Filed to story: The Wolf Prince’s Fated Love
Leigh
Iwalked back toward my room, feeling a little lost. Gael looked devastated. He hadn’t said a single word to me since I walked out of Kari’s house or on the entire drive home. I was trying to pay attention to Sergei’s update, but other than the occasional ooh and ahh, it all went in one ear and out the other. Frankly, it sounded like more emergencies, and that was all we’d had for weeks. You know what emergency number four hundred sixty-seven felt like?
Exhaustion. Sometimes, you don’t have the mental capacity to put out another life-as-we-know-it-ending fire, and that was where I was at.
But when I stopped outside my door, I knew what I personally needed to do.
The drawer.
I’d been studiously ignoring the pull I felt toward it. It was the only drawer I wouldn’t let myself open, except to tuck the latest note inside and quickly slip it back closed. I had lost count of how many I had at this point, but I knew it was more than two dozen. He’d been leaving them for me constantly since the first one, at least one a day, most days more.
Sometimes, I sat down at breakfast and found one tucked under a plate with my name on it; other times, it was shoved under the crack of my bedroom door. Once, I found one taped to the back door of the castle, proving he knew I’d been going for my runs every single day, multiple times per day.
But still, he didn’t push. He hadn’t brought them up or asked if I’d read them.
He was too good for me. He was a good man. And it was time I stopped keeping him at arm’s length. He knew about Kari now. So, what was the point of pushing him away? I blew out a breath and twisted the doorknob, only to be momentarily struck dumb at what I found inside.
Every surface of my room was covered in shopping bags. Every chair, dresser, the ledge in front of my window, the bed. I took a few steps in, and yep-even the bathroom counter was absolutely packed with smaller bags from upscale toiletry and skincare brands.
I sniffed and scented Cristian and perhaps two of the female housekeepers. On second sniff, I was certain one of them was Ivy, who I’d met and fought beside the night of the castle attack. But why?
Why would they suddenly buy me all this stuff?
I wondered as I ran my hand over the tissue paper sticking up out of one of the pink bags.
And then I saw it. The same kind of creamy envelope I’d gotten so many of, taped to the front of a gorgeous pink leather purse at the foot of the bed, where I could easily spot it.
My mind immediately went back to the night before, when I’d haphazardly rambled the only thing I knew how to say in Spanish.
My name is Leigh, and I like pink purses.
Oh, Gael.
What are you doing to me?
I closed my eyes a moment as the tears began to threaten.
Once I had myself mostly under control, I crossed the last few feet and lifted the note off the front of the gorgeous bag. With a deep breath, I peeled back the tape and lifted out the folded piece of paper. The note was short, only a few lines, but still, it took my breath away.
Princess,
Feel free to return or exchange anything you don’t like. I asked Cristian to do some shopping on my behalf, since we were busy with the council today. My mate and child deserve the best, and that includes taking care of the basics, like clothes. I hope you will accept this as the gift that it is and use your card to buy anything else I might have overlooked or gotten wrong.
Oh, and one more thing.
Me encanta comprarte carteras rosas.
Always,
G
I laughed and pressed a hand over my mouth as I read the last line.
I love buying you pink purses. A wet droplet landed on the paper, and I snatched it away before more tears could fall to preserve the ink. Damn.
Gael had seen me struggling to get dressed this morning, and in only a few short hours, he’d taken care of it. He asked for literally nothing in return; he only wanted to take care of me and Petal, and something about that reality made me want to sob.
I ran my hand over the top of my exposed belly as I looked down at it.
“Your daddy is a really wonderful man, Petal. I don’t get a lot of things right. I’ve made so many mistakes, and I’ll always be honest about that. But your daddy? He wasn’t one of those mistakes. You’re so lucky to have him,” I whispered. “We both are.”
I blew out a breath and opened the bag closest to me, with no small amount of trepidation. It was full of buttery-soft black maternity leggings.
I immediately shucked the too-tight exercise leggings I’d put on this morning and pulled the new ones on. They were heaven. They glided over my belly with ease, and it felt like I could take my first full breath in weeks. The bag behind it was full of soft maternity T-shirts, each with funny sayings on them. With a smile, I pulled on a rose-colored one that said licensed to smuggle watermelons.
While I wanted to poke through it all, see what else he’d deemed necessary that took up this much space, I had a much more pressing need. I crossed to my desk-where I spotted a second stunning rose-leather purse, sitting there with a bow on it nonchalantly like that brand of bag didn’t cost more than my car back home-yanked open the drawer, and scooped out every single letter he’d left me. There were so many, it took me a few seconds to gather them all up in a way that I wasn’t going to drop any. Then I slipped on my running shoes and headed for the back door, the precious cargo clutched to my chest.
I walked myself through the woods to a quiet spot where I knew I wouldn’t be bothered. There was an old nurse log with a soft moss blanket at the perfect height to make a seat. I stopped here sometimes when I’d pushed too hard, but this time I wasn’t even breathing heavily. My pulse was still pounding, though. Because I knew that once I opened these letters, there was no going back. No pretending that I didn’t care more about Gael than I was willing to admit, even to myself.
It was going to hurt, reading them. I knew it intrinsically. But I was ready. Ready to hold those feelings, take them out of the closet, and give them their moment to wreck me. I’d wrecked him today, so it was only fair.
I shook out all my muscles, making myself take a moment to loosen up, and then lifted the flap on the top letter. There was no date on it, so I didn’t know which order it had come in.
Dear Princess,
Something not many people know about me is that after I had my first shift at thirteen
?
–
My jaw dropped. Thirteen? That was so young. I hadn’t shifted until I was almost sixteen. I kept reading.