“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
Tatum is taken back. That wasn’t the version of the story he was told but he doesn’t doubt Leila, not even a little bit, he has known her since they were little and she has never lied to him, not once.She is not the type to seek vainglory either, she must feel really bad that Carmela is getting her praise for her to even voice it. He must do right by her, the pack must know the truth of what really happened.“Don’t get used to it. I’ll tell the pack what really happened and make sure you get your accolades,” he replies in a calm tone but it’s like his words only add salt to Leila’s injury and she scowls at him, her eyes filled with rage.“For fuck’s sake Tatum, I don’t care about any stupid accolades! Honestly, at this point, I don’t care about you, Carmela or any of your pack members. Just leave me the fuck alone,” Leila replies coldly.Tatum’s heart squeezes with a nasty pain. He never thought hearing her say she doesn’t care about him will hurt so much but it does, it really hurt
Goddess….Tatum realises his mistake. He has seen her so much as a self sufficient person whose independence and strength he admires so much that he forgot that in her core, she is still…just— a woman.He stands up and sits on the bed beside her, holding her before she can move away, his remorseful eyes looking into her soulless ones.“You have every right to be upset but we can fix this, just don’t bring up the divorce again.”“There’s nothing to fix Tatum. You brought Carmela into our home without asking me how I feel about it. Let me ask you, when you go to bed in her arms every night, do you ever wonder what must be going through the head of the woman next door?” Even though Leila’s tone is steady and cold, it is laden with so much pain that Tatum feels it in his heart.Why does she never mention anything to him? She let him assume she is okay with everything when she says nothing.And she is wrong, he has never gon