Page 50

Kylie

It was an adjustment having Maximus around.

The way he took care of me after coming home showed progress from the man who had rejected me.

His care for Titan was even more amazing to see.

When he woke, Maximus was the first out of bed, picking Titan up from his crib and carrying him over to the changing table he had ordered and set up.

He had actually organized everything we could have needed for the baby and brought it all through the woods to the cabin.

When he told me he would do whatever it took to help me and Titan, he meant it.

While he changed Titan, I walked over to the bathroom and listened to him talk to his newborn. The soothing voice he used brought a smile to my face. When I walked out to see Maximus holding Titan close and nuzzling him with his nose, my heart swelled.

“I know, little man. It’s so hard to be so tiny and not know what’s going on. That’s okay, though. Daddy is here and will show you the way of the world.” Titan stopped crying and stared at Maximus. “There you go, no more crying. We will get you some food and tuck you right back into bed.”

Maximus noticed me standing by and turned to face me.

He shot me a soft look and smiled. I walked over to him and held out my arms to take our pup.

Maximus leaned in and placed his lips on my forehead.

An eruption of tingles started in my stomach, and heat flared throughout my body.

I sucked in a breath, and when I looked into his eyes, I saw fire there, burning, yearning to be let loose.

Since our passionate night together, this was the look I saw in his eyes every time he looked at me.

We hadn’t completed the bond again, but I could see the way he looked at me without it.

The pull in my chest toward him was strong, but I pushed it down.

Usually, this worked, but now, seeing how he had changed with Titan and the care he was showing me, it was hard.

Soon, I wouldn’t be able to ignore my feelings for Maximus.

I took Titan from him and moved to the small couch.

Once Titan started to nurse, I thought Maximus would go back to bed.

Instead, he sat on the coffee table and grabbed a foot to rub, his thumbs moving in circles, making me moan.

My lycan rumbled at his touch, wanting him to touch me more.

After another moment of me pushing down my lycan, it barely worked.

She wasn’t the only one wanting to put the past behind us and complete the bond.

I just wasn’t ready yet.

Every touch, every look, every moment spent in this cabin with him made it so hard not to want to spend forever with him. It was like I was seeing the man who pulled me out of that cage and confronted my father for abusing me.

But how long would I have this version of him?

Would it be until we returned to the kingdom?

That’s where our problems started in the first place.

How long would it take before he would trust someone else’s opinion, other than his own, about me again?

I doubted it would be long, considering it hadn’t taken him long before.

The fated mate bond hadn’t stopped him from thinking I wasn’t good enough before, so why would it now?

I needed more than the fated mate bond to trust that this would remain like this forever.

I needed time. But I wasn’t sure how much time I would be given before he would demand that we return.

Maximus seemed willing to do whatever it takes right now while there is hope.

Just because I missed the feeling of being wanted and loved didn’t mean I was ready to tie myself to the person who could easily throw me away.

“What’s on your mind? Is it something I can help with?”

Would it be wise to tell him that I still have doubts about this?

I didn’t have time to bring it up. Titan stopped nursing and spit up.

This was a normal occurrence. Sometimes, he would drink too fast, which caused him to spit up.

I grabbed the burp rag and positioned it over my shoulder.

Maximus tried to help, but I shrugged him off.

He growled a little, and I heard the hurt in his voice at being denied the chance to assist, but it wouldn’t take much to get him back in a good place.

Titan did this fairly often, and it had always been a matter of getting him to expel the gas before he settled down.

Titan spit up some more, but I didn’t panic. Soft pats on his back and gentle massages helped bring out the gas I knew was upsetting his stomach.

But then he spit up again.

Every few minutes, Titan would spit up more. This wasn’t normal. Usually, it would happen once or twice, and then he would be ready to eat more. Not this time.

He wouldn’t stop.

“Max!” I pleaded. “I don’t know why he is still throwing up!”

My breathing became ragged as he grabbed a new burp rag and took Titan from me.

He started to do the same but focused on getting the pup through this.

Instead of small amounts of spit-up, it turned into bouts of vomiting.

We couldn’t contain it, and it didn’t look like it would slow down any time soon.

My lycan paced inside me, whining desperately for Titan.

It didn’t help my feelings of inadequacy in caring for my child.

If anything, it made me feel worse. It made me feel like an awful mother for not knowing how to help.

I grabbed Titan and sprinted toward the door.

Maximus bellowed my name, mixed with a snarl.

The bond urged me to keep him close, but I didn’t care about that.

My lycan was torn at having Maximus so far from me, but I needed to get Titan to someone who could actually help.

My pup wouldn’t stop expelling everything in his stomach and more.

I felt his heart rate slowing down, and I pressed his chest to my ear, listening for any sign of something other than my child dying.

Zephyrine came to mind, her words swirling in my head: It will cost him his son’s life.

This wasn’t real. It couldn’t be real. Was the witch’s spell taking my son from me?

Maximus caught up to me just before I reached the clinic.

He didn’t try to stop me from going into the building; nothing would have kept me from getting here.

A nurse approached, urgency written on her face, responding to my panicked look.

My breathing wouldn’t settle. I gulped down air, but words wouldn’t come as I tried to explain what was happening.

“He won’t stop vomiting,” Maximus explained to her. “It just started within the last half hour. First, it was normal spit-up, but now—”

Titan vomited all over me again. Tears spilled down my face as I clung to him. I wanted to fix this, to take away whatever was wrong with him and deal with it myself. Whatever it took to relieve his pain, fear, and illness.

Could I do that?

“Give him to me. We need to get him on fluids immediately,” the nurse said, placing her hands on Titan.

The way I growled made the nurse take a step back. I wanted to hand him over; they were here to help him. But how could I trust this person to take care of my pup? What if the curse could alter those trying to help him?

“It’s okay, Kylie. They are here to help,” Maximus whispered in my ear, gently pulling Titan from my arms.

The way my lycan surged to the surface made me whimper at seeing my son in someone else’s arms who could help him when I couldn’t. I sank to my knees. This was the worst feeling I had ever experienced in my life.

Maximus picked me up in his arms, and I thought this would make me feel safe, but it didn’t. I wanted to be at my son’s side. He needed to know I was here; I hadn’t abandoned him in his time of need. I sobbed against Maximus’s chest, not knowing what I could do to help or fix this.

“It’s okay,” Maximus whispered when he sat down in a chair with me cradled against him. “We will get it all worked out. He will be fine.”

Anger brewed inside me. Did he really not know this was all because of him?

I pushed away from him and sucked in enough air to steady my rapidly beating heart.

“Do you not understand what is happening here, Maximus? This is because of the spell Zephyrine cast on you for breaking her heart! Now she plans to break everything of yours!”

His eyebrows furrowed, a low growl rising in his throat. “What are you talking about?”

“How can you be this stupid? She wanted you to suffer, and this is how she plans to do it. Zephyrine made you ignore the signs of a strong mate bond and reject me. A fated mate! A way for you to become stronger and hold your reign over the kingdom! It broke us apart and made you think that it was done, that the curse was broken.” I balled my fists at my sides.

“But it wasn’t. It’s far from over, Max. ”

“You’re blaming me for my son getting sick right now? It could just be a stomach virus. How are you jumping from him having an upset stomach to a damn curse?”

He was white-knuckling the arms of the chair. Maximus wanted to respond but didn’t know how to control himself. His breathing was labored, and his nostrils were flared. Maximus was barely holding it together.

That didn’t stop me.

“It’s because of you we are in this position. You were thinking with your dick, and it made another woman snap. It’s not even you who is suffering, Max. It’s me and your child!”

I stormed out to get air. It was becoming harder to breathe, knowing my son was fighting something these nurses and doctors wouldn’t be able to heal.

The only person who could undo this would be Zephyrine, and I had no idea how I could get in contact with her.

What was her endgame even? Why would it trickle down to a person who had no part in this?

The cold air hit me, and I sucked in a breath to try to calm my nerves. I couldn’t go too far, but staying in that space with him wouldn’t help how I felt. This was becoming too much.

I felt his energy before his actual touch.

Maximus grabbed my shoulders and whirled me around to face him.

The look on his face wasn’t what I thought it would be.

Pain etched his features, and I thought I saw moisture in his eyes.

I watched his Adam’s apple bob as he struggled to speak.

He had something to say; I could see it. So I waited until he found the words.

“Zephyrine’s curse was more than I thought it was—I see that now. I hate how it’s come down to my child’s life being on the line for me not to take it seriously. I’m so sorry.”

My face hardened at his words. “Sorry? You think that is all I will accept when our son is in the clinic!”

He winced at my words, and he opened his mouth to say something, but I pulled away from his hold on my shoulders and took a step back. Shaking my head, I narrowed my eyes on him.

“Take accountability for your fucking actions, Maximus, or get the fuck out of my life.”

He dropped to his knees and bowed his head. “That’s the last thing I want,” he murmured. “Please, don’t leave me. Not now… not after I found you again.”

I crossed my arms over my chest and let out a huff.

This wasn’t going to be a moment where I let him off the hook just because he apologized.

It was hard to keep the anger inside me as I watched him look utterly broken.

Every instinct I had was to wrap him up in my arms and make it better in any way I could.

It hurt to see him like this, but I was tired of him thinking this was over.

Just because he said a few apologies and things were becoming a little comfortable didn’t mean we were fine now.

We weren’t.

“I can’t lose you two again. After you disappeared, I was haunted by your absence in such a way that I couldn’t eat, sleep, or even run the damn kingdom.

I stood over a map, searching for any lead to find you so I could make things better, fix everything I broke.

” He reached out and touched my legs, gently pulling me into him.

Maximus buried his face in my stomach, and I felt my shirt become soaked as his body shook.

I heard him suck in a deep breath and let it out before continuing.

“There’s no reason to live in a world without you.

Now with Titan here and knowing what Zephyrine has done, I will track her down and slit her throat in front of you for what she has done to us. Please, forgive me.”

It broke my heart to hear him struggle to get these words out. Maximus continued to sob into my stomach, and I had never seen an alpha like him in this state before. My father wouldn’t have been caught acting like this with my mother, and she was his fated mate, just as I am to Maximus.

When I think about the couples I grew up with, none of them would act like this. Not even in private. I heard the females talk about their mates, and during fights, the males just let them pout and moan. Not once did they say how their mate pleaded with them to stay and forgive them.

This was not the man I left a year ago. As much as I wanted to stay angry, Maximus wanted to fix this.

If I wanted my child to grow up with a better father than what I had, then I didn’t have to look hard for that man.

He was right here, begging for a chance to prove he wasn’t that guy anymore.

His remorse was palpable, and I was letting my anger get the better of me.

“Max…” When I hesitated, he looked up at me. His eyes were red, and hope shone in them. “I don’t know. I don’t want to do this right now, either. Let’s go inside… and see what’s going on with our son.”