A Savage Debt (The Beholden Duet #1) - Zoey Ellis Page 0,32
well know, arranged marriages are between fated mates, which your father and I are. Even if we weren’t royalty, we would be compatible.”
“And it’s the same with me and Ryden?”
“Absolutely,” her mother said firmly. “Arranged marriages are planned and decided through an extensive amount of consideration and research. Ryden wouldn’t have been chosen if he wasn’t the perfect Alpha male for you.”
“And there’s no mistake about that?” Ana asked, thinking about the many times she purred for the outlaw.
“No.” Her mother was resolute. “Mistakes might be made if we’re talking about the whole population of Allandis, or commoners who don’t have access to our scholars who study this kind of thing. But it’s never wrong for royalty.”
“Then what I will experience with Ryden will be better.”
The queen smiled and her body seemed to relax. “I can guarantee it will be,” she confirmed. “You know that you at least have that to look forward to. It’s a reason to push through tonight and tomorrow night.”
A weight lifted off Ana’s chest. Her compulsion to purr must have been because she was having sex for the first time. That was all it probably was. “Why did you say earlier about him being an Alpha and me being an Omega sexually? What did you mean?”
The queen leaned forward on the table. “The connection between Alpha and Omega can potentially be very strong once both submit to it. You may feel you are at the mercy of your body with him, but in some respects, so is he. You could have used that to your advantage, but….” She offered a soft smile. “It was unfair of me to expect you to know that.”
“I don’t know how I would do that anyway,” Ana said. “He was completely in control the whole time.”
“Probably because he is more sexually experienced. But now you have experienced being with him, you can try to exert your own will on him, and yourself.”
Ana frowned at her mother. “In what way?”
“Start with something small. Like, this evening commit yourself to withholding two things only, things that you readily did last night that you don’t want to do again. If you succeed, then you know that by tomorrow night you will be ready to try something else, hopefully something that will force him to reveal something to you that he never planned to.”
“What if he’s angry about it?”
Mother inclined her head. “That is where it becomes tricky and dangerous, Ana. I don’t want you to provoke him more than necessary, but if you choose two things he didn’t ask you to do, then he either won’t notice or care, or he will tell you to do it, in which case that puts you in the position of power. In any case, it will be good discipline for you.”
That seemed like something she could try, and better than what she’d been hoping to find in the documents about negotiation. Of course, Maddoc probably couldn’t really be negotiated with, but she needed techniques and methods to try for herself—to stop herself from being so affected by him.
“And you have to stop thinking of him like some entity that is magical or special,” the queen added. “He is a man. He may be somewhat different to other men in a lot of ways, more base and animalistic, but he is still just a man. Once you force yourself to see that, it will help you to be able to think clearer when you’re in his presence.”
Ana smiled. That was exactly what she needed to hear. “That will definitely help, Mother. Thank you.”
“You are very welcome, my beautiful daughter,” the queen said smiling. She leaned forward and drew Ana into another hug. “You are, of course, welcome to stay here as long as you wish, but you should really try to get some sleep so you are not too tired to make your best efforts tonight.”
Ana nodded. She wasn’t sure there was much she could learn from what she was reading. As fascinating as it was, it wasn’t helping her. Mother’s suggestion was much better.
After her mother left, she returned all of the books and files and collected everything she could find about Maddoc. She’d read them all before, but that was when she was viewing him as a faceless grandiose menace she’d never seen or met. But Mother was right—he was just a man. Rereading the documents with that in mind might help her do what Mother suggested. She desperately wanted to stop purring for him.