(Leo Bloodstone POV)Our walk back to the packhouse took much less time than our walk to the hospital, primarily because my steps were hastened by anger. I could tell that Piper was also angry. However, to her credit, she left me alone to my own thoughts during the walk, choosing to avoid making a scene in front of the many pack members that we passed.I still could not believe that I had even briefly considered letting Piper continue to take herbs given to her by that moron a&&hole Xander. I had yet to figure out what his end game was, or even what his real motivations were, but he was consistently doing things that made me trust him less and less. This whole herb thing was a perfect example.Once we arrived at the packhouse, I took Piper through a back entrance —thus avoiding any of my family members who may have wanted to chat— and led Piper directly up to her room.“Give me the rest of the herbs,” I demanded the second that we walked in.Instead of getting them for me, she clo
(Piper POV)Maybe our fight about the herbs was a stupid one, but Leo was not backing down. And, once again, I found myself crying.At this point in my story, you are probably used to me crying. However, what you have to understand is that —prior to me running away from Blue Ridge— I never would have considered myself a crier. Yes, I cried… but not that often. It just wasn’t my thing.It was only after leaving Blue Ridge that I began to cry all the time. It was one of the few outlets that I had to deal with feeling guilty, overwhelmed, confused, and homesick.This silly fight with Leo was a good example of these emotions hitting me all at once.Yes, I was raging mad at Leo for ordering me around and making decisions without thinking about my input. I did not like being bossed around or treated like a toddler. And I HATED a male thinking that his wife was required to do whatever he told her to do.None of that is what brought me to tears, though. What brought me to tears was th
(Piper POV)When Leo told me that I was going to go shopping with his mom, grandmother, and aunts, I was anything but excited.Yes, I needed clothes. Desperately. The duffle bag of clothing that I had with me was meant to last for a few days, not for several weeks. However, I was still adjusting to all the changes that had been thrown at me. Spending an entire day shopping —not just for regular clothes but for a wedding dress, too— originally sounded like a wildly horrible idea.Thankfully, I was wrong. Shopping with Leo’s mom, grandmother, and aunts actually turned out to be really, really fun.As Leo predicted, they treated me a little bit like a living doll. They made me try on and model clothes in every single store, and they all had strong opinions about what I needed and what would look good on me. Thankfully, their strong opinions came with good taste and good fashion sense. But much more importantly, they continued to be incredibly kind and welcoming towards me. They
(Piper POV)“Oh, I work here now. Didn’t Leo tell you?”“Get out of here, Ingrid,” Grandma Rosie growled.“Did you not hear me, Grandma Luna? I SAID I WORK HERE NOW.”Ingrid spoke the last part slowly and loudly, as though Grandma Rosie was deaf.My jaw dropped at her condescending tone… especially because I could not believe that she was using it with Grandma Rosie, who until this moment had seemed to me to be one of the sweetest she-wolves that I had ever met.“My ears work just fine, Ingrid. Yours are the ones that I am worried about. Leave. Now.”I obviously had not known Grandma Rosie for very long, but this was the first time that I had seen her angry. And truthfully? Her angry face was scarier than Leo’s.“I do not think that my boss would be happy if I left,” Ingrid replied dismissively.“Why? Are you banging him too?” Leo’s Aunt Madeline asked.Ingrid rolled her eyes. “My personal life is none of your concern. Now, who is she?” she asked, gesturing to me.“None of
(Piper POV)After our marathon-shopping trip, we grabbed a quick dinner at a restaurant downtown. Dinner itself was great, but I noticed that we got a fair number of looks from other diners. Of course, by “we” I really mean “me.” I suppose that wasn’t all that surprising given that I was a newbie in town. I did hear a few whispers speculating about who “the blond was” that was eating with Luna and Grandma Luna, but thankfully, none of the guesses were mean.We ultimately did not make it back to the packhouse until close to 8 pm.Once we got back, two of the guards carried in the shopping bags for me, and I began unpacking and sorting through all of the day’s purchases. My room had both a large dresser and a large walk-in closet, and it took me a while to get everything sorted. As I unpacked, I kept wondering if Leo was going to stop by and ask me how the shopping trip went, or if he would check-in on me. I desperately wanted to talk to him about Ingrid, and find out why his fam
(Xander POV)“A little to the right. A little more. And to the left. And to the right. Now, go a little faster! Keep going. Perfect! Just like that. Yes! Faster! YEEEEEEEEESSSS!!! Now flip me around! Yes! Do it again! And again! Oh, Xander. You are sooooo good at this!!!!”I smiled down at the petite blond in my arms, whose rich brown eyes were laser focused on me. We had only just met, but I loved the praise that she freely gave me; I loved the way that her body moved with mine; I loved the way that she guided how I touched her; and I loved the sound effects that she made when I did things that she liked.This was my second dance lesson in the past 48 hours, and given how much I liked about Candice, I was already ready to book my next several sessions with her.Yes, dance lessons. Piper had always loved to dance, but that was the one thing that I was not willing to do with her in the past. I was embarrassed by the fact that I was born with two left feet, so to speak.
(Xander POV)After last night’s dance lesson with Candice, I felt re-energized. I woke up early, showered, ate breakfast, and made my way to my father’s office.My plan was to get some work done, and then invite the pack’s interior decorator to come and help me brainstorm how we would re-design the office to fit my style. Even though I was not formally taking over for a few months, furnishings can take a while to come in once ordered, so I figured it was best to get a head start on things.Unfortunately, when I walked into the dark office and turned on the light, I found Leo Bloodstone sitting behind the desk waiting for me. His feet were propped up, and it looked like he had been waiting for a while.“Leo.”He said nothing, choosing to instead glare at me.“What do you want?” I asked in an annoyed voice.Again, he said nothing.Frustrated, I closed the door and walked behind the desk. I left some space between him and I, but not much.“Get out of my chair, A&&hole. If you are no
Hi - just a heads up that my laptop completely died last night so updates may be delayed a little bit. Hopefully it can be fixed ASAP and I can recover the chapters that I've already been working on.This story is honestly my favorite one yet (of course, it helps that I know where we are going). 😂I will get the new chapters up as soon as the computer geniuses can help me. Thank you for joining me on this ride!