Chapter 117

ANASTASIA MULBERRY

“Hey, dad.” Marcellus sighed as he ran a tired, frustrated hand through his hair.

“Dad?” Anastasia questioned with wide eyes as she glanced between the remaining two men in the room.

Now that she was really paying attention, Anastasia wasn’t quite sure how she had missed the resemblance between both the men. While Marcellus wasn’t an exact spitting image of his father, they shared the same eyes, hair colour and sharp, angular jaw.

“Yes, I’m Marcellus’ dad.” Maverick chuckled as he walked around the desk with his hand extended, his smile widening as she accepted it with a nervous smile of her own. “It’s unfortunate that we’ve had to meet under such circumstances, but nonetheless, I’m glad to meet you, Anastasia.”

“Likewise.” She murmured quietly before sneaking her hand to her side and rubbing it on her thigh as discreetly as possible but when both men erupted in laughter, she knew that she had failed.

“Sorry, I’m just nervous.” She couldn’t help but apologise in a sheepish look.

“There’s nothing to be nervous about, honey. We’re all family now.” Maverick chuckled before turning his head to face his son, his smile dimming slightly as his eyes narrowed. “Unless my son has fucked up already.”

Anastasia couldn’t help but grin at his words, no longer feeling as nervous about meeting her mate’s father – especially when they hadn’t had a chance to talk and clear the air yet – but after that ice breaker, she quickly felt her nerves start to slip away.

“How did you know?” Marcellus couldn’t help but ask, surprised that his father had managed to pick up on everything in such a short amount of time.

“I didn’t.” Maverick shrugged as he crossed his arms over his chest. “But judging by your reaction, I do now.”

Unable to help herself, Anastasia threw her head back and laughed at Maverick’s actions before deciding to take a seat while the father son duo battled it out.

“Dad, let’s not do this right now.” Marcellus groaned into his hands, eying his father through the gaps between his fingers. “Anastasia and I have a lot to talk about right now but how about we all have dinner together?”

She nodded eagerly, more than happy to spend more time with her mate’s father, especially if things went according to the plan in her mind.

“Make it lunch and you’ve got yourself a deal.” Maverick bargained and grinned wickedly as his son sighed and nodded his head; giving in.

As Marcellus all but shooed his father out of the room before he embarrassed him further in front of his mate, Maverick glanced over his shoulder one last time. “Don’t go easy on him, honey. Feel free to lay it on thick. He’s a big boy. He can take it.” With those last few words and a teasing wink for good measure, Maverick Storm was gone.

“Sorry about my dad.” Marcellus groaned as he closed the door behind him, his back still pressed against it.

“Don’t apologise. I like him. He’s funny.” Anastasia couldn’t help but grin as she leaned back in his chair.

“Oh, don’t encourage him.”

“Too late.” She snickered but as the mood in the room quickly dimmed and turned serious, the smile slipped off her face as she stared back at her mate; the room suddenly feeling like it had shrunk in size. “We need to talk.”

“That we do.” He whistled lowly as he moved to take a seat opposite her; sitting behind the desk for once but with his mate sat in his usual seat, he had absolutely no complaints.

“Before we get into the serious stuff, I wanted to thank you for letting me stay here for the night.”

“Of course, but you don’t have to thank me. You’re my mate and it’s my duty as an Alpha to protect you.” Marcellus nodded his head, a soft look in his eyes.

“Is that why you came after me?” Anastasia couldn’t help but ask even though she had been the one to insist that they speak about Thea first but with her mate sitting in front of her, she felt the need to fix things between them but before that could happen, they needed to be honest with each other.

“Why would you think that?” Marcellus questioned even though he already knew the answer.

She shrugged and forced herself to hold his intense gaze even though she felt the need to look away. Not because she felt the need to be submissive – rather the opposite as she was far from submissive, even more so when she was around him – but because she feared he would be able to figure out everything she was feeling through her eyes.

“The same reason why you decided to keep us being mates secret for so long.” She stated simply with a shrug of her shoulder in hopes of appearing nonchalant.

Marcellus bowed his head in shame but nodded his head, having deserved the jab as she spoke nothing but the truth.

“I’m so sorry, Anastasia.” He apologised as he lifted his head and held her gaze, needing her to understand just how sorry he truly was and how much he regretted everything that he had done wrong.

“You’ve already said that before.” She murmured quietly with a small frown on her face, her eyes lingering on his slumped shoulders and tense body, almost as if he was carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders even though they had passed on the child trafficking issue to the council to deal with.

Anastasia couldn’t help but frown at that but before she could question him about it, he was quick continue.

“This is going to be long and you’re not going to like much of what I have to say, but please hear me out.” Marcellus all but begged before starting on all that he needed to say. “Before I saw you for the first time, I kept scenting you all around the pack house for about a week. One time, I’m pretty sure I barged into Raphael and Justas’ room as I thought you were in there. When I first saw, it was about a week after and you were asleep. It was then that I realised that you were pregnant and I’m not going to lie when I say that it broke my heart.”

Anastasia opened her mouth to defend herself, not quite sure of what direction he was heading but he begged her silently, knowing that it was now or never. If he fucked things up now by not completely and utterly honest, he would never get this opportunity again and he would spend the rest of his life looking back and regretting this moment; cursing himself for letting her slip through his fingers.

Albeit hesitantly, she pursed her lips and nodded her head slowly.

“The reason I snapped at you that first day was because I couldn’t stand the sight of you pregnant and the thought that you had started a family already; that you had started a family with someone else even though it shouldn’t have been me.” Despite the difficult words which felt heavy on the tip of his tongue, he forced the words out as he knew that this was one moment to make things right, and that would only be possible with the absolute truth; regardless of how ugly it was.

“I know it doesn’t make sense as there was no way of you knowing that you would even have a mate, but I wasn’t thinking clearly. Every time I looked at you or thought of you, all I could think of was the fact that you betrayed me even though you never did betray me.” He groaned aloud and ran his hands down the side of his face, struggling to stomach the truth. “You’re right about me judging you from the moment I first set eyes on you. One look and I had already made up my mind that you had betrayed me even though that clearly is not the case and for that, I’m so sorry.”

“I’m not making excuses but after that, everything just spiralled out of control. I told myself that I would stay away from you and that it wouldn’t matter if you knew we were mates or not but I just couldn’t.” Marcellus sighed and shook his head. “I just couldn’t stay away from you. The more I saw you, the more I wanted you but every time we got even remotely close, I couldn’t stop thinking about the fact that you were having someone else’s baby. As we started to get closer, I kept telling myself that I would tell you the truth but every time I tried, I either bottled it or something came up. The fact that the council was putting pressure on me to take a mate just made everything all that much worse.”