“Sure I am,” he admitted. “I’d be an idiot to be overconfident. He’s not the usual foe. He’s not another alpha or another shifter. Then there’s you.” He took a deep kiss from her. “I’ve never had as much to lose as I do now. It weighs a little heavy. I’ve never wanted to win a fight so much, and I’ve never lost a fight, either. I like my odds.”
“I love you, Atlas. With all my heart. So much that it scares me a little more than anything else we’re facing. I’m not sure I could live without you.”
“You won’t live without me.”
“Promise?” she gasped with a sob. It was terrible to ask him that. She didn’t want to be too demanding. Too emotional. But fuck it. This man was putting himself between her and a killer. If something happened to Atlas, it would be her fault. She would be responsible for her love’s death.
Yet, here he was, holding her, talking about odds.
“I promise you, darling trouble, I will come back to you. Life’s just getting good. I won’t let him come between us.” He took her hands and brought them to his mouth, kissing her knuckles. “I wanna marry you. Have a couple kids. Maybe more than a couple if you want. I’m thinking you should paint a mural on the community center wall. Maybe teach a couple art classes for the pack kids. I want to fall asleep with you every night until we’re old and the grandkids are sneaking into our bedroom for a pancake breakfast.”
“That sounds amazing.”
“So I’ll make it happen, Lilliane. I’ll give you everything you want. Even if it’s a promise that I will always come back to you.”
He hugged her tightly, holding her for as long as it took for her tears to subside.
TWENTY-SEVEN
ATLAS
Atlas didn’t mind holding onto Lilliane while she wept. It broke his heart that she hadn’t let herself cry much throughout all this. She’d been so strong for so long by herself, and now, it was all coming to a head.
He thanked his lucky stars that he could be here for her in all the ways that he would be able to.
With the possibility of Victor in Longville, Nero and Reece had driven over with Celestine and Valentine. They needed to finalize their plans, and keeping the three women together until all this was settled just made sense.
The honeymoon was officially over.
It was time to take care of the Victor problem once and for all. There would be more time later to kick up the honeymoon period again. Atlas would make sure of that. He was already forming a plan forthat.
He just had to stay alive.
Atlas still couldn’t believe how honest he had been with Lilliane. Admitting to his mate that he was scared probably wasn’t his manliest moment, but from the look on her face, Lilliane didn’t mind it at all. It was probably something like emotional intimacy.
Atlas didn’t even know what those words meant before he met Lilliane, but between rounds of the best sex of his life, she told him all about their relationship. How they could make sure to never let the other one down. Or let things go stale or uncommunicative. Apparently, opening up and being terrifyingly honest with her made them closer.
Maybe it was. Maybe it was their mate bond. It could even be a combination of all three. All he knew was that since speaking the words out loud to her, he felt better. Like,a lotbetter. He felt like himself again. Emboldened by their love.
“Whoa,” Lilliane’s laughter was shaky with tears, but she brushed them away. “I just cried my heart out in your arms. Not super romantic.”
He brushed her hair over her shoulder. “Oh, I don’t know about that. You can cry in my arms anytime you want, but I’m kinda hoping our life together has very few moments of tears.”
“Tears of joy only?”
He grinned. “Yup. That’s the plan. I plan on making you very happy.”
The doorbell rang again and again. The echoing sound was soon accompanied by a loud banging on the front door. She frowned at him, and he shook his head. “That’ll be the guys.”
“Dramatic.” She laughed.
“They wanted to be here hours ago, but I stalled them.”
She kissed his cheek. “Thanks. That couldn’t have been easy to do. Keeping them away.”
“They didn’t mind. That …” he said, walking over to open the door, “is my friends being annoying.”
“Are you through having sex?” Nero asked, coming into the house and looking around like he was about to be attacked. “You’re not gonna rip me a new one for trying to fix your problem?”
