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Chapter Nineteen

A LARIC HELLS

The week has surprised me and normally, I would be complaining, probably analyzing everything over a glass of scotch and in Ethan’s company, but for once in my life, I’m not fucking complaining.

Life has been too great for me to complain except at this exact moment.

I kneel just outside my little princess’ bedroom.

Calling her mine should be labelled insane, but not doing so feels like a crime on my part, because the attachment I have formed with Lina Winter is on a whole different level.

I’m holding Bear for her because most of the time, I’m worried the big, pink teddy bear will smother her and crush her. I push the few strands of hair from Lina’s face.

Fuck, the kid is adorable and she one hundred percent takes after Lila’s looks, and that, for some reason, fills me with pride and possessiveness.

“Come again?” I ask, like I'm not too sure I heard her right.

Lila is downstairs prepping Lina’s strawberry milk.

My little princess has an obsession with chocolate and strawberry milk, and cupcakes. I’ve restocked my fridge with everything she likes so that Lila never sees the need to leave my house.

I want them both to say. I’ll make sure they both stay with me. Forever, if I can manage it.

“Mommy’s never had a birthday party. Only I have parties. I want to bake her a cake, can we, Alaric? Please, can we?” Lina pouts.

“Of course, princess. We can buy her the biggest cake tomorrow.”

Lila has never celebrated her birthday? Is that a choice or…

“No! I want to bake it with you. She bakes for me on my birthday, but she’s never had her own cake, Alaric.”

“Your wish is my command, princess,” I assure her, but nothing feels right about Lila not having her own birthday party.

Personally, I never cared about mine, but if it concerns the two most important people in my fucking mansion? Well, hell yeah, I want Lila to get her party.

I’m about to probe even further, but I catch a whiff of Lila’s scent before she approaches us.

“What wish?” Lila asks.

I turn around, and my heart nearly breaks at the sight of her in one of the night dresses I bought for her.

She's carrying a glass of strawberry milk and fuck me, does she look hot right now.

“Nothing, mommy,” Lina says too fast.

I stand up, chuckling and running a hand in my hair. “Yeah, like she said, it was nothing.”

Lila doesn’t seem to buy it, but she lets it go.

How does a woman like her not celebrate her birthday? It fucking beats me.

Turning to Lina, she raises her left brow, “You are supposed to be in bed, baby.”

“Yes, mommy. Goodnight, Alaric.”

Lina waves, and I hand her the toy.

I have to open the door for her because with her carrying Bear, I don't think she can open the door for herself.

My wolf’s excitement takes a nosedive, though, because in all honesty, every time she calls me by my name, I want her to call me something instead. Something that sounds like the word “father”. Hell, who am I kidding? I want her to be my kid and I want to be her dad.

“Why do I feel like I’m losing my daughter to you every damn day?”

I’m aware that I’m shirtless. I'm aware that Lila’s eyes roam down my abs, and I’m completely aware that as I cage her against the wall, a glass of milk being the only thing stopping me from kissing her, that she can feel that our dynamics have changed.

“Are you jealous, baby? Because Lina has the right to have two favorite people in her life.”

“Alaric.” Her voice comes out raspy and all bedroom sexy. It’s hard not to focus on those lips that call me the way a siren lulls a fisherman.

“I could be your favorite person, too, Lila. Just let me in.”

She smiles. The expression is a genuine one. We’ve been playing this game of flirting between us for a couple of days. “Are you going to bribe me with strawberry milk, too, so you can be my favorite person in the world?”

“Who needs strawberry milk,” I murmur, dragging my hand up her thigh, “when I could have you moaning my name, begging me not to stop?”

I lean in, lips barely brushing hers.

“But not tonight.”

I kiss her forehead instead, savoring the sound of her breath hitching.

“Goodnight, Lila.”

I walk to my room with a hard, raging boner, then I take my phone and before I dial Ethan’s number, I don’t miss looking at the date. I might be forgetful at times, but tomorrow happens to be a special day. One too perfect for what I'm about to ask of Ethan.

Ethan picks up on the first ring.

“Boss?”

“I need a favor.”

The scent of freshly baked vanilla cake wafts through the air as I place the last pink candle in the frosting. Lina insisted it had to be pink, because, in her words, "Mommy looks prettiest in pink."

The frosting is a little uneven, and the sprinkles might have been scattered more by Lina's little hands than my own, but the cake is perfect. Because it’s for Lila.

Unfortunately, Lina woke a little early, and Lila is tucking her in bed.

She’ll be here in ten minutes. I know, because I told her to meet me outside.

The lights are dimmed. Balloons line the posts that hold the gazebo up, and pink and gold streamers curl from the corners of the ceiling.

It’s not much, not the grand, over-the-top celebration I could throw with my name and money. But it feels right. It feels like her, and I must thank Ethan for pulling this all off in one day, in my backyard, no less. And for making sure Lila didn’t see this.

I’m smoothing out the tablecloth for the umpteenth time, when the sound of the sliding door indicates it’s opening.

The minute Lila steps out on the concrete, the lights come on, and I get a spectacular view of the shock and surprise on her face.

She’s dressed in a nightgown that barely reaches her mid-thighs.

I’m dressed in a tux because it’s her fucking big day.

Her eyes widen as she takes in the decorations, the cake, the soft instrumental music playing from the speakers, and her lips part.

"What—"

"Happy birthday, wild one," I say quietly, stepping forward with a glass of red wine and offering it to her.

She takes it with shaky hands.

“I-I don’t understand.”

“Lina told me about you not celebrating your birthday.” I take her hand in mine, gobbling up the feel of her skin against mine as I lead her to the dinner table that’s set just for us.

“Yeah, I don’t celebrate my birthday because I don’t even remember the exact date I was born, so what is all…this?”

“Your birthday party. On a day like this, six years ago, we met, Lila. We can turn this day into your birthday date.”

I pull a seat out and she sits down.

I take my seat, grabbing myself a glass of wine too.

“You like it, Lila? Lina and I made the cake. It isn’t fancy, but I think it’s edible. I hope.”

Lila chuckles.

Full on, hand on her chest, chuckles.

I absorb her laugh like it’s air meant to make me survive.

“Like it? I love it. I love it so much, Alaric. No one…no one has ever done this for me.” Her voice shakes as she downs her glass of wine.

“Lila, I never meant to upset you. You deserve the world, and this is not me trying to…”

“I’m not upset. Really Alaric. This? I just…I have never had anyone in my corner doing this stuff for me.”

And because I'm intrigued, I ask, “And your parents?”

She laughs painfully. “I never had parents. Or at least I had parents, but they abandoned me. I’m not too sure about the details. All I know is ever since I was born, I’ve had to fight for what I want. I’ve had to scrape for food from the streets just to survive.”

The wine tastes like ash as I listen to her story, because rage filters in my veins. She shouldn’t have gone through all that. Not alone, anyway.

“Then I grew up, and for a minute, I forgot about who I was when I became involved with Julian. I needed someone, and he was there, and maybe that’s the reason I found out too late that he was cheating on me. Maybe he’d been cheating on me so many times, and I had failed to see it.”

I know for a fact that my nephew might have been cheating on her when they were together. He was that kind of idiot.

“But then, Lina came into my life, and Goddess, it was hard at first. Being pregnant and still having to work so I could support myself to keep a tiny apartment was so hard. Then came the postpartum stage, where I had to carry Lina to work because I had no choice if I wanted both of us to survive.”

Her tears fall, and I clench the tablecloth hard. Thinking of them in that situation twists the rage inside of me.

Guilt eats me up. If I had let her explain herself six years ago, maybe she wouldn’t have gone through so much. Maybe I would have already had her and Lina in my life a long time ago.

“But it’s okay, I’ve survived. She survived, too, and I'll do everything in my power to keep it that way.”

“We. We’ll do everything in our power to protect Lina because I’m here now, wild one. Every hardship you’ve endured is in the past. Right now, and going forward, you and Lina have me in your corner, and I’m never leaving, baby.”

I don’t know what makes her move.

Maybe it’s the way my thumb is brushing her knuckles.

Maybe it’s the candlelight fighting the shadows in her eyes.

Maybe it’s just the bond.

But she stands up, rounding the table slowly and coming to me like I’m gravity and she’s finally tired of resisting the pull.

“Alaric,” she whispers. “I don’t know what this is, but I…”

I cut her off with a kiss because I already know what it is.

The kiss is not rough, not hurried.

Just lips meeting lips in a way that feels like we’re trying to etch each other and this moment into our memories.

Her fingers slide into my hair. My hands settle on her waist, then glide lower, making her body press flush against mine.

When I lift her into my arms, she doesn’t resist.

She melts into me.

I carry her inside, careful not to let the sounds between us wake up Lina in her room.

We don’t go to my room, but to Lila’s. Because this isn’t about possession. This is about giving her a choice.

I lay her on the bed like she’s precious. Because damn, she is.

She looks up at me, breathless with her green eyes dilating with the same need inside me. “You don’t have to be gentle.”

I lean down, kiss her collarbone, and trail my lips up to her ear. “But I want to be.”

Because she deserves softness after everything she’s endured.

She deserves it to be slow.

She deserves to be worshipped.

And that’s exactly what I do.

Her dress falls from her shoulders like silk. I trace every inch of her skin with my hands, my mouth, my devotion, to show her how important she is to me. When I kiss down the curve of her thigh and hear the hitch in her breath, I smile against her skin.

Her moan when I finally taste her core is a sound I never want to forget, because no one moans as softly as Lila Winter.

I take my time eating her out.

Until her thighs tremble against my face.

Until her fingers claw into the sheets and she’s gasping my name like it’s a benediction.

When she comes in my mouth for the second time in a row, only then do I rise and kiss her mouth again, giving her everything.

And when I enter her, slow and deep, it feels like the world holds its breath.

Her legs wrap around my waist. Her lips part. And when I start to move, our bond sizzles.

Every thrust is a promise that I’ll be here for her and Lina. That I’ll never disappoint her the way life has.

Every kiss is a vow that she is mine.

I don’t hold back.

I can’t.

I tell her she’s beautiful. That she’s mine. That no man will ever touch her like this again.

And she gives it back to me.

Her hands cradle my face. Her lips whisper my name and my cock throbs inside her in delight.

When she breaks, shattering in my arms, I follow right after, groaning into the crook of her neck like the man who never thought I would have a woman like her.

When it’s over, we lie there, tangled in each other, the sheets damp with sweat, our breath uneven.

Her head is on my chest.

My fingers play in her soft and silky hair.

She speaks first, her voice so soft I almost miss hearing her.

“I used to live in this city as a child, you know…before I lost my memory.”

I still.

Everything inside me stills.

She continues, unaware of how fast my brain is firing and connecting the dots.

“I remember…flashes. A tree. A hospital. A man’s voice calling me ‘moonflower’.

And then…pain. So much pain. It’s fuzzy.

But I think…I think I was sick. I remember someone saying I had Moonborne Syndrome, and the other day, the healer told me that Lina might have it too if her marker weren’t dormant. ”

My blood runs cold.

I stare at the ceiling, heart pounding.

Could it be?

Is she…?

My mind spins. My wolf stirs.

Something deep hums in my bones.

I press a kiss to her hair.

And I make a promise.

I’ll find the truth. I’ll protect her. No matter what it costs.