Liam
‘I hate this! I don’t ever want to look weak, Liam, and that is exactly what you are doing. People talk, and the last thing I want is finding myself discussed by jealous pack members.’ Lucy sends me a mind-link as she paces in our kitchen at Carkeek Park.
‘But all this will soon be over, I am slowly regaining Willow’s trust, and we know that if Mike kidnaps Willow as planned, Leo will make him promises.’ I line up four cakes which we are preparing for the party that will be hosted later at Alpha Hunter’s house.
‘What does Mike know?’
‘My sources tell me he thinks Willow is Leo’s little sister, something that Leo told people.’ I send a mind-link. Damn the werewolves for their supernatural hearing ability, and we can’t risk other wolves eavesdropping.
‘Why would he say that?’
‘He was trying to protect her. I still don’t understand why he never showed the same protectiveness toward his mates.’ I growl in frustration. My wolf hates it when Leo tries to get closer to my mate.
‘Isn't Leo protecting Willow to keep her alive, so that he can use her to expose you?’
‘Not anymore. No matter what he says, he is in love with her.’
‘Are you sure about your sources? Are they really going to kidnap her?’ She looks at me dubiously.
I nod. ‘I’m really sure, when Leo finally starts dealing again, I’ll use Willow to get him arrested and tell Alpha Hunter all about it.’
Since we had our fake mating ceremony, we have to stay together, and Lucy always hides her neck with her hair or a scarf. She tells people her mating mark is incomplete whenever they ask about it. I just need to reject Willow so that we can mate, but I wonder if my wolf will handle the rejection.
‘Leo has done so much for Willow, do you think she would betray him?’ She asks.
‘For Marcel’s memory, she will absolutely betray him. Those two were so close that they called each other three times a day. She is keeping herself busy as a distraction, but I know how much she is hurting.’
‘But...’
‘I know how to get under Willow’s skin, trust me, she is going to do it.’ I interject.
‘Won’t Alpha Hunter feel bad for him? He might feel like it’s his fault that Leo started the drug dealing business.’ She sighs as she takes the fifth cake out of the oven.
I glance at her and the way she is firing the questions at me. For a moment, I feel like I’m in court, but that’s why I want her to be my Luna. She is perfect with interrogation and battle. Her problem is she never shows sympathy, but she will learn, even if she fakes it for the sake of the pack.
‘We will tell him Leo got arrested selling drugs, and that he was trying to protect Willow, his human mate.’ I take the third cake and I start with frosting and decorating it with cream. ’Once he hears about a human mate, any hope of their relationship ever getting fixed will shatter like glass. Don’t forget this is the human who blackmailed our pack and got away with it.’
I smile at my artwork as I decorate the cake. This somehow reminds me of Willow and how we would bake and decorate cakes when we started dating.
“You are smiling.” She says accusingly.
“I know,” my smile widens. “I love doing this, it’s therapeutic.”
“And cute,” she grins. “A future alpha decorating cakes and finding it therapeutic.” She chuckles. “What will the pack say?”
“No one needs to know.” My lips curl up.
“Who taught you, anyway?”
‘Willow.’ I say casually through a mind-link.
‘Not you too,’ she exhales. ‘I thought you were immune to her charms. Why does she get every man in my life?’
“You asked me a question, and I replied. Does it matter who taught me?” I snap.
‘Yes, it does! Because it makes you smile, and every time you do it, I will suspect that you are thinking about her. When do you plan to reject her?’
‘I will reject her immediately after this plan, and then you and I can rule the pack.’
‘Finally,’ she beams. ‘I can’t believe that this is the same Willow I met five years ago. She was so fierce and sure of herself, but she keeps coming back to you.’ She shakes her head.
‘That’s the magic of the mate bond on humans, and she doesn’t understand why.’
‘Well, I for one, can’t wait for the rejection. She took Theodore from me, Leo rejected me, but he seems to be smitten with her, and she is not his mate. Then there’s you...’
‘Don’t include me on that list,‘ I say defensively.
“Listen...”
“Nope, don’t want to hear it. Tell me about Theodore.”
“Oh! Him? I had a huge crush on him, but he told me his crush was Willow, and Willow rejected him over and over again for three years. When he transferred to Harvard, he was still trying to get a date with her.”
“Damn!” I exclaim.
“See? I can’t forgive that.”
I chuckle. “But it wasn’t her fault.”
“I don’t care.”
‘Well, Leo is going to regret meeting her when he is behind bars.’
“Yeah.” She chuckles uncomfortably.
‘Do you still feel something for Leo? Should I be worried about you warning him?’ I glance at her.
“No! Leo was my childhood best friend who humiliated me in the worst way possible.” She purses her lips.
“If you ever feel sorry for him, just try to remember that.”
‘How about you? How do you feel about Willow?’
‘I feel something for her, because of the mate bond.’
‘And?’ She keeps her gaze on me.
‘I love her, and the way she doesn’t back down when she wants something’
“I knew it!” She says bitterly.
I shrug apologetically, and I don’t mention how kind she is, and how her laughter makes me smile. Damn! I haven’t made her laugh in a while.
When I reject her, and when the mate bond finally breaks, it will be really over, she will not be under my spell anymore, and I will be here, playing the happy deputy alpha, until I finally become the alpha and my mother will finally come and wreak havoc in the pack.
I was born to be a tool that would be used to take over the pack, and I’m about to lose someone whom our relationship is not based on any benefits or exchange of something. She has shown me love and support without expecting anything, and I’m about to hurt her over and over again. I sigh, and then I continue with piping the cakes.
“Are you having second thoughts?” Lucy raises an eyebrow.
‘In Alpha Hunter’s pack? No way, they’d banish me like Leo. I decided to put my feelings aside a long time ago.’
“I’m glad we are on the same page. Our partnership works.”
I nod. “Love makes people weak.”
We go to our separate rooms to prepare for the party. Freya, one of the staff from alpha’s house, comes with three ladies to pick up the cakes.
“The best couple is here,” Mabel, one of the pack elders, says when we arrive at alpha's house, and all eyes turn in our direction.
I look around at the pack members who make me feel like Lucy and I are a power couple.
Why would I give this up for Willow? ‘Are you going to deny the fact that you are in love with her?’ My wolf chimes in.
I feel tears sting my eyes, but I quickly blink them back. I know I love her and it hurts. So I block my wolf to prevent further intervention.
I look around at the pack that seems so happy, and I wonder how my life would’ve been if my parents didn’t give me up. If I was part of a pack that accepted all its member’s choices, and how my life and Willow’s would’ve been if life was as simple as me accepting my mate and living a happy life.