Lawful Mates - Liam Kingsley Page 0,13

going to have to deal with me for the time being. From now on, any questions you have for Senator Bates need to go through me. I’ll be present for any further questioning.”

Great. Just fucking great.

How the hell had it come to this? Now I was going to be forced into dealing with this asshole just to get my job done? My wolf settled a bit at the thought, and I grimaced. Of course he liked the idea of spending more time around Percy. Well, I’d make a point of those meetings being as infrequent as possible.

“Is there anything else, or are we done here?” I asked, exhausted from the internal battle with my wolf and from the conflicting feelings Percy seemed to spark in me.

“Just watch that you don’t overstep your boundaries, and we won’t have to take legal action,” he said, tapping the file folder as a reminder of the senator’s threats.

I crossed my arms over my chest and angled my head toward the door. “You can show yourself out.”

Percy narrowed his eyes and studied my face, my posture, and then he turned on his heel and stalked out of my office. Just in time because that quick perusal had my body heating up in response.

“Fuck,” I growled when I heard the outer door of the office slam shut. I wanted to throw something, anything, to take out my frustration. But all I had was my coffee mug, and I needed the caffeine too much. I settled for pacing the office.

How the hell had this happened? Percy of all people was working for the very man I knew in my gut was guilty? Senator Bates was vile. How he hadn’t been voted out of office was beyond me.

My stomach twisted, and I felt nauseous. This was another layer of attestation that Percy and I didn’t belong together. How could my fated mate represent such a horrible person? We were obviously complete opposites. My wolf just had to be mistaken.

But when he stood across from me in the office, I’d felt that strange pull I’d felt the first time I met him. It was like everything in me was drawn to him on some subconscious level.

No. Just no. It couldn’t be. If I’d had my doubts before, today was confirmation. I could never be with a person like Percy.

And if that meant that I would spend the rest of my life without my fated mate, then so be it.

5

Percy

“This is going to be so much fun!” Amy practically bounced on her seat in my car, her face lighting up as we pulled into the parking lot of the park.

While I hadn’t been able to get away from work last weekend—especially after that blowup with Easton—I’d made a point of taking this weekend off to follow through on my promise to spend more time with Amy. I couldn’t be more glad that I had.

“Looks like this is the hottest place in town on a Saturday morning,” I commented. At least if you were a kid. The playground was swarming with kids around Amy’s age.

She nodded. “Yeah, a bunch of my friends said they’d also come today!” She glanced at me with wide eyes and worried her bottom lip with her teeth. “I hope that’s okay.”

“Of course it is.” I ruffled her hair and laughed. “Today is all about you. Whatever you want to do.”

Amy grinned, showing off the gap where her silver capped tooth had fallen out, and threw her arms around me once I’d parked my car. “You’re the best, Uncle Percy!” And then she was gone, hopping out of the car and running toward the playground, calling out for her friends.

I smiled and followed her at a slower pace. I’d needed this kind of break more than I realized. Work was stressing me the fuck out, and it was nice to just relax for a change. How nice it must be for these kids to have no more worries in the world than who was going to be “it” in the first round of tag.

I found a seat on a bench at the edge of the playground, trying to let go of the stress of the week, but I found it hard not to think about the Bates case even in my off hours. That was how it had been from the start.

This past week I’d spend a lot of time working with the senator’s manager on how to handle the press. They had done an amazing job