Chapter 135

I did not sleep that night. I tossed and turned, thinking about my fight with Andrew. What he had said was unfair, but I understood that he was under a lot of pressure and probably didn’t mean any of it.

By the morning, I was miserable. I hadn’t completely forgiven Andrew for what he had said, but I felt bad for not being more understanding and for storming out on him. He didn’t have to snap at me, but I didn’t have to snap back.

I stared at the empty space in my bed where Andrew normally slept. It had been such a long time since I had slept alone that it felt strange to have this vacant dip in the mattress without him in it. I ran my hand over the space, wondering if I could still feel his warmth there.

It made me think about the riots and how Andrew had been leaving to stop them when we had our fight. I wondered if he ever made it out that door. I wondered if he ever made it back.

I sighed. I knew what I had to do.

After getting dressed, I skipped breakfast and headed for the door. With any luck, Andrew would still be at the mansion, and I could apologize to him in private.

I wrapped my hand around the door handle when a knock on the other side startled me. Curious, I opened the door.

Andrew.

“Hi,” he said.

He stood tall with his shoulders back, as proud and confident as ever. However, there were dark circles under his eyes that indicated that he had slept as little as I had. The inferno that had unnerved me the night before was long gone.

“Hi,” I replied, dipping my head to him. I hoped that his inner wolf would see the sign of submission and accept it as the first step in my apology. “You want to come in?”

Andrew nodded and walked inside. I closed the door behind him.

“So, why are you here so early?” I asked.

“I wanted to say…I’m sorry,” he said, bowing his head slightly.

“No, I’m sorry.”

“You have nothing to be sorry for. I picked the fight just because I was stressed.”

“I should have known how stressed you were and—”

“It doesn’t excuse what I said. I chose to reveal the truth, and it’s not your fault how people chose to react.”

“No, it’s not.” I gave him a small smile. “But I know that you were under a lot of pressure, and for that, I’m sorry.”

Andrew smiled back and wrapped his arms around me. I leaned my head against his shoulder and nuzzled my face against his neck.

“Did you make it out to the riots?” I asked.

His arms tightened around me.

“Yes.”

“And?”

“They ended.”

By the tone of his voice, I knew not to ask any more questions.

A minute of silence passed between us. Then I got an idea, and my smile grew mischievous.

“You know,” I said in a sultry voice, “you really are tense.”

I ran my hand down his lapel and pulled him in for a kiss.

“I know how to fix that,” I whispered against his lips.

His eyes sparkled, and his mouth quirked into a crooked grin.

“I am awfully tense.”

He brought me closer until no space remained between us. His lips captured mine, and his tongue flicked out to explore my mouth. His hands ran along my body, one settling on my hip and the other on my neck.

I wrapped my leg around him and pressed close, feeling his erect member against my moistening groin. My hands snaked up behind his neck and played with the small tufts of hair at the bottom of his neck. I moaned as he moved his hand to my bottom and squeezed.

I bit his bottom lip as I pulled my head away.

“Let’s take this somewhere more comfortable,” I suggested breathlessly.

Three hours later, we cuddled in my bed, reluctant to leave the warmth of each other’s embrace and return to the real world. His arm encircling me, I rested my head on his chest, combing my fingers through the sweaty, matted hair there. He stroked my hair, staring down at me with a look of complete love and adoration.

“Thank you,” he said.

I looked up at him.

“For what?”

“For sticking by me through all of this.”

I kissed his pec and ran my hand over his torso.

“There’s nowhere I’d rather be than by your side.”

Andrew chuckled.

“That was so corny.”

I giggled, too, and slapped him gently on his abs.

Our laughter was cut off by the text alert on Andrew’s phone.

We both groaned.

“What now?” I asked.

“Nothing good, I’m sure,” Andrew replied as he slid out of bed.

He found his phone in his pants pocket. His hand tightened around it as he read the text. By the time he looked up again, his entire arm was trembling.

“Nothing good,” he repeated, his voice now a growl.

“What happened?”

“Bob. He did an interview on Wake Up, Night Dwellers! in which he claimed that I ‘tried to clear myself of blame’ for my Lunas’ deaths by revealing that human terrorists killed them. He also said that my selfishness caused the riots.”

Andrew raised his hand as though to throw his phone. Instead, he dropped it back on his pants.

“How could I have been so foolish?” he said. “How could I have let that leech into my family? I should have been able to see him for the kind of man that he was and stopped him from digging his claws into my daughter.”

I slipped out of bed and approached Andrew. Putting my arms around his waist, I planted my lips on his neck before settling my head on his shoulder.

“You’re not the only one that Bob has fooled.”

I was beginning to grow weary of these press conferences, but I knew that they were necessary. If I was going to be in a relationship with the Alpha King, I was going to need to become accustomed to them.

“Ladies and gentlemen of the press,” Andrew began he usual rehearsed opening, “thank you for joining us here today. I have invited you to discuss recent remarks from one of my opponents regarding the deaths of my Lunas—”

The crowd erupted into a chorus of boos. Andrew tried to motion them to quiet down, but the boos only grew louder.

“He made some accusations claiming that I acted selfishly in revealing the truth—”

The louder that Andrew spoke, the louder the booing became. Regardless, he persisted.

“He also blamed my revelation for the recent uptick in pro-integration/anti-integration violence—”

“Tell the truth, Dubois!” someone yelled.

Andrew ignored the jab.

“This person is entitled to his own opinions, but I can assure you that it was not my intention to cause any of these problems. My only aim is to improve werewolf/human interactions—”

“You’ve ruined them!” someone else interjected.

“By telling the truth, I believe that we can move forward and heal these old wounds—”

Andrew suddenly pulled me below the podium as a shoe came flying right for us. After a moment, we stood back up, certain that that would be the only projectile.

“Together, we can—”

Another shoe rushed through the air, and I barely ripped away from Andrew in time to avoid getting hit in the head. I heard Andrew growl, and I saw his body tense, but he otherwise remained composed.

Then a squadron of projectiles flew through the air at us. Pens, pads of paper, shoes, hats, even the occasional phone came for us as the booing grew to a deafening volume.

Andrew hurried to cover me with his body and dragged me off the stage.

“We need to get somewhere safe,” he said to Jeffrey, “fast.”