Leader of the Pack by Leighann Phoenix Read Free Book Online

pack be passed directly from Cullen to Cullen’s choice of an heir and bypass his daughter completely, as long as the child was born from Jenna.
    Cullen had been there when Jenna’s mother had been tried for attempting to kill Brennus. The man had put her to death and then coddled his infant daughter. He had loved Jenna’s mother so deeply that he had put up with her attempts to kill him until it threatened to disrupt the pack. Brennus was so broken by what had happened that he had not touched another woman since her sentencing. Cullen could look back at it all and see Brennus’ choices with his mate as being the beginning of his downfall. To compensate for what had happened with her mother Brennus doted on Jenna. Cullen was torn between feeling sorry for the man and being pissed as hell that his supposed friend had just sentenced him to a similar fate. How the hell am I going to get out of this?
    Cullen cleared his throat in exasperation and jogged Jenna out of her thought process. Just as quickly as her sweet demeanor had vanished it reappeared again. “The least you could do is take me to dinner before I leave,” she purred and batted her eyes at him.
    His jaw tightened and he contemplated the displeasure of having dinner with anyone other than Aislinn. Then he kicked himself for not being able to get the girl out of his head. “Fine, I need to finish this,” he said and shuffled some paperwork on his desk. “Go to the great room. I’ll come for you in about an hour. We’ll have dinner downstairs and then you’ll return to the Tairneach manor.”
    Jenna sweetly smiled her grateful acceptance. “Then I’ll be waiting in the great room.” Jenna walked out of the office pissed. The weight of the situation was getting heavier and heavier. She hated her father for having dragged Cullen into this. She hated Cullen for having gone along with it. She even hated herself a little for not being physically strong enough to carry the Tairneach line without help. But she wasn’t giving up just yet. She would either get Cullen to give in and let her have some influence or she’d get rid of him. At the moment she was leaning toward the later.
    Cullen shifted his attention back to his primary concern for the moment. He sorted the reports in front of him into several piles; reports on the raids in his territory, the reports on the packs believed to be behind the raids, the reports on the political situations within the neighboring packs, and the pile he hated most, the reports on who within his own pack may be helping the raiders. He growled his frustration. He had read the reports over and over looking for a pattern or connection and was yet to find one. It only served to remind him of why his mating to Jenna was necessary. It would reinforce his numbers and keep his northern border friendly.
    * * * *
    Aislinn was shadowing Rissa and learning her new job. Aislinn was to the point where she was being trusted to take an order down, and bring out food with some supervision. Rissa was very nice and Aislinn decided that she liked her. She didn’t look as much like Cullen as Meghan did, but she still had those black brown eyes and brown hair. The difference was in her facial structure. Rissa looked a little Asian. She was sweet and patient with Aislinn and had covered for her once in the beginning when Aislinn had forgotten a side dish at one table. Overall the past couple days were great. She felt welcome and was being treated fairly. It had been a long time since she had been around so many genuinely nice people.
    Aislinn had just refilled the water at one table and was headed over to the next couple that had been seated. The large man wasn’t dressed for dinner at the Taigh-O  sda and the woman with him certainly looked as though she was being paid for his company. But with the casino across the lobby it was a fairly regular sight. All it took was one jackpot for Joe Schmoe to be able to afford the steak.
    Suddenly Rissa