The PlayLion Billionaire: A Paranormal Billionaire Romance (11 page)

CHAPTER ELEVEN

The first thing Olivia was aware of was a deep, raw, burning pain in her throat. Her ears seemed to come alive next and she heard the hiss of a respirator—and realized that she could feel the subtle pressure of an oxygen tube pressed up inside of her nose. She felt weirdly empty, wrung out like a dishcloth. Irritating electrical tremors danced up and down along her nerves, like a tiny explosion of lightning throughout her body. For a long moment, Olivia didn’t want to open her eyes. She knew without having to open them that, once more, she was in a hospital. She swallowed and cringed at the feeling of pain in her throat.

All at once, the reason why she should be in a hospital came back to her. Olivia remembered Amelia, remembered the coffee—the strange taste, the numbness spreading from her mouth, her vision blurring and going black, her heart racing.
I was poisoned. Somehow. Someone poisoned me. Amelia poisoned me. Did she know?
Her eyes still closed, Olivia debated it. Why would Amelia poison her? She shivered, suddenly cold. Her whole body felt oddly heavy and while her heart was beating steadily in her chest, there was something strangely shivery about the sensation, unstable, wobbling.

Olivia heard, over the heart monitor’s steady beeping and the sounds of the oxygen, someone clearing their throat. A flicker of fear spiked through her and then she realized that if someone was in the hospital with her, in the room with her, it was unlikely to be the person who had poisoned her. Olivia opened her eyes.

Sitting a few feet away was a woman that she had seen a few times. Olivia’s foggy, confused mind suggested an A-name. “I’m glad to see you’re awake,” the woman said, smiling slightly. Olivia took her in, wondering—in another brief flicker of fear—if she could even manage to move. Her arms, her legs felt so heavy, her body not quite real. The woman sitting by her bedside had tawny golden brown hair, a sharp-looking face, bright eyes and a slim build.

“Who are you?” Olivia asked, frowning. The words made the pain in her throat even worse, and her voice left her lips in a croak.

“I’m Alexis, and I’m a—a very
close
friend of Robert Lowe. A member of his… organization.” Alexis raised an eyebrow. Olivia tried to understand what the woman was trying to intimate. She wanted more than anything to sit up, to drink water until the throbbing, aching pain in her throat finally subsided. Hunger gnawed at her stomach but the idea of eating anything felt impossible. “His private organization, you might even call it a club?” Alexis leaned in closer. “Or a secret order?”

Realization hit Olivia in a jolt and she nodded. “I understand,” she said slowly, keeping her voice low. It hurt less to keep to a near-whisper. Olivia looked around the room. She seemed to be in almost exactly the same room she had awakened in when she had been kidnapped. The similarity depressed her. “What happened?” Olivia knew the basics: she knew that she had been poisoned. She hoped Alexis would be able to understand that she wanted details. The thought of having to explain in more than two words at a time was daunting.

“You were given a very strong dose of belladonna,” Alexis said quietly. “They had to pump your stomach, wash you out with activated charcoal, so at least you know that your sore throat will go away eventually.” Alexis gave her an awkward, commiserating smile. “They also put you on some kind of sedative; it’s supposed to counteract the rapid heartbeat and other stuff.” Alexis shrugged. “Your breathing seems to be leveling off, so they’ll probably be able to take you off of the oxygen soon.”

Olivia nodded.
Christ. Kidnapped and poisoned, all for dating some guy. Why the hell was I even considering staying with him?
Why had Amelia been the person to poison her? What had she done?

“Robert?” Olivia looked around again and saw a pitcher on a tray set next to her bed, accompanied by a sterile, wrapped cup. She swallowed against the raw, dry feeling in her throat and reached out feebly to try and serve herself. Alexis stood, leaving her chair and coming around to the other side of the bed at Olivia’s movement. The other woman stripped the plastic wrapping off of the cup and poured the water into it, raising an eyebrow to confirm that Olivia was strong enough to hold the cup before handing it to her.

“He should be here soon,” Alexis said, smiling. Olivia brought the cup to her lips with shaky hands, steadying as best as she could as she took a long sip. It even hurt to swallow the liquid, and she thought mournfully that it would be days before she could manage to get any food—real food—down. “He’s been…helping in the investigation as to who’s responsible for this,” Alexis said, smiling again—this time more wryly.

Olivia cringed. “You’re like him,” she said, taking another sip of water; she made the words not quite a question.

Alexis nodded. “We would have met each other soon enough either way,” Alexis said, moving the tray around to the other side of the bed as she resumed her seat, making it easy for her to pour more water if it was needed. “I’m sort of Robert’s second in command.” Olivia nodded.

“Why…not you?” she asked, trying to think of a way to ask the question she wanted to know with the fewest words possible. What she really wanted to ask the other woman was: why wasn’t Alexis Robert’s mate? It would make so much more sense.

“Oh, we’re not suited to each other that way at all,” Alexis said after staring at her for a long moment, confusion in her eyes. “I’m loyal to him but as the leader. Not as a partner.” She shrugged.

“Who did this?” Olivia thought wryly that communicating in two- and three-word bursts was going to get very frustrating in short order. She drank some more water and wished that her throat would just get back to normal already.

“I don’t know if they’ve figure that out yet. Amelia…” Alexis shrugged again. “She’s not part of the group, so obviously someone in our—our club…” Alexis looked around with distrust in her eyes. “Someone in our club put her up to it.”

“To…depose Robert, somehow.” Olivia cringed. The extra word had hurt more than the three before it.

Alexis nodded. “There’s something I’m going to tell you,” Alexis said quietly. “I don’t know if Robert’s explained things to you, at least not in full. And I’m not even sure he’d be okay with me telling you this if he hasn’t already.”

Olivia stared at the woman with confusion. She nodded, encouraging Alexis to say whatever it was that she wanted to say. Olivia extended her nearly empty cup; it didn’t seem like Alexis had a small thing to say to her. Alexis picked up the pitcher and poured more water into Olivia’s cup, and Olivia settled herself against the pillows, sipping and nodding again for Alexis to say what she needed to say.

“I know it’s really difficult for you to understand,” Alexis said slowly. “How—how Robert can know. How any of us can know.” She paused to give Olivia a significant glance, to make sure that Olivia was following what she was saying. Olivia raised her cup feebly to acknowledge the point. “If you think at all that you—that you love him, you need to agree to be his mate.”

Olivia raised an eyebrow. “Why?” she asked, following the question with another sip of water. Her stomach continued to gnaw at itself, twisted and empty.

Alexis took a deep breath. “Even if Rob figures out who it was, everyone involved in your poisoning, today, he can’t do anything about it.” Olivia frowned, raising an eyebrow to silently question why that was the case. “The elders—did he tell you about the elders?” Olivia shook her head and shrugged; she couldn’t remember if he had or not. “That’s…it’s complicated, but suffice it to say that even though Robert is the leader of our—our group, when the elders say something, he has to follow it.” Olivia nodded her acceptance of the assertion. “The elders said that he can’t bring the people responsible to trial until he has a mate. You have to be part of our group for him to put them on trial and to ask for their punishment.” Alexis gave her a significant look.

Olivia interpreted it immediately. Robert was going to ask for the right to execute the people responsible for her kidnapping, for her poisoning. As ambivalent as Olivia had been about the whole idea of Robert killing anyone on her behalf, her most recent experiences had made it much easier to be okay with the notion. Olivia still felt a chill at the fact that someone was actually going to be put to death but then, she thought, they had tried to put
her
to death. They were getting more and more serious: first kidnapping, and then poison. She had to think that if much more time went by, the people looking to overthrow Robert would make an even bolder move. Maybe they would go whole-hog and kill her and Robert both.

“So,” Alexis continued, as Olivia absorbed the import of her previous words, “in order for Robert to be able to put an end to this, you have to agree to become his mate.”

Olivia took a deep breath and exhaled sharply. “Well,” she said slowly, taking a long drink of water, “I guess that…puts things…in perspective.” She cringed and decided that she wasn’t going to attempt any further sentences longer than a few words until her throat stopped feeling like low-grade hamburger. Olivia stared at her half-empty cup, swallowing.

She pulled her bottom lip between her teeth, worrying at it. If she didn’t decide to become Robert’s mate, then the attempts would just continue; she couldn’t quite trick herself into thinking that if she decided against becoming Robert’s mate, the interest in her would stop. The game—and Olivia hated that her life had become a game to others—was to get Robert overthrown. If she understood anything at all about were-lions and their mates, Robert wouldn’t just decide to leave her to her own devices and move on. He would continue to protect her. The traitors in his Pride would continue to come after her, hoping to get at Robert. The poisoning, Olivia realized, had been an attempt to force Robert to take action that would bring the wrath of the elders—whoever they were—onto him.

“I know it’s a lot to take in,” Alexis said, smiling weakly. “And if it were up to Robert—or even me—if it were any other situation, anyone in their right mind would want you to take your time. Especially since you weren’t born into this.” Olivia nodded. “But for your sake, as well as Robert’s, you…” Alexis shrugged. “If you think you love him, make it official. I can promise you that he’ll do everything and anything it takes to keep you happy.”

Olivia chuckled. The movement in her abdomen sent a jolt of pain through her that made her regret the impulse. “That’s something,” she said.

She took a deep breath and sighed, bringing the cup of cold water to her lips again. The entire time she had known about Robert’s choice of her as a mate, she had been trying to avoid being pulled into a decision against her will; it seemed like she was going to have to make one—whether or not she was ready. It was difficult not to resent everyone involved in the situation, but Olivia knew that she couldn’t be angry with Robert, or even with Alexis. For the first time since she had heard of the fate awaiting the traitors, Olivia was less than ambivalent about the fact that they would die. It seemed—for the moment at least—to be completely fair. She was giving up the ability to choose; she had nearly been killed by their machinations.
If he killed them in front of me right now I wouldn’t care,
she thought.

THE FINAL
CHAPTER

Robert took a deep breath as he waited in the prime clearing of the Pride’s lands, holding back his anger. The trial would be starting soon. He had to appear to be even more in control of himself than he was. The elders would be there, to make sure that the trial was fair, that the decision to execute the traitor who had tried to overthrow him—who had tried to kill his mate—was properly recorded, and done with the recognition of everyone in the Pride. After this night, he and Olivia would both be safe.

Olivia was seated a few feet away from him. She was still weak from the poisoning but Robert told himself that once the last threat to his leadership was eliminated, they would take a vacation—he would give her all the time she needed to recover completely. He would have to integrate her more fully into the Pride, but first he would need to make Olivia feel comfortable around him, truly comfortable, the way a mate should feel.

It had taken three hours to convince Amelia to confess who had put her up to poisoning her coworker; at that, the woman hadn’t even known why Olivia was a target, only that her boss wanted Olivia eliminated. They had turned Amelia over to the police anonymously and she would be tried in the regular human courts for attempted murder. Robert knew that the woman would say nothing at all about having been part of a conspiracy; he and Katarina had made it abundantly clear the woman who had put Amelia up to the task was in no position to do her any favors.

Robert smiled bleakly to himself. Katarina had been almost as angry as he had been when they had discovered the ultimate source of the poison, the person responsible for the betrayal. He shook his head, taking a deep breath and exhaling slowly, feeling the crackling magic in his bones.
Not yet,
he told his leonine nature.

The culprit had been a member of the company but not any of the people that Katarina and Alexis had been investigating. Lucille Braun, a relatively minor employee at Lowe Freight, a manager in the accounting department. Why she had gone so far, why she had betrayed him, Robert didn’t know but it would come out in the trial, he was sure. When Amelia had finally confessed, Katarina and Alexis both had moved immediately. They had managed to get the woman’s email and text message records using the private investigator that Robert kept on retainer, and they had—with the same investigator, a werewolf named Brent—tracked the belladonna that had been used to poison Olivia to Lucy. It was an open-and-shut case, or at least Robert hoped that the Pride would view it that way.

Katarina had taken Lucille into custody—keeping her under lock and key in the basement of the old home Katarina had inherited from her parents—and there Lucille had stayed in the days since the discovery. Robert had been forced to wait until Olivia was recovered enough from the poisoning attempt to meet the Pride, to be introduced to them as the Alpha’s mate. Robert smiled to himself, remembering the look of surprise on the faces of most of his followers. Everyone had known that the Alpha had found a mate, that the mate was a regular human instead of a were-lion, and most of them had known that it was Olivia but the speed with which Robert had wooed her surprised everyone.

Robert scented the air; he stood taller, recognizing the pheromones of the elders, of his Pride. He glanced at Olivia, still seated, looking around her with something on her face that was not quite wariness. He felt a mixture of satisfaction, pride and regret, knowing that she had agreed to be his mate not because she really wanted to be—not because he had convinced her—but because she could see no other choice for both of them than to be his mate.
You will have plenty of time to convince her that it’s the right choice, and not just for her survival. Get through tonight, get rid of Lucille, and you can spend every day of the rest of your life showing her that you are the right man for her.

Robert took a deep breath. “They’re coming, Liv,” he said, keeping his voice gentle.

Olivia stood, her feet briefly unsteady underneath her. Robert reached out to support her, his protective instincts tingling through him, competing with the low simmer of rage that he felt that someone, anyone, had tried to kill her. Olivia steadied herself, giving him a fleeting smile, appreciation in her eyes for the gesture. “I’m okay,” she said quietly. “I just want this to be over with.”

As the Pride approached the clearing, Robert remembered his visit to Olivia’s hospital room. Once he knew Lucille was in Katarina’s custody, his first move had been to see his mate, to verify she was okay. She had been awake, laying in the hospital bed and sipping water when he arrived; Alexis had been at her side. As soon as Robert came in, Alexis stood, understanding the need in Robert’s body. For a long moment after Alexis had left, Olivia had sat in silence, not quite looking at him. He watched her labored swallow and reached out to take her hand in his.

“I accept,” Olivia had said, her voice a hoarse rasp. Alexis had sent Robert a text message, one he had read on his way to the hospital, about the results of the poisoning. He had given Olivia’s hand a squeeze in sympathy. He knew her throat was probably killing her from having her stomach pumped.

“You accept?” Robert had asked.

Olivia had nodded. “You. I accept you.” She had taken a sip of water. “As your mate.”

He gave Olivia’s hand a squeeze as the members of his Pride began to appear. Katarina had Lucille in tow, bound at the wrists and ankles, disheveled from her incarceration but bearing no major signs of abuse.
Good. No one can say anyone overstepped. No one can accuse Katarina or me of doing this the wrong way.
Robert’s keen night vision picked out the approaching figures of the elders. He looked at the gathering crowd, composing himself. Robert let go of Olivia’s hand, absorbing the silence that fell over the group.

“We’re here because a member of the Pride has betrayed us all,” Robert said. “This individual was involved in the raids on our territory, carried out by renegade lions seeking to take over the leadership of the Pride. She was also responsible for poisoning my mate, and attempting to stage an overthrow of the Alpha of this Pride by devious means, instead of the accepted form of challenge.” Robert let his words hang on the air, watched as the Pride absorbed them. Lucille’s friends in the Pride—the people closest to her—looked away, their body language betraying their shame and disgust. One of the elders stepped forward.

“Because of the contentious and serious nature of these charges,” the orange-haired woman said, looking out over the assembled Pride, “we elders have ruled that Lucille can only be executed if a trial of her peers determines she is guilty and that execution is the correct measure.” The elder looked at Robert. “Everyone must vote, including the newest member of the Pride, Olivia Price.” The elder stepped back into the crowd of were-lions, taking up her position.

“Bring the accused forward,” Robert told Katarina. Lucille’s shifting eyes took in the Pride, as well as staring daggers at both Robert and Olivia. Katarina shoved Lucille into the center of the clearing, taking her position off to the side, facing the assembled Pride. Robert gestured for Olivia to take up her proper spot with the rest of the group, giving her an encouraging nod. “Alexis will present the evidence against Lucille, and then Lucille will have the opportunity to say her piece before the Pride votes.”

Alexis stepped forward, holding the material that she and Katarina had collected. Robert looked around at the faces of his Pride as Alexis explained what they had discovered: the text messages between Lucille and Peter, the contents of her emails, the receipts that showed that she had purchased the belladonna. Katarina testified to the Pride about the interrogation of the non-lion employee—Amelia—that Lucille had suborned. The fact that Amelia was not even a were-lion, or a shape-shifter of any kind—that she was a complete outsider—sent a murmur of alarm and dismay through the crowd and Robert saw the fear mounting in Lucille’s eyes.

Finally, it came time for Lucille to make her statement, to address the Pride. “Okay,” Lucille said, standing up awkwardly with her wrists and ankles still bound. “I appeal to you all, as a member of your family, to understand why I did this.” Robert glanced furtively at his followers. He was relieved that none of them, even Lucille’s friends in the Pride, seemed sympathetic. “I feel that Robert Lowe is a terrible Alpha. He refused to settle down and find a mate, and he was leading us into unstable territory—that’s why I backed Peter. Peter had plans for us! He was going to keep us whole, keep us steady.”

“Then why did he bring in renegades?” one of the members of the Pride called out.

“Because he had no other choice!” Lucille was becoming agitated. “Robert had evicted him from the Pride, he couldn’t work with his family…he couldn’t work with anyone in the Pride but me!” She trembled, pulling and tugging ineffectually at her bindings. “Robert should have found a mate as soon as he assumed leadership of the Pride. He should have chosen one of our kind, and he should already have a cub on the way. Instead, he put it off and put it off, and now he’s not even mated to another lion!”

“We have accepted Olivia into the Pride,” one of the male elders said. “She is one of us now.”

“But she’s never going to be a lion!” Lucille countered. “You don’t even know if she can handle it. Besides…” tears began to stream down Lucille’s face. “Robert should have picked me. Peter—Peter was going to—Peter was going to be my mate, but when he was kicked out of the Pride…” Lucille shivered, curling in on herself slightly. “When he was kicked out of the Pride, Robert had a responsibility to see that I was fairly mated. And he did nothing!” A murmur of disgust rippled through the group. “I don’t deserve to die—Robert deserves to be kicked out, for what he did to Peter, what he did to me. He’s the worst Alpha we’ve ever had!” Lucille stared at him, her face contorting in rage. “If I could have killed him I would have!” She twisted and lunged, falling to the ground and continuing to profess that it was Robert who should be killed and not her.

Katarina came forward, pulling the accused to the sidelines. The elders called for the vote, and Robert—the accuser—had to stand aside, and wait while the Pride deliberated. He knew without a doubt what Olivia’s verdict would be, along with Katarina and Alexis, as well as his mother. He couldn’t know for sure whether Lucille’s friends in the Pride would come to her rescue.

“We have a decision,” the orange-haired elder female announced. “Lucille Braun will be put to death at sunrise by the Alpha. It will be witnessed by the Pride.”

*

Olivia stretched, feeling the slippery whispering silk of sheets against her bare skin as she woke up gradually, feeling rested for the first time in what seemed like weeks. She wasn’t sure what time of day it was—or even if it was day—but the bone-deep satisfaction she felt was reassuring. She smiled to herself, turning slightly in the bed.

It had been a week since the trial. The evening before, she and Robert had arrived in the islands, thousands of miles away from everything to do with his life as the Alpha of his Pride. Though Olivia had not quite managed to reconcile the execution she had seen with her greater moral compass, she was at least glad that it was over, that she would never again have to worry about someone coming after her. And slowly but surely, she had come to the conclusion that her choice—forced as it had been—had been the right one.

The day after the trial, hours after the execution, Olivia and Robert had reported to the Human Resources department of Lowe Freight, to report their relationship. She had put in her notice the same day. She would no longer be working for the company—and in fact, with a billionaire as her de facto husband, there was no need for her to work—but she would continue to help Robert with public outreach.

“I know you’re awake.” Robert’s low, almost purring voice filled her ears and Olivia opened her eyes, smiling.

“Answer me something,” Olivia said, turning onto her side to face him in the bed they shared.

“Anything,” Robert replied, reaching out and pulling her body close to his underneath the sheets.

“My entire life has done a 180 in the past…month, let’s say. I don’t know the exact number of weeks. Why do I feel so good about everything?”

Robert chuckled, brushing his lips against her temple. “Sure sign that you’ve made the right choice,” he told her, his hands beginning to wander over her body. Olivia shivered, arching into his caresses, looking up into his eyes as Robert watched her intently. “You slept well last night,” Robert observed.

Olivia’s smile deepened. “No nightmares.” One of Robert’s hands slid down between her legs, brushing along her inner thighs, and Olivia felt her body heating up quickly. No matter how many times they had sex—and the night before, she thought wryly, they had certainly gone for a personal best—the reaction from her body never diminished. It was as if, in some way, Robert instinctively knew exactly how to touch her. “How long are we going to be here?” she asked. Robert had sprung the trip on her abruptly, giving her his credit card and telling her to buy whatever she wanted or needed for the vacation.

“As long as it takes,” Robert told her, his hand sliding up along her inner thigh slowly. His fingers brushed against her already-slick folds in a feather-light touch that made Olivia tremble, crackles of pleasure already beginning to dance along her nerve endings.

“As long as it takes for what?” Olivia asked, her breath hitching in her throat as Robert’s fingers pressed against her. He rubbed up and down along her labia, stroking her lightly, and Olivia felt herself becoming wetter and wetter. Robert kissed her hungrily, turning her around, tumbling her between the sheets until she was underneath him. Olivia could feel the heat and hardness of his cock pressing against her, digging into her thigh as Robert stroked her inner labia, teasing her with a touch that barely avoided her clit.