Chapter 3 Stay together

Raymond Dantata POV

I rubbed my forehead in frustration after listening to my father’s voice on the phone for several minutes. I had canceled my monthly board meeting at the last minute when he called and started babbling things I did not want to hear.

“Raymond? Are you still there?” my father inquired from the other line.

“Yes, Father,” I answered tautly.

“She’s on her way to the Royal Pack as we speak…”

And I will send her packing back after thirteen hours of flight to wherever the hell she came from.

“…I already told your housekeeper to prepare the guest room in your penthouse for her arrival.”

I bet you did.

“Dad.” I took a deep breath, telling myself to calm down. I could find a solution to this dilemma. I always had. “Remind me again why I suddenly have an arranged mate.”

I heard my father’s sigh all the way from the Lunar Northern Pack. “She is not your ‘instant bride’ as you put it. Her father and I made this arrangement a long time ago to unite our packs and strengthen our bloodlines.”

For the tenth time, I looked at the picture of Alyssa Augusta on my computer screen and stared at the rebellious alpha daughter of the Lunar Northern Pack.

A brunette with striking green eyes that were often described as the deep forest. Eyes that could be as warm as spring leaves and as cold as glacial frost, some would say.

“Dine with her tonight in one of the pack’s best restaurants. Remember, she is an Alpha’s daughter, son, despite the scandals attached to her name. I assure you most of them are not true,” my father reminded me sternly.

Right. She belonged to the Augusta family, one of the oldest and most powerful werewolf bloodlines. What could I do other than agree? Even though the last thing I wanted was to be saddled with the spoiled alpha daughter. And to think that she was my fiancée was beyond insanity.

“All right.”

I hung up the phone as soon as my father finished listing what I should do to please her. I reluctantly studied the smiling beauty on my computer screen. She was beautiful, more than the average woman in the world. An alpha’s daughter, I thought grimly. I bet she was a spoiled one who thought no one could match up to their powerful lineage.

Well, she was in for a big surprise, I smiled to myself as I studied her photograph. Wait and see, alpha girl.

An hour later, the door of my office met the wall with a huge bang that startled me. It nearly shattered the framed picture hanging on the wall.

“I’m sorry, sir,” my secretary apologized quickly as she tried to remove the woman who had just barged into my office. “I tried to stop her but—”

“Are you Raymond Dantata?” the woman asked in perfect English, blue eyes flashing coolly in my direction. “I am Alyssa Maximus Augusta, your fiancée.”

I did not know who was more surprised by the brass announcement, me or my astonished secretary who was trailing the woman. As if I did not know the moment I stared at the eyes of hers who she was.

“Leave us,” I said curtly to my secretary, who was trying her best not to gawk at us. Once the door closed behind her, I stood from my chair and studied her fully. I frowned when I noticed her clothes. “Are you in mourning? Did a member of your family just die recently?”

It was her turn to scowl in my direction. She glanced at her prim coat dress and expensive knee-length boots. “No, sir. This is the way I dress usually.”

The way she dresses usually? Yeah, what a laugh. From what I saw on the internet, she liked bold colors in clothes. Very well, she wanted to play this cool and prim lady she is not? I would play her game.

“Forgive me for my misconception.”

I extended my hand.

Cold green eyes flashed back in my face with vengeance and ignored my offered hand. “You…”

So far I could not see the party girl in front of me, but more of an ice queen who was raised to be the perfect alpha daughter. She was every ounce a contradiction and I was sure she was hiding something from me which I would uncover. Soon.

So who was the real Alyssa Augusta? The woman who was the darling of the tabloids or this cool woman in my office?

“My father told me that my fiancé would pick me up at the airport but I have been waiting like an idiot for you to arrive,” she finally spoke again, sounding like it was my fault that she had been delayed in the airport terminal.

I sighed. It was not her fault that she was misinformed by her father, was it? “My apologies if you waited in the airport for quite long, Alyssa. May I call you Alyssa?”

A brief vulnerability flashed in those expressive eyes before she blinked it away. Then she said regally, “Yes. You can call me Alyssa.”

“Of course,” I mocked her prudish behavior. “Then you must call me Raymond. Since we are now officially an engaged couple.”

If she heard the mocking in my voice, she let it pass. But I never missed the stare that said she thought I had lost my mind. She had no idea, I thought silently. But I liked the way she said my given name. Many of my past mistresses tried so hard to put a nice accent in the way they pronounced my name.

Yet the alpha daughter had slid it off her tongue with a sensual sound.

I liked to hear it when she was on my bed.

Damn. Soon I was going to camp in my office.

Unwanted erection was not a nice accessory with the Armani suit, especially when dealing with Alyssa Augusta. Suddenly she looked at me as if I had forgotten something very important.

“Would you like a cup of coffee?”

She wrinkled her nose in a way that I found truly appealing. “No. Thank you. But I should be going. I believe you made a reservation for me to stay while I am here.”

Funny, I mused silently. When my father announced that he instructed my housekeeper to clean the guest room in my penthouse, I felt annoyed that I wanted to send my instant fiancée packing back to the Lunar Northern Pack as soon as possible. I valued my privacy very well. That was why no woman had ever slept in my penthouse.

Now the proud alpha daughter was expecting that I had arranged a separate place for her to stay while she was here. I was now filled with delight to tell this self-important woman that she would be staying with me. In my penthouse, that is.

What was a more effective way of uncovering her secrets than to keep her close? There was an old adage: keep your friends close and your enemies even closer.

I tried to look innocent. “Sorry. But your father might have also forgotten to tell you that you would be staying with me in my home.”

The shock on her face was priceless. I suddenly wanted to laugh. Clearly she would rather sleep in the cold streets of the Royal Pack than share lodging with me.

“You have got to be kidding,” she said stiffly. “My father never told me this kind of arrangement. And he will never allow it.”

“You are my fiancée, as you have said earlier. So people will not be shocked if you stay with me.” A devilish grin probably danced in her eyes right now but I did not care.

“But—”

“This is the Royal Pack,” I reasoned out, stalking forward to her. “Maybe in the Lunar North, the bride stays with her family until the day of the wedding. But here it is different. Modern.”