Page 40 of Lucius

She came out of the closet and stared at him. “What?”

“I mean personally. You’re her family and she probably never thought you’d leave. I would suspect, too, that she was very aware she wasn’t being fair to you and just hoped you’d keep going along with it.” He put a bundle of socks in a drawer he’d cleared out, then looked at her. “She thinks you’re selfish for not sticking with her even when you were miserable, but she’s the one who put the family business ahead of everything else.”

“Yeah.” She sat on the bed with a sigh. “I hate that things are crappy between us, but I don’t know how to fix it. I also think I really can’t be the one to bridge that gap, I think it has to be her.”

“I agree.”

He joined her and put his arm around her shoulders, giving her a kiss on the side of the head. “Sweetheart, when we have kids, I promise that I’ll never force them to do something they don’t want to do. Family should support, not stifle. It’s easy forme to say that because I grew up with people who wanted me to have the life I wanted.”

“But you have to be here in the park,” she said.

“Yeah, but I didn’t have to go into security,” he said. “There’s so much I could have done and been safe in the park. Like Justus is a bear. They normally work with food, but he’s part of the security team. And Jasper is a wolf, and he’s part of security instead of working with the VIP tours. What’s that saying? Family gives you roots so you can have wings to fly where you want.”

“I’ve never heard that saying, but I like it. And I like the idea of having kids who can do what they want with their future. Can they go to college?”

“We have school here in the park, and there are online programs we’ve used, so yes.”

“Cool.”

She sighed. “I think we have to get to dinner?”

“Yeah, and then we’ll come back and finish up.”

She rose to her feet and smiled. “I’m pretty sure you promised me that we’d have some time to ourselves.”

“But all your stuff is on the bed,” he said, gesturing to at least a trash bag’s worth of clothes covering the bed.

“We’ll just have to be creative. Or toss the clothes on the floor.”

“Creative? You got it.”

He rose to his feet and hugged her. “I’m sorry things went to hell today, but I’ll never be sorry that you’re my soulmate. You’re precious to me and I only want you to be happy.”

“I’m happiest with you. Happier than I’ve ever been in my life.”

“Good. Let’s get to dinner and then get home so I can becreative.”

“I love how you said creative.”

He wiggled his brows and smiled.

She was falling for him hard.

He’d been there when she felt like her world was falling apart and hadn’t shied away from any of the messy emotional stuff. And he was still here, making her laugh and supporting her.

Having a soulmate was awesome as hell.

Lucius fella little bit more in love with Sidney after the pride’s dinner. She was so sweet and kind to everyone, wanting to know everything there was to know about lions and being mated to one. She’d made plans for lunch the following afternoon with Jenni, Celeste, and Rhomi. He loved that she was curious about his people.

As they left Caesar’s house, his dad stopped them on the front porch.

“I’m sorry to hear things didn’t go well with your mom,” he said.

“Thanks,” she said. “I think Lucius is right and she’ll come around in time. I’m sure I surprised her with how fast I moved out. If she’d come to me and said she was uprooting her whole life for a guy she met the day before, I’d consider having her institutionalized.”

Caesar grinned. “Yeah, we hear that from the human mates. You understand why you want to be with Lucius, but people who don’t understand the pull of soulmates won’t. I wanted to ask if you’ve discussed the mating ceremony and what your plans might be.”

“I told her about the ceremony,” Lucius said. “We haven’t talked about timing.”

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