Chapter 67
Chapter
Sixty-Seven
Iwas ready by the time Marcus knocked on Mike and Sabrina’s apartment door.
I had everything packed, and I had over-packed a bit, but we also didn’t expect to find anything yesterday.
We thought it might last a few more days.
He stepped into the space, looking around at the very much Sabrina-decorated living and dining room.
“This is…”
“Bright. It’s bright.” I answered for him.
Marcus chuckled, but it was tired. The dark circles were carved deep beneath his eyes.
I wondered if he had slept at all while I was gone.
His shoulders were more hunched than normal, and there was a five o’clock shadow gracing his face.
He looked shaken, and he was just keeping his emotions from coming over the bond.
“Do you want to carry Kayla down? I can grab everything else.”
“Alright.”
He reached out, taking her from me and squealed happily as she patted his chest. “Hello, sweetheart. I missed you.”
Kayla squealed again, and his smile brightened as he kissed her head.
Picking up the bags, I stepped out of the apartment.
Locking it behind me with the extra key they gave me, we headed down the stairs and out to his car.
He’d brought the Audi, and I was surprised.
Tyson had recovered both his cars from the house after the first, but the Jeep took too much damage.
The Audi had been parked far enough away not to get damaged.
Still, I knew he had been driving his dad’s truck if he wanted to go anywhere.
Setting up the car seat in the back, I put the bags on the other side and moved for him to secure Kayla in.
He struggled for a moment before giving me a sheepish look.
Stepping in, I locked her down in the straps, showing him how to adjust them.
Marcus got into the driver’s seat and I sat in the passenger seat.
Pulling my seatbelt on, he pulled out onto the road and made a loop around the university.
I sat back quietly, running my hands over the seats.
The last time I had been in this car, it felt like a lifetime ago.
Some days it felt like I had died somewhere along the way and now I was living a completely different life.
Glancing at Marcus, he had both hands on the steering wheel, his eyes focused on the road.
He had his glasses on even though I knew he had the crystals on that Selene had made.
While he didn’t wear them much at home anymore, he did when he went out.
Since we mated, we didn’t need them as much with each other, so it mostly was for everyone else’s benefit.
“Mike and Sabrina weren’t there.”
I shook my head. “Sabrina had class and Mike probably did too, but even if he didn’t, I don’t think he wanted to chance facing you.”
“I mean, they aren’t in the frat house anymore. It’s definitely bigger and Sabrina makes it look nice.”
Nodding, I glanced back at Kayla, who was chewing on a toy. “She has an eye for interior design. She still gave Mike his hovel. He’s got an even bigger setup now in a nook between the bathroom and bedroom. It’s really nice.”
He hummed. “I’m glad they have a second bedroom now.”
I couldn’t help it. The laugh burst out of me, and I wrapped my arms around my middle. Marcus frowned, glancing over at me. Still, it was too funny. Too normal. Too him.
“Colt?”
“Nothing, I just…it was nice to hear that slightly salty tone from you. I missed it.”
His brow furrowed. “I don’t understand.”
Taking a deep breath, I leaned back in the seat.
“It’s been one thing after another. Everything has been…
broken. For months. I’ve felt broken for months.
Our bond. Our relationship. Everything about us has been anything but normal.
We are trying to get back to where we were, but it’s hard.
” My voice cracked. “It feels like every step we take forward, there are two steps back. Always. I’m so fucking frustrated and I’m tired and I just…
want to be left alone. I just want to live with my mate and my daughter and just… be.”
“To take a breath that doesn’t feel like it’s being stolen away.”
I turned to Marcus, my Alpha, his face fallen and his hands so tight that they were turning white. Reaching out, I took one of his hands and peeled it off the wheel. Holding it, I pressed my lips to the back of it.
“I love you, Marcus. I always will. No matter what we have to weather, I will always do my best to stay standing. I might break, I might bend against the storm, but I am too stubborn to be uprooted.”
He squeezed my hand. “For someone who doesn’t like poetry, that was pretty poetic, my mate.”
I smiled. “Maybe being in your house and reading all your old books helped. I got to know the younger you more.”
“I’m sorry.” Marcus glanced at me. “I’m so sorry, Colt. I never…”
“Mar, it’s okay.”
His growl actually scared Kayla into dropping her toy. She started to squirm and cry before I reached back to put it back in her lap. I turned back to Marcus, and he looked as if he was going to cry.
“From the beginning. All of it. Pushing you. Forcing you. Hurting you. Thinking that I was this great Alpha who was enough for you. I thought…I could be better for you, and I just made it so much worse. I didn’t take the threats seriously around us and now…”
I nuzzled his hand. He moved it to cup my cheek, and I used my hands to press it against me. “Now we know, and we take them seriously. Now, we are going to take them down. Once and for all. We know now not to take each other’s safety and strength for granted.”
“You’ve gone through so much.”
“So have you, Mar. That’s not to discount everything that happened to you just because you have a stronger body than I do.
They tortured you. We know that. The things Ebony did to you after…
all for the sake of claiming you. When she never really liked you past the Alpha-10 written on your forehead.
You’ve had nothing but people proving over and over that they don’t look at you as anything other than a perfect Alpha. ”
His breath hitched, and I could see him fighting tears. “I don’t…I just want this to end. I don’t want this to be looming over us for the rest of our lives. I want to just live my life with my mate, and I didn’t realize just how hard that was going to end up being.”
“I did mention that I was complicated.”
Marcus snorted. “Don’t even go there, Colt.”
I smiled. “The reason I left, the reason I needed a couple days, was because I didn’t believe her.”
“Colt, that…”
“No, I get it. I know how it would look from the outside. Mike and Rin didn’t see it that way.
They listened, and they helped me.” I turned to face him as best I could in the seat.
“Something felt off. All of it. While yes, the bond was breaking, it wasn’t broken.
It never fully broke, and you left after the fourth dose.
You had sex after the third. That was it.
If it had already broken, they wouldn’t have had to go through the other doses. ”
Marcus shook his head. “Colt, I am prepared to take on the responsibly of her child. I’ve accepted that.”
“No, Mar, that’s…”
“Colton, stop!” I flinched as he yelled. “I get that you’re trying to explain away, and I appreciate it, but…”
I cut him off. “The hatchling isn’t yours!”
He stopped the car, turning to me as he looked at me. “What?”
“It’s not yours. Ebony, when I stood next to her, she knew I could tell if she was lying. She said she had an Alford hatchling. Not your hatchling. It stood out too much. So Mike, Rin and I searched through all the information, all the cameras, everything. Days’ worth of footage and tracking.”
“And…”
I took a breath. “We were wondering why Dark Night stepped in and helped pay for Queen’s shares in the company and gave them over. It’s because they were purchasing something from her.”
“Keith…”
Nodding, I squeezed his hand. “We followed Ebony, and she met with Queen. They went together into an IVF clinic. You two being twins, it would give off a close match. Close enough that no one would question it.”
“But you did.”
I nodded again. “I did. Mike and I have them running the DNA against yours and Kieth’s DNA. I think that it’s going to come back 99.5% for you and 99.9% for Kieth. We have enough proof to get it out of Queen.”
Marcus threw the car into park on the side of the road and took my head in his hands.
His lips slammed against mine, and I wrapped my arms around his shoulders.
He lifted me up at my waist and put me into his lap before pushing the seat back as far as it would go.
I straddled him, kissing him as passionately and as needy as I could.
Whining, I nipped at his lips. “Mar…”
“Did you take your potion this morning?”
I nodded. “Yeah. I brought four bottles with me just in case.”
“Thank god.”
Reaching up, Marcus undid my pants and yanked on them before growling. He shifted his hand and shredded them. I couldn’t even be upset. Reaching down, I fumbled with his pants, pulling them down when he lifted his ass off the chair.
Marcus didn’t even wait. His hands grabbed my hips, and he slammed me down onto his cock.
I sucked in a breath, trying not to hit my head on the roof of the car.
It was a struggle, but I was able to have enough room to ride him.
He did his best to slam into me, and it was minutes before both of us came.
His shirt was unsalvageable, and his legs were covered with everything leaking out of me.
I chuckled, falling against him. My eyes glanced at Kayla, who had somehow not woken up through all that. Laughing, I nipped his shoulder.
“We could have scarred Kayla for life.”
“She wouldn’t have remembered. She’d be fine.
” Marcus kissed my neck. “Fuck, I love you, Colton. I don’t think you can understand how much I love you.
I never thought I could love someone so much, fated bond or not.
I just…” He wrapped his arms around me. “Thank you, little wolf. Thank you for coming into my life. For changing everything.”
Smiling, I kissed his mark and felt him jerk. “Thank you for forcing your way in. I never planned on letting you in, Marcus. It was all you. You and your stubborn Alpha ass.”
He laughed. “Yet somehow, my stubborn ass pales compared to yours.”
“Hey! If I wasn’t, I wouldn’t be here right now.” Leaning back, I brushed his face, drowning his deep green eyes. “You’re the only reason I’m alive.”
“Good. You aren’t going anywhere. Not for a long time.”
Leaning back, I chuckled at the mess on his shirt. “I have an extra one, if you want to squeeze into it.”
“Yeah, with my current weight, how about we not make it look like I am that fat? I have some extra clothes in my trunk.”
“I have extra in my bag.”
I smiled. “Maybe we could stay the night at the lodge? I still would love to check out the hot springs over there.”
“I think I can arrange something for us. My parents won’t be happy they are away from Kayla another day.”
“Well, it puts off figuring out who is going to break the news to Keith.”
Marcus’s nose wrinkled, and he pushed up his glasses before rubbing his eyes.
“I don’t even know…he’s going to lose it.
This might actually be the final straw that breaks it for him.
He’s been struggling to come to terms with the fact that no matter how much you love someone, if they don’t love you back, it’s not going to work. ”
Kissing his lips softly, I smiled. “We will be there for him if he needs to come back to the family.”
“Colt, he…”
“I know what he did. I just think that Queen was able to manipulate his feelings. Keith wanted me to have my fated. No matter how fucked up it was or what it would cost us. It was wrong, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to hate him for the rest of my life. He’s still your brother.”
Rolling his eyes, he shook his head. “I am about to hold an eternal grudge against him for what he did.”
“You better now. He’s your twin. He might not be right, but there is enough between the two of you. I hope, maybe one day, Keith can realize it was never about being Alpha. You were never competing for that. Until he understands that, it might be rough.”
“Sometimes I wonder if Queen poisoned him against me too. She tried to with the entire family, but if she’s gone, he can find his home again.”
I sucked in a breath as I lifted off him. I felt everything come out, and I let out a chortle. Reaching behind his chair, I grabbed my duffel bag. Pulling out clothes, I used one shirt to wipe myself down before pulling on some boxers and wiggling into another pair of jeans.
Marcus watched the entire thing until I growled at him and handed him the shirt. He wiped his legs and seat before pulling off his shirt. Getting out, he popped the trunk and grabbed another shirt. I raised an eyebrow as it rolled down his front, and he frowned.
“This might be an old shirt.”
I shook my head. “I didn’t say anything.”
“Colt.”
“I said nothing.”
He leaned over and kissed me. “Your face had subtitles, my mate.”
“Did they tell you I think you’re a mouthwatering Alpha and I love you?”
“I’m sorry. I must have been reading the Latin subtitles and not the Greek.”
Barking out a laugh, I shook my head as he pulled us back onto the road. Marcus reached over and took my hand, lacing his fingers between mine. He brought it to his mouth and kissed my hand.
“I think I’m done with drama. After we kill Dylan, I think I’m taking you into a cave and not coming out for another fifty years.”
“I don’t think I would mind that at this point. I just want at least a hot spring somewhere in there. I’ve gotten used to my Monday soaks.”
Marcus smiled. “I’ll see what I can do, little wolf.”