Page 93 of Alpha's Impostor Bride

“You want to take him to the North, don’t you? You want to surround him with people who will look down on him because of his blood, people who will try to hurt him.”

“If they lay a hand on either of you, I’ll rip their heads off,” Cedric snarls.

I don’t look at him. I can’t bear to. “But the people who wanted to harm us are still alive, aren’t they?” I point out wearily. “Am I expected to believe that you can keep us safe now when you couldn’t keep me safe then? Harriet says I should trust you. You say I should trust you. But there’s nothing that I’ve seen or that you’ve done to make me trust you. You want to drag my son away from here, away from the life he knows, a place where he’s safe, to a land where he will be humiliated like his mother was. He’s a child, Cedric. And you want him to fight dangerous monsters.”

I get to my feet, my soul feeling burdened. “I don’t know what you want from me. Harriet loves you. She sees the best in you. As a result, she wants me to see the best in you. But Cedric, after how you treated me, have you ever even apologized? You come here and see your son and start making demands. I haven’t heard a single apology for the way you made me feel. Yet you expect me to trust you?”

I meet his gaze head on. “I’m not some naïve, sheltered girl who’ll believe anything you say. I don’t know what the truth is. What I do know is what you put me through. I can never forget the things you said. Your words, Bella’s words—they’re all etched in my memory. I was a tool. Something to be used by you. A substitute, a means to an end, a thing without feelings. Showing up here and telling me what you expect me to do isn’t going to work. I’m not someone who has to bow before you anymore. You’re in my world now.”

He’s staring at me as if trying to process my words. Turning on my heel, I walk away.

It hurts. It hurts so much that it feels like my heart will explode.

And the hurt is wrapped in frustration.

He doesn’t understand. He doesn’t see.

And he never will.

Chapter 18

Cedric Raine

This woman is not my Leanna. My Leanna was soft and shy. She had a sharp tongue that made unexpected appearances.

But I like this Leanna, too. I like how she stands up for herself. She has changed, but then, so have I.

I’ve tried everything: talking to her, trying to protect her, telling her the truth about why our son needs me around him. But she doesn’t seem to care about any of it.

An apology?

I stare blindly into the dark house.

Apologize? Me?

I think I’ve expressed regret for the way I treated her. Isn’t that an apology?

I hear rustling and then catch a familiar scent as Harriet’s weight settles down next to me on the bench.

She sighs. “I take it didn’t go well?”

“She despises me, Harriet.” It’s a strange feeling, an odd ache in my chest, to be hated by Leanna.

“No, she doesn’t. But she is afraid to trust you. The kind of betrayal she experienced has made her wary. Can you blame her?”

“But I never betrayed her!” I protest angrily. “I’ve told her so.”

Harriet doesn’t say anything for a full minute before she looks at me. “If you were in her shoes, would you believe you? Having your fated mate turn their back on you is very painful, Cedric. There was a lot of damage done at the very beginning of your relationship. If you’d had more time together, maybe things would not be like this. But your time together was limited.”

“I treated her well!” I feel more frustrated than ever. “I can’t—”

“Cedric.” There’s a finality to Harriet’s voice that makes me stop. “Like I was saying, if you two had had more time, things would have been different. Your bond would have been stronger.”

My wolf paces inside my head, unable to understand why our mate won’t come back to us. I don’t understand it, either. I’m here. She’s alive. We have a child. We should be together! She should be happy to see me. She should have sought me out earlier. Told me she wasn’t dead.

“What am I supposed to do, though? She won’t be able to tame our son’s wolf. In another year or so—”

“This isn’t about Finn’s wolf,” Harriet says abruptly. “The two of you are so alike, both refusing to face the truth. She needs time, Cedric. She believes me; I could see it in her eyes. She’s fighting with herself. She needs time to accept the truth, to believe that you weren’t behind the events that took place eight years ago. She needs time to accept that her reality and the foundations of this new life she has here were built on a misunderstanding.”

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