Bad Love: An Alpha's Regret (Leah and Aaron) novel Chapter 330

EMILY

I don’t go right downstairs for breakfast. I go across the hall to my own room and into my own bathroom so I can shower Axel’s scent and the smell of lust off my skin.

I can’t believe I forgot for even a second that I was handcuffed to that bastard’s bed.

I can’t believe I actually fell asleep, let alone cuddled up to him.

And when I woke up in his arms, was my first reaction disgust or loathing as it should have been?

No, my wolf and my desires had betrayed me, leaving me not only susceptible to his seductions, but returning them with desperation.

Ugh!

I’m so disgusted with myself, I can barely look in the mirror.

I stand under the shower spray for a ridiculously long time.

Anywhere else, the hot water would have run out ages ago, but the mansion’s supply of hot water is basically endless, so all I manage to do is end up with wrinkly prune fingers and climb out feeling like a wet dog, all bedraggled and miserable.

I dress and then head downstairs, glad to hear from the chattering housekeepers that Axel has already left the mansion.

Except then I hear someone say something about vampires seen lurking at the Southern edges of Rathborn territory, and I worry for the pack, especially with Aaron gone.

What if the vampires try something because they know we’re without our Alpha?

But then I remember how Axel is actually Axiel Mercier, Slayer, and I hate that I immediately feel safer.

Damn it!

Axel shouldn’t make me feel safe.

I should be terrified of him.

I am terrified of him, and I need to remember how I maybe need to escape before he finds out the truth of what happened to me when the old Roberts Alpha performed all those twisted experiments on me.

Because where Axel and I are concerned, the truth will mean a death sentence for me.

I head into the smaller, informal dining room and find Jessica finishing up breakfast while reading something on a tablet.

“I hope you’re on social media and not already taking care of pack business,” I tell her as I start putting food on my plate from the buffet to the side of the room.

“Pack business,” Jessica sighs forlornly. “I can’t even remember the last time I opened any of those apps.”

A sharp wave of guilt cuts through me at her words.

I’ve been so caught up in my own problems and Axel, that I haven’t really been pulling my weight where the pack duties are concerned.

I need to do better for my best friend’s sake.

“How did you sleep?” Jessica asks me as I sit down at the table.

“Terribly,” I mutter into my breakfast, before pouring myself a much-needed cup of coffee.

“Oh, I’m sorry to hear that,” Jessica says with a frown. “Was it anything in particular keeping you awake?”

“Well, first I had a nightmare,” I tell her, trying not to remember the scary details of that dream. “But that wasn’t even the worst part. After, I went down to the kitchen to get a drink of water and Axel thought I was planning to escape and go running again.”

“He did what?” Jessica demands incredulously, clearly appalled on my behalf.