Forever (Book 1) (Editing)

Chapter Forty Five

I watched as Lady bolted into the forest surrounding the house. Greg was flanking her to the left and I was running to her right as her whole body propelled itself forward. It wasn't hard to see how badly she desired to turn back and tear Layla limb for limb. I didn't blame her either but, knowing it was my pup that Layla carried, stayed me in trying the very same thing. Layla was right in a way. It was my responsibility to do right by my pup. But she was wrong in assuming that I would allow her to rule by my side instead of Lady. I would take the pup under my wing when it was born, I would raise it and teach it everything it needed to know.

What was the likelihood that she would, not only drug and seduce me, but that somehow the fates would conspire to get her with pup as well? I’d only been with her the once. The fact that I betrayed my own mate in such a way ate at me like nothing else could. Despite everything, I never would have willingly done that to Lady. In fact, I was trying to figure out how to make it up to her for stripping away her freedom. Karma bit me in the ass though, and now I was realising that it was me that didn’t deserve any. It was me who made the bad judgment calls, and me who had hurt Lady beyond repair.

I didn’t know the first thing on how we could come back from this. Deep inside something told me that we could. It wasn’t an accident that Lady had showed up today when she did. It wasn’t an accident that she’d spilled the beans so to speak. Somehow the fates had worked so that she would intercept, so that she would stand in her place at my side. I didn’t know what had brought her to the house today of all days, when it had been four weeks since I last even saw her. She had kept her distance from me, even though I tried with desperation to find a way to explain. Yet when I needed her with me the most, poof, there she was.

I didn’t care that she was the one to out my mistake to my parents. I didn’t care that she couldn’t even meet my eyes, or say a word to me. I just cared that she was there to put a stop to something that could have gone all wrong if she hadn’t arrived. I don’t know why she’d changed her mind though. I knew she had come to end it with me. I knew instinctively that she was there to officially reject me as her mate. I was even prepared for it. But then she’d walked to my side and slipped her arm around me, right after stating that she had rejected no one. I don’t know what it was that changed her mind but I was grateful that it had.

Lady was my world. The past four weeks had been a bleak existence without her. It was only a small taste what could have become the rest of my life. If she had arrived at any other time, not when she had, I knew it would have been exactly how my life would have went on. She would have rejected me and turned her back from her rightful place in the pack. It would’ve been me with the real loss though. She was still a Royal. She still carried the blood of ultimate power among the wolves. She would still have the position of final say. Even without being Alpha. The only real difference would be that with her death, would come the death of the last Royal. Life would be back to how it was before she came here. We’d thought that all of them had been lost. She gave the hope for the future and without me her line would die out.

She was raised away from the pack. She didn’t know our way of life, although she was learning she still couldn’t possibly know it all. She didn’t know how important her line was, even more so now that we’d thought the whole of it was dead. She carried the blood of the last originals. She and her father did. But her father may as well have been dead. He offered no hope to the pack. He just wanted to take over and rule. Lady wanted to become one of us, work with us. She wanted to become a good leader. She wanted the pack to support her. Her father didn’t care about any of that. He just wanted the power of the largest pack.

I watched as Lady dodged around the trees as she ran on in front of me. I watched as she moved with fluid grace and speed. She was breathtaking for the most part. Just the way she worked in harmony with her wolf, after only a few weeks, was like she’d been shifting to that part of herself for years. I’d yet to see her training with Greg. Being that she’d made it clear I wasn’t welcomed anywhere near her. But I couldn’t help but wonder if she was able to fight as smoothly as she could run.