Hearing him say that to his mother means she has a chance. Perhaps, she should bear everything and give him the time he requested.
“What?” Adaline’s eyes bulge, her expression riddled with disbelief.“I think Carmela’s wolf got hurt during her time away, I’m still trying to find a cure for her. Once I do and our wolves can recognize each other—” Tatum pauses, glancing at Leila with something odd in his eyes.“The bottom line is, I’m not leaving my pack without a Luna until then.”Leila is immediately hit with mixed feelings. On one hand, she is glad Tatum won’t let her go so easily but on the other hand, she worries, when Carmela’s wolf heals and she turns out to be Tatum’s mate as prophesied, what happens then?“How is that even possible, for her wolf to be so hurt, her mate cannot recognize her?”Carmela heaves, her countenance falling, tears coating her doe eyes, her lips curving into a pout as she walks painfully slow towardsLife under the same roof as Adaline is not as bad as Leila expected, no, not one bit, she was completely wrong.What she got was ten times worse.The verbal abuse, the cynic comments, the lashing out for no just reason, finding the slightest excuse to mock and ridicule her, it was frequent, almost everyday.She acts like a shadow in her own house, sometimes a ghost and most days a zombie who just does whatever Tatum and his mother wants as long as it makes their precious Phoenix Luna happy.She doesn’t know how long she can put up with it honestly, she needs to get out of it. Everyday Carmela becomes bolder with her advances on Tatum supported by Adaline but what hurts the most is that Tatum just enjoys it, right in her very face like she doesn’t even exist or her feelings don’t matter whatsoever.She glances at him on the bed and notices he’s staring at her. “What?” Leila asks coldly, glaring at him.Tatum sm
“Tatum, please…..it’s nothing,” Leila replies, clutching the phone against her chest with trembling hands, her eyes full of fear at the rage in Tatum’s voice.She hasn’t even read the text from Kelvin to know what it is but she doesn’t want to have any issues with Tatum because of him.After the recent fight they had because of Kelvin, Tatum went from barely noticing her and giving all his time to Carmela to completely cold towards her, sometimes even ignoring her on purpose.As much as she is mad at him, as much as she hates the way things are between them, being able to still talk to him, to still spend a little time with him, to be in presence and bask in his smell, it is these little things that give her some sanity in her insane world.No matter how little attention he gives to her now, she cherishes it greatly, she doesn’t want him to take it away because of his misconceptions about her relationship with Kelvin.“I thought I made my
“For the last time Carmi, Tatum and I had an argument but it wasn’t about you,” Leila replies to Carmela, stirring her tomato sauce.Just like she expected, Tatum never returned to the room last night and he left the house very early this morning without saying a word to her.She plans to apologise to him when he gets back, bringing up divorce is a big deal and she honestly did not expect him to refuse outrightly.Even if it’s just because of the Luna position, it shows he values her in some way.“Are you sure Leila? Because he has been so nice to me and spends all his time with me, I hope it’s not making you jealous, because there really is no need to be. Tatum and I are just friends,” Carmela replies with an innocent smile on her face and glee in her tone.Just friends? Leila resists the urge to scoff at Carmela, turning off the cooker so her spaghetti is not overcooked.There was a time she used to cook for everyone in her hou
“The Luna of the blood oak pack is so pretty and she’s very smart too. Alpha Tatum is lucky to have a woman like her.”“I heard she’s no ordinary Luna though, her wolf has special powers, she is a child of prophecy.”“No wonder she has such beauty and brains, a truly magnificent person.”Leila hears the whispers from some omegas working as she strolls to the Ruby conference room of the Halitad hotel. A hotel co-owned by the blood oak pack and the moon rock pack, right on the borders that separate both pack grounds.She subtly blushes at the whispers, they seem full of high praise for her but she’s sure she’s never seen them before.The annual werewolf games are coming up, a competition where werewolves of different ages showcase their talents across various competitions and this year, the blood oak pack is hosting it and as is customary, the planning is left to the Lunas of the twelve packs that participate in the event.She push
Leila looks at Carmela and her eyes are full of remorse but Carmela’s words barely have any effect on her.She keeps saying she doesn’t want to be Luna but her actions would suggest otherwise but now is not the place to air such grievances.Besides, like her, Carmela is just a victim in all of this too, she was supposed to be married to Tatum, was supposed to be Luna, she has been preparing for it half her life, only to have it snatched away from her.It must be hard for Carmela coming back to see another woman living her life and her best friend for that matter, she has been so selfish she didn’t even consider Carmela’s feelings about seeing her with Tatum.Before she can reply, the security guard grabs the Luna closest to them and holds a knife against her throat.“If I see any eyes glow, I will slit her throat and kill as many of you as I can before your men get here,” he warns them sternly not to mindlink for help.The rest o
The chanting only gets louder and louder by the second and Leila is disturbed by the distortion of what really happened. It was her who risked her life to save the other Luna and Carmela didn’t actually save her but if she hadn’t attacked the rogue, maybe something worse could have happened.The chants and songs of praises of Carmela become deafening and the door to Leila’s hospital room opens. Leila cranes her neck past Amanda’s body to see Tatum rolling Carmela in a wheelchair into her hospital room and the first thing Leila notices is the way Carmela is running her fingers up and down the huge scar left by the rogue from earlier.Leila squints her eyes. There is no way Carmela does not have a scar from the night she was kidnapped if such a big one is left on her arm from today’s attack.Tatum raises his hand and the procession goes silent, the crowd outside the door turning away as his Beta, Theo, shuts the door and stands
Leila looks up at Tatum, silent tears coating her eyes at the way he yells at her in front of everyone because of Carmela when she is telling the truth.How long is he going to keep treating her like this? How much more can she endure?She is only a woman blindly in love with him and she only wants a little bit, just a little bit of his affection to show her that he cares, that if she keeps hope, they may yet be a chance for them.She blinks and as the tears roll down her eyes, she comes to a painful realisation. Tatum will never love her. No matter what, she will never mean anything to him.Just now when she woke up, she was terrified, terrified that she had lost their child, she wished he was the one beside her but he was with Carmela instead.Carmela’s strike was lethal, she could have died today, she and her baby, the bandage around her head and the throbbing pain she feels in it is a testament of that but does he
Fear. He has never felt fear like this before but when he realises what Leila is about to say, it dawns on him heavily….so much so that the hairs on the back of his neck are up. He grew up learning that as an Alpha, fear is the last feeling he should ever have right before he learned that his feelings must always come second to his pack but the thought of Leila divorcing him is dreadful. This is the third time she is bringing it up, he has been avoiding it because he doesn’t know what to do, she has every right to demand a divorce but he just doesn’t want to let her go because he knows the truth. Before the phoenix mark, before the night Carmela was kidnapped, before all of it, he always wished she was the one, the one with the mark, the one that will be his mate but it went to Carmela and his duty to his pack comes first. He must honour the prophecy but when fate presented him with a chance to keep her close to him, he took it. It was to protect her but it wasn’t just to protect
“First of all, she didn’t make the choice to marry you, you claimed her and made her your Luna. She was a bright beautiful girl with dreams of her own and you made her give it all up to be your bride and it was all for nothing. The moment your phoenix Luna returned, you kicked her to the curb,” Amanda fires at Tatum, glancing from Tatum to Carmela.Tatum sneers at Amanda, realising she is playing Leila’s role in their original plan.He chuckles lightly, wobbling as he walks closer to Amanda to amplify his drunk act. “What did you think? That I would pick her over Carmela, my fated mate? I only married her because I needed a Luna, not because I had any affection towards her. I’m not the first Alpha who chose a mate in the absence of their fated mate and I picked her not because she is special or anything like that, she had a good lineage, and came from a family of strong Betas, that’s all. She is nothing and will never be anything compared to—” he turns and looks at Carmela with that
Tatum spared no expense in hosting the engagement party evident from the lush and expensive decoration, several montages displaying pictures of Antonio and Carmela, the beautiful lighting of the venue and the impeccable colour scheme.Almost every werewolf that has come of age is present at the party and are having fun in one way or the other, some young lovers are making out on the dance floor, some in the corner, some people are dancing and grooving to the music and others are indulging their appetites, eating and drinking.Tatum sits in the midst of the crowd, slowly sipping on his fourth glass of whiskey, intentionally spilling some on his dress so the smell is heavy on him. From where he sits, he stares at Carmela with a fake longing in his eyes, a part of his act and only when Antonio or Carmela herself look at him does he look away, making sure they know he is staring at Carmela.He glances at Leila who is in the company of Amanda and a couple of other women. Their eyes meet an
“Meet me at our cave tonight, make sure no one follows you.”Tatum’s words from his mindlink to Leila earlier keep replaying in her head as she gets closer to the cave, her heart pounding hard in her chest.Why did Tatum ask her to come here of all places?This was where she first confirmed that Tatum had feelings for her when they were still kids and it was where he confessed his love for her years later before the unfortunate incident of her arrest and departure from the pack.What does he want to tell her that he has to bring her here?She sees the lamps hanging along the walls of the cave and she can smell Tatum heavily, her wolf’s excitement as well is going off the roof.Even if technically, she cannot say that Tatum and are as back as fated mates, bearing each other’s mark means there is a bond between them and she is dying to see him, just like a little girl excited to go on a first date with her crush.Even if the bulk of the feelings are her wolf’s because of the mark, there
“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
“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
“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
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
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
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