Chapter 19
NINETEEN
LEON
She’d fallen asleep right in the middle of everything.
Part of him wanted to wake her, to make her recognize his prowess, but the far larger part had him slipping free of her slack grip.
Arranging Elena among the pillows remaining after she destroyed her nest, he pulled the blankets high to her chin and pushed the hair from her face.
She was a vision in sleep. All softness and without guile, not a hint of her anger to be found. It wasn’t until those incredible hazel eyes opened that she would remember to hate him, to be terrified.
He’d done nothing to truly hurt her and everything in his considerable power to see to her every need.
His words had been harsh during their interactions, but nothing was wounded except her pride.
Leon couldn’t understand how a female could be so adamant and vicious when she knew nothing of the world at all.
Laying a light kiss on her forehead he left her to dress and try to get some work done. He’d abandoned it once tonight already, thinking he could get Elena off his mind with a quick roll in the sheets, but she’d ruined that plan. He couldn’t find it in himself to be angry about it.
She was carrying his child. A fact he could hardly believe. Leon hadn’t thought it would happen so quickly, but there it was.
He was going to be a father and with a beautiful, kind Omega as its mother.
Not that she was gentle and sweet with him. He saw the security footage though. Watched her interact with Mrs. Jacobs and Helen when she thought he was nowhere to be found. For a woman of her station, she was remarkably gracious with the hired help.
Perhaps as the pregnancy went on, she’d lose that lost, haunted look in her eyes. Stop flinching every time he came near. She’d learn he wanted nothing so much as her to want him, need him.
To love him.
It would help if he could unmask whoever it was that hurt her that night, but Silas had yet to come through for him.
Both of their connections failed to find anything of note other than Anthony’s dinner with her and Leon’s subsequent scuffle with them both.
The hotel security was abysmal with only cameras on the lobby floor and those were sparse.
The halls and elevators had no working cameras so that anyone could come and go as they pleased.
Elena Costanzo had no business being there in the first place, and it was a wonder worse hadn’t happened.
He wasn’t the only man in the world whose scent was evergreens.
His brother Anthony smelled similar enough, and while the two of them weren’t carbon copies, they were close enough to often be mistaken as one another when they were younger.
His aftershave was expensive and far harder to duplicate, but it was feasible.
Leon would have liked to lay it all at Anthony’s door, the only man he knew right off who would stoop to such insidious methods, but he wasn’t so certain.
Work was Anthony’s enemy and plotting such a thing would have taken at least some effort.
Leon was certain the hotel staff would have noted his leaving only to return later, too.
Until Silas could make some headway, there was nothing Leon could do but show Elena through his actions that he would never harm her.
Too bad she felt everything he did to her was just that.
The way she cried when she realized she was pregnant had twisted through his heart, catching him off guard. He’d thought she’d be happy. Every Omega wanted children. Elena had acted as if her life was over and wouldn’t be quieted until he’d purred for her for hours.
Leon grunted and raked his hand through his tousled hair as he sat at his desk.
Tapping the keyboard, he brought the monitors to life, numbers scrolling across them as programs automatically opened for his perusal.
He’d lost a week with her heat, unable to leave her even to feed himself from the trays Mrs. Jacobs left outside the door.
She’d run so hot, he’d had to pin her down to scent her properly.
He wondered if it would always be like that, or if it was because it was her first true heat with an Alpha.
He hoped it wasn’t a one off thing. He looked forward to her being so vicious, so feral, with every one of them to come.
Dragging his thoughts back to center, Leon’s fingers flew over the keyboard as he typed up an email to check in with Silas again.
Hours later, he could hear Mrs. Jacobs moving around in the kitchen in the early morning quiet.
The world was coming awake, and so would Elena.
He’d eat with her, he decided. Leon had caught up with work as much as he could, responding to the multitude of emails that needed his immediate attention.
Also to his father, agreeing to a dinner with his new mate.
Leon didn’t want to take her over to his father’s home. He didn’t want to have her anywhere but in his bed, open and naked to him, but perhaps if she interacted with those that knew him well, she’d see he wasn’t half as evil as she thought.
Perhaps his mother would put in a good word for him.
Leon chuckled at the idea, sending the computer to sleep as he rose to stretch and yawn. It’d been a long night and it’d be an even longer day. He would have to start keeping regular hours so that he could tend to his Omega.
“Is she awake,” Leon asked Mrs. Jacobs as he emerged from his office to take in the smells of coffee and bacon.
“Yes, sir, just came down,” she replied as she tsked at him for stealing a strip from the hot tray.
“Have my car ready at six. We’ll be dining at my father’s tonight.”
“Your father’s, sir?”
“She’ll be fine.”
“As you say, sir,” Mrs. Jacobs said with a dip of her head before she went back to arranging everything on a tray to take out to the dining room.
“You think it’s a bad idea,” Leon said as he leaned a hip against the counter, more statement than question.
“It’s just that she’s fresh from her heat, sir,” Mrs. Jacobs started, twisting her hands in her linen apron as she sent surreptitious glances in Leon’s direction. “I don’t imagine I know anything of it, but in all the years I worked for the Tedesco’s, he made sure to give them time after.”
“She’s a resilient thing. Elena will be fine.” Leon gave her shoulder a pat, letting her know she hadn’t overstepped with the gentle connection before he ambled out to meet his mate in the dining room.
He was still sure of her resilience as he entered, despite the pinched set of her lips and eyes, the paleness of her face as she waited at the table with hands clenched tightly in her lap. Whether she was waiting for a battle or breakfast seemed up for debate.
“Did you not sleep well,” Leon asked as he took his chair.
“I slept fine.” Distracted and terse, her reply riled his temper.
He’d let her sleep instead of waking her to see to his needs, and this was the thanks he got.
“Perhaps you need more rest to improve your behavior this morning,” Leon said as he snapped out his napkin and laid it across his lap.
“My behavior?” Elena didn’t falter as her gaze swung up to meet his, both brows rising high.
“You’re showing very little appreciation for your Alpha.”
“What exactly do you expect me to do?”
“You could greet me. Show some concern for my wellbeing.”
“You look fine, and I know you didn’t sleep with me, so what is there to ask?” Elena slouched for a bare moment before what was likely years of training kicked in, straightening her shoulders.
“Is that what has you so upset today,” Leon asked as he leaned forward. “That I didn’t sleep with you?”
Elena didn’t answer as Mrs. Jacobs came in bearing the tray with breakfast. She remained silent as the housekeeper went around the room, serving them both with a cheery smile as if she hadn’t heard a word of their conversation.
“Where you sleep is none of my concern,” Elena murmured as Mrs. Jacobs left.
“And where exactly do you think I slept?”
“Where you go and who you-you f-fuck is none of my concern, either,” Elena snapped, shoving away from the table with a sound caught somewhere between anger and despair. She raced up the stairs, heedless of running from an Alpha.
Leon was after in seconds. He ambled along in her wake, his long strides eating up the distance between them as she ran towards the bedroom. He was upon her as she tried to slam the door in his face, his palm going out to connect with the door before it could close.
He backed her up to the wall, growling low in his throat when she would have ducked under his arm to continue her escape.
“You do have quite the mouth on you, little one,” Leon purred as he cupped her jaw, forcing her to meet his gaze. “Where did you learn such language?”
“From you. Please stop calling me that,” Elena said softly, a grimace pulling her lips taut as he urged her up on tiptoe, brushing a kiss against the corner of her mouth.
“You didn’t like it when I called you by name, and now you hate a term of endearment. What should I call you?”
“I don’t care, just not that.”
“But you are my little one,” Leon husked as he bent to pick her up, quieting her wriggling with the narrowing of his eyes.
“Please stop,” she whispered just before he covered her mouth with his, teasing along the seam of her lips with his tongue. Forcing her to open to him as she gave a shuddering sigh that he breathed in before letting it out on a hungry growl.
“Let us get one thing clear, Elena,” Leon said as he nudged her head aside to mouth the side of her neck, lips searching out the crimson ring beneath the thick bandage at her shoulder. “I will do whatever, whenever I please. That includes you.”
Elena gasped as his mouth closed over the wound, adding the lightest pressure. Reminding her of who she belonged to, that it was his claim that caused her such pain now. That it was him that soothed the sting as he nuzzled her neck, tracing a line of gentle kisses back to her parted lips.
She whined low in her throat as he delved deep inside to taste her.
Savoring her on his tongue before he teased at her, urging her into a response she struggled in vain not to give.
Her arms were already around his neck, holding tight, fingers raking through his hair.
She clung to him as if she needed him as much as the breath in her lungs from nothing more than a mere kiss.
Leon smiled against her as her legs wrapped around him. He kept her dazed, kissing her even as his sure steps took them down the stairs and back to the dining room. Elena wasn’t aware of the change of scenery, her legs working against him as she writhed.
She blinked up at him in horror as he dumped her back into her chair.
“And right now, it pleases me for you to take care of my unborn child and eat something.”