He holds me close, ordering one of the maids to rid me of the shoes before continuing down the stairs with me in his arms.
“Ela,” I tell him after a few stunned seconds once I got my reasoning back.
“Sorry?” He looks at me in confusion.
“Call me Ela, Delta Rosewood. I do not care for the formality of Luna, but you can call me Ela.”
He smiles softly. “Okay,Ela,but only if you call me Cherum. Delta Rosewood sounds like you’re talking to my dad.”
I laugh gently at that. “Deal. Thank you, Cherum, for your help.”
“Anytime, Ela.”
~
Lachlan POV
I am pacing outside the room that would soon be Lira’s. Nilo just came with a few men and took my bed and mattress from my room to be burned.
I don’t need it. I plan on spending my nights with Lira in her room now that she has agreed to it. Her only requirement was not sharing a bed I shared with other women. There is now no bed that fits those disqualifications, so I'm in the clear. I’m giddy with excitement at the prospect of holding her in my arms at last.
That shit show with the women set me back momentarily, but I’ll win her over. She won’t be able to fight the bond if I’m touching and holding her. She might mentally fight it at first, but her body will crave my touch.
“Don’t be an asshole and force her to do anything she doesn’t want to do. Manipulating her with the bond she feels but we don’t isn’t right,”Killian growls at me.
“I’m not manipulating her. I just want a damn opening.”
“You don’t deserve an opening,”he growls. “I hope she punches you in the nuts for letting that nasty woman with all the fat touch you.”
“You’d feel it too,”I snap at my Lycan.
“The pain would be worth it. Don’t let floppy boobs touch you.”
“I didn’t let her touch anything. She did it on her own. Did you want me to rip her hand off for it?”
“Better than letting our mate assume we asked for it,”he snarls. .
I know. Fuck, do I know, but I can’t kill a member of my pack for doing what she thought she was allowed to do.
It won’t happen again, though.
“I’ll send Nilo to deal with those women to leave me alone tomorrow,”I tell my Lycan, trying to ease his nagging.
He scoffs, “Sending someone else would be better. He’ll be too focused on getting his dick wet.”
Killian is right. I should send Meldec, my Gamma. He goes with us often to drink, but doesn’t touch the women. He has three sisters and a widowed mother. His father died in the war. He thinks the brothel is exploiting women with no other choice but to earn money with their bodies. He may be right, but in my first life, I didn't see it that way. Now I wonder if Lira found herself in similar circumstances after rejecting and leaving me. I felt the betrayal pains for some time before I felt her death. I never discovered where she was or what happened to her, but her uncle mentioned her being a whore before I killed him and took his head to her father. He could have just been throwing insults at random while facing death, but I never got the chance to find out.
I hear voices echoing down the hall, and perk up expectantly. Even Killian has his ears up and tail wagging with excitement.
She’s here. She’s finally here where she belongs, with me.
I see their shadows on the wall before I see them. The shadow in the front is obviously Cherum, but it’s larger than it should be and oddly shaped. When he finally becomes visible, I see why.
A growl leaves me before I can stop it, seeing my Delta carrying my mate, her legs and feet seductive and bare, and his jacket wrapped tightly around her, though it doesn’t go past her waist. He has her slip bunched in one hand to prevent her ass from hanging out, but that just means his hand is dangerously close to it instead.
What’s worse, they are smiling at one another, laughing lightly like they are sharing an intimate joke. Jealousy pings my heart and makes my chest swell. I’ve never seen her smile like that. Not since the day of her arrival for our wedding, the first time we married at the beginning of our ceremony, before I had crushed her hopes of acceptance and happiness.
All I got after that was sorrow and hatred.
