#Chapter 48 Unwelcomed Return Home

Olivia’s POV

I only shrug. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to see things from his side. He was stupid and reckless and it got me and out unborn child killed. I want to stop him from thinking he will ever gain forgiveness, but I don’t stop him when he embraces me, his strong, crushing arms wrapping around me so gently that I have no other option but to sink into them willingly.

The feeling of being watched is not lost on me though and I glance up to Reese’s floor, toward his window, seeing a sad, wounded physician in the glass with a sulking look of failure in his eyes that I can’t seem to understand.

**

It’s a short and silent ride back to the Royal pack. Herold doesn’t say much since our hug and sits back in the passenger seat with wandering eyes. I keep my thoughts to myself for now, hating that he needed to embrace me but knowing it was harmless enough that it shouldn’t have hurt Eugene as it appeared to have.

We enter the Royal courtyard, Warriors at the side of the car instantly to hold out my door. I take it as a polite gesture but when one of them snatches my arm and yanks me from the seat, I get the odd feeling this isn’t a kind greeting anymore.

I stumble, trying to pull my arm free but it doesn’t work, Herold being thrown to the round with a royal warrior or two pinning him chest-down on the cobble driveway. I gasp, fighting to be released but when I see Gabriel stomping out to the courtyard, my nerves are all but settled.

His face is beet red and furious, his arms building in muscles and his fists compacted so tight at his sides that they tremble, needing, begging, to hit someone or something. I smack at the royal warrior to release me but he does no such thing.

“Let me go, dammit,” I grumble. I look to Gabriel, his sight’s set on Herold fighting the holds that keep him pinned on the ground. “Gabriel, what is going on? What are you doing?”

“I’m finishing this stupid charade once and for all,” Gabriel snaps, his tone ungodly.

“What are you talking about, Gabriel, tell them to let us go! I can explain anything you need if you just tell me what is wrong,” I plead. “Let’s talk about this, please!”

The King Alpha finally looks over in my direction, his gaze so overwhelming that I crumble at my knees, hitting the ground under his heavy, pressuring Alpha aura. He stands over me now, not a hint of mercy in his eyes.

“I’m done talking, my dear,” he snarls. “I got a call from our favorite doctor. He says that right after I left, while on your innocent little walk with Alpha Herold, he witnessed you two embracing and kissing in broad daylight!”

I flinch, his power seeping through into his words and overpowering my weaker wolf. “What are you talking about, Gabriel, that isn’t true!”

“Then show me!” he snarls. “Release the block on our mind link and let me see everything that has happened in that head of yours, my dear. Now!”

I keep the block up, knowing that although I haven’t kissed Herold, I may have crossed the line when staying at his house last night. I can’t send Gabriel more over the edge in doing that and even if I didn’t care about him seeing that interaction, Gabriel would see it all. He would see that I’m really Olivia Opal and not his precious queen.

I’d be tried and killed for tricking the King Alpha.

I bow my head in submission and defeat. “I—I can’t do that, Gabriel. I’m—I’m sorry.”

“I knew he couldn’t be trusted,” he snaps, daring to go rip Herold’s head from his body. I may despise my old mate but I can’t sleep at night knowing someone got killed over a misconception like this. “I’m ending this once and for all, dammit.”

“No!” I scream, my voice breaking as I struggle against the hold against me, the warriors pinning me on the ground not for my punishment, but for my safety. Gabriel has every intention to kill Herold and make it close to doing so, and if I got in the way, I don’t know that Gabriel would be so gentle on pushing me away. “Please, Gabriel. Stop!”

“Why should I?!” he roars. “So you can love him behind my back? So you can humiliate me to every other pack out here? So you can love another Alpha like I’m not good enough for you—like I haven’t been everything for you?!”

I flinch, his words ringing some unfortunate truths.

“Kiss me,” I gasp, my words stilling the commotion at once.

Gabriel cocks his brows, his shoulders straightening at my command. “What?”

“Kiss me,” I beg, seeing how this has finally got his attention off of killing Herold and back onto me. “Kiss me, Gabriel, please. You are the only one for me. You are my husband and my mate and I need you now—please, kiss me.”

He walks over to where I kneel, his hand brushing carelessly through the air in silent command. His warriors release me and back away wordlessly, the King Alpha kneeling before me with a wild ocean in his eyes, the waves climbing and falling without reason, crashing and receding in subtle, gentle hope.

“Tell me what you want, my dear, and it is yours.”

I swallow hard, his kind voice and expectant eyes yearning for permission.

“I want you,” I breathe. “All of you—right now, Gabriel. Please.”

He doesn’t need more permission than that. He launches forward, hands pressed into my hips and his lips biting for mine. He takes my breath, my tongue, and suffocates me deeply in a kiss like none other I have ever known. His hands crawl up my sides, breaking through my shirt and grabbing at my sides, needing more.

I feel effortlessly light as he snatches me off the driveway, his arms hiking me onto his chest so that I barely get the higher ground in making out with him. I can’t stop now and something tells me not to, so far invested in letting his hands and arms roam my body all over. He’s so comfortable, so strong, and I hardly notice we’re moving until I feel my back hit the soft cover of our bed.

I gasp, his hands working to rip me out of every single piece of clothing that I’m in.

I tilt my head back, his lips working to make out with my throat, our mating mark, before trailing down my nakedness and settling just above my throbbing, begging core. It brings chills to my spine, his powerful aura dripping throughout my body while I only catch a glimpse of his tongue brushing my sensitive button, his hands rushing to undo the zipper on his pants.

Upon entrance, I scream, the feeling of his massive, throbbing girth so unbelievably pleasant that I don’t know how else to express it. I arch my back off the bed, his movements so fluid and quick, it’s as if he has had this moment planned out perfectly in his mind and he wasn’t going to waste a minute in playing it out.

His hands settle on my hips, bringing my upright so he can kiss me more, please me more, and I break over and over again at his will, the smile threatening our kiss reflecting on both of our mouths.

I gasp, begging, pleading for more but I don’t know how much more I can handle.