Chapter 70
LEAH
Wow. The nerve of this Alpha.
“Aaron, we need to get something straight.”
“That your family’s a bu nch of hoarders?” He looks around the room. “Yeah. Got that.”
I shake my head.
“Aaron, there is no future for us. Not anymore.” I hold up my hand. “Don’t start spewing reasons or excuses or anything else. It’s repetitive and it’s not going to change anything.”
I take his hands and hold them.
For the last time.
His hands are big and callused and strong.
“I let you go with peace, Aaron.”
“What the f**k does that mean?”
“It means I don’t want to fight. Or cast blame. I just want to let
the past go.”
He nods. “Yeah. Okay. We can do that. A fresh start.” He eyes the room. “You can’t stay here.”
“I can clean out this stuff.”
“No,” he says. “It’s not defensible. This is a second story room. It’s easy enough to scale. You need to be on the third floor or higher. Preferably only one window.”
“W-what?”
“We can replace this Queen bed with a King. I don’t mind cozy, but we need more room for the two of us.” He je rks his head toward the books. “I should’ve known you’d have piles of books here too. He moves to look out the window. “Our men can set up an immediate perimeter so this main house will be secured. Once we assess the extent of the security, we can make additional accommodations-”
Does he really think he’s going to move in here-with me!?
“No,” I cut him off.
“What?”
He’s doing what he always does. Steamrolling me. And it’d be easy. Too easy. To let him take control and make all the decisions. But we can’t go backwards.
“No to any of it. No to all of it.”
I storm out of the room and back down the stairs.
Aaron catches up to me and grabs my arm.
And what he’s proposing…”Aaron, this isn’t good for my pack. What you’re suggesting, that’s not going to be well-received.” He doesn’t realize that a few minutes ago, my brother suggested murdering him and the packmates he came here with.
It’s as much to save him as it is to free me.
I need to be diplomatic. “Thank you, Alpha Aaron Rathborn, for your support last night during the ceremony. And for escorting me to my pack and family. Thank you for the many years we had together. Now, I’m sure you can understand that we want to use this time to rebuild and to grieve. Safe travels back to your home.”
Aaron’s hands flex and open at his sides. I’ve seen this wolf angry on many occasions, but never, never as furious as this.
And that’s saying something, because we’ve recently gotten into some tough situations.
“Are you… dismissing me!?” His voice is dangerously low.
Oh. Sh it.
