First

Leila sits with a deep frown on her face, watching as Kelvin pushes Amara on the swing from a bench at the playground.

Tatum barely said another word to her, leaving his threat hanging.

If he wasn’t going to try and punish her, the least he could have done was apologise to her for a start instead of throwing his stupid Alpha weight around with his stupid ego, threatening her

with her mother.

She scoffs internally.

How arrogant of him, he even dared to call her a prodigal Luna like she just left and returned on her own accord, like it wasn’t his fault she left in the first place.

For a moment, she imagines Tatum as Kelvin pushing Amara on the swing. If he wasn’t so gullible to let himself be deceived so easily by Carmela, they could have been a happy family, maybe Amara would even have a sibling by now.

She catches herself and immediately shakes the image out of her head, feeling repulsed and disgusted at herself for even having such thoughts.

Kelvin is the perfect father for Amara and any other kid she might have because she is certain that even in the face of death, he

would choose them over himself, rather than condemn them to

death like Tatum did.

“You look like the world is about to end,” Kelvin’s voice jolts her out of her thought and she hisses. She did not even see him coming. How did it go?”

14

Leila sneers.

“I can’t stand him, I just want to dig my fingers in his eyes and poke them out. He has the nerve to call me his Luna and threatens that

unless I admit he’s my Alpha, he won’t let me see mom,” she scoffs, “unbelievable.”

“And what did you say?” Kelvin asks, watching her calculatingly.

“That he can fucking choke on it.”

“Leila….”

“What? I’d rather jump in front of a moving train than call him my Alpha, I fucking hate his guts,” Leila replies curtly, seething deep inside.

Kelvin lets out a sharp breath, sitting beside her. “I know how you feel and it is more than justified but to achieve our goals here, maybe you should apply more logic and less emotion. You know, see it as a game of hiding how you really feel.”

“I’m not playing any stupid games with him,” Leila replies sharply,” once we prove mom’s innocence, I’m getting straight out of here.”

“Hmmm,” Kelvin replies with a wry smile that barely reaches his eyes as he looks away from her to Amara who waves at him and he waves back at her.

Leila doesn’t miss the quick shift in his demeanour and she asks.” Is there something you are not telling me? You seem too

comfortable with all of this.”

“I’m back home after five years away Leila, I miss the place. Would it really be such a bad idea to stay back after the dust settles?”

Leila jerks her head back in shock, her disbelief clear in her squinted eyes, a sour feeling gripping her heart.

“Have you forgotten what they did to me?” she asks, “would you rather stay back here than return with me?”

Kelvin meets her anger filled and shocked gaze with a calm one before he smiles at her. “When you put it like that, you give me no choice.”

“Yes mister, you have no choice,” she replies sharply, “when the,” she makes quotation marks in the air, “dust settles, you are going back to bayview with me and we really should have that talk. Amara already-”

She pauses when she shifts her gaze to Amara and her motherly instincts kick in, an angry growl tears from her throat, rage fills her up, bleeding straight from her wolf into her when she sees Carmela pushing Amara on the swing.

Before Kelvin can hold her back from doing something rash, she is already in front of Carmela.

“Get away from my child,” she snarls, steadying the swing and she drops Amara.

“Oh please,” Carmela rolls eyes in disgust. “I wasn’t going to push the bastard to her death, I only-”

SMACK!

Carmela staggers back in shock, holding her face, her eyes going wide, her face stinging with pain from the hot slap Leila blinds her eyes with. Text property © Nôvel(D)ra/ma.Org.

Leila snarls at Carmela, baring her canines, her wolf’s voice blending with hers, making her sound feral and truly dangerous.” Don’t you ever call my child names.”

Carmela’s eyes almost fall off their socket and her mouth drops open in utter shock, her heart slams hard against her ribcage, disbelief rocks her mind hard and fear grates deeply on her nerves.

Leila reads Carmela’s expression to the tee, hearing Carmela’s thudding heart and she closes the distance between them, her eyes thinning into a dangerous scowl and Carmela backs away, fear oozing of her in immeasurable volumes at Leila’s powerful

aura.

“That’s right bitch,” Leila whispers coldly, “I got my wolf back.”