Page 35 of Wrong Mate

Lucinda shrugged. “So you and Leah keep saying, but I do this for your own good.”

“My own good? I don’t know if you remember, witch, but I know how to take care of myself.” He tried to keep his voice down.

Leah wasn’t stupid and it wouldn’t take a miracleworker to figure out who he was talking to.

“Do you? Or do you think you know how to take care of yourself?” Lucinda asked.

“Go away,” he said.

“No, I will go away when I am good and ready. You think we don’t know what is going on? That we don’t feel adifference inside Leah. You’ve mated her, but I know you. You’re a stubborn ass, and you’re determined to go through with this, aren’t you?”

“Lucinda, you don’t know me at all.”

“Then surprise me, tell me you’re going home and plan to live happily ever after with your mate!”

Killian wanted to tell her that was exactly what he was doing.

“See!” She pointed a finger toward him, the accusation in her tone and the glare in her expression.

“I don’t have to answer to you,” he said.

“Oh, my God, you are a giant pain in my ass,” she said. “Leah is right there. A chance of happiness is right in front of you. Before I turned up, you were happy.”

“So leave, before you ruin all my happiness, and I’m mean to Leah.”

Lucinda shook her head. “You won’t do that.”

“Donot test me.”

Lucinda took a step toward him. “Don’t you get it? By mating with her, by opening yourself up to her, you have put yourself in a horrible predicament. You think I don’t know how wolves mate, what it means? That special bond. How connected and attuned you both are to each other. How right now, even as I’m talking, the moment I say you rejected her, it causes you a great deal of pain?”

He hated Lucinda.In that very moment, he didn’t know how the two of them had become friends.

“You need to leave.”

Lucinda shook her head. “You’re right. I do need to leave. Isense something is coming, something big, and I need to be with the coven to prepare.”

He wanted to ask her what she was talking about, but within seconds she was gone, and she’d taken his happiness along with her. Bitch.

She wasn’t wrong, though. Thinking about how he rejected Leah, how there was rumors and gossip that followed them, pissed him off. Leah deserved better from him, and he was pissed at himself for being such a bastard to her.

He loved having her in his bed. Feeling her in his arms. Thismission had been torture. And it was all his fault. If he hadn’t been so determined to sever this tie between them, they wouldn’t be here right now. They could be back at his pack, back home, Leah already pregnant with his child. Wolves were not known for waiting when it came to sex. Even now, he wanted her again, and he’d already taken her four times throughout the night.

Putting the toast and cereal he’d found at the cabin onto a tray, he carried it through to the bedroom, where Leah was already waking up. She had thrown the covers off her naked body. Pure temptation.

“You’re not getting out of bed yet,” he said.

Leah looked up. “Killian?”

He chuckled. “Expecting someone other than your mate?” He tried not to wince. They were going to complete this mission. He planned on severing their mating, removing Leah from his life, and protecting his pack. It was all he saw of his future. One day, she would understand.

She would also have another mate as well.He didn’t want to think about that, as it seemed to make him want to murder. Not a good feeling when he was on a secret mission to end their mating. He had no claim to her.

“Did I hear you talking to someone?” Leah asked.

“Is that what woke you?”

She shrugged.

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