Read Online The Road to Redemption by Nicky Charles - Free Book Online

are temporarily incapacitated
... No. Not a Beta … Are there any precedents? … Uh huh … Yeah ...
Okay. Get back to me as soon as you can.”
    He ended the
call and appeared about to make another, when she quipped lightly.
“Must be a pretty important call if you don’t even notice that I’m
standing right behind you.”
    Kane gave a
slight jolt and turned. “Elise!”
    Obviously he’d
been so engrossed in his conversation that he really hadn’t
registered her presence. It was a bit demoralizing.
    Elise stepped
into the room and trailed her hand lightly over the engraved wooden
post that edged the footboard of the bed. She glanced at her mate
out of the corner of her eye and gave a wistful smile. “There was a
time when I’d never have been able to sneak past your radar. You’d
have pounced and had me pinned to the bed within seconds of
entering the room.”
    “Sorry. I
was…” He held up the phone and shrugged smiling ruefully.
    “I know.” She
returned his smile, but it was forced. Kane had promised to make
this a ‘work free’ getaway. She parroted his all too frequent
excuse. “You had a call you had to make. It couldn’t wait. It was
only supposed to take a minute, but it turned out it was more
complicated than planned.”
    “Yeah.” At
least he looked uncomfortable making the admission. “The first one
was from Damien. He had some information about Chicago—”
    “The first one?”
    He ignored her
indignant statement. “And I wanted to get the ball rolling. I have
John doing some research for me so that when we get back home I can
start to act on the takeover.”
    “And, of
course, you couldn’t have done that later.” She resisted the urge
to put her hands on her hips, but couldn’t keep her irritation from
showing in her voice. “There is a celebration happening
downstairs. Remember? Ryne and Mel had their bonding ceremony this
morning? You officiated over it?”
    His mouth
tightened. “Sarcasm doesn’t become you, Elise.”
    “And being
abandoned at a party does?” She could feel the tension building
inside her. This had happened so many times recently, Kane getting
lost in pack business and forgetting his family obligations. “Kane,
you promised me…”
    He opened his
mouth then snapped it shut. Taking a deep breath, he visibly forced
himself to relax. “I know. I know.” Keeping his eyes on her, he
walked over to her and, placing his hands on her shoulders, he gave
her a gentle shake then pressed a kiss to her forehead. “But I’m
doing this for us. If you want us to have more time together—”
    “If I want. What about you? Don’t you want more time together?” She
stepped back and tilted her head so she could see his face.
    He was
frowning at her comment, his mouth flattened into a firm line. At
first, he seemed about to say something cutting in return but
stopped himself. His features smoothed into a conciliatory
expression. “Of course, I do. I chose my words poorly.” Kane pulled
her close and wrapped his arms around her, tucking her head under
his chin. “If we want more time together, then a certain
amount of preparatory work has to be done. We’ve discussed
this.”
    His tone was
calm and reasonable, almost overly patient as if he were talking to
a recalcitrant child.
    She bit back
the bubble of resentment that welled within her. A fight wasn’t
what she was looking for today. There’d been too many of those
recently. Maybe she was being unreasonable. After all, he hadn’t
been gone that long. And he was the Alpha…
    “I know.”
Elise whispered the words into his chest feeling like she was being
a shrew. He’d explained, when the idea first came to him, that
taking over the Chicago pack would be work, that he was doing it
for her, for their family. And she believed him…mostly. When it was
all over, he’d have more time. He’d promised, and Kane Sinclair was
a man of his word. Slowly, she ran her hand over his broad chest,
feeling his warmth and