(Piper POV)As I hear what sounds like a steel door opening, I race out of the bedroom. The moment that I see Leo, I feel a tremendous weight lift from my shoulders. Without saying anything, I jump into his arms. I wrap my legs around his torso and bury my face into the crook of his neck. He smells like sweat, blood, and war, but I could care less. He is here. An answer to my prayers.“Well that is a greeting that I could get used to,” he chuckles. He begins rubbing comforting circles on my back with one hand, while the other holds me up by my a&&.“Are you okay? Is everyone else okay? Is the pack okay? What happened?” I ask in single breath.He smiles as he gently pushes me back just a little bit so that he can look into my eyes.“Everything is fine, Little Pea. Everyone is okay. I missed you.”I smile at his words. I know that we need to talk, and I know that I have even more doubts and questions for him than before, but this feels right. I can feel it deep in my gut; b
(Piper POV)After Leo leaves, I can feel the tears beginning to form in my eyes, but I fight them back. Like hell am I going to let Ingrid and Axel know that they have successfully broken me.Not that they don’t already know. It is pretty obvious that they do. Axel sticks his tongue out at me the moment that Leo is out of earshot, and Ingrid looks like she just won a billion dollars. At least the two nannies have the decency to have at least a little bit of sympathy in their eyes.As the four of them push past me to leave —presumably headed towards their rooms as Leo had directed— I find my feet stuck in place. I think a part of me hopes that if I stay in that same spot for long enough, I will wake up in my bed and find out that everything that has happened for the past six hours was just a nightmare.But then I hear Ingrid praise Axel, and for some reason, that is all it takes to bring me back to reality.“Mommy, did I do good?” Axel asks her, hopefully. “I tolded Pwetty Lady e
(Piper POV)As I continue to lean my head against the couch in the panic room, the tears that I had been holding back earlier finally begin to fall.All morning, I had been fighting against myself and trying to hang on to my trust in Leo. But Leo? He had done the opposite. Without even giving me a chance to explain, he chose to believe the worst in me and walk away.What does it mean that he did that? Does it mean that our relationship is one-sided? Does it mean that I am a fool? That my trust in him is misplaced? What about my trust in our relationship… is that misplaced too? Worse… is there more truth to what Ingrid and Axel said than what I want to believe?I just really don’t know anymore.The more the questions and doubts swirl around in my mind, the more confused I feel. The more confused I feel, the faster the tears fall down my cheeks. And the faster the tears fall, the more that I wish that my parents and best friend were here with me. I desperately crave one of
(Piper POV)It is now three o’clock in the afternoon. I have not heard from Leo or anyone else in hours. Standing up, I decide that enough is enough. Although I wanted to wait for Leo to come to me, at this point, this whole thing has become ridiculous. I am going to go find Leo, and we are going to talk everything out. He may be angry with me, and he may not want to talk to me, but we need to at least try.After all, we are supposed to be getting married tomorrow, and our wedding rehearsal is set to begin in just four short hours. Besides, if I spend even another minute trying to make sense of everything on my own, I am going to drive both myself and my wolf crazy. Even though I messed up, I deserve an opportunity to explain. I also deserve to get answers once and for all.No longer caring whether there are guards in the hallway, I storm out of the panic room on a mission. (To my surprise, there aren’t any guards around.) I go straight to Leo’s bedroom, but after knocking a
(Piper POV)One strange advantage to having your soul crushed into a million pieces is that it gives you options in terms of where to focus your energy.You can choose to focus on the heartbroken pieces, the jealous pieces, or the confused pieces. Alternatively, you can choose to focus on the pieces of your soul that are still desperately holding onto hope and faith and trust.Or, you can do what I decide to do: you can focus on the angry pieces.Truth be told, there is still a part of me that thinks that this is all just a set up by Ingrid. A masterful, brilliant set up. Another part of me isn’t sure what is going on, but it is nevertheless convinced that Leo loves me and that I can trust him.Unfortunately, if I listen to those latter pieces right now —after everything that has happened not only today, not only during the past two weeks, but rather during the entire past two years— I know me. The confusion will take over and I will end up in a corner of the stairwell crying for
(Piper POV)After a couple of rings, the house phone in the alpha suite is answered.“Hello?” says a female voice.I know that voice, but it isn’t Luna Rachael. Who is it?“Hello?” the voice asks again.“H-Hi. Who is this?” I ask hesitantly.“Andie.”Realization hits me and I sigh in relief. Andie is one of the Blue Ridge omegas. She and I used to be good friends. We were close in part because she was one of the few she-wolves who did not lust after Xander; she was too obsessed with her neighbor and long-term boyfriend, David.“Oh my Goddess, Andie. It’s me, Piper.”“PIPER!!!!!!” she squeals. “Oh my gosh. I have missed you so much!!!! How are you doing? Where are you? How is life? Have you met your mate? Any pups?”“Slow down, Andie,” I laugh. “First, tell me how you are doing? How is David?”“David is great. We just found out three months ago that we are fated mates, and… I’m PREGNANT!!!!”I squeal a little bit at her response. “Oh, Andie!!! That is fantastic news!!!!
(Xander POV)After Andie disconnected the call, I yanked the phone out of the wall and threw it angrily across the room. It immediately shattered into pieces.No sooner had the pieces hit the floor than regret hit me, hard and fast.I pulled my cell phone out of my pocket and tossed it to Andie. I was still angry, but I knew that I had to fix this situation. More importantly, I needed to fix this situation quickly. “CALL HER BACK,” I demanded.“W-what?”“I. SAID. CALL. HER. BACK.”Andie looked at me as though I had lost my mind. And, of course, she was probably right. Andie and I had known each other since we were pups, and she had never seen me behave the way that I was behaving right now. Unfortunately, I did not have time to worry about how Andie was feeling.“Xander, I can’t. I –” “ALPHA XANDER!!!” I corrected her. “Right now, I am your alpha not your friend!!! And I am giving you a direct order. Call Piper back, NOW!!!!!!”“Alpha, I-I can’t.” “WHY NOT??!?!?”“I… I
(Xander POV)***FLASHBACK TO A FEW HOURS EARLIER***Leo and I had just worked out the terms of our agreement. With no time to write it out, we quickly dictated it into audio files on each of our cell phones. It wasn’t the ideal way to record a peace treaty, but it was enforceable all the same.While we waited for Luna Lily and Alpha James to rejoin us in Leo’s office so that we could tell them that we had reached a deal, I was feeling great. Powerful, even. Despite Leo’s strength and his reputation —and despite us being on his home turf, fighting over a she-wolf who unbeknownst to him was his fated mate— I felt confident that I was just days if not hours from having Piper in my arms, and in my bed, exactly where she belonged.Yes, I still had more steps that I would have to take to achieve that goal, but get there I would. After all, this mission had proven how quickly I could think on my feet and how masterfully I could get myself out of tough situations. Even if Ellis had playe