The Billionaire Ritual (2 page)

“Then it is agreed,” Robert said. Cameron heard sadness in his voice.

After the meeting was done, a few of the council members, those who weren’t afraid to have their identities known, congregated in the hall. Cameron stayed and mingled, being sure to let them know there were no hard feelings. After all, if he survived, one day he would be among them - or else their successors. And wolves had long memories.

Cameron spotted his father in the crowd chatting amiably with another member, and went over to greet him. Upon seeing his approach, the other council member bowed politely to Cameron and dismissed himself.

“My son, I am sorry for this. It is my fault,” his father said it in a low voice, but not a whisper. Whispers draw attention; his father had taught him long ago.

“Not so, father. This was bound to happen, eventually. The business and social affairs of the human side of our lives have taken too much precedence. We’ve ruled unchallenged for too long, and have grown complacent. I think we both saw this coming, but thought we had more time.”

“Agreed, and perhaps normally we would’ve. But the timing of your mate selection is too good an excuse to challenge to pass up. Speaking of which, I have found someone you should meet.” His father waved his hand, and a pretty young she wolf walked over. She was wearing the ceremonial robes of the house of Font, and she let her wolf snout show through. Although he wondered what she looked like in human form, he found the combination of features to be bold and lovely. More importantly, it tugged at the wolf part of him more than the human, which he was sure had been calculated. He wondered vaguely about whose idea it had been: hers or Cameron’s fathers.

“I am Sheila of the House of Font. We would like you to know that our house lends its support in these trying times.
”

She curtsied slightly in respect, meeting Cameron’s
eyes intently. In the circumstances, the importance of their introduction was clear. Drake, Cameron’s father, intended to choose a woman for him - in one stroke staving off advances from other houses and solidifying their position as a powerful political union. Sheila was beautiful. Probably she was smart as well. Drake would be careful to choose someone who could help him navigate the current political climate. For his own part, Cameron thought Sheila was attractive, and he was sure that she would make a fine wife. For someone.

And that was just it. Cameron couldn’t give his feelings to this girl. He’d already given them to someone else.
Almost everyone knows that wolves mate for life, but what few know is that this fact is based on a deeper truth. Wolves
choose
for life. After a wolf chooses and a she-wolf accepts, mating is merely a formality. When courting, a wolf may look over his options as much as he likes. Things were far more liberal now, and a wolves and she-wolves could even choose to have sexual affairs - though this certainly came with its own set of problems.

The point was: Cameron had chosen. His heart belonged to a mousy little office employee whose cubicle had, over a year, gradually become the highlight of his day. He’d had a strict policy of avoiding fraternization with his employees - at least of the casual type. Drake had sent his son in to clean up just such a situation, af
ter all.

But once he realized she was mating ceremony material, once he’d confirmed through the little things - a slight shift in her smell here, a lustful glance in his direction when she thought he wasn’t looking there - he knew she was the one. Time was of the essence, details such as marriage papers might be relevant on the human side of things, but carried very little weight with wolves. In fact, a marriage that had been recognized by every institution - religious, human, or even shape-shifter - meant little to one whose consummation had been seen or heard by witnesses, or proven by children. In fact, a marriage ceremony did not begin until after the ceremony of witnessing, and did not technically end until the wife was pregnant. These were hurdles that would slow him further, as his woman of interest was fully human. Now he had a third barrier: his father’s choice of bride. Cameron smiled politely and chatted with the two of them as he searched fervently in his mind for any flaw, any reason why
the union of him and Sheila was less than perfect and wise. He couldn’t. When Sheila finally and, it seemed, reluctantly excused herself, Cameron was left without anything to say to his father that wouldn’t make matters worse. At best, his father would laugh, carefully and patronizingly explaining to Cameron why marrying a human woman would be political suicide given the current state of affairs, even if it did avoid the challenge with Robert. At worst, finding that his son would not make his favored decision while the human woman lived, he would have her killed.

But Cameron did not despair. He was crafty, and his father had often said that he wondered if there wasn’t more of his mother, a fox shifter, than wolf in him. All that mattered was that he consummated a marriage in the next five days. If he could do so with Lynn in front of witnesses, it would be done.
His father’s objections wouldn’t matter. Nor would anyone else’s.

Cameron said his goodbyes, being sure not to confirm or deny his interest in Sheila. His father’s eyes had narrowed just before Cameron had turned away. They seemed to say: I know you’re plotting, son. Have a care.

Cameron’s mind buzzed on the way home. He was grateful that he had chosen a ride in his limo over driving himself. Now he was free to sort things out in peace without having to focus on the road home.

He had taken his time finding a mate, and now it was costing him. Even after he’d realized he wanted Lynn for his own, he had continued to put things off, wanting everything to happen on his terms and in his time. He knew the deadline was coming, but had never in a million years expected anyone to challenge him - especially not Robert. But, there it was and here he was.

Cameron had been with enough human women to know that convincing her to mate in front of others was impossible without at least being sexually intimate with her, alone. He had planned for the retreat to be the time for this sort of courting, but the timeline had been moved up. He loosened his tie and pulled out his phone. It was time to make plans.

When the alarm rang, Lynn groggily considered calling in sick. Today, all those that were going to the retreat had to meet their work deadlines early, not to mention that after her late day she’d have to come home to pack for the next mornings’ trip out to the middle of nowhere. At five a.m.  As she dragged herself out of the warm confines of her comforter and sheets, she wondered how in the hell she had gotten dragged into the retreat. She brightened when she remembered that it was at the behest of one Cameron Caine, a man she’d been too shy to utter more than two words to but yearned for desperately. Now there was the faintest sliver of a hope that having his children was not a complete and utter fantasy. Lynn chuckled to herself. She called it being ‘girl crazy’ when she got like this, thinking of having a man’s baby. In her defense she had only experienced it herself twice, now and in the twelve grade with Bobby Stoker. However, she’d seen the phenomenon in her girl friends time and again.

When she arrived at the office her supervisor, Maxine, was waiting outside her cubicle. Before Lynn could say anything, Maxine explained:

“The Boss wants to see you in his office immediately,” she said.

Lynn was stunned. She had never been called in for anything. She checked her watch once more. No, she was on time.

“What is, Max?” She asked, genuinely afraid.

“I don’t know. He didn’t seem angry, but that might change if you keep him waiting. Better head over. Good luck, sweetie.”

Maxine waddled off. Lynn paused a moment, gathering her bearings. Apparently, she’d gone from having babies to getting fired in only a few days. Lynn walked over to the office in a daze. Peering over, a few of her colleagues pretended not to see her. However, she could feel their wary stares on her back as she approached the dragon’s den. She had the right idea, just the wrong animal.

Taking a moment outside of the door to take a breath, she straightened and knocked. She’d done nothing wrong, and if she was being hung out to dry, she’d just have to find more work. Job hunting was never fun, but at least now she had a solid resume and plenty of references.

She knocked twice.

“Come in,” boomed a voice, young but commanding and heavy.

She opened the door to find Cameron prowling the room moving papers to various stacks. He spoke into a Bluetooth head set.

“David, I want the orders ready by the middle of next week….Listen, I’ve got to go. And David? No mistakes this time.” He hung up, looking at her and smiling. Normally he was absolutely intimidating. But he was sitting there with a five o’clock shadow and
mussed hair. He’d been pulling an all-nighter for some reason.

“Mr. Caine? You asked for me?”

“Yes, Lynn. Call me Cameron, by the way,” he said, smiling brightly.

Okay. So far so good. It doesn’t look like he intends to fire me, anyway.

“I’m sorry about this mess,” he continued, as if she were some honored guest. “I’ve got to get more work done than I had previously imagined. So my time is open for the retreat,” he said, as if that explained it all.

“I guess preparing for a vacation can be stressful,” she said, smiling. He laughed a little too loudly, but with genuine mirth.

“Ha! It can. Listen, I think this evening I could do with a vacation from my vacation prep. Any chance you’d like to join me for a few cocktails?”

Lynn froze. Never mind how odd it was to be asked out by her boss, she was being asked during work hours.

“I know this is inappropriate, but I thought it was even less appropriate to call you out of the blue.”

There was another pause while Lynn stared at him, wide eyed.
Have I miscalculated her interest?

“Uh…If you’re not interested, we could pretend like this never happened. I just --“

“Yes!” Lynn blurted out, a little embarrassed at how quickly and enthusiastically she had accepted - even in the current circumstances. Cameron seemed to relax immediately.

“Good. Good. I’ll call you this evening. Don’t worry, I’ll clean up first,” he said, sm
iling. Lynn smiled back.

Later that evening the two met at a cocktail bar downtown for drinks. Lynn wore a simple pink evening gown, and Cameron dressed in a suit and bowtie. He normally wore ties, so it was nice to see him change it up a little. He had picked her up from her house, and the two had settled into talking casually surprisingly naturally. Cameron was a completely different person outside of work, she found. Although, she supposed, it was possible that she just didn’t really know him at all and had made many assumptions.

The bar was an up
scale affair at the top of some building or another. Lynn was unsurprised to find that she’d never heard of it. After leaving his car with the valet, they took the elevator to the bar.

Lynn tried not to seem like a bumpkin, but couldn’t help smiling at the view as they entered the bar. It was a beautiful wooden affair with track lighting and glass doors leading out onto a wide patio with an open view of the city.
Opting to sit outside, Lynn leaned onto the rail and watched the sun set as Cameron went to get their drinks.

They sipped their cocktails. Cameron had told her the name of hers, but she didn’t remember it. When she did go out, it was usually one of the same few drinks she ordered - or beer. Frankly, with the way her work schedule was, she rarely felt like doing anything but resting on weekends. After the night had passed on, and they had each gotten a few drinks into them, Cameron said:

“So I have to admit, there was a reason I asked you out Lynn?”

“Oh really?” Lynn asked playfully, genuinely curious.

“Yes, really,” Cameron said, smiling intently. He waited, letting the silence draw out as he stared into her eyes. When she couldn’t take the tension anymore, she looked away.

“And what might that be,” she asked, forcing herself to look back at him. Scared and exhilarated at the same time.

“I’ve noticed you looking at me in the office,” he said.

A jolt ran through her. There it was again. That animal gleam, as if he saw and read her every detail.

“Well, you
are
the boss. Everyone is looking when you walk in,” she said, wondering if he would believe her. Hoping he didn’t. Cameron merely chuckled.

“You would think that was the case, but mostly it’s just the opposite. People pretend not to notice me. They sneak one initial glance,
and then pretend like they’ve been caught working. But not you. This may sound presumptuous, but I know that you aren’t the only female in the office to desire me,” he said, teasingly.

She blushed, embarrassed. He might be her boss, but just who did he think he was?

“And who says I like you?” she said, defiantly. Cameron’s smile faded slightly.

“I apologize. Don’t get me wrong, I’m interested too. I said that only to explain part of the reason why,” he said. She was dizzy a moment, and it wasn’t just the alcohol.
But never mind that. What was the reason?”

“Alright, I’ll bite,” she said, trying to seem mildly intrigued. “Why?”