Page 27

TWENTY-SIX

Alexia

“What time is it?” I mumble as I prop myself up on one elbow and rub the sleep from my eyes. It’s much too dark in the bedroom to be morning, and I feel like I’ve been asleep for days instead of hours.

Xander’s sitting up in bed next to me, his phone in his hand. He clicks it off before reaching over to the nightstand to turn on the lamp. Turning back to me, he pushes my hair from my forehead before moving my face back and forth like he’s inspecting it to make sure I’m still in one piece.

“It’s six o’clock,” he says, setting his phone on the nightstand before giving me his undivided attention.

“PM?” I ask incredulously. “I slept that long?” We got home from the hell that was yesterday at 9:00PM or so and I passed out almost immediately.

“Yeah, you were exhausted, Alexia,” he says, picking up a strand of my hair and twirling it around his finger. “I slept for a while too but eventually I couldn’t anymore, so I just decided to read, sketched for a bit, and?—”

“Wait, you stayed in bed with me for almost twenty-four hours?” I ask. Xander isn’t one to rot in bed all day—me, on the other hand, I love a good rotting session—but he is always up and doing something.

“Of course I did, little wolf. You think I’d leave you after everything that happened yesterday? Hell no.”

This man. I move closer to him and nuzzle into his side. He slips his hand under my neck and guides me to rest my head on his lap. “Thank you.”

“For what?”

I look up at him in disbelief. “For what? For everything, but I meant for saving me yesterday. I really thought I was going to die in that creepy ass building with Carrington and Clayton shoving poison down my throat.” Tears sting my eyes at the memory of the betrayal I never saw coming. My best friend wanted me dead. And she came so close to actually getting the job done.

“I know. It scared the hell out of me too. But I got to you. I’ll always come for you,” he says, brushing my hair with his palm.

“How are we going to cover this all up? And what about Carrington?” I ask.

“We will have some questions to answer in the coming days. Thankfully, the pack elders had a feeling something was up with Clayton, and they aren’t fond of the idea of their future king being put on trial. Kai has handled a lot of the logistics of it all for now. Luckily, he was a witness to things that happened, and he is on our side. As far as I know, he’s talked Carrington into turning herself in. His hope is that if she does that, admits her responsibility in all this, then they’ll grant some leniency in sentencing.”

I don’t know how to feel. On one hand, I want that. I want her to have a chance to live the rest of her life, but on the other, I want her to suffer some sort of punishment for what she did to me. I guess time will tell.

But then two other words Xander said float back into my head, and a smile creeps over my face. “Future king, huh?”

He rolls his eyes. “Yeah, yeah.”

“So you do want to be king?”

In a graceful move, he lifts me. I move my legs until they are on either side of his and we are facing each other. Burying my face in his neck, I let his scent calm me. He always reminds me of fresh-cut wood drying under the summer sun with a hint of something masculine and wild. He smells like mine.

“I’m still grappling with what all this means. Even if I didn’t want the responsibility, someone has to act as regent until a new monarch is named. As the new patriarch of this family, that falls on me.” He pinches my chin, forcing me to look at him. “What do you want? How do you see our future? I need to know because I’m not making a move that you don’t want to make too. But if you want this with me, I’ll take the crown.”

“I was ready to take it with Kai,” I say carefully. “It was something I was prepared for. Well, as prepared as I could be. But to be your queen?” I rest my forehead against his. “To say I want it would be an understatement. Imagine how much good we could do for our people.”

“You are amazing, but I think you know that I feel that way about you.”

“I do. But it’s still nice to hear.” I slide my fingers through his hair and gaze into his blue eyes. “Your mom would be proud of you. She loved all her children, but there was something that lit up inside her when she spoke about you.”

He bites down on the inside of his lip and nods. “I’ll never be as great of a ruler as she was.”

“No. You’ll be better,” I say.

The torment that he feels about his mom’s death may never fully go away. But I’ll be damned if I’m not going to try and ease it. A day will come when Xander Slade looks back at his life and realizes that he has made a million selfless decisions that more than make up for the one time he left his mother’s side when she was sick.

He pulls me in and softly kisses my lips. “I love you, Alexia.”

“And I love you,” I whisper.

A knock at Xander’s door makes us both jump. “Come in?” Xander calls, not even bothering to move me off his lap, just pulls the blanket over us.

The door creaks open and Kai sticks his head in. “Y’all decent?” he asks with a raised eyebrow.

My cheeks flush and I roll my eyes. “Yes, doofus, come in.”

He steps all the way inside the room and rolls Xander's desk chair to the side of the bed so he can see both of us. ‘You okay, Lex? I was getting kind of worried about you for a bit there.”

“Yeah, I guess getting hit head-on by a car then beat up took it out of me,” I joke, slipping off my mate’s lap and sitting beside him instead.

Kai sobers and leans forward, propping his elbows on his knees. “I’m so sorry. For leaving, for what Carrington and my dad did.”

I shake my head. “No, Kai, it’s okay. I’ve already forgiven you for leaving and you can’t be responsible for your father and sister’s actions.”

“I do feel responsible though. Carrington and my dad did all that behind my back and I didn’t even know. How is it possible I didn’t know?” he says, running his hands through his hair and gripping it at the roots.

Getting to my feet, I let the blanket fall away and squat in front of him, grabbing his wrists and pulling them away from his head. “Look at me, Malakai. None of us saw it coming. If you thought I ever expected Carrington to betray me like this, you’d be dead wrong. This is not your fault. You have to believe me.”

“I just want you to know I’m sorry, and I would have never left the way I did if I thought I was putting you in danger. After I saw Sophie and knew she was my mate, I realized something was very wrong, and I needed space to figure it out. I just went about it the wrong way.”

I look back at Xander and smile. “You left me in good hands.”

The brothers speak at once saying, “I did,” and “He did.”

Kai grips my elbow, guiding me to my feet as he stands. “You need to call your mom. She has been blowing my phone up and is demanding to know what’s going on. I haven’t given her much information. I figure you need to do that. She doesn’t know about...” He wags his finger between me and Xander.

I grin sheepishly. “Yikes, okay.” I look back at Xander. “Will you take me over there?”

“Of course, baby,” he says, taking my hand and kissing the back of it.

Kai shakes his head and smiles. “This is still really weird.”

“Yeah, it’s also weird that you’re mated with my coworker!” I shoot back. “Xander only told me the bare minimum right before I passed out last night. Don’t think you’re getting out of telling me details. You’re my new best friend since Carrington tried to off me, you know that, right? Get ready to hear all the gross details about my sex life with your brother.” I’m teasing, but only halfway. I really do want to hear all the details about Sophie. That was a complete shock to hear but completely explained his odd behavior at my office that day.

He laughs. “Let me get everything straight with Sophie. Even we don’t know what’s going on there. Then we’ll set up a double date and I’m sure she’ll be happy to hear all the gory details.”

“You got a deal.”

I inch the front door of my parents' house open and slip my head inside. The familiar aroma of perfectly spiced food fills my lungs. Everything is just as it was before I moved out. The high gloss stone floors are spotless and a fresh bouquet of flowers rests on the accent table by the stairs. My mom always loved a monochromatic room with tiny bursts of color.

“Mom? Dad?” I call out while motioning for Xander to follow me inside.

“Thank the goddess, Alexia. You had me worried to death,” my mother says, rushing around the corner. She stops dead in her tracks when she sees Xander. Her eyes dart between us before she yells over her shoulder. “Bradley, you better come in here.”

My father enters the foyer through the entrance to the dining room. His black and gray hair stands on end, like he has been running his fingers through it. Dark circles frame his eyes, and he looks like he hasn’t had a wink of sleep in days. He ignores Xander, walking right past him to pull me in his arms.

“You had me terrified, Alexia,” he says, his voice breaking as he squeezes me tight.

My mom snaps out of her shock and flings her arms around me and Dad. “We heard you were in a head-on collision, but no one would tell us anything other than you were alive.”

I open my mouth to apologize but Xander beats me to it. “That’s my fault. I’m sorry you were given so little information, but I thought it best that Alexia talk to you before anyone else.”

My parents step away from me, leaving me and Xander in what feels like a face-off with them. Dad slides one hand into the pocket of his jeans while wrapping the other around Mom’s shoulders. This has to be confusing for them. The last they saw me, I was leaving arm in arm with Kai, and now, I stand before them with his older half-brother—Olivia's son who our people believe abandoned her during her final hours and never came to show his respect when she was laid to rest.

Goddess, they all have it so wrong. I had it all wrong.

“What’s going on here, Alexia? Where is your mate?” Dad asks.

His harsh tone shouldn’t shock me. My father may be understanding, kind, and empathetic, but he’s also traditional, loyal, and has little patience for dishonesty. This must look so, so bad.

“Can we go sit down in the living room and talk? I clearly have a lot to tell you,” I say, my heart pounding so hard I’m afraid they can hear it. But Xander’s hand tightens around my waist as if he can sense how nervous I am, and his reassuring touch instantly calms me.

“Of course,” my mother says quickly, as if she’s embarrassed that she hadn’t already offered. “Goddess, what is wrong with me? I’m just so?—”

“Surprised, confused, I know,” I say, reaching out and squeezing her hand. “I promise, I can explain.”

We follow my parents into the living room and take a seat on the sectional sofa meant to fit my large family. We leave a respectable distance between us, merely for my parents’ benefit. Our mating bond is still so new that I want to be attached to Xander at the hip at all times, but I keep a hold on my hormones for now.

“I guess I’ll just start at the beginning,” I say, and I drop the biggest bombshell that’s the most important for them to understand. “Kai isn’t and never was my mate.”

I’d laugh at the way my parents’ jaws drop in unison if this weren’t such a serious situation. “Excuse me?” my mom finally says, glancing at my dad before looking back at me, “What did you say?”

“Kai isn’t my mate. The ritual was tampered with.”

And after I explain that entire situation to them, their heads are still spinning when I add, “But I did find out later that the wolf I stopped at toward the middle of the line... that was Xander. He’s my mate. Which is why we’re here together today and why our connection just started growing from day one. And why Kai and I never did quite mesh.”

Dad lifts a thick eyebrow and says to Xander, “That makes you our next king, which is going to be hard for many to accept after?—”

“I know,” Xander says. “I’ve got some work to do to repair the damage from my absence. There is a lot that goes along with that story, and I promise I’ll share it with you and others before I take the crown. But just know that I can do this... I want to do this with your daughter at my side. I’ve just started to crack the surface on all this, but I do know one thing. Any shortcomings I have—and I have quite a few—your daughter will make up for them as our queen while she helps me grow. Believe me; she’s already done quite a bit of work on me already and she doesn’t even know it.”

My heart swells in my chest and I squeeze Xander’s hand. “Let me just say this: Clayton had a lot to do with Xander not being here for Olivia’s funeral. There is so much you don’t know. But what you have to know and trust is that Xander is my moon-bonded mate.” My parents’ eyes widen as they glance at each other and then back at me. “He is everything I never even knew I wanted, and I love him with every single piece of my soul. He understands me better than anyone I’ve ever known, and he’s truly my other half.” Emotion clogs my throat. “Dad, Mom, please. I need you to be okay with this because no matter what, Xander is my future. There will never be another day where he isn’t by my side.”

My parents exchange a long, loaded look. It’s one of those silent communications that comes from years of a healthy, loving relationship. No one can read into it. Not even me, and that sets me on edge as I await their reply.

Xander’s fingers slide between mine. He gives two reassuring squeezes. This is us, our future. No one, not family or friends, will stand between us. And those who try to tear us apart will be our enemies. I don’t want my parents on that side of things. But if that is the choice they make, it will not hinder the way I feel about my mate. They have to know that.

My dad stands and Mom follows suit. He extends his hand to Xander. My mate stands and grips Dad’s fingers. His muscles coil as he moves to shake, but Dad draws him into a hug.

He pats Xander’s back and says, “Welcome to the family, son.”

Xander’s brilliant blue eyes find mine, and I see it—the gratitude, the acceptance. It’s not just him anymore. He knows he has the love of an entire family, including Kai.

“Thank you, Mr. Rush,” he says, gently clapping my dad on the back.

“Stop that nonsense,” my mom says. “I think we can all be on a first name basis now.”

Xander nods. “All right. Thank you, Bradley... June. You have no idea what it means to me to have your acceptance. And I swear to you that I will protect Alexia with my life every day until my last breath.”

“Hey, this was the easy part. We believe you. Now you have to get past her brothers,” my dad says, rocking back and forth on his heels.

Xander shrugs. “That’s terrifying. But I’ll make it happen.”

“You could always order their heads lopped off if they aren’t nice to you,” I say, unable to stop the giggle that escapes me.

He pulls me to his side and kisses my forehead. “Or you could just order it yourself, my queen.”

“Don't tempt me with the power to torture my brothers. I could have way too much fun making them think I would actually follow through with it.”

“She would,” Mom chimes in. “And the boys might deserve it.”

“They do,” I say.

Xander smiles down at me, and I see our whole future in that one look. This is just the start of something great. Just. The. Start. We have so much to still learn about each other—idiosyncrasies, favorites, and pet peeves. I get to spend the rest of my life learning everything I can about this man. And I already know he is hungry to learn everything he can about me.

When I look at us from an outside perspective, I know it seems unbelievable. That we could fall in love so fast. Many others would have been ripped apart by the circumstances we’d been given, but instead, we’ve sewn the tears in one another’s heart with the tangled thread the goddess began to weave the moment each of us was born. Our destiny may seem twisted to some, but the path we took was truly our own. It was the way the goddess intended, fate having written that part of our story for us. Every chapter from here on out is ours, and we will ink the ending however we want.