First

Chapter 10

She smiles bitterly at him, holding his gaze, letting the pain in her heart take full control of it. Her legs move with a slow tremor under the table and she bites back her tears, hoping her pain is not so evident in her voice.

“If I am STILL your Luna, when do I stop being her, Alpha?”

“What do you even mean by that?” Tatum looks at her weird.

“I mean, your true mate has returned, obviously my days are numbered,” Leila manages to keep her voice from trembling as she speaks.

Something that looks like guilt fills Tatum’s eyes and he shifts his gaze back to his laptop screen.

“What I choose to do with her shouldn’t concern you,” Tatum replies passively with an aloofness to his demeanour.

The tiny sliver of hope that Tatum may yet keep her flicks through Leila’s mind but she quickly pushes it away. He only said not to concern herself with it, he never said it won’t happen.

“I’m just asking because-”

“Leila, drop it,” Tatum snaps his laptop shut, his tone becoming stern. “Trying to change the topic by bringing up Carmela is low, even for you.”

Leila’s eyes bulged. “That’s not what I’m trying to do, Carmi was supposed to be your wife if she wasn’t kidnapped.”

Tatum shoots her a cold look, the tone of his voice rising.

“Tell me the truth Leila, are you really asking because of Carmela or because of your- Kelvin?”

Leila gasps in shock, her eyes coating with tears at the implication of his words that break her heart and her lips tremble as she replies.

“My Kelvin? I haven’t even seen him in years, where is this coming from?”

“I don’t want you seeing him again. Am I understood?” Tatum replies in the same cold voice, his eyes hard as a rock.

“I don’t understand why this is an issue, Kelvin is just a friend, you know this.”

Tatum looks up at her teary eyes but the cold look remains in his own eyes.

“And I have made myself clear, friend or not, you will not get close to him as long as you are my wife,” He shuts down her protest.

Leila purses her lips, unable to believe his audacity. She is nowhere as close to Kelvin as he is with Carmela and yet he seems to have a problem with her?

A thought suddenly comes to her, making her heart pound on its own accord.

Is Tatum jealous she spent time with Kelvin?

Wouldn’t that mean that he has feelings for her?

“If I didn’t know any better, I’d think you were jealous,” Leila replies with a subtle coyness in her tone, hoping he admits it, feeling tingles at the fact that Tatum might be jealous for her sake.

Tatum opens his mouth but he hesitates to reply. The cold look returns to his eyes as he looks her straight in the eyes and before he opens his mouth, Leila’s heart already sinks.

“I am the Alpha, do you think it is good for my image if my Luna is seen frolicking with another man all over my pack grounds?”

His curt voice dashes the last of Leila’s hopes. How stupid of her to think he is jealous when all he is concerned about is his reputation.

“This was a one off event, I promise it will never happen again,” She replies sullenly.

Tatum nods gently in response and Leila stands up with a heavy heart, her tears at the brink of breaking the barriers of her wet eyes.

“Soon, I won’t be your Luna anymore but for the little time left, I promise not to soil your reputation.”

Tatum’s stoic tone remains the same. “I already told you, you shouldn’t-”

His phone rings and interrupts him, making the two of them shift their gaze to it and it’s Carmela calling.

198 BONUS

Tatum picks it up, his eyes fixed on Lella as he does so.

“No, I’m not doing anything important. Yeah, sure,” he replies before he chuckles and walks a distance away from Leila.

Nothing important? They were in the middle of an argument and he just took Carmela’s call, deeming her unimportant?

She watches with pain in her heart as Tatum sprawls on the couch, speaking in a soft and affectionate voice, smiling broadly and chuckling frequently as he talks to Carmela.

She slowly makes her way to her bedroom, wiping the tears that fall from the comer of her eyes. He just chastised her for having lunch with a man but he is smiling and chatting with another woman with no care how she feels about it.

She cannot bear to be treated like this for much longer and remain sane.

[How soon can the papers be ready?]

She takes out her phone and texts Kelvin