Filed to story: Luna Lovette and Alpha Kodak Story
“No.”
She sighed. “Don’t be stupid, Nick. You’re in pain.”
“It’s no big thing, leave it.”
“Why would you want to suffer?”
“I have some pills upstairs. I’ll be fine.”
She turned to Shaya, huffing impatiently. “Tell him, Shaya. Tell him to stop being silly. You don’t want him in pain, do you?”
Oh, now that was smart. And cunning. And made Shaya want to kill the bitch. Of course she didn’t want her mate in pain. To tell Amber to stay away from him when she could heal him would be cruel and petty. Shaya was backed into a corner, and there was no other answer she could give. “It’s fine, Nick.”
“No, it’s not,” he immediately countered. He knew exactly what Amber was doing.
Lovette stepped forward. “I can heal him, if you want.”
“Nobody is healing me. Leave it.” Pulling away from Shaya and simultaneously avoiding Amber’s attempt to touch him, he made his way up the stairs.
“He’d sooner suffer than let me touch him?” Amber’s expression turned sulky.
Lovette pursed her lips. “Well…I’m liking Nick a little more now.”
Rolling her eyes at that, Shaya followed him up the stairs. Hearing someone coming up behind her, Shaya turned when she reached the landing. “Everything okay?” she asked Lovette, who looked shifty and unsure-totally unusual for the Alpha female.
“I’m sorry.”
Shaya frowned. “For what?”
“Being a bitch to Nick all the time, and trying to get in the way.” Lovette came a little closer. “At first, I was doing it because I wanted him to put in all the effort you deserve. But then I carried on doing it because I was trying to punish him a little for hurting you. Best friend or not, I had no right to do that to your mate. And I sure as hell would have hated it if you’d behaved like that with Kodak.”
Smiling a little, Shaya rubbed her upper arm. The whole thing had been bugging Shaya to the extent that she had almost snapped at her friend a couple of times. The only thing that had stopped her was the knowledge that Lovette’s heart was in the right place. “It’s okay. I know why you did it. I know you meant well.”
“That doesn’t make it fair, though. I just hate how badly he hurt you.”
“Yeah,” sighed Shaya. “But I hurt him badly too. Just like Kodak once hurt you badly and Dante once hurt Jaime badly. It happens when you’re in a relationship. They can get complicated and difficult because people can be complicated and difficult. But imagine how different your life would have turned out if you had rejected Kodak because he hurt you. You guys wouldn’t be so happily mated, and you wouldn’t have the adorable little boy sleeping downstairs.”
Lovette nodded. “I just wanted to say I’m sorry, and that it’s going to stop.”
“Thank you.” Shaya hugged her best friend tightly, feeling a weight fall from her shoulders.
“You should know something. I talked to him earlier….He knows you worry he’ll leave you for a dominant female.”
It annoyed Shaya that her mate was so astute. “It’s only natural for me to worry,” she said defensively.
“I don’t think it is. You’re an amazing person, Shaya. Why would you think that you’re not good enough for him exactly as you are? Look, I know your mom’s done a number on you, and I know that what Mason did made it all ten times worse, but don’t let it mess this up for you. Don’t let her and Mason make you hold back from Nick. I wouldn’t root for him if he hadn’t just told me he cares about you. You deserve to have that.”
Shaya scrubbed at her forehead. “I want to trust him. I just…I don’t know how. I honestly don’t know how to totally trust another person. I trust you about as much as I’m capable of trusting someone. But Nick…he’s my mate, and he’ll want more than that, it’s only natural. I just can’t yet.”
Lovette was silent for a moment. “Okay. Just think about what I’ve said. Oh, and you should probably know something else too. Derren has every intention of making Nick into an Alpha and forming a pack.”
Shaya smiled a little. “I can’t say I’m surprised.”
“It would make you an Alpha female, if you mated with him. Would you want that? Don’t say you couldn’t manage that position. You could, and you know it.”
“I don’t really know how I feel about that yet.”
“Then I guess that’s something else for you to think about. And now I hear my son crying.”
“Go. We’ll talk again later.” As Lovette skipped down the stairs to tend to Kye, Shaya trailed after Nick, knowing he had gone into the bathroom to retrieve some of his pills from the cabinet. To her surprise, she found him lounging in the bathtub, eyes closed. His lids lifted when she shut the door behind her.
“Hey, baby.” Nick tried to play it down as he always did, but his pain was even in his voice, which was undoubtedly what made Shaya wince.
“You should have let Amber heal you,” she admonished quietly, knowing his hearing was always sensitive when he had one of his headaches. Having kicked off her stilettos, she crouched beside the tub and dipped her hands in the hot water. “I admit I don’t like her touching you. But I prefer that to you being in pain.”
Yeah, well, he preferred the pain to her being upset at seeing another female touch him, especially Amber. “The headache’s already fading.” When she began massaging his temples, he groaned and closed his eyes again. “Now I understand why my dad used to lock himself in his room when he had one of his headaches.” Every little noise was like a hammer to his head.
New Book: Veiled Desires of the Alpha King Novel
Dayson was the alpha of the largest pack in North America. Powerful figures from other packs sought to offer gorgeous girls as potential mates for Dayson. He steadfastly rejected these advances, he was not a pawn to be manipulated. But eventually there came a mysterious girl he could hardly say No. Who was she?