Chapter 136

After the failed press conference, Andrew decided to take a day to work from home and spend some time with me. He thought that we needed some time together, and since he couldn’t officially take any time off, he figured that working from the mansion would be the closest that he could get. If he wanted to halfway play hooky, I certainly wasn’t going to object.

We cuddled in the home theater that morning, watching some trashy reality show and eating bowls of dry cereal. It was such a serene scene. I couldn’t have been more content than I was right then, in Andrew’s arms.

Then his text alert sounded.

I groaned as he retracted his arm from my shoulders and reached for his phone. His grip on the phone tightened as he read the message, his lips set in a firm line across his face. I knew that it had to be another message from Dennis.

“What now?” I asked.

Andrew did not answer. Instead, he reached for the remote and changed the channel to a popular morning show called Good Morning, Day-Walkers!—the companion show of Wake Up, Night Dwellers!

On the screen, dressed to the nines, was Lisa Dubois.

“Welcome back, Day-Walkers!” said the host, the overly cheerful, forty-something-year-old werewolf Amanda Butcherson. “For those of you just joining us, we have with us in the studio today Lisa Dubois, daughter of the current Alpha King Andrew Dubois and fiancé of Alpha King hopeful Bob Leroy. Thank you again for being here, Princess Dubois.”

“Thank you for having me,” Lisa replied, “and please, call me Lisa.”

“Well, Lisa, let’s cut right to the chase, shall we? Your father and fiancé are competing for the title of Alpha King. How does that make you feel?”

Lisa sighed and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear.

“I just wished that it weren’t drudging up so many unfortunate memories.”

Amanda leaned in closer.

“By ‘unfortunate memories,’ are you talking about your father’s recent revelation regarding the death of your mother and his other Lunas?”

Lisa sniffled slightly.

“Yes, Amanda, I’m afraid so.” She ran the heel of her hand over her eyes, presumably wiping tears. “I lost two mothers, you know, and to find out that they were killed by human terrorists…”

Amanda took a tissue from the box on the table in front of her and handed it to Lisa. Lisa accepted the offering and dabbed at her eyes.

“It must be very hard, having those memories brought up after all these years,” Amanda said.

“Yes, it is, but…I want to tell my side of the story today, if that’s okay with you.”

Amanda smiled gently.

“Of course, Lisa, if that’s truly what you want.”

Lisa nodded, drying her eyes again.

“I was only three when my mother died,” she began, “but I remember some details about it. My mother was going grocery shopping while my father stayed home with me. She did not come back for a long time, and I started to get upset because I wanted to see my mother, not my father.”

She sniffled.

“Father received a call, and then he left me with my uncle Louis for a long time. I was fine with it because my loved Uncle Louis, and he loved playing with me. Then the next morning, Father came home without Mother…”

Tears trickled down her cheeks, and she abandoned her attempts to wipe them away.

“I wanted to know where Mother was, when Mother was coming back, and Father…he just told me that Mother was never coming home.”

Lisa’s shoulders shook as she cried, and even my heart ached for little three-year-old Lisa who would never see her mother again.

Amanda reached over and patted Lisa on the knee comfortingly.

“I’m so sorry. That must have been so traumatizing for you.”

Lisa nodded.

“The worst part is that Father failed to protect her,” she declared. Her hand clenched the tissue in her hand. “He failed to protect all of them.”

“Are you worried about your own safety under Andrew Dubois’s protection? Crystal’s?”

“I don’t worry because I have both my father and Bob looking out for me,” Lisa said. “As for Crystal, I do not approve of their relationship, but I worry for her safety, if the deaths of my father’s previous Lunas were all, in fact, human terrorist attacks. Look at what she’s had to suffer already.”

My hand tightened on the bowl of cereal that I was holding. I felt that Lisa’s sadness for her mother’s death was genuine, but I knew that she did not care about my safety. She was only trying to manipulate things in Bob’s favor.

Andrew turned off the television and stared at the blank screen.

“She’s right, you know,” he said.

“About what?”

“I can’t protect you. I failed to protect my previous Lunas. Why would this time be any different?”

I encircled him with my arms and nuzzled my head against his shoulder.

“Of course you can, Andrew. Look at how much you have protected me from so far. Vampires, bullets, terrorist attacks—”

“And how many of those almost took your life under my watch?” he asked. “And how many of them were because you’re with me?”

“You’re not suggesting that we break up, are you?”

Andrew sighed and shook his hand, wrapping his arm around me.

“No. I just…I don’t feel like I can protect anyone that I care about anymore.”

I reached up and used my hand to make his head turn towards mine.

“You listen to me. I wouldn’t be alive if it weren’t for you. Never forget that.”

I ran my hand over his jaw, my skin tingling where it touched his.

“You can’t be everywhere at once,” I continued. “That’s why you have guards like Jeffrey, to help protect the people that you love.”

“I suppose…”

“No, you don’t suppose. You know. You know that you can protect your loved ones with the resources that you have, and you know that you are doing the best that anyone could under these circumstances, no matter what anyone else says.”

Andrew smiled, grabbed my wrist, and kissed the palm of my hand.

“I don’t deserve you,” he said.

“You do. We deserve each other.”

I kissed him on the lips, gently at first. As he returned my kiss, it grew more passionate, hungrier, more desperate. I ran my tongue along his lower lip, and he opened his mouth to allow me entrance.

I moaned and set aside my bowl of cereal. Andrew followed suit. I climbed onto his lap, pressing my hands into his shoulders to steady myself as I ground up against him.

My groin moistened. His swelling member rubbed against me, and my grip on his shoulders tightened. I ground harder against him, longing for the contact and the friction.

Andrew reached behind me and untied the straps of my dress, exposing my breasts. I lowered my hands to his chest and started to unbutton his undershirt.

His chest exposed to me, I ran my hands through the hair there. He put my breast in his mouth, licking and biting until the nipple stood proud. I dug my nails into his skin as he switched breasts and gave its twin the same treatment.

Andrew growled and pushed me off his lap.

“Undress. Now,” he commanded.

Chills went down my spine, and I obeyed. He unbuckled his pants and released his member as he watched me, licking his lips.

I stood before him, nude and aroused. He motioned for me to sit back down on his lap.

I gasped as he speared me, splitting me in the most delicious way.

“Oh, Andrew!”