Chapter 133

“Human terrorist attacks?” I managed to say.

Andrew nodded.

“I…but…how did the rumors get it so wrong?”

“The best that I can figure, one of my political opponents started those rumors to try and affect my poll numbers when I first ran for Alpha King. It didn’t work, but my reputation has not exactly recovered, either.”

I could not wrap my mind around this new information. My mind swam from the sheer enormity of it.

“Maybe we should sit down,” Andrew said, guiding me to the chair in front of his desk.

He placed me in the chair, then sat on the corner of the desk. I stared up at him as he towered over me, trying to give me a reassuring smile. My insides melted at the tenderness that I saw there.

This was the man that I loved. Protective and reassuring in a gentle, kind way, not overbearing and aggressive towards the ones that he loved. I could not imagine the strain that this secret must have been putting on him.

“Would you mind telling me more about…how it happened?” I asked.

Andrew stared at the Newton’s cradle on his desk. He grabbed one of the metal balls, pulled it back, and let it go, watching as the balls hit each other back and forth. The clacking proved very soothing.

“All of my Lunas were arranged marriages,” he began.

I leaned forward and took one of his hands, holding it gently to calm him, just as he had done to me so many times before.

“Martha was my first Luna. We were paired up when we were only 18. She liked to pretend that we were in love, but we both knew that we weren’t…”

He rubbed his chin, as though trying to get up the courage to tell the rest of the story. I squeezed his hand. He smiled slightly, but it disappeared as quickly as it had appeared.

“Nine months into our relationship, she died of silver poisoning. It turned out that one of our servants—this was back when I lived on the Dubois estate—was a human anti-integrator who had slowly been poisoning Martha in an act against my pro-integration campaign. That’s why I’ve only had werewolf or hybrid servants ever since.”

He took a deep breath.

“You don’t have to tell me about the others if you don’t want to,” I said, even though my curiosity was killing me.

“No,” he replied. “I need to tell someone.”

His grip on my hand tightened, and I let it.

“I was matched with Amelia before I turned 20. She got pregnant with Lisa soon after, and I was a father by 21. Everything seemed fine until Lisa was 3, and then Amelia was shot with a silver bullet by another human terrorist against werewolf/human interactions.

“My last Luna came when Lisa was 8, Sophia. She was a hybrid, like you. I didn’t love her, but I thought that she could be the mother that Lisa never had.”

Andrew eyes remained dry, and anyone else would not have been able to tell that his emotions had changed. However, I could hear the irregularities in his breathing, and my hand could hardly move in his grasp.

“I did not have the guard that I have now. Two months into our relationship, a human broke into our bedroom while Sophia was there alone and brutally stabbed her to death with a silver knife. Fortunately, Lisa was not home at the time.”

We sat there in silence for several minutes, Andrew lost in his thoughts and me contemplating everything that he had told me. Andrew was first to break the silence.

“I’m so sorry for how I acted,” he said. “I shouldn’t have tried to control you.”

I remained silent.

“After all the attacks that you had suffered, the fact that the most recent one had been a human terrorist attack had sent me over the edge. I couldn’t stand the idea of losing you like I lost them. I guess that it made me overprotective and…frustrated.”

“I appreciate your protectiveness, and I love you for it, but you can’t keep me bubble-wrapped. I tried that already, and you yourself told me that I couldn’t live that way. You can’t have it both ways.”

Andrew’s eyes were downcast. It was the most submissive I had ever seen him, and I doubted that I would ever see him like that again.

“I know that, but I can’t help feeling protective of you.” He chuckled dryly, bitterly. “You have been threatened more times than anyone I have ever known…”

“I don’t want you to stop protecting me. I just want to be able to make my own decisions still. That means that if I want to go with you on the campaign that we planned together, then I should be able to.”

He lifted his eyes to meet mine and nodded.

“All right, you can come to the campaign rallies. However—” he leaned forward without breaking eye contact— “if they start to trigger your episodes, I really want you to reconsider, for your own health. Please.”

“I promise.”

I stood up and kissed Andrew tenderly.

“Thank you,” he said against my lips, his warm breath rolling gently onto me.

I ran my hand through his hair, my fingers tangling in his dark locks.

“Tell me,” I said, my face never moving more than an inch from his, “why have you kept the true story of your Lunas’ deaths a secret? After all these years, surely the public deserves to know what really happened.”

Andrew let out a small breath and moved his face away from mine.

“I was trying to maintain the peace between werewolves and humans.” He stroked the small of my back. “Imagine the pandemonium if people had learned that the Lunas of a noble werewolf—now the Alpha King—had been killed by human terrorists.”

“You won’t be able to keep the peace if you’re no longer Alpha King,” I said. “The best way to do that will be for you to reveal the truth to the public, like I did.”

“Well, you didn’t reveal the whole truth,” Andrew pointed out.

I cringed.

“All right, you have me on that, but—”

“But I see your point. I can’t hide the truth if I want my people to trust me.”

I nodded.

“Besides, you don’t want to be known as the werewolf who goes crazy at the full moon forever, do you?”

Andrew grinned.

“I do have to admit, it does have some advantages when it comes to intimidating opponents,” he said. “It doesn’t help with getting votes, though.”

“So,” I said, playing with his lapel, “are you going to do it? Are you going to tell the world the truth?”

“Yes. I’ll do it.”

I kissed him hard. He returned the kiss, and I could feel his growing member press into my leg. A grin spread across my face as I pulled away.

“Let’s go celebrate this decision in a more…private setting,” I suggested. I started to back away, tugging on his suit jacket so that he would follow me.

He smirked, and a growl erupted deep in his chest.

“Yes, ma’am.”