Page 60 of Haze

When I return to the impromptu waiting area, Cade’s voice comes with a low growl. “A word, please?”

Thalia eyes me with a furrowed brow and wrinkled nose, trying to figure out the change in the room.

Giving a soft nod, I dismiss myself and open the door to the adjacent lab. My head is reeling.

I turn to look at him, squaring my shoulders.

“So, when were you planning to tell me that you’ve claimed my little sister?” Cade snarls, The Leviathan surfacing in Cade’s eyes. “Dinah said we had something to talk about, but I assumed it’s because you were putting in an intention, not that you sank your teeth in her.”

My wolf has never cowered before, but now, his tail is between his legs. We divert our gaze and turn our head away from him. Moving slowly, I pull aside my shirt collar, revealing the mating mark Lena gifted me.

The snarl stops but barely. Cade runs his hands through his hair, then down his face before muttering, “Fuck.”

I stand silently as Cade stalks back and forth across the lab. Growling, he shakes his head, glaring at me on each pass. I can’t tell if he’s plotting my death or if he’s coming to terms with what’s happened.

Never having had a little sister, I can only imagine how this feels. If the tension in the room is even half of what he’s feeling, I’m glad Ma chose to stop trying when she had me. All the times she said she’d rather be a bad Catholic than have any more of us running around is starting to make sense.

“You couldn’t have fucking waited? At least give me the fucking time to get Revecca to go away before you claimed my little sister?” Cade snaps, his fists tight at his side.

I imagine if his mate weren’t outside this room, he’d have laid into me.

I set my jaw and try to fight down my response, but my smart mouth moves without my brain. “In my defense, she bit me first.”

The tension breaks. In an instant, Cade’s body relaxes. “Fuck, I knew she’d snap eventually.”

Cade braces his hands on his hips, looking at me without saying anything. I stand ramrod straight, tension coiled in my body, returning the silence. He releases a sigh, and my wolf settles as The Leviathan retreats. Cade hangs his head before motioning toward the door back to where his mate is.

I hesitate and ask the question that’s driving me nuts. “What did Dinah mean about commanding Lena’s wolf? I thought commanding other alphas was only something The Leviathan could do and the influence of The Pricolici not...”

The words die in my throat seeing Cade’s expression. Raising his eyebrows, he crosses his arms over his chest.

“How did you get through her heat without noticing?” Cade tilts his head to the side. “Lena isn’t an Alpha wolf.”

“What?” I furrow my brows and narrow my eyes at him.

My heart is hammering in my chest. No. There’s no way. But she’s an Alpha Female?

“You really don’t know?” Cade unfolds his arms and pushes his hand back through his hair. “She’ll love knowing she fooled you.”

Shaking my head, I push him for more information. “Just tell me.”

“Lena’s wolf is a submissive,” Cade says.

None of this makes sense. The way she... No. How the fuck did I miss this? I turn away from him, resting both hands on the table for support. She submits so easily during her heat, the way she holds back her wolf, how she looks away from me and nuzzles my neck. I told Lena she had a submissive side and looked right through her. My mate said the words ‘I’m a submissive,’ and I didn’t hear it. It’s no wonder she’s angry with me. I’m angry with myself.

All I needed to do was listen closer. Our bond should be stronger by now, but I wasn’t paying attention. Too excited that I found her, in love with the idea of possessing her, only for me to miss the entire point of her existence. My mate is the spare heiress to The Pricolici, and God put her in The Leviathan’s pack for balance. Whatever God’s plan, he needed him to have a balancing force. I missed it. You get what you ask for, but God doesn’t make it easy.

Cade stays silent next to me while I beat myself up.

We have never seen her wolf. There was no way to be certain without seeing her wolf. My wolf assures me I’m not a complete idiot.

Lena never, not even once, let her wolf to the surface to show us a glimpse into her true nature.

“I should have seen it. I didn’t see it and shouldn’t have ever gone to her home without supervision. She was vulnerable. I wouldn’t blame you for taking me out back and shooting me.” I hang my head. Gripping the edge of the workbench, I ask him like he can explain my own stupidity to me, “How did I fucking miss it? All the fucking signs were there.”

Cade snorts. “You’ve known her what? Ten days at most?”

I can’t bring myself to look at him. At thirty, he’s Sovereign Alpha and successfully mated. Until two weeks ago, I thought I had a handle on how life would go. I suppose this is ‘tell your plans to God and watch him laugh’ or something like that.

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