12

A fter finally dealing with India—the way I should have a long time ago—we all ate dinner together on the roof. When I asked Benny to bring Leera and me some food, I didn’t expect him to show up hauling multiple bags of food with everyone on his heels. We sat under the twinkle lights that she loves so much and had a meal together…like a family...because she’s finally home. Here with me, where she belongs. It may take her longer to get there, but it's only home when she's here. My men feel it too. The way her being here just makes everything feel right. Complete.

This is my family, and I'll do anything to protect them. I would take on the Goddess herself if she tried to take her from me again or take any of them.

We finished eating a while ago, and the men took the trash downstairs and went to take care of their own business. We’ve just been sitting here in comfortable silence ever since, appreciating the moment while she texts with Zoey.

Leera shivers, and I realize that she's still just wearing my t-shirt and socks.

“Alright, time to go in. I saw that shiver,” I announce.

“You've been keeping me warm this whole time. It was just a little shiver,” she pouts.

I scoop her into my arms and make my way towards the stairs. “How about a bubble bath?”

Her eyes light up, and she melts into me. “Ugh, that sounds like heaven,” she groans, and I will my body to ignore it.

I figured she'd like to wash the experience off and come out feeling refreshed. Still holding her, I navigate the stairs and halls until I reach my room—our room—and lay her on the bed while I prepare her bath.

After Leera’s first overnight visit, I asked Matilda to stock my bathroom with girly things she might want or need. I even picked out a few things that were recommended on Pinterest again. She’s loved everything I found on there so far.

I rummage through the cabinets, and once I find everything I want, I set it all on the counter. I light a few candles, placing them around the tub. I fill the tub with skin-melting hot water—her exact words—and add some calming chamomile and lavender bubble bath for her.

While it’s filling up, I arrange a bunch of other chick shit along the counter for when she’s finished: some weird little pink things that say they’re eye masks, a strange, handheld machine that says it’s a facial massager, honeysuckle body lotion, a clean pair of fuzzy pink socks, three different kinds of panties to choose from so she’s comfortable, and another one of my t-shirts.

When I return to the room, she's right where I left her. “Are you okay to get in by yourself or do you need my help?”

“I think I can manage on my own,” she blushes.

I promised her that we would take this slow, and knowing that I won’t be able to keep my hands off her if I stay, I walk downstairs, letting her enjoy the bath on her own. Making my way to the kitchen island—our unofficial meeting place—I catch up with the guys about India, hockey, and Leera.

I knew it was risky admitting who Leera is to me, especially to India, but it had to be done. She can’t keep barging into my life, thinking she can get her way.

Now we have to be prepared for the potential retaliation, and I am not ready to think about how fast this will reach my father. But he will have to face the truth as well.

“As far as Leera's safety is concerned, I'm going to try to convince her to switch to online classes and move in with us,” I say as the men shoot skeptical looks at each other, avoiding eye contact with me. “I know she's going to fight me on this, but she just won't be safe on that campus, and you all know it.”

They collectively nod, and Benny adds, “It could help if you reach out to her favorite professor and let her know that Leera can complete all her assignments surrounding the team this semester, if she needs to.”

“That's not a bad idea at all. If I can get her core class to cooperate with me on this, she would be more likely to go along with it,” I agree, rubbing my jaw in thought.

“She won't be happy about leaving Zoey,” Slate points out.

“You're right, she won't, but she won't be a prisoner here. She can still go do things with someone watching from afar, and Zoey can come over any time she wants,” I grumble, trying to convince myself more than anything.

All I want to do is go to her dorm room right now, pack up all her things, and move her into our home where she’ll be safe, but I already know if I don’t talk to her about it first, she won't take the news very well. We're mates, and she's still making me court her. Not that I mind. I get to learn all about her while making her happy; it's just not how it usually works, and my wolf was on edge before she was kidnapped.

I'll just have to do my best to convince her to move in with me so that I don't have to make an ass of myself and do it anyway.

Will she want to stay with me in my room? Our room. If not, we still have plenty of space. She can have her own room to do whatever she wants with. Until I've convinced her to stay with me anyway.

Bringing the conversation back to getting everything taken care of, I say, “Okay, so we took care of that one away game, we have a home game tomorrow and the rescheduled away game on Thursday…” I pause, tapping my fingers to the counter, elongating one claw to tap as well.

Andrei is the first to break the silence when he says, “If she agrees to take her classes online, I don't think we'll have a problem getting her to agree to travel with us for games.”

“And why the hell would I be taking my classes online?” she snaps from the hallway.

Shit.

I cross the space to go to her, but she's already in a battle stance. She rips the weird pink things off from under her eyes, plants her fuzzy-pink-socked feet apart, locks her hands on her hips, and presses her lips in a thin line.

At least she seems to have enjoyed the things I laid out for her. I wonder which underwear she chose…nope, not the time.

I turn to my men for help, but Benny just smiles and shakes his head, the twins look to be taking bets, Slate's just smirking, and Andrei looks like a kid who got caught with his hand in the cookie jar.

“Hey, Sweetheart, did you have a good bath?” I ask calmly.

“Don't Sweetheart me, Roman. I asked you a question.”

Shit.

“I was waiting for you to finish your bath to talk to you, but we wanted to discuss some safety options for you moving forward.”

“Don't drag us into this just because you're in trouble,” Benny pipes up with that stupid shit-eating grin on his face. It pisses me off even more when I catch Leera trying not to smile at him, and I’m not able to catch the small growl that escapes me.

Benny places his hands up in surrender and backs away.

Leera's icy-blue eyes sharpen and return to me. “Let's hear it then,” she says as she crosses her arms over her chest, not realizing she's only made it harder for me to focus with her breasts shoved up like that.

Groaning and scrubbing my hands on my face, I take a step back to sit on one of the barstools, hoping to make myself less demanding. “Leera, baby, you are my number one priority. Now and for the rest of my life. Do you understand that?”

She narrows her eyes and nods, not speaking.

“You were kidnapped, and I couldn't protect you,” I add. “I can't…” I choke on my words, and my men filter out of the room.

“I can't lose you. I can't do it again. I won't survive it.” My voice drops along with my head. “Without you, I will burn every world to the ground before following you to the afterlife, Leera.”

I hear her small body approach me before she throws herself around me. “I'm here, Roman. I'm here because you found me. Because you saved me,” she says with her sweet voice as she lifts my eyes to hers. They're no longer ready for war.

“But you were taken because of me. You were in danger because of me.”

“Don't give yourself so much credit, Big Guy. The only people responsible for what happened to me are the people that took me and the snobby, rich dude that hired them,” she says with absolute certainty.

“And I understand you want to protect me, but it's the twenty-first century; you don't get to make all the plans for my life behind my back. If we're going to be partners, I want us to be equals. We do things and discuss things, especially the hard things, together.”

“Yes, ma'am,” I respond with snark in my tone, causing her to swat at my arm.

“Alright, seriously though, what were you guys talking about?” she asks, serious again.

“We were hoping to convince you to change your classes to online...”

Her eyebrows scrunch together.

“...move in with us where it's safe...”

Her head tilts to the left just slightly.

“...and go with us to all of our away games,” I finally finish.

She stands there for a minute just shaking her head before she says, “Roman, I understand you're worried, but I'm still going to school; I'm not moving in with you yet, and I might go to away games.” The only thing she didn't do was stomp her foot.

Rolling my head around my neck on a sigh, I continue trying to convince her to no avail.

“Look, I'm done talking about this. I will be fine. It’s late. Do you want to spend some actual time together before I have to go to get ready for tomorrow, or do you just want to take me home?” she asks, leaving no room for further discussion.

I shouldn't have pushed so hard, but how the fuck am I going to be able to do anything other than fucking follow her around to make sure she's safe?

That's it! We have a home game tomorrow. I don't need to practice. I can follow her around all day, make sure she's safe, and then take her to the game with me.

“Okay, okay, you're right. I'm sorry. We can talk about this more later. Did you get enough to eat, or do you want to grab something else before I take you home?”

She looks at me suspiciously at my sudden relent but nods. “I'm still a little hungry.”

“I know just the spot. We can just lounge on the couch until you’re ready to go?” I offer.

Slate, do we have any tiny GPS trackers I can use? I ask through our mind link.

Yeah, let me go find one.

I'll be with her, but I will feel better if we have another level of safety for her.

We don't even turn on the TV when we plop onto the couch together. She's still texting Zoey a mile a minute. I pull her into my side, tracing circles on her thigh until she's ready to grab a quick bite and head back to her dorm.