“You did a wonderful thing today, little wolf.”
Gianna smiles shyly while tying her hair in a ponytail. She’s just changed after her shower, and now she’s wearing tight blue jeans with a dark green knitted jumper.
After helping Jenna deliver her twins safely, I couldn’t be more proud of my mate. I hadn’t allowed her to continue as a healer when she came here. But now I see that was a mistake.
Both Luther and Sara told me how amazing Gianna was in keeping Jenna calm. She gave Jenna a homemade remedy that kept Jenna from most likely dying in childbirth.
Though I know Selene would have come to the rescue, or Jenna herself, being part deity, would have saved herself. I know Jenna’s great grandmother would not have allowed her to die. Or maybe she would have; I’m only guessing at what might
I lead my father into my office and offer him a seat. I take mine behind my desk and lean back.“What can I help you with, Father?”He sighs loudly.I know he hates how I speak to him and that I don’t treat him as a son should treat his father. But the fact remains that I feel hurt by him. I remember the things he said when I took over Luther’s body. Not once did he try and understand why I did the things I did.When Luther and I were young children, I acted like a child, an angry child. I did terrible things, but I was crying out for my parents to listen to me. I felt wronged and that they favoured Luther over me.As I got older, I knew that wasn’t the case. I understood that they’d exhausted all avenues in their quest to break the curse.
I left the Dalgaard’s alone to welcome the new additions. They were talking about Jenna’s family coming to meet the babies. I felt like a third wheel, so I took myself to the kitchen to make a cup of tea.I was sitting reading a fashion magazine when Josh walked in, telling me that I had a visitor in Lorcan’s office.Now, I’m standing outside the door, wondering who the hell could be here to see me.Lorcan’s family are here, mine are back home, so who else is there?It can’t be Mason; Lorcan would never allow that. He allowed Katy to leave with Mason, but he told me that Mason wouldn’t be welcome to come back here. Well, not to live anyway.I didn’t say anything because even I knew that Katy would choose to live with Mason. That’s just the way thin
The King stands in front of Dad, explaining that he’ll keep Lorcan away from me and have the Moon Goddess break our mate bond as soon as possible.I sob loudly, heartbreakingly, upon hearing this.How could they do this?My father is killing me slowly. Once the mate bond is broken, I’ll no longer be connected to Lorcan. But my heart belongs to him, mate or not, and it’s breaking in my chest.I don’t care about the stupid mate bond; I just want to be with the man I love.“I know it doesn’t seem like it now, Gianna,” I turn my face away from the King; the blood rushing to my head makes me dizzy. “But you’ll come to see that. . .”A-ROOOO-OOO
“What?” My mother gasps and turns her eyes to me. “Lorcan?”I open my mouth to say something, but Gianna slams her fists down on my desk with such force it rattles.“That is not true! Lorcan has never forced himself on me! How dare you call him a rapist?!”Orrin raises an eyebrow at Gianna. She’s disrespecting the King, and that is worthy of the death sentence in his eyes.However, my mate is standing up for me when she shouldn’t. I did not rape Gianna. Yes, I was forceful, and I coerced her, which in the eyes of some equals rape, but had she once told meno, I would have stopped immediately.Gia
“Gianna, are you okay?” Antonio enquires.Gianna snuggles into my chest, and I kiss her head.“It’s okay, baby,” I whisper, and she nods against me.Gianna turns her head to look at her father and nods.“I’m sorry, Dad, I tried to stop her. But you know what Lyra is like when I’m upset.”“Yeah,” He laughs. “I do.”“She just wanted you all to stop attacking my mate.”“I know, sweetheart. It’s okay, I promise.”Gianna apologises to my parents, my siblings, then their partners. Each person smiles and tips their head, letting Gianna know that everything is okay.“Lorc
Mum’s mouth opens and closes like a fish out of water.But I’m not done yet.“When Jenna freed me, when I saw you, standing there in front of me, I hoped you’d be pleased to see me. But you weren’t, were you? You were disgusted and turned away from me.“You cast me out of your house faster than I could blink! Mum may have glamoured Zidiah into believing that I had always been here, along with my siblings. But I wish she’d glamoured you too so that just once I could hear you speak to me the way you do the others.”I’ve waited years to get this stuff off my chest. But I don’t feel any better for it; in fact, I feel worse. Worse because Orrin Dalgaard stands there looking at me as if I were a phantom. He will never regard me as his son; I know that now.
“You have to speak to him, Orrin.”I scrub my hands over my face in frustration.Anja has been on my case all evening, and she’s starting to wear me out. I wanted to leave Silver Paw and go home, but my wife thought otherwise.I argued that I am the Alpha of the Royal Pack, the King of all Alphas. I should be back in Zidiah’s capital, ruling my people.But no, I’m stuck here waiting for Lorcan’s mate’s Luna Ceremony because my wife said so.How old does she think I am?I’m not a child!“Everything he said was right,”I stare out of the bedroom window with my arms folded over my chest.“Orrin, for Goddess sake,
Goddess, the sickening feeling in my stomach, thinking that Lorcan could have gotten Gianna pregnant, wouldn’t go away. It wouldn’t because I knew once the baby was born, I’d see the proof marked on the child’s skull behind their ear.Figure 8 is the mark of rape, no one but a handful of people know how this came to be.Many years ago, my grandfather, a kind man, sought to punish those who would take what did not belong to them. My grandfather had many abilities, even the use of magic, gifted to him by a witch upon his fourteenth birthday.Having found his mate, my grandmother, he realised that she’d been raped mere days before meeting him. She was already pregnant and feared my grandfather wouldn’t want to mate with a pregnant rape victim. She was wrong, and they fell in love quickly.Before the