“Oh, you do way more than stare at me in my dreams, Lena,” he says.
“I’m going to pretend like I didn’t just hear that. So, when we get to New Orleans and get to the apartment, how do you plan to apologize and make things right with Freya?” I ask him.
“That part I haven’t figured out yet, but I’m hoping the fact that you’re with me will smooth things over,” he tells me.
“I don’t understand. What does your issue with her have to do with me?” I ask him.
“You’ll understand when we get there. Now try and get some sleep so you won’t be jet-lagged when we arrive,” he says, then proceeds to close his eyes.
“Leo, Leo!” I call out his name, but he doesn’t answer.
“Are you seriously ignoring me?” I ask him, but still, I don’t get any answer.
“Sleep, Lena. Everything is going to be fine,” he tells me.
Oh, he’s insufferable. I leave my home and my children to go on this trip with him, and he can’t even bother to give me the answers I need.
“Lena, Lena, wake up.” I open my eyes to find Leo putting on my seatbelt.
“What is it?” I ask him.
“We’re about to land,” he tells me, and that shocks the sleep from my eyes.
I must’ve been really tired to sleep through the entire flight. I got tired of asking Leo for answers when it was clear he wasn’t going to give me any.
“Here, have some water,” he says, handing me a bottle of water. I open it up, take a few sips, then close it and put it in the holder.
“Thanks,” I tell him.
“You’re welcome. I already called ahead. Once we land, we have a car waiting for us. I also booked us two rooms at a hotel. So, do you want us to head to the hotel first or to Freya?” he asks me.
“To Freya, definitely. The sooner we get her to help us, the sooner we can get back and start working on a cure,” I tell him.
“And the sooner you can leave,” he says.
“I didn’t say that, Leo,” I tell him.
“You didn’t have to,” he replies, then pulls out his phone and starts typing. I don’t know if he’s actually replying to messages or just doing it to ignore me.
What do I say to that, though? I can’t tell him that I won’t leave. That’s not possible. After I get the cure, there’s no way I can stay in that pack. But one thing is clear to me, even though I’ve done my best to deny it, and that is that Leo belongs in the kids’ lives. They love him, and they don’t even know that he’s their father. Well, Luke knows, but that’s not the point.
Once all the talk of the disease is done and we’ve found a cure, then I’ll tell him the truth. Well, he already knows, but I’ll confirm it. I’ll let him be in the kids’ lives. He can come and visit them in the city as much as he wants, but that’s it. As for me and him, nothing can ever happen between us again.
The plane lands and stops. Stefan comes out of the cockpit to help us with the door. We grab our bags and descend from the plane.
“Thank you, Stefan. I’ll call you and let you know when I need you to pick us up,” Leo tells him.
“Of course, Alpha Leo,” Stefan says.
We walk to the black SUV that’s parked, and Leo checks under the hood for a key. He presses a button, pops open the trunk, and puts our bags and suitcases in. Then, we both get into the car and start our drive.
“Stefan calls you Alpha. Is he a werewolf?” I ask Leo.
“Yes, he is,” he replies in a clipped, curt tone.
“Are you angry at me or something?” I ask him, and he just squeezes the steering wheel harder.
“No, why would I be angry?” he asks.
“Well, I want to believe you, but your words say one thing, and your body language says something else,” I tell him. He releases a huge sigh.
“I’m sorry. Yes, I am angry, but not at you. I’m angry at myself and the stupid decisions I made in the past,” he tells me.
“Oh, okay. So how long is it going to take to get to the apartment?” I ask him.
“We’re a little far from town, so about an hour,” he tells me.
“Okay, then.”
Alpha Leo’s pov.
The drive into the heart of New Orleans, the French Quarter, is in silence. I won’t say the silence is comfortable-it’s strained with tension caused by things left unsaid, things neither of us are ready to talk about, so we just stay in the silence.
I don’t know what happened on the plane or why I went off on her like that. It’s just that I suddenly realized that the closer we get to finding a cure, the closer we get to Lena and the kids leaving, and that’s something I do not want to happen.
“The city is really beautiful,” Lena says as she stares out her window.
“Yes, it is. It’s alive with culture. They always have some kind of celebration, remembrance, or feast every day, and then at night, that’s when it really comes alive,” I tell her.
“Maybe one day, when we don’t have a clock on our backs, I can come back here. Maybe I’ll bring the kids too,” she says.
“Yeah, that would be great,” I tell her, and she stops looking out the window, turns to me, and smiles.
God, how I’ve missed that smile. The more time I spend with her, the more I realize how much of a mistake I made.
“So, where exactly does Freya stay?” she asks me.
“She’s over on Bourbon Street. We’re about five minutes out,” I tell her.
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