Chapter 241

I froze. My heart leapt into my throat. My brain raced, trying to comprehend what Andrew had just said.

He would give everything up…for me?

My hands curled into fists.

No, that couldn’t be right. I must have heard him wrong.

He was Alpha King. He had too much to lose, not just for himself but for the entire werewolf world. He wouldn’t be so reckless as to give it all up for someone like me.

I finally found myself again and tore away from his grasp. I backed away, but he stepped up closer to me.

“You don’t mean that,” I said.

He grabbed my hands and gripped them so tightly that I could not pry him off of me. As I tried to pull my hands out of his grasp, his hold cut off my circulation.

“Yes, I do,” he insisted. “The mansion, the money, the fame, my position as Alpha King…I would give it all up for you.”

Tears pricked the edges of my eyes. My brain refused to accept what my ears were hearing.

“What will everyone else think?” I asked.

“I don’t care what everyone else thinks.”

“What about Lisa? Would she understand?”

“I’m her father. I don’t need her approval to be with someone. She would just have to understand—”

“But she’s married to Bob. You know what he’s tried to do to me in the past. He’ll…he’ll…”

I couldn’t bring myself to finish that sentence. Bob was already trying to kill me for my efforts to expose his wrongdoings. If I got back together with Andrew, he would kill me for sure—and maybe Andrew, too.

Andrew tilted my chin up.

“I will protect you,” he said firmly. “I promise.”

I stared at his nose, unable to look Andrew in the eye.

“I know,” I said. “I just don’t feel as though you’re thinking this through. There are so many people who will be affected by this.”

“I don’t care,” he asserted. “I love you. That’s all that matters.”

A metallic glinting caught my eye.

I reached for Andrew’s hand that held my chin and ripped it away, holding it up for Andrew to see. I pointed to the engagement ring displayed proudly on his ring finger, the white gold and sapphire sparkling in the apartment’s fluorescent light.

“What about this?” I asked him. “What about this promise?”

Andrew tore his hand away from me.

“This?”

He waved his ring finger in front of my face.

“This is nothing but a trinket. A hunk of metal that doesn’t mean anything.”

He pried the ring off his hand and threw it across the room. It landed in the kitchen with a resounding clang.

I crossed my arms over my naked chest.

“It means something to Princess Aurora…and to the world.”

He gently cupped my cheek. His thumb ran lightly over my skin, sending chills down my spine.

“Not as much as you mean to me.”

He leaned forward and pressed his lips against mine.

I was breathless as we parted, not as much from the kiss but from the realization that Andrew was not going to give up the ghost so easily. There had to be something that he cared about more than me…more than us.

“What about keeping peace in the werewolf world?” I asked. “Surely if you turn your back on Princess Aurora, it will ruin everything that you have worked for when it comes to werewolf/human relations.”

Andrew chuckled, but there was no mirth in his eyes.

“Believe it or not, you mean more to me than even that.”

I shook my head in disbelief.

He sighed in resignation and tucked a lock of hair behind my ear.

“What will it take to convince you that I mean what I’m saying?” he asked.

I turned my head away. My lower lip pulled into a trembling pout. I didn’t trust myself to speak at that moment.

“All my life, I have been fully committed to peace in the werewolf world,” he continued quietly. “I was raised to be a politician. My matches were all about who would make me look best to the werewolf community, who would help me advance my agenda.”

He started to pace, stepping over the clothes that we had discarded recklessly in our haste to be together.

“I raised my child according to what was best for the werewolf world. I hid my deepest aches—how I truly lost my Lunas—because it was what was best for the werewolf community.”

Andrew’s muscles tensed. His breathing grew shallow and rapid, to the point that he had to force himself to stop and take deep breaths. He quit his pacing, but only long enough to crack his neck before he resumed.

“My education, my social life, my everything has evolved around the peace of the werewolf world. I’m tired of it.”

When he turned to face me, his eyes implored me to understand. My heart ached for him like I had never felt before. I resisted the urge to step forward and wrap my arms around him.

“I just want to live my life for me, for once. Anyone who truly cares about me will want that for me, too.”

Silence fell upon us. It was thick, uncomfortable—the kind of silence filled with the weight of something too significant to put into words. It was the kind of silence that almost made it difficult to breathe and yet hard to stand still at the same time.

My eyes drifted to the ground, where I found my underwear. I slipped them on.

I searched for my bra and put that on as well. Finally, I located my dress and completed my ensemble. When I looked up, Andrew was following suit.

Even getting dressed, he was the sexiest man I could have ever imagined. I could not believe that I was trying so hard to turn someone like him down. He was everything that I wanted—that I needed—in a man, and yet I knew that I needed to let him go, for both our sakes.

No matter how much it hurt us.

There had to be something that would convince him that he was making a mistake, something that would shock him back to his senses…

I took Andrew by the hand and guided him to the loveseat. We sat down and held hands, staring into each other’s eyes. I could lose myself in those dark orbs, but I did my best to keep my senses about me.

“Do you really want to do this?” I asked, forcing myself to maintain eye contact with him.

He nodded.

“You really want to be with me? Forever?” I continued.

“Yes, more than anything,” he replied.

“Then I want that for you, but there’s something that I must ask of you.”

“Of course, my love. Anything.”

I paused to let his words—and their potential consequences—sink in.

“Elope with me,” I said. I tightened my grip on his hands to the point that my knuckles turned white. “Run away with me and marry me.”

He did not hesitate with his reply. I wondered if he had even given my request any thought.

“Yes. I will.”