experiences he knows absolutely nothing about. Like what Armand did to me the night we met. Nobody who saw that would ever call him permissive.
“If you knew the things he did to me, you wouldn’t call him permissive.”
“I’m sure he’s capable of discipline from time to time, but it is when he feels like it, not when you need it.”
When I think about that, I suppose it could be true.
“Well, don’t tell him that. I like him indulging me.”
“Do you?”
“Of course!”
“I don’t see any of course about it. It leaves you to get into trouble and take care of matters your own way, which nobody appreciates.”
“Exactly. I’m not appreciated. It’s all very unfair.”
“I think this would be a good time to bring Armand in,” Volkov says. “Do you object to that?”
“Yes. No. I don’t know.”
“I’m going to bring him in. You can pick up the file.”
He’s subtly giving me a task, telling me what to do. And that is why the file remains strewn across the room when he returns with Armand.
I am so angry with him I don’t want to look at him. I definitely don’t want to hear his excuses for why he did all of this without telling me. He’s been working so hard to get me to trust him, but he’s never trusted me.
“I see you found the report,” Armand says, looking at it scattered all over the room, horrible sentences of betrayal and judgment on every surface. “I’m sorry, Beatrix. I meant for you to find out, but not like this. I wanted to talk to you about the contents of it when I’d had a chance to think.”
“Fuck you.”
“Okay, fuck him for what, Beatrix?” Volkov interjects.
“Fuck you for getting that report made, and double fuck you for making it sound reasonable.”
“Alright,” Volkov says. “Now, Armand, Beatrix would like you to double, or perhaps triple fuck yourself. How does that make you feel?”
Armand gives the man a death glare, and the memory of what he did to that man who was rude to me at my first dinner comes swimming back. Volkov should be more careful. Armand has an edge to him as well. People forget that.
“I don’t think we need your interference,” he says.
“You pay for my interference, Mr. de Lune.”
It is so weird to hear someone call Armand Mr. de Lune. It feels disrespectful even though it isn’t really. Most people call him alpha or maître, but I suppose he’s not Mr. Volkov’s alpha or maître.
“So you don’t want to breed with me now?”
“Of course I want to! I want a family with you, Beatrix.”
“The file says if you breed with me, it’s the end of your pack as you know it. And it says I’m young. And I might get worse.”
“You are young,” Armand says. “And I choose to believe that means you’ll get better.”
“So you’re acknowledging the inappropriate nature of this…” Mr. Volkov opens his mouth and I want to make him regret it. There’s nothing inappropriate about how Armand has handled me. He’s the first man in my life to not only make me feel safe, but to actually ensure my safety.
“Inappropriate?” I burst out.
Volkov ignores me, keeps going for Armand instead.
“You purchased her, did you not?”
Armand’s eyes narrow, and I get the feeling he might seriously hurt Volkov before this is over.
“She was up for sale. What should I have done? Stolen her?”
“You could have reported the entire matter to the proper authorities.”
“And in the meantime God knows what would have happened to her, and the odds that the authorities did not already know are next to nothing. The director general of the National Police was there. Sometimes the best way to navigate a corrupt world is to play the game. I don’t keep her prisoner. There are no chains on her limbs.”
Volkov is really giving Armand shit, and not for the reasons I want to talk about. It feels more like he has his own agenda right now, like he disapproves of this entire relationship. Is he trying to split us up? It’s quite literally not possible.