“For the last time, I have no idea how it got into his hands, I left it right here this morning,” Leila taps on her dresser, glaring at Tatum.He just let Carmela go, no investigation, no nothing. Despite how much she tried to make him see the truth, he refused to listen to her and demanded they return home while his warriors took care of everything.Does he believe she really would hire an assassin? “I believe you Leila,” Tatum replies, sitting on the bed and massaging his temples, the wrinkles of stress shaping the lines of his forehead.“But you don’t believe Carmela did it right?” Leila places her hands akimbo, a bitter smile on her lips followed by a soft scoff of disbelief as she stares down at her husband.“No Leila, I don’t,” Tatum replies coldly. “I know you don’t like Carmela but you can’t just accuse her of something as evil as this. You are the Luna, your words carry weight, you can’t just condemn people you don’t like.”Tatum’s cold words breeze pain all over Leila’s he
“Tatum I–”Tatum shakes his head.“I don’t care why you do it, I really do not want to know.”He cares, he cares all too much, he cares and it hurts beyonds words to see the only woman he has ever loved, his wife, his Luna, sneak out behind him and remain in touch with the one man he has repeatedly told her he doesn’t want her to have anything with.She even forced him to go and save that man’s life. A searing pain burns Tatum’s heart and he smiles bitterly at Leila but he doesn’t say anything and they both just stare at each other.Eyes holding mixed and powerful emotions.Ironically, the other man in his marriage happens to be his wife’s fated mate and he is out there, right now, brewing the cure for her, so he can have legal grounds to take Leila away from him and there is nothing that he can do but fold his hand and watch.The pain he feels is nothing an entire library of encyclopaedias can explain, all the words in all the languages of the world can barely scratch the scratch of
“The Luna is here,” One of Clayton’s men says to him, bowing slightly.“Let her in,” Clayton grunts as a deep frown etches on his face.Tatum has already mindlinked him of Leila’s intention to join him in the investigations. Left to him, he would rather not do it with her but it is her right as Luna and a direct order from his Alpha, he cannot disobey it.“Whatever plans you have to sabotage the process of this investigation will not work. You should know that,” Clayton says coldly to Leila the moment she steps into his office.“I assure you head warrior, I have no plans to sabotage anything, I myself want nothing but the truth to be revealed,” Leila replies in a soft tone and gives Clayton her signature polite smile before she takes her seat.Tatum observes her calculatingly as she sits down, her aura is calm yet reeks of authority. She looks nothing like the woman who came to his office a few weeks ago.There is something very different about her demeanour that puts him off but he k
Leila sees Tatum leaning against his car as she approaches their house, he is wearing a pair of grey jean shorts and a white short sleeve shirt, his daredevil handsome face radiating in the evening sun as he puffs on his cigarette.Her driver rolls down in front of Tatum and he throws his cigar to the floor, crushing it under his white leather sandals and he opens the door for Leila.“Welcome back, Luna detective Leila,” Tatum says in a coy, polite manner, bowing slightly to Leila as she steps out of the car.Leila jerks her head back, squinting at him in surprise and it takes all her willpower not to chuckle at being called a detective.“An Alpha shouldn’t bow to his subjects,” She rolls her eyes and walks straight for the door, not sparing him another glance but a feeling of warmth spreads through her as she does enjoy being waited upon by him.“Well that’s too bad because this Alpha is subject to you,” Tatum replies in a coquettish tone and shuts the car door. He rushes up to her,
“Tatum, where is this?” Leila asks when Tatum takes off her blindfold and her vision is welcomed by a dimly lit cave with candle lamps hanging from the walls, a small red clothed table with two glasses and a bottle of wine on top of it, as well as an array of covered dishes. Red rose petals cover every expanse of the floor, including where she is standing and she turns to look at Tatum, confusion and curiosity clear in her eyes. She guessed right, this is a date but why a cave of all places? “What do you think of our crime scene detective?” Tatum asks with a small smile, watching her reaction as she takes in the scenery. “Well it’s quite aesthetic I should say, our culprit put in a lot of thought. Favourite flowers, nice ambience, favourite wine, I’m sure I can smell the sweet savoury dishes covered as well, perfect to lure our victim to–” she pauses, “what happened to the victim?” “That’s why I brought you here detective, to figure out what happened but I’ll tell you the story
“Right from the very day we drew this, up until this very moment, my love for you has never waned. I love you, Leila.”Tears peel out of Leila’s eyes and she just stares at Tatum, stunned by the words that just came out of his lips. Whether her heart stopped beating or cannot stop beating is a matter of irrelevance to her.She has dreamt of this day, fantasised an unholy amount of times about it, lived it in her head for so long but never did she believe the day would come.Her heart explodes with so much joy, it can only be expressed in shock and the tears coming out of her eyes. She opens her mouth to reply but her lips just quiver and she cannot find the words.Tatum kneels and holds her arms, gently pulling it against his pounding heart, his grey eyes completely sullen yet full of passion as they reflect the warm light hanging above them.“I should never have married you. I should never have made you lie that we were second chance mates but I saw a chance to keep you by my side an
“You insolent little twat! Do you have any idea of the sacrifices that were made to put you in this position?” Trent, Carmela’s father, barks at her. “I thought you said Tatum loves you, that it will be enough for you to take his side as Luna.”Carmela keeps her eyes on the floor, her body vibrating with a soft tremor as she kneels, taking in the bearting words of her father.Trent leans forward from his chair and places the burning edge of his cigar on her shoulder but Carmela does not dare to move despite the searing of her skin as her cloth melts against it, she does not want to incur his wrath past a verbal extent.“Forgive me sir, I can still fix this,” Carmela replies in a monotonous tone. Her father does not care about emotions, only about results and as far as he is concerned, Carmela is failing him.“Do not be deceived by this tattoo on your neck,” Trent replies, yanking her dress from the shoulder down to reveal the mark of the phoenix on the joint of her neck and shoulder.
After that night at the secret cave, Tatum has been nothing but sweet to Leila. Not a day has passed since then that she has not received some sort of gift from him. She goes to bed with foot rubs and back massages and this morning, she woke up to breakfast in bed, prepared by him but she suspects Adaline must have been there to coach him because the food was really delicious. Right now, she is heading to meet Clayton. He called her and said that he may have some news about Bobby Lister, Carmela’s hit man. Surprisingly, Clayton has been open about the whole process and isn’t hiding anything from her as she first suspected he would. The usual scowl on his face when he sees her is gradually becoming a full smile and he even took her out to lunch on one occasion, called it partner bonding as they are now partners working on a case together. Leila opens the door to his office, somewhere she now enters without permission and the first person she sees is Carmela. Leila immediately feel