Page 7 of So I Won a Werelion

I was embarrassed I wasn’t the one who’d done it first.

You’re ready for her now. My lion never smoothed things over.

It was no secret that I loved her. It was just a surprise that I was in love with her.

Her lips parted when she saw me.

I reached for her hands, but she pulled them away.

A collective gasp rolled through the audience. Bibi put her hand over her heart.

“Gabe, what are you doing here?” she whispered, but her microphone picked up every word. And the hush that had fallen over the crowd guaranteed none of them missed her question.

I took another step closer. She shook her head and mouthed no.

What?

“You’re my mate.”

She closed her eyes for a long blink. When she opened them, they were glassy. She tipped her head up and dabbed her fingers carefully underneath them. She wouldn’t let some lion with a scaredy cat past like me ruin her makeup.

“When did you decide that?” she scoffed.

“There was no deciding. It’s always been you.”

“You rejected me.”

Anoooooohhhhhhrose from the crowd.

You need to fight for her now, or you’ll lose her forever.

“Wendy, I was a dumb kid. I didn’t know anything about the world that my pride didn’t tell me. I thought I’d—” I couldn’t saylose everything if I chose you. Certainly wouldn’t help me now. “I’m different now. I’m not afraid to go for what I want.”

She didn’t answer.

“I was a real asshole back then, wasn’t I?” I chuckled, hoping to get those red lips to curl into a smile. She wasn’t buying my bullshit.

Too little too late, my lion sneered.

“Kiss her! Kiss her!” the audience chanted. I was glad to have them on my side, but they weren’t the ones I was trying to win over.

Wendy crossed her arms in front of her chest and looked away from me. If I attempted to give the crowd what they wanted, I’d probably be rewarded with a slap across the face.

Couldn’t say I didn’t deserve it.

“You broke my heart that night,” she said with a shaky voice. The same one she’d used so many nights on the phone after some asshole shifter did her dirty. A hush fell over the crowd; her words were almost too soft for them to hear. “You’d think I’d be over it by now. But somehow, it always hurts worse when it comes to you.”

Fuck. It hurt worse when it came to her, too. Every time she called me to console her after a shitty date, I wanted to tell her. I should’ve told her. But I’d never wanted her to feel like a consolation prize.

My beast scoffed.

When Sterling had chosen my mate as a Real Werewife, it was the final straw. I swore to myself and my animal I’d never let another shifter lay a paw on her ever again.

“I can’t change the past, Wendy. But you can’t say I haven’t been there for you all these years. Even if I was on the other side of the world.”

She took a shaky breath. “At least you’ve always held up that end of the bargain.”

“Yeah. It was fucking torture—wait, can I swear up here?”

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