When Leila opens her eyes, the next morning, she hears the sound of a man’s slow heavy breath behind her in bed, his arms firmly wrapped around her, their body pressed tightly against each other and Leila slightly shifts her butt away from the hard thing pressing against her thigh, feeling embarrassed but she doesn’t wake Kelvin up. She spins slowly in his arms and studies his face while he sleeps, he is handsome and looks almost like an angel in his sleep. He is an angel even when he is awake. Without him, she would not be alive and he has saved her life numerous times on different occasions, putting his life at risk, the hideous scars on his forearm are testament to that. She knows Kelvin is in love with her, it came to her as a brutal shock when he told her that he has always been in love with her about five years ago, two months after they settled into the Bayview pack, thanks to Kelvin’s family business investments in the pack. It was the day she went into premature labour, s
“Aunty Amanda, I will be having a girls sleepover tonight,” Amara says into the iPad standing on the dining table as she has her dinner.After helping Leila and Kelvin escape, Amanda knew she would be the next target and she moved to Kelvin’s uncle pack the following day with the help of Curtis.Luckily for her, a doctor with her versatile skill was just what the pack needed at the time and she quickly secured a job at the hospital.Amanda was with Leila throughout the final days of labour, as gruesome as it was, she never left Leila’s side and she stayed for months after delivery before she returned back.Amanda chuckles. “Is that so cupcake, how many of your friends are coming over?”“None of them, I’m going over to Kate’s—”“Amara!” Leila calls, stepping into the living room.“Kate’s mom is here. Do you have everything you need?” “Yes mama,” Amara replies sharply, jumps down from the chair and runs into her room.She returns with a huge backpack and waves Leila goodbye as she run
He regains himself and takes slow calculated steps towards her, taking glances at the items on the mat. “What’s the occasion and where’s my little dove? She didn’t come out to welcome me.” “Well….I thought maybe you’d like to spend some alone time with your original little dove,” Leila says in a slow coquettish tone, feeling her heart slam against her rib cage. She doesn’t know what she is doing or if she is doing it right but it seems to be working as Kelvin cannot take his eyes off her and she can hear the heavy thudding of his heart. “We could have just eaten out though, you didn’t have to go through the trouble,” Kelvin says, glancing at the array of dishes in front of them as he sits beside her. “I know,” Leila replies, “I just wanted the evening to feel more…intimate.” She stretches her trembling hands and takes Kelvin’s hands in hers, rubbing it against hers softly, feeling like her heart wants to tear out of her chest. Kelvin stays mute, just staring at her like he is hy
“It just doesn’t make any sense,” Leila says in a clearly angered tone, stuffing clothes into a box. “Why now? I mean why after fifteen good years. What’s the point? We are his family, we should be the ones seeking justice. If they cared about him so much, why didn’t they look into it after his death, they’re just going to put my innocent mother through unnecessary trauma. I hate them all.”Kelvin sighs, zipping the box full of Amara’s clothes. “Look on the bright side, we could get evidence to find those rogues who did it.”“I know who did it,” Leila replies sharply, her cold gaze flushed with anger. “It was Carmela’s father, I’m certain of it.”“But without proof, those are just mere accusations. I know you are angry and you want revenge on those who hurt you and your family, believe me, I do too but we have to pick our fights wisely.”Leila groans, dropping on the bed defeatedly, hanging her head before she raises it to look at Kelvin with a sullen look in her eyes.“She should hav
She wipes the corner of her mouth to see Kelvin holding Amara by the car but they are not the only ones looking at her, several pack members passing by have also recognised her and they are not subtle with their stares. Many look genuinely shocked to see her, whispering among themselves, most of them hold nasty glares on their faces as they stare at her but none of them say a word or come close to her as she returns to the car. She was expecting at least one of them to come at her, considering how they took torches to the Alpha’s house, demanding her death and chased her till she jumped off the cliff. As Leila’s car pulls closer to her mother’s house who Tatum has placed under house arrest with several pack warriors guarding her, Leila notices men in construction gear and overall taking measurements on a large parcel of undeveloped land belonging to her family. Is her mom planning to do something with it after all these years, but she would mention it to her if she was. She shrugs
Leila nudges Kelvin with a playful smile on her lips but he smiles wryly at her, a smile that barely reaches his eyes.She doesn’t miss it and she knows it’s because he thinks she may still have feelings for Tatum.Why can’t he understand that Tatum is as far from her heart as the sun is from the earth, if not more?How can she get him to see and believe that?She turns to her mom.“Mom, I saw some men doing some work on the land dad was going to build his mall on, is that you?” Liana scoffs, a nasty sneer covering her eyes. “I wish it was,” she replies, taking a sip from her drink and her eyes turn sombre.“About a month ago, I got a letter from the council of elders that the land hasn’t been developed in two decades and by law, they have the right to repossess it and give it to a new owner, of course after giving us due compensation. Trust your mother to refuse and provide proof that your father has only owned the land for nineteen years and eight months, making them halt on the m
“It was important to see our mother first, we needed to ascertain the state of her wellbeing,” Kelvin replies in a calm tone. “Luna, you look well,” Theo says, fixing his eyes on Leila. “I’m no Luna of yours,” Leila replies coldly, her blue eyes turning into steel. Luna…..It was what Tatum deceived her with, made her believe that making her Luna was a selfish act of love, made her think that as long as she held the position in the pack, she stood a chance to hold a place in his heart but in the end it was all a faux, a mirage, a smoke mirror that showed just how foolish she was to fall for him. Theo makes a face at her and he smirks. “Well the Alpha never divorced you, did he?” “Mama!” Amara runs back into the living room. “You changed the password to the ipad again, I can’t unlock it.” Theo squints at the child, visibly taken back. She addressed Leila as Mama, Leila was pregnant with Tatum’s child when she left the pack but that was five years ago, this child looks barely thre
As their car gets closer to the packhouse, Leila’s heart pounds with nervousness, an uneasy feeling grating her nerves.It’s been five years since she last saw Tatum, five years since she last saw the man she loved with all of her only for him to betray her, five years since he looked her in the eye and told her that her penalty was death even with his child growing inside of her, five long years since he took back his promise to never let her go and watched her jump to her uncertain fate.No matter how strong she appears on the outside, the feeling of seeing him again truly makes her nervous, she doesn’t know if she has it in her to hold herself from lashing out at him, from offloading all the bitterness and anger stuffed in her chest on him.Why would that even matter? Tatum means nothing to her, her only mission here is to prove her mother’s innocence.She frowns at the pack house as their car pulls up to it, for the two years that she was Luna, she can number the times she stepped