Max was waiting for them in front of the building, surrounded by journalists, photographers, and the guards who were making sure everything was fine. He smiled when the car pulled over and Kevin got out, walked around it, and opened the door on Avelyn’s side. Max stepped closer to the car and offered her his hand. She took it gently and smiled up at him.
“Hi…”
“Hello, beautiful. I hope you had a wonderful day.
”
“Oh, I did. Check your bank account when you have the chance and see for yourself.”
Max laughed and waited for her to smooth out her dress before offering her his arm and guiding her to the party.
“You look amazing! I love the dress.”
“Rosanna helped me choose it.”
Indeed, the long, green cocktail dress hugged her curves perfectly, emphasizing her firm breasts and the roundness of her hips. The color went amazingly well with her reddish hair and sea-blue eyes, and definitely matched Max’s green eyes. She was wearing black high-heeled sandals that made her look much taller and imposed a sexy sway to her hips when she walked. Max was not surprised when they entered the room and all eyes turned on her.
“Wow! There are so many people…”
“And they’re coming from all over the world… These are the people you have to make friends with. Actually, their wives. You never know when Clan Blackmane might need support, and women are known for building strong friendships.”
“When they’re not competing with each other,” she said.
“Except shifter-brides have no reason to compete.” He grinned. “That’s the beauty of it. Shape-shifters are faithful to their mates. They only have eyes for their wives.”
Avelyn looked around her and smiled. All the women in the room were incredibly beautiful. They were all shifter-brides who had been raised and educated in the best boarding schools. She saw Viggo approach them, but to her disappointment, he was alone.
“Avelyn.” Viggo kissed her hand.
“Viggo. It’s nice to see you again.”
“Always a pleasure. You look ravishing. How is little Nikolas?”
“Thank you! He’s at the Schloss with his nanny.” Just as she was getting ready to ask him what she was dying to know, Karl and Jocelyn appeared. Jocelyn offered Avelyn a glass of champagne.
“I don’t think I should…”
“One glass won’t hurt,” said Jocelyn.
They both looked very happy, though a bit tired, so Avelyn felt compelled to ask them about the meeting. Judging by their wide smiles, she already knew it had gone well. She turned to Max.
“So, tell me: how was the meeting?”
“I thought you’d never ask!” He kissed her cheek in excitement. “It went way better than expected.”
“Yes,” said Karl. “We might even get our privileges back. Councilor Voinom would rather have us as advisers regardless of what happened in September than have to work with his sons.”
“Well, let’s not get ahead of ourselves,” said Jocelyn. “For now, it’s good we convinced them to look into the problem with the werefoxes.”
“Except we managed more than that.” Max turned to Avelyn, “You won’t believe it, but we’ve actually convinced the Council to issue a law that says the fox-shifters are now only allowed to buy brides for their Alphas and Betas alone.”
“Oh my… This is serious. How did you even manage it?”
Karl was the one who answered her. “While I was in Alaska, investigating the five-tailed Inari’s clan, I discovered some things that I knew wouldn’t sit well with anyone in the Council or outside of it. It seems that, indeed, some of the biggest fox clans have been trying to produce a Kyubi, a nine-tailed fox, by buying human brides for all the male members of their earths. The worst part is that they know they have very slim chances of achieving what they want, but they’re still trying. Even if a Kyubi is never born, they are still increasing their numbers, and they’ve also started investing a lot in their children’s education.”
“The wiser they become, the greater chances they have to grow more tails…” said Avelyn thoughtfully.
“… and the greater chances of learning how to use them,” added Jocelyn.