Chapter 2 #3
Liam was reluctant, but Lina smiled at him. He nodded, climbed down from her arms, and followed the maid out. Liam always listened to Lina, sometimes more than me. But that was because over five years, Lina had spent the most time with him.
She looked up, eyes a bit red, but smiling the same way as always. "What is it?"
"After the wedding... you can still stay here. Liam needs you."
I saw her stiffen. I sighed. "I'm sorry. I know this request is unfair to you, but right now I still need you—"
"I know." Lina cut me off. "Lucifer, I've always known."
She walked over and hugged me gently. I didn't move. But I didn't push her away either. Lina's scent reminded me of bay leaf. Her pheromones were similar to my mate's. Sometimes, watching her care for Liam, I'd imagine it was my mate. How good that would be.
"I really like Liam." Her head rested on my shoulder, voice choking. Her words filled me with shame. I'd been using her feelings for Liam to make her share part of the burden.
Lina came the first week after I brought Liam back to the manor.
She stood in the manor's living room doorway holding an insulated bag filled with bone broth she'd simmered for three hours.
She saw me holding a child. Her steps paused.
Then she smiled gently. "I heard you adopted a child.
" She set the bag on the coffee table and walked closer, bending to look at the small thing in my arms. "So tiny. What's his name?"
"Liam."
"Liam." She repeated the name, reaching out. Her fingertip lightly touched the little fist peeking out from the edge of the blanket. Liam gripped her finger in his sleep. She froze, then her eyes curved. "He's holding onto me."
"Yeah." I looked at her profile. Couldn't name the feeling.
Lina was the daughter of a werewolf lord.
Her parents had close ties with Hale. Until she turned sixteen.
Lina's parents died in that fire. The fire was suspicious.
Lina cried and said she didn't want to investigate—it was too painful.
After that, the Elder Council saw she was young and alone, so they let her stay.
She was three years younger than me. Gentle personality. Capable. Never spoke out of turn.
Over the following months, I personally selected maids to care for Liam.
Though Lina only supervised the maids and played with Liam, she worried terribly when he ran a fever.
She never complained about any of it. Rarely even sought credit in front of me.
Every time I came back to the manor, I'd see her holding Liam on the living room sofa, humming quietly to him.
Sunlight streaming through the floor-to-ceiling windows onto her hair. The scene was quiet and perfect.
Everyone thought I should marry her. Even Liam himself saw her that way—at six months old, the first word he spoke was "Lina," not "Daddy."
But my wolf didn't recognize her.
And I couldn't accept her either.
I only wanted my mate.
"Lucifer," Lina spoke. I snapped back. "Do you know why I like Liam?"
She looked up, eyes moist. "Because he's your child. You say he's adopted, but he looks so much like you. You've been hiding him from the elders to protect him. I know everything."
I sighed. "Lina—"
"No," she cried. First time she'd lost composure in front of me. "Lucifer, I love you. Love you enough to accept being a mother to a child who's not mine. Even if I can never have children of my own."
I stared at her, didn't know how to say something cruel.
Until she suddenly stood on tiptoe, trying to get closer. That soft pheromone drifted over too. Bay leaf. I shoved her away hard. Lina stumbled back several steps, staring at me in shock.
"Lina," I had to say it. "I'm sorry. I can't accept this."
She trembled. "You don't love me?"
"I love you," I said. "But it's the love for family, Lina. I love you like I loved my dead parents. Like I love the pack. But the romantic love you want—I can't give you that."
"Then who will you give it to? That Gray family's second daughter?" She grew agitated. "Lucifer, do you even know her? You think she'll love Liam like I do?"
Lina bit down hard on her lip. Those eyes stared at me, churning with emotions I'd never seen before.
"No," I shook my head. "Not her." But I wouldn't tell anyone my mate was human. I had to protect her. If the elders found out, they'd hunt her down. Because it would mean she was the destroyer of Hale's pure bloodline.
Lina suddenly laughed.
"All right, Lucifer," she recovered her calm. That calm felt unsettling somehow. Like she'd made some decision. "I understand."
She turned and left.
I stood in the center of the living room. Chandelier light made the whole room bright. Liam's blocks still scattered across the coffee table. His messy crayon drawings taped to the windows.
Lina's scent wasn't unpleasant. But my wolf reacted to it the same way it reacted to the air in the hallway. Nothing. No accelerated heartbeat. No heated glands. None of that churning feeling rising from deep in the body, like something gripping your spine.
No bond.
Her pheromones might resemble bay leaf. But they weren't.