Bad Love: An Alpha's Regret (Leah and Aaron) novel Chapter 57

Chapter 57
“It’s not what I think. It’s what I know, Aaron. And deep down you do too. Admit it.”
He growls again.
“Boss,” James interrupts. “We should head back.”
Aaron straightens.
“You’d be lying to me and yourself if you said the thought didn’t cross your mind. Because I’m just a possession to you. A means to an end. You don’t love me. Come on, Aaron, I don’t think you even know what love is…”
The door slams.
It slams so hard I’m amazed the glass didn’t shatter.
Aaron stalks around the front of the vehicle and gets into the passenger seat.
“Drive,” he orders James.
I catch James’ gaze for a second in the rearview mirror, then he’s churning up dirt as he tears out of this place.
This place where my mother di ed.
I didn’t forget that detail and I still want to know what
happened. But these last few hours I’ve just been busy trying not to di e.
I don’t feel the chill leave my body until we’re out of this stretch of land and back on a paved stretch of highway.
I rub my arms to dispense the feeling.
In the Grove, when that power came into me… I felt things. Like a thousand spirits were moving over and into me. I didn’t subscribe to ghosts or that sort of thing, but I suppose some of that is true, since it was the energy of my pack ancestors that passed into me.
I close my eyes and concentrate. “Hello?”
Honestly, I don’t want to hear ‘voices’ or anything creepy like
that.
But if ever there was a moment for my wolf to rise, this is it.
“Hello. Are you there?”
I flex my hands and focus on the sensation of my fingers opening and closing. I’ve never been much good at meditating or even yoga. I can’t seem to still my mind enough for that sort of thing. Maybe that’s always been my problem?
“If you can hear me, I really need you to show yourself.”
James gets on the interstate after about thirty minutes of driving
and then he accelerates. Of course, he’s eager to get rid of me.
At one point, I notice black SUVS on either side of ours.
“Take it easy, Leah,” Aaron tells me. “Those are our Guards.”
I gulp.
Things must be pretty bad if he has an armed escort following
us.
I stare at the dash and watch the minutes tick by as we race toward my pack’s lands. I can’t quite wrap my head around going home. About reuniting with my pack.
And as their Alpha, no less.
Female rulers are scarce. Karolina is one. There’s another Councilwoman named Aemilia. She rules a pack in the
Northeast.
But traditionally, packs are male-dominated and it’s pretty hard to avoid the patriarchy.
My eyes moisten with tears. It means a lot that my dad would entrust me with his pack. Everything he did was for them.
open
Over the next hour, the landscape gradually changes, all the
fields and cattle ranches yielding to county roads that veer off through forests and wind up mountainsides. The sky brightens to a shade of blue that reminds me of the lilacs I’m leaving behind at Aaron’s. I’ll never go back to my room. Or
Aaron’s bed. Or race up and down those endless stairs. There won’t be any more walks through the woods. Or seeing the flowers I planted in my mother’s honor.
“You need to come back home with us,” Aaron says quietly.
But I can’t. I won’t.
“I don’t. This situation arose from the need for peace. I give you my word as the Alpha of Pack Roberts, that I will honor that peace between our packs.”
“Come home with me, Leah.”
“It’s not my home anymore. Besides, Jessica told me she’s expecting. You’ll want to be there for her. Now that she’s having your baby.”