Total pages in book: 35
Estimated words: 33372 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 167(@200wpm)___ 133(@250wpm)___ 111(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 33372 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 167(@200wpm)___ 133(@250wpm)___ 111(@300wpm)
“The toxin from the attack, Karina, my beautiful bouncy baby, even inside me, she … she went silent. We thought we had lost her. Our whole family had been looking forward to Karina’s arrival. Gale, Sean, and Ben wanted another little sister. This time, one that wasn’t a giant pain in the ass,” Patricia said, smiling.
“And Rose wanted a baby sister to boss around.”
“Karina wasn’t dead, though.”
“No,” Patricia said. “Sister Claire told us that Karina was alive, but she was weak.”
“None of the pack knew about the rogues,” Rage said.
“I would not allow my pack to feel fear.”
“And Karina paid the price. Her wolf did. Her wolf is still inside her, in parts,” Rage said. “It did what it could to protect her.”
William nodded, as did Patricia.
“We promised we would protect her. That nothing would ever harm her.”
“I don’t want to harm her. I love her, William. She is my mate and I will do whatever is possible to win her over.” He took a deep breath. “I know she can hear me. She’s in there. Tell her I love her more than anything in this world. That with her, I see a future. One filled with love and children. I will do whatever it takes to make her safe. I love her so damn much and if she feels for me at all, then have her come to the diner. I’ll be waiting for her.”
With that, he turned and made his way across the pack, heading toward the diner, where he sat outside. He didn’t order anything, but a coffee was brought out to him. The sun was high up in the sky. His coffee was replaced.
Rage must have been sitting there for a couple of hours when Rose finally came to sit in front of him.
“You’re not Karina,” he said.
“I know I’m not Karina, but I thought I should come and tell you what’s going on here. She’s not going to come here.”
Rage felt his heart shatter.
Rose rolled her eyes. “Not because she doesn’t love you. Give me strength against judgmental men. You’re an alpha, with your own pack, so to a point, you know what it means to rule. My sister doesn’t have that luxury. All her life, every single year, she has been told that she’s weak, that she cannot be part of a pack in a certain way. Everyone here has made concessions for her. We’ve all done whatever it took to make sure she stayed alive. That is what we do. We’re a family. You’re not part of that family, and she is terrified of fucking everything up.”
“What?”
“You heard me. Karina is afraid of ruining your life. You’re a big, scary alpha, and I don’t know, something happened between the two of you. I’m guessing it’s not the sex, because she looked super happy when she talked about it. I’m talking seriously into it.”
“Karina is worried about me?”
“She’s human. She’s afraid that she’ll make you look weak. She said your pack is awesome. I’ve been trying to make sense of everything that’s been going on, and she doesn’t really have anything to say about it.” Rose shrugged. “She’s scared, but I know she does love you, like a whole lot. I know she didn’t come to this diner and show her feelings for you, but maybe what you need to do is come with me, and I’ll sneak you into her bedroom and you’ll get to see for yourself or maybe even sniff that she does love you. Also, she is crying in her room as well.”
“You know you don’t make any sense?” he asked.
“I make perfect sense, but come on, I know a way of sneaking you past my parents and even my brothers. All we want is the best for Karina. Yes, she’s run away right now, but she came back home, and it’s out of fear. None of us really know what’s going through her mind. Until you let the cat out of the bag, none of us realized that Mom was attacked by a rogue. That was all news to us. It’s kind of sad, if you think about it. Karina’s wolf died within her. I know that our wolves are a part of us.” She shrugged. “It must be lonely for her at times, especially being around all of us.”
Rage hadn’t thought of it like that.
Karina hadn’t come to him, but he didn’t know what it was like to be human with a wolf mate.
He asked her to come to him. Why did he have to go to her?
Chapter Ten
Karina, more than anything, wanted to go to the diner. She had stood up from her bed and made her way toward the door multiple times, but each time she put her hand on the doorknob, she stopped herself from stepping through.