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Frantic and scared inside, Carmela retains her poise outside, docile as a lamb before Antonio but she schemes like a fox in her head, thinking about her next best possible line of action to avoid certain death. She remembers what Lithoha told her about bearing Antonio’s mark and him bearing hers. It would mean that she would share a portion of his powers and he will be bound for her to life, unable to feel attraction for or comfort with anyone but her. She knows what she has to do. She will mark Antonio before he marks her. That way, even if she is exposed, he will think twice and hard before killing her because if he does, he will be killing a part of himself too. “I see you took my advice to be naughty literally,” Antonio says as Carmela massages his cock from his trousers while simultaneously sucking on his thumb. “Your wish is my command,” Carmela replies, batting her eyelashes at him, her voice coquettish to the max. “Good girl,” Antonio rubs her head, unbuckling his belt to
“Come on, it’s late, you shouldn’t be up by now, let’s put you to bed,” Leila says to Amara in the living room of their house, frowning at the little girl. After the ritual, Amara seems to have gained more control of her powers and she can now keep her Lycan aura down whenever she is around people. It was that inability that first sparked Antonio’s interest in her when he saw her, he could feel the strong aura emanating from such a young child. “It’s the last episode mama, please,” Amara pleads with puppy eyes, clasping her hands together and she looks to Amanda for support. Amanda came a day after the ritual to be with them incase medical help was needed. “Nope, you’re— ah!” Leila suddenly screams, clutching her chest and her wolf wails in her head, pain dragging through her already weakened body from the one sided rejection. “Mama!” Amara yells as Leila falls face first to the floor and Amanda also rushes to her, her eyes wide in fear. “Leila, are you okay? What is wrong?” Le
The moment Tatum sweeps Leila off the floor into his arms, Leila feels a yearning deep inside her, rising above the terrible pain that she is currently in, she snuggles closer to Tatum as if the warmth emanating from her is not enough and she needs more of his. She looks into his eyes as he takes her upstairs to her room and there is nothing but worry and concern in his eyes. More tears spill out of her eyes, her heart wobbling in pain, reminded of the fact that their story ended when Antonio put her in his bondage. If only she did not harbour such hatred in her heart towards him, if only her anger didn’t burn through her like a fiery furnace when she first returned but how was she to know? How was she to know that behind Tatum’s cold and seemingly ruthless behaviour towards her, he always cared and never stopped caring, how on earth was it possible for her to know that beneath her pain, her hatred and anger lingered a desire for him. She fought hard not to give in to it when s
Tatum looks down at her, his eyes skimming past her pale yet pretty face to her lush boobs half hidden in the water and he gulps, his heart racing hard. It is hard enough to control himself from out here, sitting with her in the tub will be too much for him and yet it is exactly as much as he needs, he is more than deprived of her touch, the contact of her skin, the warmth of her body. He misses her, every little thing about her. Not a day has gone by that he has not craved for her, for a moment where they can just put everything behind them and enjoy the comfort of each other’s company. He can feel the urge of his wolf to be with her, even if there is no bond between them which is even more strange yet he is happy about it, that his wolf wants the woman that he wants, mate bond or not. Leila lets him go, sensing his reluctance and she dips her hand in the water, closes her eyes and throws her head back, feeling the water or whatever is inside it, slowly sucking away her pain. Sh
Leila wakes up the next morning feeling lighter and better than she has felt in months. She eagerly jumps out of bed, saunters towards the drapes over the windows and she opens it. She jerks her head backwards, makes a surprised face as the flowers in the garden outside have all bloomed, even those that are out of season. She shrugs and turns and that is when she sees the mark on her neck in the mirror and her heart skips and memories of yesterday barrage into her mind. She gasps, rushing over to the vanity to check the mark up close, touching her neck and she looks at her bed, remembering that she fainted during the marking process yesterday and that is all she can remember. It turns out the mark of the phoenix was only hers to carry because it was Tatum’s to give, a mark of their bond. Tatum. Where is he? Did he leave last night? She rushes out of her room then halts halfway. Tatum was about to say something yesterday before he marked her but she did not want to hear it. She
“There’s someone here to see you my lady,” An omega bows and says to Carmela in her room in Antonio’s place. Carmela turns her head away from the mirror where she is working on her makeup and looks at the omega before looking back at herself in the mirror and a wide smile splays her lips. She’s not even been officially announced as the Lycan Queen yet and people are already coming to seek her favour. “Who is it?” She replies in a stoic voice, hiding her excitement from the omega. “It’s— It’s Alpha Tatum, he says it’s urgent,” the omega bows again. A mix of anger, bitterness and fear immediately clouds Carmela’s mind and her heart races. What the hell does Tatum want? Why is that loser here to see her? What could be so important that he would come into Antonio’s lair knowing fully well the history between the two of them and how Antonio may feel about his woman being visited in his house by a mate she rejected. Is Tatum trying to ruin things for her? Her brows furrow and she c
“Make it quick,” Carmela sneers, sitting on one of the concrete benches in the back garden of the house, away from earshot while Tatum stands in front of her, his back turned to her. Every cell in his body burns with anger and a livid hatred for Carmela and nothing would give him greater satisfaction than snapping her neck or ripping her heart out but she is the literal queen in this game of chess that he is playing and he needs her to make a crucial move. He knows Antonio isn’t done with Leila yet. From his discussions with Tatiana, he knows that her brother doesn’t like to lose or take no for an answer and that must be why he rejected Leila to punish her but ordered her not to accept so he could still have some claim on her. In the long run, Antonio will figure out something is wrong. He can only be deceived for so long but before that happens, he needs to bait Carmela into helping him. “My request is simple,” Tatum turns to face Carmela with a serious look on his face, his eyes
“What is this?” Antonio sneers at an envelope that an omega drops on the stool beside him where he is sitting with Carmela on his legs. “The Beta of Alpha Tatum brought it,” the omega bows, speaking cautiously. Carmela stares at the envelope, doing her best to keep her heart from racing but her heart sinks to her gut knowing fully well what the envelope contains. She adjusts herself on Antonio’s leg and picks up the envelope, rips it open and skins through it before tossing it back absentmindedly. “The pack wants to throw us an engagement party. Since the Lycan king found his mate in this pack, they see it as an honour and would love to do this for us,” she says, watching Antonio’s eyes carefully. “Engagement party? A day after Tatum comes here? What did he say to you in the garden? I know of your little tête-à-tête,” Antonio says in a cold and suspicious voice, squinting slightly. “Don’t tell me the Almighty Lycan king is jealous of a common alpha,” Carmela replies sharply with
Tatum decides to accept Leila’s invitation even when he doesn’t think it’s the safe thing to do but if she’s inviting him over, it’s more than a step in the right direction and he doesn’t want to fumble it and he also misses Amara so much. Dressed in a pair of faded blue jeans and a white shorts sleeve shirt, with a bouquet of flowers and a bag of toys in his hands, he knocks when he gets to the door but there’s no response the first time. He knocks again and the door slowly opens. “Good evening sir,” Amara greets him with no smile on her face and no enthusiasm in her voice. Tatum looks down at her, shocked by the cold and blank expression on her face. Amara is always happy to see him. What could be wrong? “Hey sweetheart, how are you doing?” He crouches to her height, showing her the bag of toys, “I got these for you.” “I don’t want them,” Amara replies, folding her hands against her chest and turning away from him just as Leila steps up to the door. Tatum looks up at her, mom
“Has anyone seen the Alpha?” Theo asks no one in particular, walking into the pack house cafeteria.He’s been to the office and he can’t find Tatum, neither is Tatum taking his mindlink which is very strange considering it’s the morning and Tatum is usually the first one around.“I think I saw him at the training complex,” one of the guys replies and Theo squints his brows, a confused look on his face.Tatum hasn’t been to the training complex in years even if training people is one of his favorite things to do. Well the only person he gave special attention to training then was Leila but after the incident between them and she left, he hasn’t stepped a foot in the complex.Theo scoffs, a thought crossing his mind as he waltzes through the corridor of the pack house that leads to the back where the training complex he located.“Harder! Is that all you got woman?” Tatum’s excited and taunting voice is the first thing he hears as he gets closer to the complex.Woman? Tatum is training
Carmela stands up slowly, looking at Tatum and Leila with shame and anger in her eyes, tears pouring out of them. She grabs her purse off the table, sniffing and sobbing before she practically runs out of the restaurant.“I’m really sorry about that,” Tatum says, pulling a seat back for Leila, “she just showed up out of nowhere.”Leila gives him an unsettling look before her gaze turns cold which sinks his heart. “Whatever,” she rolls her eyes in the direction Carmela just went, “like I said, she’s irrelevant,” Leila pauses and gives Tatum a look he can’t quite read. “What is it she needed help with?”“A fake pregnancy test,” Tatum replies, “but it doesn’t matter. I was only going to help her so Antonio doesn’t figure out the truth. Believe me Leila, she was only trying to stir up trouble between us,” Tatum’s voice comes out nervous.“I heard you the first time, Tatum,” Leila replies in a curt voice, sliding her purse off her shoulder and she drops it on the table with a bit of forc
Tatum turns his head in the direction and the moment he sees Leila, the look in her eyes as she sees the two of them that close makes his heart jump and he pulls away quickly from Carmela.He cannot afford to have her thinking otherwise or anything wrong. He wants her and her alone and he doesn’t care that Carmela is here, he’ll let her know that he has eyes only for her.Leila stays rooted to the spot, clearly confused about what is going on.Tatum dashes towards her as she spins on her heels to leave. He holds her hand and turns her to face him, looking at her with passionate eyes.“It’s not what you think. I didn’t invite her here, she came on her own asking for help and when I refused, she was willing to confess a secret. She was just about to whisper it to me, I swear, that was nothing,” Tatum says in a panic voice, hating the judgemental eyes Leila is looking at him with.“Okay, carry on then,” Leila replies, pulling her hand away from him and it breaks his heart that she doesn’
Tatum frowns, sneering at Carmela as she walks over to his table, a poise smile on her face as she locks eyes with him. “How did you know where to find me? What the hell are you even doing here?” Tatum fires at her, holding back the chair in front of him as she tries to pull it to sit. “Really?” Carmela rolls her eyes at Tatum. Tatum glares at her, feeling deeply irritated by her presence. A part of him wants to blame her for everything that went wrong between him and Leila but he knows that those events only happened because he allowed it one way or the other. He shares a part of the blame, if not the brunt of it. “I’m only going to say this once and I'm not going to be nice about it either. Get the fuck out of here,” Tatum points to the door, his voice cold, his Alpha aura rising in a dangerous manner. Carmela’s eyes widen and she takes two steps back, the confident look on her face falters and her eyes turn sad. “I need your help Tatum, please, Antonio’s going to kill me if y
“This is the best offer we can give, Alpha Tatum. It helps your pack and our company. Let us have those acres of land develop it, rather than allow it to lay in waste,” A man says to Tatum in his office later that day. He is part of a group of investors who are interested in developing a parcel of land sitting on the outskirts of the pack territory. Zane frowns, “I already told you gentlemen, if you can’t meet my ask for the lease, forget about it. I am not negotiating the terms of our deal.” “Alpha, I think you should consider their price, it’s fair and it greatly benefits the pa—” “I said we’re not selling, a lease is all we can—” The sound of Tatum’s phone vibrating on the table cuts him off and he arches his neck to look at the caller. Leila’s name displayed on the screen immediately makes his heart race. Why is she calling? Does she finally want to talk about last night? Has she forgiven him and wants to take him back? The butterflies in his stomach suddenly go on a rampag
Tatum smiles at the sleeping figure of his one true desire in his arms, beautiful as the sun, peaceful as a dove. He wonders how she’ll react when she wakes up and realizes what happened yesterday. He shouldn’t have done it but it was hard to hold back. The most control he could exert over himself was not to fuck her. He wants to earn that, he wants her to want it when she’s completely sober, he wants the desire to come from her heart and not from her body alone. He heaves a sigh, his guilt pricking his heart once more. This guilt will stay with him forever, even after he earns her complete forgiveness. He has a lot to make up for, so much more than he thought. Leila groans softly, her eyes fluttering open and Tatum shuts his eyes, waiting to see what her reaction would be. He feels her gently pry herself away from his arms as carefully as she can, not wanting to wake him up and then he feels her hand waving across his face to check if he is awake and he almost smiles at what she
Antonio groans in his sleep, with his eyes closed, he searches for Leila on the bed and pulls her close to him, snuggling her tight against him but then he suddenly opens his eyes, shocked by the smell of the woman beside him and he sees it’s Carmela “What the fuck?” He says in shock, shoving Carmela away from him. “Baby, what’s wrong?” Carmela yawns, stretching her limbs and gazing around the room, “when did we come here last night?” Antonio sneers at her, anger bubbling in his chest. Did Tatiana deceive him? She wouldn’t dare, not with the life of her beloved in his arms. He knows his sister too well. When she’s in love, she’ll do anything for that other person, she wouldn’t dare to put Kelvin’s life at risk. That only leaves one explanation, Carmela must have found out about his plan somehow and sabotaged it. He knows she has a witch working for her but it’s never been an issue for him because there’s no trick up that witch’s sleeve that he wouldn’t know but how did he let hi
Leila grips his hand that is latched around her throat, spreads her leg open quickly to give him room, the anticipation of what he plans to do to her heighting her desire and her heart pounds with ease. She moves his hand away from her throat and places it on her boobs, squeezing it against herself and her body vibrates when Tatum pinches her nipples, at the same time, slides her panties aside underneath her gown but he hesitates again. “Leila, are you sure? I don’t want to hurt you,” he says in a shaky voice, the struggle between his desire to take and pleasure her and the need to respect her sounding clear in his voice. Leila looks into his eyes, desire and hesitance fighting inside them, she bites down on her lower lip, finding it hot that even now that the roles are reversed, Tatum still respects her; he won’t touch her even if she wants it and that makes her want him the more. She clamps her lips against his, sucking on it passionately and Tatum gasps into her mouth as she cup