Pandemonium by R.E. Butler

Chapter Twelve

An hour later, their entire group was inside match-maker Abbie’s house. The older female served sweet tea and set out a platter of slices of her famous 7 Up cake. Demi was nervous about talking to Abbie because she very much wanted this to work.

Hell, ithadto work.

The alternative was the two prides clashing in battle, and no one wanted that. Except maybe Benecio. The asshole.

“So,” Abbie said, sitting in a rocking chair and looking around at everyone. “I understand you need my services, but I’m not sure exactly what’s going on. So, start at the beginning and I’ll see what I can do.”

Everyone in the room looked Demi’s way and she took a deep breath to try to calm her flying pulse before she launched into the story.

“Now he’s threatening to bring war to the pride,” Demi said, when she finished the tale.

Abbie blinked a few times and leaned back, the chair creaking as it rocked. “What would you like me to do?”

“Match him,” Demi said.

“He’s not in my book. He hasn’t asked me to match him,” Abbie said, her brows drawing down.

“I know that,” Demi said. “But what you do is a kind of magic, right? Couldn’t you meet him and match someone in the book to him? Does every single person that you match have to be in the book?”

Abbie pursed her lips and then let out a soft growling sigh. “What you’re asking is really out of the purview of my talents.”

“But you could do it?” Duke asked.

There was another pause and then she nodded. “I can, assuming that someone in my book of possible mates is actually Benecio’s match. I can’t just pull a name out of the air. It has to be someone I’ve talked to and put into the book. The match-making power is akin to magic, but it’s not something I can manipulate if it’s not meant to be.”

Demi’s heart clenched and hope rose within her. “So, you’ll help us?”

“I will. But don’t get too excited,” Abbie cautioned. “It may not work. And if his heart is not receptive to matching, if he’s fully obsessed with you, I may not find anyone at all. I can only do what I can do with the match-making power.”

“I just want you to try,” Demi said. She squeezed her mates’ hands. “If it doesn’t work, then we’ll have to figure out something else.”

“The something else,” Duke said, “is that our people will defend our borders and our members. This seems like a Hail Mary to me, but if it gets him to back off, then I’m all for giving it a go. But we will fight if we need to. His threats will not go unanswered.”

“Plus,” Titus said, “anyone else feel bad about potentially matching some innocent female up with this asshole?”

Demi grimaced. She did feel bad, but she’d feel worse if her friends and family were hurt because Benecio refused to see that what he was threatening was obscenely crazy. And maybe he was only being an asshole because he was lonely, and once he was matched with the right female for him, he wouldn’t be so awful.

Duke stepped out onto the front porch. The room was quiet while everyone waited for him to come back inside. Abbie picked up the huge book that she kept potential matches in. Demi had never come to Abbie to be matched, so her information wasn’t in there. It was a mystery to the pride what was actually in the pages of the book, but she’d heard it contained photos and information about the matches from not only the Kedrick pride but others in surrounding states. Abbie didn’t just match whenever she felt like it, though. She waited for a male or female to come to her to be matched, and then she would reach out to the person she matched them with and arrange a meeting.

Demi had always thought the process sounded very cold and clinical. There was a contract both parties had to sign. No mention of love or even attraction.

Duke came into the house and said, “I told Benecio that I want to talk to him. He said he’d only agree to it if Demi is there.”

Rhaider and Rafe both snarled.

Duke put his hand up. “We knew this would be a possibility, so save the growling. We’ll bring Abbie with us and Demi and her mates will be there. We can hope that Benecio seeing that Demi is officially mated will make him see the light.”

Demi had a hard time not rolling her eyes at that. She doubted Benecio could see anything except what he wanted, and that was her.

“If he doesn’t,” Duke said, “we’ve got our secret weapon—Abbie. Assuming she can find a match for him, we can appeal to him to stop the foolishness of bringing war to our pride and meet his match.”

“And if that fails?” Demi asked.

“Then we fight,” Byron said. “It’s not ideal, but we can’t allow ourselves to be cowed over a delusional male.”

Demi leaned her head against Rafe’s shoulder. “I don’t want anyone to get hurt because of me.”

“It wouldn’t be your fault,” Rafe said. “It’s him. He’s driving this. No one should be able to force another to enter into a mating, and his people are going along with him, which makes them all culpable.”

“We’ll fight with the pride because you’re our mate to defend,” Rhaider said. “If he’s smart, he’ll take the match if Abbie gives him one, or he’ll see the truth and bow out gracefully without fighting. Whatever happens, we’re going to keep you safe.”

“I can fight too, you know. I’m a kickass lioness,” she said, letting out a growl.

“We know,” Rafe said with a smile. “But we don’t want you to have to.”

She nodded. “Okay. You have to be careful, though. I just got you both.”

“We will be,” Rafe said.

“We’ll meet here at seven tomorrow morning. It’s a half hour drive to the meeting place.”

Duke and the males left, her father following them out to speak to Duke further. Demi looked at Abbie.

“Are you okay with this? I didn’t mean to spring it on you.”

“I am,” Abbie said. She closed the book and laid her hands on it. “I just don’t want you to be disappointed if it doesn’t work. Lions are predators and prone to aggression. This Benecio fellow may be too far gone to see any way other than fighting to get what he wants. It may be more about ego at this point than anything else. Some prides have a constant turnover of alphas as the lower ranked males look for any weaknesses as an opportunity to take him out and assume leadership.”

“You’re going to make me feel sorry for him,” Demi said with a grimace.

“Well, that wasn’t my intention,” Abbie said.

“He got himself into this mess,” Tabitha said. “Make no mistake about that. He should’ve taken your first no and gone on his way and never thought about you again. If his people are trying to throw a coup and kill him because he appears weak after all this, it’s his fault.”

Demi nodded. “Good point. I just want him to leave me alone. Leave all of us alone.”

“He will,” Rhaider said. “One way or another.”

They thanked Abbie for her help and left her home, finding her dad standing by his vehicle and all the others gone.

“I’m going to the bar to meet with Duke and Titus,” he said. “They’re going to gather males for tomorrow and apprise them of the situation.”

“We’d like to come,” Rhaider said.

“That’s why I waited,” Quentin said.

“I’ll stay with Mom,” Demi said. While she wanted to go with her mates, she didn’t want to talk about Benecio anymore. The male had taken up enough space in her brain and she needed time to decompress. She kissed her mates goodbye and watched as they climbed into the SUV they’d all come together in.

“Want us to drop you off at home?” Quentin asked.

“We’re going to go for a walk instead,” Tabitha said.

“We are?” Demi asked.

Her mom hummed and waved at her dad. Demi waved at her mates and watched as the SUV backed out of the drive and drove off.

“A walk, huh?” Demi asked. Her mom hooked her arm through Demi’s.

“It’ll be good to clear our heads and get some fresh air. You and I used to walk all the time when you were little. Do you remember?”

“I do. I used to look for something to bring home and put in my memory box.” The empty cigar box had been given to her by her grandfather and she’d used it to store pretty rocks and pinecones she found on their walks.

“It was a lot of fun for me,” Tabitha said as they started off toward home. “Even when you were a surly teenager, you’d start to open up on the walks and we’d have the most fun conversations. I learned a lot about you during those walks. I hope you learned about me too.”

“I did. I think we stopped when every walk turned into an argument about me being mate-matched.”

“Yes, I was sad when that happened. I was getting some pressure from your father for you to get mate-matched, but I also wanted that for you too. I wanted you to find the happiness that I have with your father.”

“I have that now.”

“Indeed. In spades. I’m sorry I pushed you, and I’m sorry that we lost our closeness.”

“We’ve got it back now.”

“Yes, and just in time. Now that you’re mated, I’d like to talk to you about grandbabies.”

Demi laughed, feeling some of the tension from the meeting at Abbie’s and the situation with Benecio melt away. “Geez, Mom, I’ve only been mated a few hours.”

“Still. I’ll be the best grandma, you just wait. I’ll spoil them rotten and then send them home to you all sugared up.”

“Just like Grandma Tina used to do to me and Hemi.”

“You know it.”

Their laughter echoed in the trees and Demi smiled. For the first time in perhaps years, she felt close to her mom. While she wasn’t happy to be dealing with Benecio, she was grateful for the changes that came about because of the situation. If it weren’t for Hemi and Annie mating, and her mom saving Annie’s life, then Demi would still be at odds with her parents over choosing a mate.

Now she had Rhaider and Rafe, and her parents seemed to genuinely like them and were happy for her.

She’d hoed a tough row, but if they could get past the Benecio thing without anyone getting hurt, then the future was looking pretty damn bright.

They just had to survive tomorrow.