Page 41

Leo

“ L eo…”

She walks over to me, and the moment she touches my back, sending a rush of sparks through me, I feel a wave of calmness wash over me. The fucking bond.

“I didn’t mean it in a bad way. You know, growing up, everyone called me a freak because I was born with the help of magic, so they found the word fitting. There were even a few people in the pack who refused to acknowledge me because of it. Heck, some still exist… as I got older, I stopped telling my family because I didn’t want to always cause them trouble…” She sighs, and I do my best to remain calm. Flaring anger rushes through me, and I wonder if that is why she is so cheerful because, inside, she is dealing with a lot. “I know you always say I’m the daughter of an Elite. Although my life is nowhere as harrowing as I’m sure yours has been, I just wanted to let you know that things aren’t always what they seem.” She moves in front of me, her hand running along my waist before she places it on my chest. “It’s okay to be afraid. I sometimes am… like right now. I don’t know how this will work… with this baby… us… what will we tell our child? Why aren’t we together?” She places her hand on her stomach, and that intense urge to touch it once more tempts me, but I don’t.

“We’ll figure it out…” I say quietly. We will… I will figure it out for all of you…

I saw the vulnerability in her eyes when she told me about her situation. Tonight feels like a snippet of the life that maybe we could have… her, Corrado… our unborn pup… she’ll be the mother Corrado will love. Even if she isn’t what I would have expected, somehow, she has won him over, the perfect balance of wild, cheeky, and mature. I reach up, brushing her silky locks back. Her eyes flutter shut for a second as my fingers graze her skin ever so lightly. These sparks… what are they? So unexplainable…

She leans into my touch, her head tilting up slightly, and that intense tension returns. I want her.

Yeah… maybe we will,” she responds quietly.

We fall silent, but I don’t remove my hand from her hair, my thumb caressing her jaw. I know what I am afraid of, but I’ll never speak it out loud. I am fucking afraid of us letting our guards down once more only to be cast aside like always…

“Your nightmares,” she whispers, her heart thundering as she tries to focus. I frown. For a moment, I thought she had forgotten. I sigh, looking down into her eyes which are watching me intently.

“After suffering under Endora, watching her torture and experiment on everyone, it was pretty normal. When I was five…. she began to sense that I was stronger than Marcel was as a child, and so, she began experimenting on me, too. But whatever she was trying to attain wasn’t happening. Her magic never really worked on me as it did with Marcel and the others. I was just someone she never wanted to lose, yet someone she hated… I was only a pup who wouldn’t be able to do any damage to her anyway, for the time being, but I saw it all. The beatings, the torture, the dark magic… her sacrificing our own kind… her feeding the scraps of our people to our own, creating the wendigos… it was sick. No one would hear me because those who had a chance to do something… well, they were under her control or too scared to rebel. I was just a fool to think that there was good in this world…” I turn away, wishing I had a cigarette right now.

“There is good in this world,” she replies.

“Is there? Those who I thought were our heroes… our saviours, were allowed to storm into this pack and cause more suffering. I get the reasons, I fucking do. I know the pain when one’s mate is hurt, but then I realised violence is dealt with more violence. Is there a difference between good and evil when those views and beliefs become distorted and justifiable when it suits us?” Flashes of the past cross my mind, and I push them away.

Delsanra Silver… that night when Alejandro and Kiara had broken in, I had seen her struggling to free herself, and so I had secretly unlocked the cell and cleared the escape route for her. She never knew I had helped her back then, and I made sure no one saw me, but I had wanted to help her because she didn’t deserve the torture either. Sure, when I snuck her food, I’d get punished if I was caught, but it was okay as long as I did the right thing. Right? I don’t really know. Right and wrong are blurred into one…

“The cherry on top is that it was her mate who did this. She was someone who, while a fucking child, I tried to protect, although I was weaker at the time. I treated all those in those caverns as my people, including her. I wanted to protect them all… I was seven, and I was burying the bodies of our dead with my bare hands. Endora would come for me, or Dad would take me to her. She’d tie me up, and all I remember is the excruciating pain that she inflicted on me. I would wake up bleeding after blacking out on the floor, and I would just get up and get back to my sorry life.” I am unable to hide the pain and bitterness from my voice. “Do you know how it felt to drag the dead body of my mother to try to bury her? A body that I couldn’t even recognise after her transformation into a Wendigo?”

She reaches up, cupping my face. Her heart is pounding, and her eyes are full of anger and pain. I am unable to stop myself from grabbing hold of her waist. My own emotions are a fucking storm. I have never told anyone that shit.

“I’m so damn sorry that you had to go through that… you’ve always helped. You were even part of the battle against the Djinn a decade ago. You had a hand in saving Rayhan’s mother-”

“Don’t go getting any fucking ideas. I did that because no child deserves to be without his or her parents… I did it because it was the right fucking thing to do… not because of the bastard,” I reply icily. “Rafael Rossi… I want to believe that if he knew, he wouldn’t have let Rayhan do what he did. I did what I did because it just felt right.”

“It shows that you have a good heart… just like Marcel said,” she murmurs quietly.

No, it just shows that no matter what I do, it’s never enough… Selene sees everything, right? Are our deeds worth nothing?

“Endora was a monster who deserved so much worse than she got. You suffered too much, and what hurts is no one knows exactly what you suffered at her hands… you told me to speak to my parents, and I think you need to do the same… but regardless of that… do you know what I see? I see an incredible human before me. A true leader, one with compassion, strength, and justice. Hell, I can’t believe I’m saying this. Did you put something in the whiskey?”

“You had a few sips. I never knew you were so easy to manipulate,” I reply mockingly.

“Oh, I’m not, but jokes aside, you are a good person, Leo, and I’m lucky that you are the father of my child. He or she will be lucky to have you.”

I fucking wasn’t expecting her to say that…. not after the shit I have put her through…

Lucky… will that child be lucky?

“What Rayhan did was wrong, and he regrets it, Leo… give them one more chance to prove that they mean it. You don’t need to be chums with them… but maybe putting it behind you will help you move on and look to the future.” What future?

“How many chances do I give? When someone betrays you that deeply, there’s no way to forgive that,” I reply, coldly glancing down into her dazzling silver eyes.

“There is if you truly try.”

“Could you do it? Forgive Indigo? You even refuse to meet your half-brother, right? When he was just an innocent part of this entire fucked up situation?” She looks down, her eyes widening with surprise before looking up at me defiantly.

“Are you challenging me?”

“Maybe I’m just trying to show you reason,” I reply huskily.

“Then how about this? Let’s make a deal. I’ll talk to him… and you, you talk to Rayhan.” I frown deeply at the spark of challenge in her eyes.

“Not enough. Talking to your half-brother who didn’t do shit isn’t enough.” She raises her eyebrow, her nails digging into my neck. What the fuck is with this girl and violence?

“Fine. I’ll visit her grave… I will speak my mind, and I will tell my parents how I feel about Indigo… and you, you tell Marcel how hard you had it. It’s not fair on you to keep this inside. I think only when we are able to let it all out can we truly move on from it all,” she retorts, glaring at me.

“If you weren’t pregnant, I’d fucking teach you a lesson. You’re fucking violent,” I growl, gripping her wrists and yanking her hands away from where she has drawn blood. I pull her hands against my chest, glaring down at her.

“Don’t change the subject, Leo. Are you really a scaredy cat?” She taunts. “You are annoying me!”

“I know what you’re fucking trying to do, but forgiving isn’t that easy,” I shoot back, gripping her hips and yanking her close. She gasps as her chest slams against me, and she grabs my shoulders out of reflex. Her heart starts pounding, and my dick throbs at the feel of her against me.

“It isn’t… but I’ve forgiven you for what you did to me. I’m dealing with the fact that you’re only being nice to me because of this pup! I’m trying, and all I’m saying to you is to try as well.” I frown as I stare down at her. Try…

“You’re wrong. I haven’t treated you a certain way because of our pup,” I shoot back icily, my gaze flickering to her lips. “Even though you’re the daughter of an Elite -”

“You do know I’m not a Westwood by blood?” She asks, her eyes flashing with an emotion I can’t read.

“Blood doesn’t make family, Azura, bonds do. To me, you are and always will be the daughter of Elijah and Scarlett Westwood, and even then, I don’t hate you.”

“Their daughter…” A soft smile crosses her lips, and she seems to relax. “Isn’t it funny that although you hate them, hearing you say that you consider me their daughter really makes me happy?”

“You really are a psycho.” I murmur, “Your mood changes like the fucking British weather…”

“Yeah, I’m a little crazy, but you don’t seem to mind it,” she replies, her hands running up my shoulders, and I tense, every nerve in my body reacting to her touch.

“No, I fucking don’t… but don’t go getting so fucking cocky. We both know you fucking like me, too.”

“Too?” She asks softly.

Our hearts are pounding as one, and I didn’t even realise I had wrapped my arms around her waist, caressing her bare skin. She bites her lip despite the defiant spark in her eyes.

“I’m not sure if being attracted to someone ridiculously hot counts as liking or just an attraction,” she adds. I turn us, pushing her against the window as I lean against her, my hard cock pressing against her lower stomach.

“Fair point. Then… since it’s only an attraction… I don’t think there’s any harm in giving in to that for one night,” I find myself growling huskily.

I want her… I need her. No, I fucking crave her.

I am expecting her to push me away or deny it, but when she runs her hand up my neck, her eyes darkening with a sexy hunger, I know this is about to be one heck of a night. The consequences? Yeah, there are going to be many… but I want this.

“Hmm? On one condition,” she whispers in my ear seductively; her arousal scents the air as my wolf’s hunger only grows stronger, mixing with hers, and I’m ready to lose all control.

“What’s that?” I reply huskily, brushing my nose along her jaw before burying my head in her neck. Fuck, does she smell like heaven and sin…

“Do we have a deal?”

I know what she means… the deal to handle our issues… a taste of her body in return feels like the perfect exchange. Right now, she could ask for the fucking world, and I’d give it to her…. All I want is to strip her naked, fuck her senseless, and eat her out until we are forced to stop.

“You have a deal, and Schurke Wolf never breaks his promises,” I whisper, running my tongue over the mark that adorns her neck, making her sigh softly.

“Good to know…” I bite down on her neck, making her gasp. “Oh, fuck!” She moans, and I know, deal or no deal, she is mine tonight.