It was a little strange being in a house all alone with Max. It was also strange being linked to someone on a metaphysical level so strongly that she could feel every emotion and hear and see his thoughts, and still Max and Josette had not consummated their relationship on a human level. Max was indeed old school once Julian said a public ceremony would be held for their mating Max decided he wanted to wait. The sexual tension could have been walked on; it made the air thick when they were around each other.
There was no more school and home schooling was put on hold until after all the festivities. So Josette decided to spend the day in the pool and was currently standing in front of the mirror looking at a bathing suit she felt too self conscious to wear anywhere but in a closet—a bikini. She didn’t have the stick-thin body of a model; she wasn’t even the national average size twelve. She wasn’t fat per se, but when everywhere she looked she had a size zero staring back at her, she looked huge.
Josette put her hands on a stomach that was not flat but not a gut. She ran her hands down the front of her thighs that were large but was happy that she was at least proportionate. She had made up her mind to change when she caught Max reflection in the mirror.
“Hey beautiful,” he whispered and the look he gave her was enough to make her knees weak.
He walked over slowly as if he didn’t trust himself to be with her. Her first instinct was to cover herself, but she fought to keep her hands at her sides. He looked up and down her body as he made his way to her. Josette skin was hot as if the whole thing had blushed. Her heart was pounding so loudly it thumped in her ears and so hard she felt it on every inch of her skin. The hairs on her arms stood up as he came closer. The feeling of electricity built in the room. Max stopped a few inches short of touching her. Her body nearly screamed for him to reach out across the short distance to lay hands on her. Max took in every inch. He studied her like he wanted to remember every single detail. When Max eyes finally came to rest on hers, she went to step to him and he took a step back.
“I can’t touch you right now or I might not stop,” he whispered.
And it wasn’t just the attraction of two lustful teenagers trying to hold off impending doom. The pull was so strong Josette had to plant her feet just to stay in place. Max breathing was fast and shallow and Josette’s matched. A test of wills, tempting fate, playing with fire; whatever happening Josette saw that it was really putting to the test Max’s good old traditional values. He took another step back and she fought the urge to step forward. Max closed his eyes to get himself under whatever control he could before opening them again.
“I can change.”
“I think that might be for the best,” he said still smiling but not leaving. “Your mood changed and I came to check on you. I couldn’t imagine why you’d feel so anxious or insecure.” Now Max was not smiling as he looked at her confused with his head cocked a little to the side.
“You’re really beautiful, you know that,” he said raising his foot to take a step closer before realizing what he was about to do and stopped.
“Why don’t you get changed, I’ll be waiting by the pool for you,” he said before turning and leaving her alone in the closet.
When the door to Josette bedroom shut, she sat down on an ottoman and smiled and tried to remember how to breathe normally.
Max knew Josette was still sleep, her steady breathing and easy beat of her heart told him. She was everything to him; had been since he’d first seen her. It was like a dream that this was the life given to him. So different from what he’d imagined, from what even his father expected. Max had not called home yet. The Lycaon had instructed him to do so, to take some time to take Josette home to meet his dad. But Max and his dad weren’t that kind of father-son team. Sometimes Max didn’t even like the man.
Their relationship started deteriorating somewhere around...birth. Max’s earliest memory of his father brought forth images of a frowny face tyrant.
Maxwell Anderson Dupre was never good enough. He wasn’t good enough because his father, Benjamin Anderson hadn’t been good enough. Hadn’t been tall enough, rich enough, strong enough; the man had serious self-esteem issues. The fact that he was Mrs. Anderson’s son was nothing short of mindboggling.
Benjamin Anderson had left home as soon as he was able. Headed for bigger, brighter, better things. He’d come from a loving home, raised by parents who loved him and each other. Max’s grandfather, Leon Anderson, had been bitten by a werewolf shortly after marrying the love of his life, she was pregnant before his first change and their only child had been a born werewolf. Leon was just happy to have been able to keep the love his wife after discovering during full moons he turned into a monster. His son, on the other hand, thought surely it meant they were meant to do great things. They were stronger, top of the food chain, why break your back at a mill.
Max never knew what exactly his father was looking for, but what he found was his mother, Tallulah Dupre, from a wealthy and old family. It was good enough for Benjamin. He took his wife name instead of the other way around. All too happy to leave his old life behind and became then and forevermore Benjamin Dupre. He was determined that his son was going to be better...but better than what? It was and is, still something that Max didn’t understand or failed to figure out in the nineteen years with his father. No task was done to his satisfaction. Yes, you push your children to be the best they can be, but what Max dad had accomplished was raise a child that wanted to run as far and fast as he had.
His mother had been everything Max’s father was not: kind, loving, gently, giving. She doted on Max and he loved her dearly. When she died, he cried for weeks; mourned the parent that refereed the little boy and his father. She’d smoothed things over, trying to find that happy medium. After her death things had gotten worst without her buffering presence. Out of respect Max tried. Lord knows he tried. And as he got older his resentment turned into tolerance and he and his father came to the unspoken understanding that neither of them would try to kill each other. So much for familial love.
Max looked at Josette’s sleeping form, drank in the sight of her and the bite at the base of her throat. It was healing but still had a faint edge of pink around the individual teeth marks. He could smell her blood and if he tried a little harder taste it. He watched the slow beat of her heart in the vein in her neck, his own keeping time with it. Three weeks. That’s all he had to wait before he could take the rest of her. Three weeks and they would be joined in all ways. He didn’t know if he was going to make it. Josette looked like her head was going to explode when he told her he wanted to wait. It was the least he could do for the dishonor of not formally announcing his intent to the Lycaon before making his only daughter into a werewolf. There were those who thought their life a curse, being a wolf. Max was glad that the Lycaon wasn’t one of them. Most born werewolves are more “in tune” with their animal selves. How could they not, they’d known nothing else.
Josette stirred and there was an excitement building in his chest as he caught the change in the rhythm of her heart. She was up. God, would it get any better? Would the fire that burned for her ever cool?
Her head turned and she opened her eyes. “Good morning,” he said smiling like an idiot.
“Good morning.”
Josette had great morning voice: deep and rumbling, rough and raspy. Max leaned over, not to kiss her, but to lick her. She’d turned her head away from him, exposing the line of throat to make room for him. The first sweep of his tongue over her skin was the sweetest torture. She’d bathed last night, there was only a hint of saltiness on her skin, and then his tongue ran across the wound, rough beneath his tongue, salty and coppery, he wanted to bite her again. A low growl came from his throat stopping him mid-stroke. What the...
Josette body tensed; her emotions in step with his. “What’s wrong,” she asked moving a little to look at him.
“I growled,” he said. He knew why he looked confused. Josette was confused be
cause he was confused.
“You’re a wolf. You growl a lot,” she said smiling at him.
“Yeah, when I’m a wolf,” he said.
Josette sat up in the bed, finally understanding. He could see the pictures in her head as she thought back on the time they’d been together. He smiled because every image was not of them laughing or talking, sitting around watching TV or walking through her old neighborhood. Each moment spent in each other’s embrace was what played across her mind. Snapshots of hugs, kisses; their most intimate moments. “What does it mean?” she asked.
“It means that you make me an animal,” he said pulling her into his arms, nuzzling her neck, running his nose up and down the smooth skin of her throat. Whatever worry they had leaving with each pass of his lips over skin. His kissed her under her chin and then behind her ear. She moaned softly, the sound vibrating through her body, raising the hairs on his body. His hand found the edge of her nightgown and ran the length of her thigh, up until he touched the lace of her underwear on her hip. He stopped.
“No” Josette said a little breathless. “Don’t stop.”
Max’s hand passed her hip to the bare skin of her side and then traveled higher. The sound Josette made stopped him again. Was that a growl? It was Max’s turn to pull his head back so he could look at Josette. It was almost enough to make him forget the sound she’d made. Her skin was flush, her mouth opened as she tried to catch her breath. She looked a little pissed, a little confused and full of desire.
“You just growled,” he said.
“And I’m going to do it again if you don’t stop or finish what you’ve started,” she said.
Max couldn’t help it. He laughed. He kissed the tip of her nose and crawled out of bed. “Come on, your parents are home.”
“What,” Josette said looking confused. The sound of the garage door confirmed it. “How did you know that?”
“I heard the car,” he said holding his hand out to her. “You would have too if you had been concentrating.”
“Hey,” Josette said. They hadn’t called to say they were coming home. “How’d it go?”
“Great,” Brianne said but she could always tell when her mother was lying. Her dad didn’t comment at all, which only made her more suspicious.
“Max, can I speak to you for a moment,” Julian asked and he and Max went to the den and closed the door behind them.
“Ok, spill it.”
“Spill what,” her mom said trying to hold out.
“What really went down,” she said.
Brianne surprised Josette by taking a pack of cigarettes out of her bag that was on the counter. “Let’s go outside,” she said.
They went and hid in the pool house. Josette had only gone in it once. It looked more like a bachelor’s studio apartment. The one room house had a small kitchenette and a large area that had a pool table and other various games. The flat screen TV dominated one wall and one of every gaming system known to mankind sat on the built in entertainment system. The bed was large and had a lot of inviting pillows on it. They sat at the small table at the kitchen that was next to the floor to ceiling windows that looked out across the back yard.
Josette hadn’t worn a patch since Wednesday, so she figured it was okay to have a smoke with her mom, to talk over whatever was bothering her. They used a saucer for an ashtray. Josette lit the cigarette and the pleasure that she expected just wasn’t there. The habit had been a lot easier to kick than she thought. The pack was half gone so her mom must really be shaken up. Brianne took a sip of her coffee and a drag off her cigarette blowing smoke from her nose.
“Your grandmother is a real piece of work,” she finally said.
Josette didn’t say anything. If she interrupted with questions it was a chance that they would run out of time.
“We went to New York,” her mother started. She looked towards the house for signs of Julian and Max.
“It was wonderful. The first day your father took me to a museum and that night we went to dinner and an opera. I use to be obsessed with New York as a young girl. Your father remembered. It was wonderful. The city, the people, just the vibe of the town itself, it was everything that I thought it would be and more.” Brianne gaze returned to Josette and she could see that the visit had been bitter sweet. Whatever enjoyment she got out of the first day would forever be tainted by what must have happened later.
“Your father gave me my engagement ring,” she said and held her hand out.
The ring was, of course, gorgeous and Josette wasn’t surprised by its size. A large cushion cut center diamond set in a diamond encrusted platinum band.
“We were on our way back to the hotel. It was so romantic. We were sitting there holding hands when your dad reached in his pocket and slipped the ring on,” Brianne gazed at the ring and smiled to herself going back to the moment. “The next morning I was as happy as I could be, nervous, about meeting his mother again, but happy. I was sure that between the two of us, we could get her to change her mind. I was foolish. Your grandmother made it very clear that she still did not accept me or you, and before we left she asked for a private meeting with me.”
Josette looked at her mother knowing that they’d finally gotten to the root of the problem.
“She told me that she would never give her consent to our marriage. There was nothing stopping your father from marrying me, but she still had the loyalty of her people and she promise to start a civil war unless I agreed to not marry him.”
“What can we do?” Josette asked. “There must be something that we can do.”
“I don’t think so, Nalia is insane.” Brianne sounded like she hadn’t expected the woman to be a little off her rocker. It wasn’t a news flash for Josette. The woman had imprisoned her son and tried to kill her own granddaughter.
“What are you going to do?” Josette asked.
“There’s only one thing I can do,” her mother said and the sadness in her voice told Josette just what that was.
“You can’t Mom, you love him.”
“Yes, I’ve loved him since I was thirteen years old, and I have loved him for the last seventeen years. I will love him for the rest of my life, but I cannot be the cause of a civil war that will be the death of God knows how many people. No matter how much I love him.”
“Can’t Dad just leave? He wanted to anyway,” she asked.
“No, that wouldn’t be right either. I’ve spent the last week watching him rule and he was meant to be king. Taking him from his people would be just as bad as dividing them.”
She had a point.
“So that’s that. You’ll just break it off. You know he’ll never leave you. He was held prisoner in his own home or seventeen years and the first thing he did was to come straight to you when he got out.” Josette reminded her mom.
“Yes, but if he thought I didn’t want him. Then maybe...” Brianne started but couldn’t finish.
Josette couldn’t believe her mother’s words. She’d cried when her dad returned, had almost been inconsolable even with him standing right there. Josette had seen how much her parents loved each other and she didn’t know how well her mom’s plan was going to work.
“Mom there has to be another way.”
Josette felt sick to her stomach and her mom looked as bad as she felt. She could see she had spent a lot of time looking for another way, anyway at all. Brianne was about to say something when they saw Max come outside. Her mom got up quickly. Josette grabbed the ashtray and dumped the butts in the trash and washed it out before returning it to the cabinet. Ridiculous really—the hiding—Max could probably smell the smoke from where it was.
“You have to promise me you won’t tell Max. I’ll tell your father and he has to believe me if this is going to work.” She begged Josette.
“I don’t know,” she said uncertain.
“Oh please Josette,” Brianne grabbed her hand desperately, “You didn’t see her. She’s insane and she w
ould start a war just to spite your dad.”
They had run out of time. Max could zero in on her using their bond like a damn homing beacon. “Okay, but I want to talk about this some more before you say anything to Dad, promise.”
“I promise.” Brianne looked a little panicked and Josette didn’t think that she’d have to keep the secret for long. Her mom was a wreck.
When Brianne stepped out of the pool house she gave an award winning performance. Julian was holding his arms opened and Brianne stepped into them, turning her face up to smile at him. “What are you two doing out here?”
“I was just telling Josette about the wonderful time we had in New York.”
Brianne may have been able to keep things from Julian but Max stood a little behind the two and studied Josette closely. Shit.
“I have presents for you.”
The announcement was a blessed interruption to the stare down going on between Max and Josette.
“And I’m just hearing about them now,” she said.
Julian laughed and her mother joined in. “They’re in your room.”
“Multiple presents.”
Max grabbed her hand, “Come on, let’s go check them out,” he said. He led her away from her parents and they made it to the great room before he turned to her at the foot of the stairs. “Can you tell me what’s going on?”
“No.”
“Can I help?”
“I honestly don’t know.”
“Is there time?” Max asked Josette.
Josette didn’t know if her mother knew just how hard it was going to be to keep this little secret. Max didn’t know the specifics but he knew something was going on. The fact that there was a time limit made Josette know the secret was a ticking time bomb. She was going to have to talk her mother again, and soon.
“A little, I think,” Josette said.
“Ok,” Max rubbed her arms. “It’s going to be okay,” he said trying to make her feel better.
“How can you say that Max,” she said moving back from him. “You don’t even know the problem, but you’re so sure everything’s going to be okay.” Josette was angry but not at him. He was just the person that was closest to her. “Don’t make promises that you can keep,” she said and pushed past him.
Josette paced back and forth wanting Max to come to her and not wanting him to, at the same time. She needed to apologize but she didn’t trust herself not to tell or giveaway what her mom had said. She looked over at the couch and saw gifts her dad had brought back from New York. She didn’t care about presents now, didn’t care about the big fancy house or the money or the cars. She only cared about the threat to the happiness she and her mother had found in the last few weeks. It had nothing to do with money. It had everything to do with seeing how her parents looked at each other. How Max looked at her that long ago day in the bathroom watching her brush her teeth and the other day when he stood in the closet assuring her that she was beautiful. It was the looks that her mom gave her dad when he wasn’t looking and how she felt when Max was near. Like he was now, standing on the other side of the door, worried and angry and hurt that she wouldn’t share with him what was going on.
“Come in,” she said even though he hadn’t knocked.
Max came into the room and stood just on the other side of the door. “Any better?” he asked.
Josette turned away from him not ready to speak to him yet. She still didn’t trust herself to keep her mom’s secret.
“Josette, you don’t have to tell me what’s going on, although I really wish you would,” he said to her back. “Tehila?”
“I really need you to go Max,” Josette said. Her voice caught mid-sentence. Dammit she was going to cry.
“No.” His voice was low, but had a little extra base in it. The freaky build of electricity which was the power of Max charged the air.
“Please,” Josette said.
“I will never leave you Josette, especially like this,” he said, taking the last step and pressed his body to hers.
Josette leaned her head back against his shoulder. He wrapped his arms around her. She closed her eyes and let the sound of his heart, the rise and fall of his chest calm her. Taking a deep breath she turned in his arms.
“It’s bad, but nothing that I can’t fix...I think,” she said.
Max looked at her for a moment before hugging her tight. He buried his nose in her hair and took a deep breath. Josette felt the power of his beast rise to the surface. Felt it press the length of their bodies where they touched. The heat of his skin flared and hair on her arms stood up. Max had explained about alpha wolves. They’re the strongest in the werewolf packs. He was an alpha. Not as strong as her father but pretty damn close. Closer still since they’d mated.
He sighed before saying, “You’re killing me Tehila.”
“I know.”
“You’ve made me go against the nature of what I am since I met you,” he said.
Josette pulled back to look up at him. His usual smile was absent, he was very serious.
“I claimed you the first time I saw you. But I fought it. I had a job, a duty to your father and I was torn between following orders, or claiming my mate. And look what happened.” Josette stiffened in his arms knowing he was talking about Pops.
“I’m not bound by those rules anymore Josette. I still follow the orders of my alpha, but now I live for something else, someone else.” Max pushed Josette away from his chest but held on to the tops of her arms. “I’ll not make the same mistake twice Tehila. I will give you time but the next time I ask I expect an answer. I love you but you are mine in all ways, mine to love and mine to protect. You are my equal only because I allow it. I am alpha in this relationship.”
Josette stood there looking at him with an open mouth. Power rolling off him, coating her skin and the inside of her mouth it was so thick. She would have been mad at his little speech if she hadn’t been so...turned on. Alpha Max was hot.
“Talk some sense into your mother,” he said a second before there was a knock at the door. Dammit she’d have to get better at paying attention. “Remember what I said Josette. I’ll be expecting an answer the next time we speak of this.” She nodded because her words were lost.
“Can I come in?” Josette heard her mom say from the other side of the door. She still didn’t say anything but the door opened anyway.
“Oh...Max, I didn’t know you were here. I need to speak to Josette in private for a moment?”
Max gave one final, stern look at Josette, sent a flare of power her way that only his hands still on her arms kept her from swaying. “Of course Ms. Freeland,” he said before releasing his hold on Josette and bending to kiss her lightly on the cheek. It was the equivalent of saying I love you after a spanking. “I love you Tehila.”
Josette swallowed. “I love you too Honi,” she whispered. Max nodded once before leaving the room.
Brianne stood at the door watching her daughter as Josette tried to regain some of her mental functions. Starting with her ability to speak. Josette had been warned. She recognized a threat when she heard it. No...not a threat, but a promise. Max was going to expect to know what the hell was going on and she knew it was going to be sooner rather than later.
“Josette,” Brianne finally said stepping closer to her. “I shouldn’t have told you, I just didn’t think I could bear it alone. I’m sorry sweetheart.”
The dreaded two words snapped her out of the spell of Max. “You’re sorry, mom.” Josette said. “What are you sorry about?”
“I—” Brianne started but was cut off.
“Are you sorry that you’ve decided to ruin my life?” Josette asked walking towards her mother. She was angry, angrier than she could ever remember. Downstairs she’d taken it out on Max, but now she was going to put it where it belonged. “Or are you sorry that you are ruining your life. Maybe you’re sorry about being too weak to fight back.”
Brianne slappe
d the next maybe right out of Josette’s mouth. Her mom had never hit her as far as she could remember. Now she’d slapped her hard enough to hurt. Josette looked at her in shock.
“You’re not allowed to talk to me that way. Ever.” She said her eyes shiny from tears that hadn’t fallen. “You think you’re the only one that’s hurt,” she asked. “You think you know love, but you’ve known Max for five seconds. I’ve loved your father for more years then I’ve been alive.” It was Brianne’s turn to be mad and Josette didn’t blame her.
“This is bigger than you or me. It’s bigger than my love for your father, and most certainly bigger than the first love of a couple of kids.” She said. “Now come down to dinner. I expect you in fifteen minutes.” She looked around the room, “And open at least one of the presents your father bought. He put a lot of thought into them and you will not disappoint him.”
Josette shook her head slowly from side to side and watched her mother’s eyes widen with surprise. Josette had only ever been a dutiful daughter. Never one to talk back or rebel, of course it was easy with their relationship being more like a friendship than a parent and child.
“Wake up Mom, smell the coffee. We’re not in Kansas anymore,” Josette said. “You’re living your life like you don’t know that there are things bigger and badder than humans in the world. Do you think I can just walk away from Max?”
“I expect you to do what I tell you,” Brianne said.
“God, Mom it doesn’t work that way. This whole conversation is ludicrous. Do you think the stories Dad told you are made up? Even after seeing him and Max as seven foot tall werewolves and Max a wolf the size of a damn pony,” Josette said her arm pointing in the direction of the closed door.
“Josette!” Her mother said shocked at being cursed at by her daughter.
“I can feel Max...feel him mom, don’t you understand.”
“Really Josette stop being so mellow dramatic,” she said.
Josette mouth dropped opened. Surely her mother couldn’t be that…dense.
“Right now I know he’s in his room pacing. I can hear each step he takes. He’s worried about me, but he’s worried about you too. He’s angry because I’m his mate and refuse to share something with him and the fact that I won’t has made him sad. I feel his heart beat on my skin and every breath that he takes.”
Josette also know that he could hear her and that her argument with her mother was making him very happy. She was defending him, defending them. She didn’t mention it, it wasn’t the time.
“You love Dad, great. But what you have with him is not what I have with Max.”
“How dare you!”
“How dare you!” Josette yelled back. Her voice went low. Her breath was coming out in short pants and her skin was hot. The vibration in her chest built until a low growl spilled out of her mouth. Her mother took a step back from her. Josette took a step forward, her hands balled into fists.
“I’ve lived in the shadows of a life for too long. I’m a werewolf Momma, Max’s Ulrich and Lupa to a pack that stretches from Florida to North Carolina.”
“I don’t care if you’re the damn Easter Bunny. I’ve made my decision and you will do as I say.”
“Why didn’t you let Dad bite you?”
The question was so unexpected that Brianne took a moment before she said, “What?”
Josette had been surprised the day after her mating that her mother did not have her dad’s mark on her neck. She didn’t question it, but now she knew. Her mother was afraid and the fear only fueled the fire that was consuming Josette.
“Don’t try to drag me down with you because you’re too—”
“Enough!”
Josette’s head whipped to the side to see her dad filling up the doorframe. Josette felt Max coming to her a second before she saw him and all the anger that had built in the time she and her mother were in the room shattered. Max was taller than her dad, his hands were claws and his teeth had grown out of his mouth. He looked exactly the way he had when he’d saved her from Pops.
“Josette, your hands.” She heard her dad say. Josette head moved in slow motion. It felt like strings were trying to keep it in place as she lowered it and brought her hands up. She had claws.
Max stood with an arm too long and too big around Josette’s shoulder. The sun was still up and the full moon too far away to warrant the changes they had gone through. Julian was pacing in front of them and Brianne was sitting on the couch.
Max had stood in his room trying hard not to puff out his chest as Josette stood up to her mother. It was her first challenge and she was answering the call beautifully. But then he felt her become more agitated and get angrier, he was at the top of the stairs when Julian ran past him headed for the bedroom the two women were in. He was struck stupid when he saw Josette. She looked a little taller but her hands were claws and under further inspection she had strands of white in her hair.
Josette was back to normal, Max still sported claws but at least his teeth fit in his mouth now. It was another mystery to add to the mating of Max and Josette.
Everything had been laid out. Brianne told Julian about his mother’s threat and Max thought the man was going to let his own beast loose. The pacing wasn’t just about the unexpected changes but also about what to do about his mother.
“I’m sorry Mom,” Josette said for the thousandth time. Werewolves had major anger management issues. It didn’t take much to set off a new werewolf. Josette’s parents had left almost immediately after her change and if Max had an official job description the only thing on it would have been to make her happy. He had done nothing to trigger her anger and hadn’t thought about it being so angry himself about her keeping secrets from him. There was definitely a learning curve involved with being a true mated pair of wolves
“My darling, I understand why you thought you needed to keep the conversation between you and my mother from me,” Julian said.
“Julian—”
“Brianne, I share Josette’s frustration with your continued refusal to see thing how they really are,” he said.
Brianne stood up offended, hurt, angry.
“So you just expect me to completely ignore that your mother intends on starting a civil war between the people that you’re suppose to protect?” she said. “People caught up in the middle of a family fallout that has absolutely nothing to do with anyone other than the people in this room and your mother.”
“I expect you to be the queen those people deserve,” he said.
“I am!” she yelled.
“Forgive me, my darling, but you are most certainly not.”
Josette and Max wanted to leave, wanted to drop to the ground and crawl away from the conversation. I was too personal, too heated and too private.
“I’m getting fed up with everyone here telling me how wrong I am.” Brianne said. “I don’t want the deaths of innocent people’s blood on my hands,” she said.
“Brianne, I’m afraid I’ve failed you.”
“What?”
“Yes,” Julian said going to Brianna, kneeling in front of her and grabbing her hands in his. “I didn’t see past getting back to you and hoping what I prayed for these last eighteen years; that I could win you over again. Give you everything and make sure you wanted for nothing. I was so caught up in the happiness of your acceptance of me back in your life that I crippled you.”
Brianne shook her head. “I don’t understand.”
“I tell you I am a werewolf, but not what that means.”
“If it means putting my happiness above others, if it means that I am afforded the luxury of sitting in some big house with my family safe and sound while other men and women loose there love ones, than I don’t need to know what it means.”
“There will be fighting and bloodshed regardless, fighting for territory, fighting for dominance, fighting for revenge. Do you think just because you leave me I’ll run into the arms of another,” he said. Julian
stood up and grabbed Brianne by the arms and pulled her off the couch, his beast making an appearance. “Do you think that after eighteen years of loving you from afar it will be so simple for me? Every second was torture Brianne!” he shouted. “Every moment was a living hell because I couldn’t get back to you and the child that I was not allowed to see. It was years before one of my guards became a friend and found you and Josette and reported that you lived and that my child was a beautiful girl. It was on that day I swore that my parents wouldn’t win; that I would find a way to get back to you.”
“But Julian, how can I make peace with this? “
“Not you Brianne, Nonakris. You are queen, three thousand wolfs for you to call.”
“But I’m not Julian. I am just a woman, who was a girl who fell in love with a boy. I am a woman who tried her best to do right by her child when that boy left her. I love you, but I can’t. I can’t be that if it means putting someone’s life before mine when I can do something to save them.”
It was obvious she’d made up her mind. Josette’s heart broke for both her mother and her father. She saw both their point. Her mother was being naive, but Josette understood that her father was looking at the bigger picture. She and Max had spent the last two weeks with him teaching her the ways of the werewolf. Telling her the stories of how much their life had changed since Nalia, the queen, her grandmother, had come to reign. There was a lot of work to do to turn things around and she wanted to be a part of it. She was excited and honored to be a part of it. But her father, he’d spent the last two weeks wining and dining and making up for lost time between the two of them. Showing her what her life would be like, all the good parts, not the hard parts, the ugly parts.
“Josette and I will leave tomorrow morning,” Brianne said. Julian’s hands were still gripping her forearms and she took a step back from him. Josette was about to remind her mother that she wasn’t going with her, but Max squeezed her arm so she kept quiet. She was giving her mother tonight, but tomorrow she’d know Josette’s life was with Max and her father.
Chapter Thirteen
Lupa (Second Edition) Page 21
