Chương 5: Chapter 5: You’d Better Stay Away From Him
“Do you want to explain why this jerk smells like you?” Jackson asked, pointing a finger at Cade. “And why do you smell like him?”
Fiona sucked in a deep breath. She didn’t owe him anything. It wasn’t even noon yet. She’d been up late... Her body began to heat up at the recollection. Nope. She wasn’t doing this. Not with Jackson.
“I don’t owe anything to you,” Fiona told him. “Like I said, I’m breaking off this engagement one way or another. Now get lost.”
Fiona grabbed Cade’s hand and began to drag him down the hall, away from her father’s office. She left Jackson standing there with his stupid frowning face and his stupid khaki pants. He had been so frustrating to her lately.
The two of them were decent friends for a couple of years before her father had announced his plan to have them engaged.
Fiona should have seen it coming because Jackson was popping up everywhere her father was and he started smiling at her in a strange way, like he knew something that she didn’t know.
But since then, since she’d found out her father was trying to marry her off to some rich dude— even if he was a shifter —Fiona knew that Jackson was just a social climber trying to make it to the top rung of the ladder.
Fiona didn’t care about any of that. Even though she was enjoying the last jaunt of her youthful years, she did want to find love someday. But she wanted to find it in her own time with her soulmate, not someone her father was trying to pair her off with.
“Uh, Fiona, I’m sorry but I do intend to meet with Alpha Francois soon and you’re taking me in the opposite direction...” Cade said, pulling on Fiona’s arm.
She stopped in her tracks and spun around to look at him. She didn’t know what he wanted with her father, but she just wanted to get him far away from Jackson before anything too dramatic happened.
“He’s not seeing anyone right now,” she said, not sure if it was a lie or not. “Plus you can’t see him like this.”
She flattened the already smooth collar of his shirt and combed her fingertips through the bangs of his brown hair. A flash of the night before popped into her mind. She squeezed her eyes shut and tried to focus.
“But that big guy was going to see if Alpha Francois was available,” Cade said. His eyes were searching hers when she opened her eyelids. He was standing closer than she realized and her breath caught in her throat.
“You should really try to make an appointment. My dad really doesn’t like surprises,” she whispered.
Cade flashed a quick smile. “Are you sure it’s not just because you don’t want me to meet your dad yet?”
Fiona’s vision became a bit foggy, and she felt light-headed. She sighed a long breath. “You can’t because you still smell like me..And he really REALLY doesn’t like those kinds of surprises...”
Cade chuckled and rested his hand on her hip. “So what am I supposed to do? I’m already here.”
“You should leave,” Fiona said. “I’m about to go talk to him so I’ll make an appointment for you but... you should go for now.”
“Okay,” Cade said plainly. “I’ll go if you want me to.”
Fiona gritted her teeth together and pressed Cade against the wall. “I don’t WANT you to leave, but you still need to...”
Cade nodded but pressed his hand into the small of her back and leaned down to kiss her slowly. “I was surprised to see you, but I’m glad I did,” he said seductively.
She kissed him back, her body beginning to feel weightless. But she heard a door shut down the hall and she pulled away. “Come see me tonight,” she demanded before sending him away.
Cade left and Fiona went back towards her father’s office. Grissom, a fellow pack member, met her in the hall and she explained that she’d sent Cade away.
Grissom told her that was for the best because Jackson had already snuck in there and was talking to Alpha Francois about the engagement.
That sucked, Fiona thought. If she couldn’t get to her father before Jackson, it’d be harder to convince him to end the engagement. She would need to start with plan B and try to work from there.
Instead of going to talk to her father, she went downstairs where her mother resided.
***
“Fiona, you know as well as I do that this marriage is essential for the continuation of our pack,” Margaret Lewis said curtly. Even though her mother was separated from her father, she’d kept their last name and she’s managed to maintain the respect of the other members of the pack.
“Mom, it really doesn’t matter. If this is purely a money thing, then that’s an even better reason for me to not get involved. Money doesn’t solve problems and we’ve already got enough money, so why do we need to marry me off to a rich dude?” Fiona asked bluntly.
Sometimes when she spoke to her mother she reverted back to her groaning teenager ways.
Margaret pursed her lips and shook her head. “I really can’t see what the problem is. Jackson is a fine guy. He’s good-looking. He’s charming–”
“That’s because he’s a manipulative narcissist.”
“And he has proven that he’ll be a good Alpha. He’s got the leadership skills,” Fiona’s mother continued without skipping a beat.
Fiona grunted. All she’d wanted was for her mother to see eye to eye with her. She'd been married off to a rich guy she didn’t love as a way for her poor family to reach some kind of security, but my mother’s marriage was always devoid of love.
Fiona didn’t want that for herself. She’d hoped her mother’s personal experiences would sway her, but apparently not.
She’d been planning for a while to try and get her parents to retract the deal they’d made with Jackson. But now that she’d met Cade, it seemed even more unfair that she wouldn’t have the opportunity to find someone who truly loved her.
She might have just met Cade the night before, but an almost five-hour talk followed by a three-hour love-making session had been enough to make her feel a lot of things for him that she’d never felt for anyone else before.
Margaret was babbling about how life was unfair and sometimes you had to do things you didn’t want to do for the betterment of your family, but Fiona was only half listening.
Her stomach was beginning to churn uneasily at the thought of having to stop seeing Cade just because she was being married off to the stupid brute Jackson.
Then it hit her. Maybe there was a way to appeal to her mother that she hadn’t had access to before. After all, until the night before, she hadn’t known Cade existed.
“What if I told you that I met someone else?” Fiona said, staring directly into her mother’s hard gray eyes. “What if I told you that I actually really like him and I might want to start a relationship with him? Shouldn’t I get that chance to find out if he could make me happier than I am when I’m forced to be with Jackson?”
Her mother’s mouth was pressed into the flatted line, her eyes were cold and unamused. “What are you talking about?”
She was going to have to milk this if she was going to convince her mother. It shouldn’t be hard to do since Fiona was already falling for Cade and the thought of him made her heart want to explode in the best way.
“I met someone,” Fiona said confidently. She let herself show a small, genuine smile. “He’s amazing... He’s so funny and confident, and brave...”
Margaret raised an eyebrow as if she were unsure whether to show disdain or placid interest. It was difficult to get much emotion out of that woman most days. A loveless marriage of nearly thirty years would do that to someone.
“Who is this boy? Do I know him?”
Fiona let out a relieved sigh. That was good. Her mother was at least asking questions instead of shooting her down right away. “No. You wouldn’t know him. He’s from out of town... But his name is Cade, Cade Knight.”
Her mother visibly flinched at the sound of his name. Her eyes widened as if in fear, but her fear quickly turned into a scowl of hatred.
“No. Absolutely not,” Margaret bit at her daughter. “You are never to meet this boy again. You must stay away from him AND his family.”
Fiona was taken aback. She was so bewildered by her mother’s response. Why would she ask for the identity of Fiona’s love interest if she was going to immediately shoot him down? And what was with that look on her face?
“Mom, but you don’t even know–”
“No!” Margaret shouted. She stood up quickly and clenched her fists at her sides. “Never see him again. I’m warning you. That boy’s nothing but trouble.”
With that, Margaret stormed out of the room and left her daughter sitting alone on the club couch with a stunned expression glued to her face.
Margaret’s furious reaction made Fiona wonder: what was the truth behind the seemingly innocent man that she’d been entangled with?
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