17. Chapter Seventeen

Why the fuck couldn’t I stop crying?

This was ridiculous.

I was being ridiculous and I knew it. But I couldn’t seem to stop, no matter how hard I tried.

Swiping at my face, I snuffled my nose, which was now stuffed up. My eyes felt puffy, and I had a headache brewing. And I still hadn’t gotten any coffee, which probably wasn’t helping, either. Or food. I couldn’t remember the last time I had eaten. Breakfast in the hospital? Had I managed lunch yesterday? No, I hadn’t, or dinner either.

Did I have post-partum omega syndrome? Is that why I felt like my body and emotions weren’t my own? Or was it just everything that had happened over the past few days–because there had been a lot of shit–finally coming to a head and boiling over?

Grayson certainly hadn’t helped the situation with his breaking and entering, kidnapping, and any other charges I could think to add on. Not that I was actually going to press charges against him, but it made me feel better mulling over the possibility. I mean, who did that? Had he thought any of his actions through? From everything I had read about him that I could find online on my phone, he certainly seemed smarter than his behavior would lead a person to believe. Once I located where my laptop had ended up in this moving mess, I’d be able to do a deeper dive on him.

But he couldn’t just barge into our lives and start taking over like he seemed to think he could. He couldn’t just come into our home anytime he felt like it, and he couldn’t just take Julianna. No matter that he hadn’t actually left with her, that wasn’t the point.

It was a massive invasion of privacy on top of being downright terrifying! Julianna and I might not be getting along great at the moment–this parenting stuff was way harder than I had imagined–but she was my child. The fear I had felt when I had discovered her missing from her crib–along with realizing she hadn’t woken me up last night–had been nearly paralyzing. With that had come the knowledge that I would tear someone apart to protect my child. Never before had I felt the powerful feelings I had in that moment. Knowing I would gladly fight someone to the death if it meant protecting my baby.

Even my giraffe had been ready to shift and protect our offspring. Giraffes generally didn’t fight much. It was extremely rare for us to fight, but when we did we could be violent. And I felt violent now.

Maybe it was my haywire emotions, or my adrenaline. Or maybe it was the fact that I had had about enough of the macho wolf invading my house, who thought he could swing his dick around and I would just fall in line with his demands. Whatever it was, I was starting to feel unadulterated rage.

I might be submissive in bed, or in a consensual scene with a partner, but this was my home and my daughter. Anger dried up my tears, and I took a steadying breath.

I was done.

I wanted my daughter back. I wanted a shower and to unpack some boxes. I wanted food and coffee, but most of all I wanted the wolf in my house gone.

Stomping into the kitchen to find Grayson on the phone, while simultaneously managing to feed Julianna her bottle enraged me further. Because of course he could multi-task, and she was staring at him like he hung the fucking moon. If I picked her up, she screamed bloody murder. Well, she’d just have to get over it. We were stuck with each other, and she was going to like me, one way or another.

“Get out!” I hissed, reaching for Julianna. “And give me my daughter!”

Grayson held her closer to his naked chest in a protective move, and dropped his phone. It clattered loudly to the floor and my shifter hearing picked up someone calling Grayson’s name. Well, calling him by that nickname he went by. Stupid fucking nicknames. And why did he think he had to pull her to his chest like that? Like I was going to hurt her. That move just amped up my anger.

“Wyatt–”

“Don’t! Give her to me. Now!” Holding my arms out I waited, tapping my bare foot against the hard linoleum of my kitchen. Grayson hesitated for about two seconds, before he gently handed her to me. When I had her steadied and was holding her nearly empty bottle, he stepped back, holding his hands up in a placating gesture. His movements were slow and easy, like he didn’t want to spook a wild animal.

Breathing sharply in through my nose, I tried to calm myself while I was holding her. It didn’t work. Her dark eyes widened, her little body stiffened, and she popped her mouth off the nipple and let out an ear shattering wail.

“She likes movement,” Grayson supplied quietly, “jostle her gently in your arms. Or sway from side to side.”

Piercing him with my eyes, I set my mouth into a firm line, though I grudgingly did what he suggested. Her screams didn’t stop completely, but her volume lowered and her body became less stiff.

Pointing with the baby bottle, I gritted, “Leave. Now. This behavior is not okay, Grayson. I don’t care if we are fated, it doesn’t give you the right to act this way. It’s a massive violation of my personal space. Not to mention against the law. I need you to leave.”

He ran a hand through his rumpled hair, and fuck it all if he didn’t look good enough to lick, damn him. Those jeans of his were indecent, nearly see through in a couple of spots, and so low on his hips that mouthwatering vee was peeking out. His abs were a work of art, and when the fuck had I started finding long, bare feet sexy? His hair was all mussed up, like a lover had run their fingers through it, or tugged on it, during sex. And the neatly trimmed beard that he hadn’t had six months ago, sporting more gray in it than the hair on his head, was beyond sexy.

Wyatt you literally just had a baby, why the fuck are you thinking about sex? Get your mind back on the matter at hand! Stop staring at his body like he’s an ice cream cone that needs to be licked! Bad, bad, bad! And stop wondering what his beard would feel like against your skin. Stop. It. Now.

“I just want to help,” he looked flustered.

Shaking my head, I cut him off, “Don’t make excuses for your bad behavior. I’ve asked you to leave. Don’t make me call the police.”

“I am the police!” he snarled.

“Which makes this all ten times worse, can’t you see that?” I yelled over Julianna’s cries.

“Let me take her,” he reached for the baby and it was my turn to snarl. Giraffes didn’t snarl, but that was the only way to define the animalistic sound that escaped, my teeth bared at him.

“Get. Out!” I stomped my foot, my body starting to shake with the rage, anger, and frustration of a parent protecting their child. “I mean it, Grayson, get the fuck out now. If you want to see your daughter at all, and not have me file a restraining order, leave now. You do not get to come into my life and start giving orders, and making decisions, and expect me to just say, ‘Yes, Sir’. Fuck off, you arrogant alpha!”

Kicking his phone with my foot, it spun towards him, and I stalked forward. Agilely he scooped it up, putting it to his ear and saying quietly, “I might need backup.”

Taking another step forward, I crowded into his space, crying baby and all, and he was smart enough to take a step back.

Slowly, I moved him towards the door in my kitchen. It opened to the side of my house next to my detached garage. “Get. Out.”

He held his hands up again, careful of the baby. “I’m going. Wyatt, you’re upset–”

“Upset?” I shrieked, “No, I’m fucking pissed off! There is a huge difference. I don’t want to see your face right now. I don’t want you in my house, or near my daughter. The next time I hear from you, it better be through your lawyer, because that’s the only way you are going to see her.”

His dark eyes flared with anger, his jaw tightened, and his nostrils flared. “Don’t threaten me, Wyatt.”

Narrowing my eyes, I said forcefully, “I haven’t even begun to threaten you, Grayson. You don’t want to push me. And don’t think about declaring Alpha Law, either,” I snapped. “You might have a law degree from Harvard, but I can guarantee I know the law better than you, and I know better lawyers than you. I will own you when I get done with you. You’ll lose everything, Grayson, starting with being sheriff of this town. Don’t forget you broke into my house, and kidnapped my child.”

“Our child,” he snapped back. “She is ours. And I will be a part of her life.”

“Knock yourself out, but get the fuck out of my house.”

We glared at each other, neither of us backing down. Julianna had finally quieted and was now making soft hiccupping sounds that tore at my heart. This couldn’t be good for her, and I never wanted her to have to be put in the middle of anything between Grayson and me.

The doorknob dug into his naked flesh, and he reached behind himself, turning the knob. “This isn’t over.”

“It is for now.”

When he was finally outside, I surged forward, pushing the door closed on him and flipping the lock with a satisfied turn of my wrists.

On shaking legs, I sank into one of my dining chairs that was haphazardly pushed against the kitchen wall. Holding Julianna close to me, I whispered nonsense words in her ear, while rocking back and forth. Telling her we were going to be alright, and that I was sorry.

Realizing I had shoved Grayson out of my house wearing nothing but his jeans, I started to giggle. I had never lost my temper like that with anyone, but I wasn’t a bit sorry. I should probably round up his shirt and shoes and toss them out on my front porch, but nah.

After the way he had behaved, he could drive home barefoot and shirtless.