Chapter 125

By the look on Andrew’s face at dinner, I knew that his meeting had not gone well. At first, he hardly talked, focused more on his food than on me. It made me worry about what was on his mind.

I kept stealing glances his way as I ate, trying to will him to look at me, but he would not take his eyes off of his fillet. The silence was killing me, and soon my stomach hurt too much from the anxiety for me to eat. I swallowed my mouthful and set my knife and fork aside.

“How was the meeting?” I finally dared to ask.

Andrew froze, his knife and fork stuck in his steak. He raised his eyes to me for the first time that entire meal.

“Not well,” he admitted.

“What happened?” I asked, emboldened by the fact that he had given me any answer at all.

He sighed and set his utensils down.

“My advisors and the Werewolf Council ambushed me. They told me that you’re a liability to my position and demanded that I break up with you.”

I stiffened.

“All of them?”

“Yes. They brought up your criminal record as an example as to why I shouldn’t be with you, and they flat out said that they don’t believe your side of the story about the car accident.”

I huffed.

“Well, we thought that would be the case.”

“Yes, but now the Council themselves are speaking up and saying that I should break up with you, if I want to keep my title.”

I eyed what remained of my steak.

“That’s what Lisa said.”

“What?”

“Lisa told me that she and Bob would back out of the Alpha King race and knock it off with the rumors if I broke up with you.”

“Really?”

“Yeah.”

“And? What did you do?”

“I told her no, of course, but that’s why I didn’t want to talk to you about what had happened with them. I thought it might upset you that your daughter had demanded that I break up with you.”

“Hmm,” he replied, though he seemed distracted. “I appreciate your consideration…”

Andrew leaned back in his chair and rubbed his chin, as though he were contemplating something. My heart sank. Was he actually considering breaking up with me, with all these people telling us that it was for the best?

I reached over and placed my hand on Andrew’s knee. His gaze drifted down to it.

“Andrew,” I began, choking back my tears, “I love you so, so much. However, if you think that they’re right, that it would be better for us to go our separate ways…I will do whatever is best for you and for the future of our pack—”

“Wait right there,” Andrew said. He grabbed my hand in both of his. “Where are you getting this idea from?”

I stared down at our hands.

“I only thought…with everyone telling us that we should that maybe you…”

Andrew leaned forward and brushed tears off my cheeks his thumb.

“Crystal, I am not going to let anyone intimidate me into separating from someone I love. Not my advisors, not the Werewolf Council, not the public, not even my own daughter. I choose to be with you, and I’m not going to let you go.”

He kissed me gently on the lips. Then harder, and harder. His lips parted mine, and his tongue wormed its way into my mouth, brushing against my tongue and inviting it out to play.

I put my hand behind his neck and pulled him closer. He angled his head so that his tongue could penetrate deeper into me. His hands went to my hips, and he guided me to sit on his lap.

Our tongues engaged in a game of dominance in our mouths. His bulge grew beneath me, and I moaned at the feel of it. He dug his fingers into my hips so tightly that I was sure that he was going to leave imprints on my skin.

My underwear moistened as I ground against him. A part of me wanted to take Andrew to his private quarters and forget about our issues for a while, but another part of me knew that we could not avoid addressing these problems forever. Unfortunately, the more responsible part of me won.

Reluctantly, I pulled away, biting his lower lip until I drew a drop of blood. I licked it up, then finally let go. I touched my forehead to his and stared into his eyes.

“What are we going to do, then?” I asked, my voice breathy from the kissing.

“I’ve been thinking about that,” he replied, equally as breathless. “I think that we need to do the opposite of what everyone is telling us to.”

I blinked at him in confusion.

“You mean…get married?” I asked, blushing.

Andrew laughed and shook his head.

“No, no. I mean, instead of downplaying our relationship like everyone wants us to, we should create an election campaign for me that emphasizes it. The positive aspects of it.”

I pulled back and looked at Andrew as though he had a thousand heads.

“I’m sorry, but have you gone insane?”

Andrew grinned and placed his hands on either side of my face.

“On the contrary, I think I’m finally seeing things clearly for the first time. If I’m not going to bury certain parts of my life—and I’m certainly not going to bury my relationship with you—then I need to embrace them completely, for all that they can provide—and you have so much to provide, not just to me but to the entire pack. We just need to tap into your potential.”

I blushed even deeper. My heart thumped louder than ever before. Andrew might as well have asked me to marry him because that was how intense this campaign proposal felt.

I climbed off his lap and started to pace, unsure of how to expend the energy that I suddenly had pent up inside of me.

“People aren’t going to like this,” I said. “There will be detractors. People will be painting targets on our backs.”

“There are targets on our backs now,” he countered.

“If you think they’re bad now, imagine if we go out there advertising our relationship.”

“But we might change some minds, bring people to our side by showing them the good that we can do together.”

“The extremists won’t care. They’ll only see that we’re still together, and then they’ll try to get to us—”

“So long as we’re together, they’ll try to get to us. Why not show the world that we won’t be intimidated?”

I ran my hand through my hair. I tried to think of something, anything to deter him, but I couldn’t. Highlighting the positive aspects of our relationship would be the best way to counteract our negative press. We might even gain some voters in the process.

I sighed and came to a stop in front of Andrew. He watched me patiently, waiting for my next words without any expectation.

“Well, where do we start?” I asked.

Andrew smiled and patted his lap, motioning for me to sit on him once more. Smirking, I sat on him side-saddle and let him wrap me up in his arms.

“Tell me, Crystal,” he said in my ear, “what do you know about your heritage?”