Chapter 10

• Cullen tapped his pen on his desk with annoyance. "Jenna, I'm not going to deal with this right now. But I want you to think about what you just said to me and how exactly it would affect the legitimacy of your heirs. Or more accurately, your father's heirs. He's the reason we're both in this. If you can't handle the situation then you need to find a different patsy for your needs. Whatever they may be. I'm just the poor schlep who owed your dad too much to say no. This is how it is. You either cope or don't go through with it. Now, go home. Decide. I'll talk with you later this week." His glare held all the vehemence that was missing from his voice.
• Jenna realized all too suddenly that she was about to get stuck in a forcibly monogamous relationship with a lycan who really wasn't the least bit interested in anything other than repaying her father and just intelligent enough to make her plans difficult. Her father underestimated her. He believed that she was weak because she wasn't a fighter. But she wasn't as dense as he thought. What she needed was an alpha without a brain and who she could manipulate. A lycan strong enough to hold the wolves at bay but weak minded enough to let her lead. She was becoming increasingly more concerned that Cullen wasn't going to be appropriate for her needs. He was too clever. At the same time if she let him unite the packs and then got rid of him then the Tairneach line would run twice the territory her father had. Maybe then her father would see what she was worth. That is if the old man didn't die before she could finish.
• Cullen watched her eyes and could see the flashes of emotion. Whatever her thought process was, he didn't like the look of it. He waited for her to refocus on him. He didn't trust her. Brennus's only daughter and she was becoming more and more like her mother. As Cullen watched Jenna he remembered what Brennus had said about her. She needed a strong hand. Brennus had implied that he would prefer than any power over the Tairneach pack be passed directly from Cullen to Cullen's choice of an heir and bypass his daughter completely, as long as the child was born from Jenna.