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What game was she involved in here? Definitely one he kneanted no part of, but one he knew had the potential to destroy Ria

Alaiya was a perceptive creature She was as cold and calculating as Jonas in h the director of Breed Affairs didn’t have the cold-blooded maliciousness Alaiya possessed

He rubbed a heavy strand of Ria’s hair between his fingers as he considered this problem His Ria She was confident, powerful, a force to be reckoned hen it ca threads of deception She was the best he had ever seen, even within the Breed community

It was the woman she hid that concerned him The one he could see in her, feel in her, the one she refused to release That woman would be wild, powerful, a mate who could endure the years it see allowed

She kept that part of herself vanquished, refused it freedom just as Mercury had refused his beast freedom Because a woman’s confidence was so easily shattered That wo the one last part of herself that gave her strength

She was a contradiction, there was no doubt The woic and business sense of the woman faced the world The woed to wear sexy dresses and high heels To be vivid and wild

Because vivid and wild drew attention They ossip, ofmore than her name notched into their bedpost

And Ria couldn’t afford that shame, that hurt Just as she couldn’t afford to appear to be hly upon

There it was He frowned at the thought Ria couldn’t afford to becoe she had in her job Wallflowers faded a the crowd No one noticed them No one feared them, she had told hie One the Leo approved of, needed She was a tool he used quite effectively And the Vanderales were the only enduring thing in Ria’s life

She feared losing that one certainty The family that had saved her They hadn’t raised her, but they had overseen her raising They had educated her They eht the powerful family felt sorry for

The inner woman had no confidence in herself, in her ability to command the attention and power Mercury kneas her due

He growled at the thought of it, his eyes narrowing into the dusky light of the room as he considered each avenue open for him to proceed

He was her mate It was his job to protect her, to assure her security, her happiness

She was never going to believe he had mated her That part of her that refused to allow her to accept anything as her oould always pull back Because theheat hadn’t made itself fully known until Alaiya’s appearance

He couldn’t fully blame her, and yet he did And he knehen she awoke, the fury of a wo to her would blaze as high and as hot as theheat