Austin placed his hand on my shoulder and held my gaze. “Let him do this, whatever comes after, we will deal with it together.”
Arthur walked in just then, his eyes narrowed as he took in the scene in front of him. “What did I miss?”
His brothers all looked down at his question. I guess no one was willing to tell him that his father was looking for a woman to have his child.
That wasn’t my problem. I had more things on my back now. I’ll have to live with the fact that my brother gave up his mate so that I could be with mine.
I didn’t want that kind of weight on my shoulders. I closed my eyes and thought of Eden’s innocent eyes. As her face flashed before my mind, my hands tightened into fists at my sides.
I came here for her and I didn’t want to leave without the assurance that I would be able to finally make her mine. But I never once thought that my brother would have to make a sacrifice for me, I was willing to sacrifice something …Anything but not my brother.
“Do we have a deal?” Gideon asked, growing impatient.
Lucas nodded in my direction, encouraging me to say yes. I shook my head at my brother, I couldn’t do this to him.
“It’s not your decision to make James.” He insisted as he took Gideon’s outstretched hand in his. “We have a deal.” He confirmed as they shook hands.
“It’s a pleasure doing business with you,” Gideon said. “now, the girl. I want her information before the end of this week. When you have it, send all of her information to me and I’ll supply my end of the deal.”
A week was not enough time to find a woman with the qualities that he wanted. That was another request that I didn’t want to fulfill. How could we give a girl to them? We had no idea how they would treat her after they took her in. I wanted to slam my head against the wall, these people were sick. I would never be able to forgive myself for this. It truly was like making a deal with the devil.
“Also,” he continued. “We will want Lucas back here by the end of the month. There is much to discuss about the wedding.”
I squeezed my temples; things were becoming worse by the second. My mind was racing with ways to somehow get Lucas out of this mess while also getting Eden away from the council.
“Well, it’s official now.” Gideon said when no one objected to his previous words. “Once you find the girl for me, I’ll send my sons along with some of my best fighters to aid you in your fight against the council and Hunter.”
Lucas reached forward and shook his hand once more. “Deal.”
“There is something that you must know. When I enter into a business deal with someone, it mustn’t be broken. Or I’ll see to it that everyone you care about suffers.” He threatened. In a matter of a split second, his entire demeanor changed to a ferocious beast.
So this was a glimpse of the real Gideon Blackner. He’d been keeping this side from us, was this how he treated all of his opponents?
“Well, that’s all for now.” He said in dismissal. Once more, his entire demeanor changed within a split second as his calm and carefree manner took the place of his seriousness. “If you men want to stay a while, you could-,”
He paused when a woman walked in with drinks in her hand. She had long black hair and green eyes similar to that of some of the men in the room.
“Men, meet my daughter freya.” He introduced her. “Your brother’s future wife.”
The girl’s eyes widened in horror at her father’s words. The drinks slipped from her hands and crashed to the floor. She looked from her father to the broken glass in the ground.
“I-I’m sorry, father.” She apologized.
“Come here,” he told her. “A maid can see about that later.”
The girl did as her father said and stood by his side. Her gaze went from Austin to Lucas and there was a hint of fear buried deep in her eyes as she studied him.
“Shake hands, you two.” Gideon encouraged. “You must grow to get accustomed to each other.”
Lucas looked uncomfortable as he shook her hand. It was safe to say that neither one of them were happy with the wedding.
“Are you sure that you want an outsider as her husband?” Arthur asked, clearly not happy about this either.
for once, I wanted a Blackner to keep on talking. If he could persuade his father that this was a bad idea, then maybe he would let Lucas go.
Gideon didn’t look happy with his son’s question. The glare that was sent his way was enough of an answer. no one, not his daughter, not his other sons, absolutely no one had anything else to say after that. It was quite obvious that they all feared the man, or maybe it was out of respect. I didn’t know much about their relationship and honestly, I wouldn’t have cared if Lucas wasn’t getting involved in this mess.
I was about to say something when the sound of a woman screaming someone’s name caught my attention. The Blackners all looked at each other with a knowing look. Whatever it was, they seemed to be used to it.
“That’s Avery for sure,” one of Gideon’s other son said. “I think she’s giving her trainer some trouble again.”
As soon as he said those words, a girl came skating in with something like modernized white roller skates attached to her feet. Lucas reached forward and pulled her into his arms, preventing her from crashing into the glass wall. The girl’s long blond hair was flowing all around her as my brother grabbed onto the desk behind of him in order to regain his balance. Other than the sound of the desk scraping against the floor as Lucas pressed down more onto it, there was complete silence as everyone watched the exchange between them.
“Careful there,” Lucas said with a grin. “That looked like fun.” He admitted as he smiled down at her face that was still covered with her hair. She made a small embarrassed laugh as he slowly let go of her.
She turned to hold onto the desk as well before moving the hair from in front of her face.
“Thank yo-,” her voice trailed off as her eyes fell on Lucas for the first time. Her lips parted and even Lucas looked completely dumbstruck as he took in her features. More silence thickened the air as Gideon’s mouth tightened into a thin line.
Something wasn’t right here…
“Avery!” Gideon shouted, catching her attention. “How many times do I tell you about these stupid activities that mess up all of my business meetings.”
She looked startled by her father’s outburst as her grip on the desk tightened.
“I’m sorry father,” she apologized. “It won’t happen again.”
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