Leila sees Tatum leaning against his car as she approaches their house, he is wearing a pair of grey jean shorts and a white short sleeve shirt, his daredevil handsome face radiating in the evening sun as he puffs on his cigarette.Her driver rolls down in front of Tatum and he throws his cigar to the floor, crushing it under his white leather sandals and he opens the door for Leila.“Welcome back, Luna detective Leila,” Tatum says in a coy, polite manner, bowing slightly to Leila as she steps out of the car.Leila jerks her head back, squinting at him in surprise and it takes all her willpower not to chuckle at being called a detective.“An Alpha shouldn’t bow to his subjects,” She rolls her eyes and walks straight for the door, not sparing him another glance but a feeling of warmth spreads through her as she does enjoy being waited upon by him.“Well that’s too bad because this Alpha is subject to you,” Tatum replies in a coquettish tone and shuts the car door. He rushes up to her,
“Tatum, where is this?” Leila asks when Tatum takes off her blindfold and her vision is welcomed by a dimly lit cave with candle lamps hanging from the walls, a small red clothed table with two glasses and a bottle of wine on top of it, as well as an array of covered dishes. Red rose petals cover every expanse of the floor, including where she is standing and she turns to look at Tatum, confusion and curiosity clear in her eyes. She guessed right, this is a date but why a cave of all places? “What do you think of our crime scene detective?” Tatum asks with a small smile, watching her reaction as she takes in the scenery. “Well it’s quite aesthetic I should say, our culprit put in a lot of thought. Favourite flowers, nice ambience, favourite wine, I’m sure I can smell the sweet savoury dishes covered as well, perfect to lure our victim to–” she pauses, “what happened to the victim?” “That’s why I brought you here detective, to figure out what happened but I’ll tell you the story
“Right from the very day we drew this, up until this very moment, my love for you has never waned. I love you, Leila.”Tears peel out of Leila’s eyes and she just stares at Tatum, stunned by the words that just came out of his lips. Whether her heart stopped beating or cannot stop beating is a matter of irrelevance to her.She has dreamt of this day, fantasised an unholy amount of times about it, lived it in her head for so long but never did she believe the day would come.Her heart explodes with so much joy, it can only be expressed in shock and the tears coming out of her eyes. She opens her mouth to reply but her lips just quiver and she cannot find the words.Tatum kneels and holds her arms, gently pulling it against his pounding heart, his grey eyes completely sullen yet full of passion as they reflect the warm light hanging above them.“I should never have married you. I should never have made you lie that we were second chance mates but I saw a chance to keep you by my side an
“You insolent little twat! Do you have any idea of the sacrifices that were made to put you in this position?” Trent, Carmela’s father, barks at her. “I thought you said Tatum loves you, that it will be enough for you to take his side as Luna.”Carmela keeps her eyes on the floor, her body vibrating with a soft tremor as she kneels, taking in the bearting words of her father.Trent leans forward from his chair and places the burning edge of his cigar on her shoulder but Carmela does not dare to move despite the searing of her skin as her cloth melts against it, she does not want to incur his wrath past a verbal extent.“Forgive me sir, I can still fix this,” Carmela replies in a monotonous tone. Her father does not care about emotions, only about results and as far as he is concerned, Carmela is failing him.“Do not be deceived by this tattoo on your neck,” Trent replies, yanking her dress from the shoulder down to reveal the mark of the phoenix on the joint of her neck and shoulder.
After that night at the secret cave, Tatum has been nothing but sweet to Leila. Not a day has passed since then that she has not received some sort of gift from him. She goes to bed with foot rubs and back massages and this morning, she woke up to breakfast in bed, prepared by him but she suspects Adaline must have been there to coach him because the food was really delicious. Right now, she is heading to meet Clayton. He called her and said that he may have some news about Bobby Lister, Carmela’s hit man. Surprisingly, Clayton has been open about the whole process and isn’t hiding anything from her as she first suspected he would. The usual scowl on his face when he sees her is gradually becoming a full smile and he even took her out to lunch on one occasion, called it partner bonding as they are now partners working on a case together. Leila opens the door to his office, somewhere she now enters without permission and the first person she sees is Carmela. Leila immediately feel
Leila watches as Clayton’s eyes glow repeatedly as they wade through the sea of green trees, making their way to one of Bobby's hideouts, a wood in the cabins.They had gotten an anonymous tip from a man about the place who happened to have escaped from Bobby’s kidnapping attempt during the course of the investigation.“Who was that?” Leila asks Clayton when his eyes stop glowing.“None of your business,” Clayton sneers at her in a playful manner. Leila punches his arm and grabs his sleeve. “Hey! We agreed no secrets between us right? I know you were talking about the case, you had that distant warrior look in your eyes.”Clayton smiles at her. “Good instinct, we may yet make a full fledged warrior out of you. I was talking about a case, just not this one.”He was talking about their particular investigation, he was mindlinking Tatum on the progress of things. He is under orders from his Alpha to update him every thirty minutes whenever he is with Leila.He also got a severe warning
In a flash, two of Clayton’s men have also been shut down as he covers Leila with his body, laying on the ground. Fear immediately grips Leila and she quivers. Maybe she should have listened to Clayton and not come in the first place but she did not want any valuable information to pass her by.She trusts Clayton to an extent because he hasn’t lied or hidden anything from now up till this point but he has been texting back and forth with Carmela a lot lately and for that reason, she cannot wholly trust him.Has she made a mistake? Is this an ambush on her life? Has she played right into Carmela’s hands? Will Clayton really sacrifice his men for Carmela?She tries to open the mindlink but they are too far out from the pack for it to work. Her heart rate increases and she heaves, fearing the worst for her and her baby.Several canisters fly from inside the cabin and immediately begin to emit gas that makes Clayton cough, his eyes turning red.“It’s aconite gas. It can’t affect you beca
“I killed a man Tatum, I killed someone.”It’s been two days since the incident but Leila cannot seem to stop thinking of talking about it. Seeing the wolf she had shot transform into a beautiful woman around her age made it all the more traumatic.“You saved Clayton, you did the right thing, you had no choice,” Tatum replies, tightening his hold around her, kissing the back of her hair and stroking her back gently.“Can you do me a favour?” He asks, spinning her around to face him.Leila nods, her eyes sullen.“Whenever you leave the house, make sure to take guards with you, I already assigned them,” Clayton replies calmly.“Why?” Leila asks, “I’ve never required protection within my own pack.”“See them as escorts,” Tatum replies, hugging her closer and he kisses her neck which eases her anxiety.She knows why Tatum doesn’t want her to go out without protection. She heard some omegas whispering about it in the house and she sees the hateful glares she gets when she steps outside.It