Chapter 143
"Henry, I-I can't take it anymore!"
He frowned. "Isabelle, I need you to be more specific. What on earth is the problem?"
"Everything!" she bawled, squeezing her fingers almost painfully into his thick, lavish blazer, but he hardly flinched at the sensation. "I feel like everyone hates me! Like I don't have a place here anymore!" "Don't be ridiculous. This is your home."
"It is!" she repeated, impassioned, fervent, as she abruptly pulled away to face him. "I know it is! But she's pushing me out and taking everything away from me!" "Who?" he questioned sternly. "If any of the omegas-"
"That witch your brother is infatuated with!" Isabelle spat, her blue eyes almost glowing as her fists balled at her mate's chest. Wait...
Xaden's girl?
At that, Henry resisted the urge to roll his eyes. "Her again?" he questioned, exasperated, his arms beginning to fall ever so slightly. "What has she done this time?"
Isabelle didn't seem to catch the curt tone in his voice. She was too busy pulling away so she could continue pacing around the
room.
"What hasn't she done?" she countered with a scoff, wiping angrily at her wet cheeks. "Now she's somehow hooked her claws into my own father-like she needs the extra attention!"Belonging to NôvelDrama.Org.
Henry bit the inside of his cheek, shifting his weight as he stood. "She's... stealing your dad?"
"He's never even held a conversation with her in all the years we've known her, and all of a sudden, now that she's at the palace, he wants to know everything about her! It-It's like she's emitting a pheromone that seduces every single wolf she comes across!"Please visit Jobnlb.com and search the book title to read the entire book for free. Was this really what she'd thrown herself at him for? To whine about this girl?
"... Don't you think it's much more reasonable to think he's just trying to be welcoming?" he suggested. The thought of Maeve, timid and innocent, scheming behind everyone's backs almost made him snort. "As if she's capable of such deception." She frowned at him. "You're not taking this seriously."
"Why should I? It's laughable, is what it is. I mean, honestly-she's no one special. Just a girl my brother was reckless enough to knock up. Your father probably pities her more than anything."
Isabelle's face twisted with displeasure.
"You just don't get it!" she shouted, and before Henry could even consider saying something in response, she stormed out of the room.
And, at that moment, Henry found himself muttering a question Isabelle had repeated many a time before. One he meant not in anger, but rather from confusion because he couldn't seem to wrap his mind around it, no matter how often he was confronted by it. "What is the big deal with this girl?"
"And where are you going at this hour?"
Burton held back a sigh, peering behind him in the gold-framed mirror of his en-suite bathroom.
The kingdom was shrouded with the glow of the sunset, and he was in the middle of getting ready for tonight-for what was perhaps one of the most crucial dinners in his entire life-when his wife appeared, wearing a black floor-length nightgown and looking terribly cross. They'd hardly spoken to each other since their last little spat, since all they seemed to do nowadays was quarrel.
Unless it pertained to the pack, she seemed to want nothing to do with him.
But nothing could hide that inquisitive glint in her sharp amber eyes.
"I'm having dinner at Dawnguard Pride tonight," he said, buttoning up his black, silk dress shirt. "So, don't bother waiting for me."
Victoria's arms crossed over her chest. "Eager to meet with your business partner?"
He pressed his lips together in a tense line. As far as he was concerned, she was completely unaware of the details of his dealings with Kenneth, and he was determined to keep it that way.
This was his mess, and he needed to clean it from his hands as seamlessly as possible.
"For your information," Burton muttered, "Maeve and Prince Xaden will be there, too. Kenneth intends to welcome her to high society."
"He what?"
In an instant, she was at his side, her gaze penetrating deeply into the side of his head, although he did nothing to acknowledge her. He continued to fasten the buttons, one by one, before slowly smoothing his hands over the fabric on his chest.