Bonus Chapter 6

I’m dabbing the last trace of concealer under my eyes—still not enough to hide the brutal evidence of last night’s sleepless hell—when suddenly my bedroom door bangs open without so much as a knock.
My concealer brush freezes halfway to my face as my daughter barges in. 
“Lily! Why did—” 
“What did you do to him?” she barks. 
“What? Who?” I pretend to have no idea what she is talking about. 
“Who?” Lily snarls as she takes her pink headband off her head aggressively. “Who do you think? Cedar, of course!” 
*Cedar*. Even his name sends a rush of arousal through my body. 
Cedar, who told me I was under his protection. 
Cedar, who is everything I want but do not deserve. 
Cedar, who had kept me awake at night thinking about his carefree laugh and sexy smile. Cedar. Cedar. Cedar. 
Aargh. 
What I said last night… I went too far.  
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I answer, placing the brush on the vanity. 
“Ugh! Stop lying to me! What did you do to him?” Lily snarls at me. “Bring him back! *Now*!”
“What makes you think I did anything?” 
“Because you’re the only one who doesn’t care about the others to make him leave the packhouse!” she tells me. “I got to the gym to train, and Cedar wasn’t there! He never misses it. It’s our session together! It’s all your fault!”
*Oh*. So that explains why he had tried to invite me yesterday. 
My eyes catch hers in the mirror in front of me. She’s hovering just over my shoulder. I say, “Now you’re worshiping Cedar Dove because he’s giving you some training sessions? Your uncle is always here for you. You have the best education.”
Lily growls. “I hate you! I hate you so much!” She screams, her hands forming two balls of anger. “It’s all your fault! You think I don’t know? You could have waited for Cedar, but you were so desperate that you didn’t even bother to make sure it was true before accepting everything Dad did!” Lily bares her gritted teeth. “It’s not just you that Dad never cared about! He didn’t care about me either! And you didn’t even care about that or about me! You don’t care about anyone, not even yourself!” 
I spin in my chair to look her straight in the eye. “Don’t you dare talk to me like that, young lady!” 
“I don’t care! You don’t care about anyone! How could you have the nerve to kick Cedar out of here? I’ve only known him for a few months, and he’s already shown me that he cares more about me than my own father ever did!” 
“What?” I ask, confused. “What are you talking about, Lily?” 
She groans. “I’m only telling you this because only you can bring him back. And if you don’t bring him back, I’ll never speak to you again!” She angrily blinks hard. “Come with me.” 
Frowning, I follow her. My daughter has never spoken to me like this. Has she made it clear several times when she doesn’t like something I’ve done? Yes. Merciless. But she’s never openly told me that she *hates* me. Or blamed me for what her fucker of a father did. 
Minutes later, walking in silence down the forest trail, I come across something that seems to have come straight out of my dreams when I was just a little girl. 
“What—” I cover my mouth with my hand. 
With heavy, angry steps on the ground, Lily approaches the treehouse without looking back, I follow her and when she stops and spins to look at me, there’s *hatred* in her eyes. A bit like the same hatred I saw in Kelly’s eyes, her Aunt, when she confessed her evil plans.
“See that over there?” She points to the treehouse, her hand still holding the pink headband in it. “Cedar made it for me. Do you know how many times I asked Dad to make one? Countless. He never cared about what I wanted. Never gave me any attention. He never had time for me. Never. Do you know how many times I had to ask Cedar?”
I shake my head absentmindedly, not believing what she’s saying. My eyes sting with tears.
“None!” Lily answers, lowering her arm with a heavy breath. “I just told him I always wanted one.” She presses her lips into a thin line. “That’s all. And then he built it for me with his own hands without asking anyone for help. Goddess, how I wish he was my real father! How I wish I had him as my father and not the father you *chose* to give me! You didn’t just condemn yourself. You condemned me, too!”
Oh, Moon Goddess...
I try to speak, but Lily’s on a roll. “I thought Cedar had left because of me... Yesterday, he scolded me for lying to him. I said I was sending you messages when, in fact, I didn’t want to talk to you. You abandoned me here, so why answer you? You did know where I was, so why didn’t you come home then? I don’t believe in this talk of *missing* me.” She mocks my voice. “If you really wanted to see me, you would be here! Of course, I didn’t tell Cedar that, but when he found out I wasn’t answering you, he said he was sad with me for lying to him. He made me promise never to do that again and reminded me that you loved me. And now I find out it wasn’t my fault but yours that he left the packhouse!”
“Lily...”
My heart aches so much with her words.
“Shame on you! Only you could ever push someone like Cedar away! You don’t deserve him. He deserves a she-wolf much better than you. But *I* deserve him in my life! If you want to leave me, go ahead then. Go. Away! But don’t push Cedar away from me!”
“I... I’ll talk to him... I’ll convince him to come back, honey,” I catch myself saying. Goddess... How did I not think about my daughter? All this time... I had no idea she held so much resentment towards me.
“You better!” She crosses her small arms.
Trying to swallow the pain of the harsh words I heard from her, I tilt my head back, staring up at the most perfect treehouse I’ve ever dreamed. Its two front windows peek out like fairy eyes, paper flowers curling around them like shy smiles. It’s like magic carved into wood.
“The little balcony is a tiny bit slightly crooked.” It’s so handsy and perfect. Exactly what I would like to have. Exactly what I dreamed my fated mate would build when I was a little girl. 
Absolutely precious.
However, my daughter doesn’t realize the intention behind my use of the word because she immediately fires back, “It’s *charming*!”
I hide my smile. She’s too cute defending Cedar. “Of course it is.”

🐺 🐺 🐺

Before I can mindlink Ian, I feel his presence inside the packhouse as I make my way to it an hour later after I leave Lily in the treehouse playing with Az and Theo.
Ian glances over at me as soon as I enter the living room. I ask, confused, “Everything okay?” 
Allie is lying on the sofa, her head is on Ian’s lap. He plays with her hair with one hand and holds protectively over her swollen belly with the other hand. 
“She’s finally asleep,” Ian says softly. 
Frowning, I lean against the wall to look down at him. “Is she okay?”
The muscle of his jaw pops. And through mindlink, my brother says, ‘She cried all night. She couldn’t sleep after she heard what you said to Cedar last night... She wanted to go with him.’
My eyes widen, and my breath starts to get heavy. Oh, Goddess... I destroy everyfuckingthing I come near.
‘Vi, look at me!’ Ian orders me. When our eyes meet, I hear his deep voice in my mind, ‘She doesn’t blame you, though.’ He opens a tiny smile as he looks down at her when she starts to snore softly. 
Well, she should, I chide myself. I’ll fix my mistakes. ‘Do You know where he is?’

🐺 🐺 🐺

A few minutes later, I park my car in front of the house where Ian told me Cedar would be. I don’t need to knock on the door because it’s wide open, and before I can even enter it, I hear Julie’s voice saying something and then giggling, followed by a grunt from Cedar.
I hear my high heels click on the floor as I make my way through the empty house until I find them in the kitchen.
The sight before me makes my jaw clenched so hard it aches. It takes everything in me not to cross the room and break Julie’s wrist mid-touch when I spot the way she raises her hand to touch Cedar’s biceps. Like she has any right to trail her fingers over his biceps like he’s hers!
I want to break her fingers one by one for daring to touch him like that!
I cross my arms and raise an eyebrow at him.
“Vi? What are you doing here? I didn’t know you were back in the pack!” Julie says with a smile. Fuck, Penny’s daughter, the school principal and member of our Pack Council, is beautiful. Gentle and submissive. I bet that’s just the way he likes it.
“Hey, Julie.” I barely greet her. I know I’m being a bitch, and it’s totally undeserving because Julie is a sweetheart. Well, she *is* when she’s *not* touching Cedar.
I take him in hungrily. Cedar has the most gorgeous eyes with eyelashes that I would kill for. Long and lush. He obviously hasn’t shaved in the last few days, but that only adds to his appeal. 
Fuck. Me. 
His white shirt just shows how built thick and wide he is.  
“Can I talk to you for a second?” I say through clenched teeth to him, almost stomping my foot on the floor.
“Well, guess I’ll be going then.” Julie’s voice drips with false nonchalance as she rakes her gaze over him slowly, eye-fucking him every inch. “Just shut the door on your way out. I’ve told you everything, Cedar. It’s yours... if you want it.”
A pause. The unspoken *‘and so am I’* hangs thick in the air, screamed by the way her teeth catch her lower lip, like a damn invitation.
I uncross my arms angrily and subtly hold them tight so as not to let out a growl.
“Okay. Thanks again, Julie. It was very kind of you to show me something so last minute,” he answers politely to her with a smile.
“Oh, come on! And I already told you to call me Ju!”
This time, I can’t stop the sound. I let out a loud growl. Julie looks at me confused but takes her hand off his biceps.
“Okay, see you guys later,” Julie says before leaving the house.
I want to follow her, so I can tell the red-haired female to get her motherfucking hands off my mate! 
Whoa. 
Okay, yep, I’m delirious. I must be delirious!
Maybe this is even some sort of weird dream. Because there is no way I’ve just thought that. 
Cedar is not mine. 
‘Yes, HE IS!’ Roxy growls.
But I do not want him. “I do not want you!” 
Oh, fuck. I do not mean to say that out loud.
Cedar’s lips quirk in that infuriating way that makes me want to reach over and rip his face off.
I’m going to kill him. But I will probably end up kissing him first. 
*What*?
“What are you doing here, sugar?” Cedar asks, still smirking at me.
I cross my arms again, raise my head, and bark, “Come back.”
That smirk shifts to a shiting grin. “Well, what do you mean?”
“Are you really going to make me say it?”
Cedar takes a step forward toward me. His scent surrounds me. Tease me. He smells like the fresh outdoors with a hint of leather. Earthy. Outdoorsy. Oh, Goddess.
Looking into my eyes, he answers, “Actually, yes.”
Ugh! “Come back to the packhouse.” 
Sounding falsely innocent, he asks, “Why, sugar?”
I shake my head, fighting a smile because his smile is too contagious. “You’re absolutely loving this, aren’t you?”
“Yes, I am,” Cedar admits without a shred of remorse, tilting his head with a grin like he’s won the lottery. “So why are you so desperate for me to come back?”
The nerve of this male!
“Allie and Az miss you!” I bark. “And Lily, too,” I add, confessing. Well, not just them...
He scratches at his short beard, not grinning this time. “But you said you didn’t want me there. I don’t want to impose anything on you.”
I take a deep breath, not wanting to give in, but I did this. I must fix it now. I step forward. “I shouldn’t have said that. I’m sorry. I really am. Come back, please.”