The Lion’s Forbidden Mate

When she ended up back at the hotel room, Lucy knew she couldn’t just vanish from James’ life without saying something. She had to tell him she loved him and that she was sorry for all that was coming for him. She needed to tell him that there was a reason for all of this and that it wasn’t anything personal or what she wanted to do. She wanted to confide in him that the purpose of her departure was strictly for the salvation of his people and not out of anything spiteful.

She wrote the letter and poured her heart out onto the page, not sparing anything as she scratched her pen across the surface of the paper and made sure there was nothing she didn’t leave unsaid. This was the last chance she was ever going to have to talk to him. She would always have his letters, but he didn’t have anything from her to remember her by and she knew that it would sting for her not to have anything. It wouldn’t be fair. It would kill her to be left without any farewell. So, she finished writing her letter and folded it, writing his name as elegantly and as beautifully as he used to draw her name on the front of the envelopes that he would leave for her.

As she gathered up the last of her things, she decided she would slip the letter under the door to his suite before she left and she would vanish in the middle of the night just like she had promised. She wouldn’t make a scene and she wouldn’t wait for Nick and Luke to show up and forcibly take her from the premises. No, she was going to be noble about all of this and she was going to do the right thing. As she walked toward the door, she held her head high and told herself that she was going to be the dignified person that she was, regardless of what had happened to her or the fate that was waiting for her. She was going to make sure she let Lynn and the others know that she wasn’t afraid of the fate awaiting her. She wasn’t ashamed of what she had done in the slightest.

She reached the door, her hand stretched out for the handle and was just inches from it when she heard a knock on the door. Part of her wished that it was an answer to her prayers and that James had come to her, that he had come with some kind of a miraculous hail Mary that was going to save them and save his people at the same time. Her lion would come for her and she would be safe once and for all. They would ride off together and be given their happily ever after.

Throwing open the door, her hopeful eyes were suddenly struck by the cruel reality that none of that was waiting for her and the person standing on the other side of the door was the last person she wanted to see. She looked at Violet, flanked by her two hulking brothers.

“Hello, Sl*t,” Violet snapped at her with her rotten voice.

Lucy hated her. Everything she had learned about Violet over her time with the crew only confirmed in her mind that Violet was nothing more than a spoiled, vicious little girl that had been given everything in her life.

“So,” she said, driving Lucy back into her room. “I hear I was right about you and that you did fu*k my fiancé.”

“That’s none of your business,” Lucy growled at her.

“Actually, since I’m wearing the ring his family gave me, it is my business.”

Violet held up the ring for Lucy to see and she hated the sight of it. She hated thinking that the ring on Violet’s finger would never be on her finger. There was no way that they would ever want her or the likes of her.

“Is it true that you got yourself pregnant? Was that your plan all along? Was your pack trying to sabotage my engagement?”

“I had no idea that you two were engaged,” Lucy said defiantly. “In fact, I didn’t even know who James was when I slept with him and got pregnant with his child.”

“I don’t care,” Violet shrieked angrily. “I want you gone forever, wh*re. I want you to disappear and if I ever see you or your bas*ard show up on my doorstep or ever try to communicate with my man, I’m going to kill you, that little brat in your belly, and your entire pack for having given birth to you.”

“I’ve already agreed to leave and never coming back,” Lucy said to her with an angry growl.

There was something inside of her that wanted to reach out and strike Violet for threatening her people and most of all, her unborn child, but she stayed her hand and refused to give into the desire deep inside of her. Instead, she kept her hands firmly at her side and refused to strike out against her. Instead, she just glared at the woman.

“I want to hear you make the deal with me,” Violet snapped angrily. “I don’t care what you told Lynn or what you even told the elders, if you talked to them. I want you to make the promise with me and I want to hear you say it.”

“I will never come back and I will never show my face to you or your fiancé,” Lucy said with her teeth clenched together. “You don’t have to worry about me or my son. We’re not coming looking for James. He’s all yours. You can have him. I hope the two of you are as miserable as you are as a person.”

“How dare you talk to me that way,” Violet snapped at her. “I’m not the sl*t who is sleeping around with other women’s men. If you don’t like what I have to say or the fact that there are consequences to your actions, then maybe you should think next time.”

“What do you know about consequences?” Lucy growled at her.

“I know not to spread my legs to rock stars,” Violet said angrily.

“They clearly won’t even take you when you will,” Lucy fired back.

Before Violet could scream and throw her tantrum, her eyes landed on the envelope in Lucy’s hand. She spotted it like an eagle could spot a rodent in the grass from miles away. Lucy flinched, forgetting that she was trying to deliver the envelope to James before she left. It was too late. Violet had spotted it. Now that she had seen it, she was going to demand to get a look at it and then it was game over for any hopes she had of telling James that she loved him and that they had to do this. Violet raised her finger and pointed at the envelope.