“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 pushLeila 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
Deciding to divorce Tatum was the hardest decision Leila ever made and in the days that have passed since they had that huge fight, leading to her asking for a divorce, a tiny part of her wishes she had shown more restraint but there was only so much she could take.Sometimes she wishes her soul would just travel out of her body and take her to a place where she can’t feel suffering, worry, pain or heartbreak.A place where she can just exist without these sad emotions that constantly fill her, hopefully where the thoughts of Tatum still brought.She loves him, even now that he’s demanded that they end everything, she still feels that yearning for him but he will never love her and she has accepted it.“Leila, our little munchkin is starting to make itself known,” Amanda says excitedly, pointing at Leila’s bump.Leila's eyes widen slightly and she runs her hands down her stomach. “Yes it is,” Leila replies with a half smile.
“I don’t want to go back to my house, that place is no longer my home. Can I— live with you for a while?”Leila’s voice burns a hole in Tatum’s chest as he’s about to turn the door knob. It’s not just the way she refers to their house as no longer a home that vexes him.It’s the coldness in her voice, the sadness that they carry and he acknowledges that it is his fault but she just won’t let him fix it.He has avoided coming to see her because she said she needed space but he never expected that the competent and hardworking Luna would neglect her duties.He knows she is wounded but the woman he married would delegate duties and keep things running smoothly even if she was on her deathbed.Why is she being so stubborn and hell bent on leaving their marriage, to the point of neglecting her duties.“If it’s not your home, then whose home is it?” he says as he opens the door and steps in.He hears the way Leila’s heartbeat