AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I shook my head as I went to the same room as before to find Lelani. I knocked on the door and waited patiently for her to come and open it.
When she did, she was all smiles, glowing with that maternal glow pregnancy seemed to bestow on certain lucky people.
“How is it going, Lelani?” I asked. “Your outlet still sparking?”
“Yeah,” she said, rubbing the back of her neck. “It doesn’t even seem to be just when I’ve got wet hands anymore, either. I hope you can replicate the issue this time. It’s making me so nervous about when the baby comes.”
She placed her hand on her swell of a belly, rubbing a soothing circle across it.
“I’ll crack the cover off it and see if something got jostled or undone. Wiring in this place has been a work in progress, so maybe something just got tugged a little too far.”
I knelt down in front of the electrical socket and pulled my keys out of my jeans pocket. I shuffled through them before finding the little keychain screwdriver Marley had gotten me once on a random trip to the hardware store. I’d put it on my keyring right away, even though I’d thought it was kind of cheap and silly, but the little tool had proven to be more useful than I’d originally expected it to be.
I unscrewed the faceplate and took it off, finding the offending bit of wiring with ease. I took a few seconds to fix the issue.
“There we go,” I said, satisfied. “That should take care of things properly. I’m sorry it was causing you problems. I should have checked it a little more thoroughly last time.”
Leilani came to stand just behind me, and I froze when she slid her fingers into my hair with tender intimacy. "I can smell your mate on you," she remarked, her voice laced with a blend of envy and yearning. “It’s making me crazy.”
My skin crawled; it felt so wrong for another woman to touch me like this. I stood abruptly, catching her arm and pulling it away from me, holding her wrist up in the air.
“Lelani, we've discussed this before,” I said, my tone firm yet gentle, hoping to put an end to a conversation that was proving to be like a broken record. “You don’t have to do anything like that. You don’t need to offer me sexual favors in exchange for me doing my job. Please don’t touch me like that again.”
She nibbled on her lip with minxy focus. “Come on, alpha. We don’t have to play coy anymore.”
“Excuse me?” I said. “I’m not playing coy. I have no interest in you, Lelani. I am your alpha. I am mated and married and—”
Her head tilted, eyes searching mine for something only she seemed to understand. “I know it was only because she was home that you rejected me last time. I know she was standing outside, waiting to see what you were doing with me. I know you were being extra careful. But she’s not here now—I saw her drive away. We’re safe.” Her words carried a mix of certainty and desperation.
She touched me with her other hand, fingers catching the hem of my shirt and smoothing up the front of me. It felt wrong, disgusting, dirty. I caught that wrist, too.
“Stop it,” I said through clenched teeth. The smell of her arousal was a nauseating miasma in the room.
“But, Cole,” she pressed on, “don't you want another baby? I can give that to you. You can be with me. I can make you happier. This baby can be your baby.”
A sigh escaped my lips, carrying the weight of an uncomfortable discussion. "Lelani, it's not going to happen. We can't keep going over this. This is probably just pregnancy hormones and loneliness. You will find a partner in time, but it will not be me. You’re making me uncomfortable. Please back away and let me leave.”
“Uncomfortable? Come on, I know you love this. I know how much strong wolves like you love to think about putting a baby in someone’s belly.”
“I told you to stop,” I growled. “I do not want to be rough with you, but you’re leaving me very few choices here, Lelani. I do not want you. I am not interested.”
“What? Your wife can’t take it rough? You can be rough with me,” she said, testing the grip of my hands on her wrists as if she was trying to break free. She was making me an unwilling participant in this bizarre facsimile of intimacy. “I like it rough. I like to be bruised and bullied and—”
I let go of her like her skin was burning me.
“Move.” My tone brooked no argument. I couldn’t be in this room any longer. I realized what was happening now—this was harassment, bordering on assault. I couldn’t tell if it was hormonal or if something was truly wrong with Lelani, but I knew that I needed to be far, far away from her. As far away as I could get.
There was a knock at the door, but the doorknob turned without our prompting. As I looked toward the door, Lelani flung herself at me, pulling me down toward her, or at least trying to. As I resisted and pulled away, she pressed wet kisses to my neck.
I lifted my hands away from her, meeting eyes with Rosie as she entered the room. Rosie froze, looking between us.
“Can you help me?” I said desperately. “She won’t take no for an answer. I don’t want to hurt her, but if she doesn’t get the fuck off me, I’m going to fling her across the room.”
“Lelani, what are you doing?” Rosie said sternly. “Get off him, he has a mate. You can smell it on him, for god’s sake!”
Rosie approached and pried her off of me. Everything was a blur of shapes and sounds for a moment as Rosie quieted and calmed Lelani. Finally, Rosie met my eyes. “Cole, I’ve got this if you want to go.”
I could only give her a terse nod before I quickly hurried out of the room, shutting the door behind me and getting as far away as I could. I walked down the hall, down the stairs, into the foyer. When I got there, I saw Travis talking to the electrician. Travis took one look at me, and his eyebrows rose.
