Page 13 of Abandoned By My Alpha Husband

Over the following months, I personally selected maids to care for Liam. Though Lina only supervised the maids and played with Liam, she worried terribly when he ran a fever. She never complained about any of it. Rarely even sought credit in front of me. Every time I came back to the manor, I'd see her holding Liam on the living room sofa, humming quietly to him. Sunlight streaming through the floor-to-ceiling windows onto her hair. The scene was quiet and perfect.

Everyone thought I should marry her. Even Liam himself saw her that way—at six months old, the first word he spoke was "Lina," not "Daddy."

But my wolf didn't recognize her.

And I couldn't accept her either.

I only wanted my mate.

"Lucifer," Lina spoke. I snapped back. "Do you know why I like Liam?"

She looked up, eyes moist. "Because he's your child. You say he's adopted, but he looks so much like you. You've been hiding him from the elders to protect him. I know everything."

I sighed. "Lina—"

"No," she cried. First time she'd lost composure in front of me. "Lucifer, I love you. Love you enough to accept being a mother to a child who's not mine. Even if I can never have children of my own."

I stared at her, didn't know how to say something cruel.

Until she suddenly stood on tiptoe, trying to get closer. That soft pheromone drifted over too. Bay leaf. I shoved her away hard. Lina stumbled back several steps, staring at me in shock.

"Lina," I had to say it. "I'm sorry. I can't accept this."

She trembled. "You don't love me?"

"I love you," I said. "But it's the love for family, Lina. I love you like I loved my dead parents. Like I love the pack. But the romantic love you want—I can't give you that."

"Then who will you give it to? That Gray family's second daughter?" She grew agitated. "Lucifer, do you even know her? You think she'll love Liam like I do?"

Lina bit down hard on her lip. Those eyes stared at me, churning with emotions I'd never seen before.

"No," I shook my head. "Not her." But I wouldn't tell anyone my mate was human. I had to protect her. If the elders found out, they'd hunt her down. Because it would mean she was the destroyer of Hale's pure bloodline.

Lina suddenly laughed.

"All right, Lucifer," she recovered her calm. That calm felt unsettling somehow. Like she'd made some decision. "I understand."

She turned and left.

I stood in the center of the living room. Chandelier light made the whole room bright. Liam's blocks still scattered across the coffee table. His messy crayon drawings taped to the windows.

Lina's scent wasn't unpleasant. But my wolf reacted to it the same way it reacted to the air in the hallway. Nothing. No accelerated heartbeat. No heated glands. None of that churning feeling rising from deep in the body, like something gripping your spine.

No bond.

Her pheromones might resemble bay leaf. But they weren't.

Chapter Three

Elena

The woman in the mirror wore a white wedding gown, the neckline rimmed with tiny pearls, the skirt spreading around the vanity stool like a bloom past its prime. I was about to marry into the legendary Hale family. I stared at my reflection, barely recognizing myself. My skin looked softer than before, my amber eyes catching the morning light with a shallow golden gleam. My hair was pinned up, a few loose strands framing my face—the stylist called it "gentle and refined."

Gentle. Refined.

"You're a Gray woman now. This is who you must be." That's what my mother told me. That's how she'd raised me these past years—the werewolf way. But I still felt disoriented. Had I really transformed from that human Elena?

Five years ago, I woke from a dizzy spell to find myself on a bed far too soft, silk covers brushing my chin. A middle-aged woman I'd never seen sat in the chair beside me. The moment I opened my eyes, she pulled me into her arms.