The Lycan Kingpin's Captive: A Baby For The Beast novel Chapter 59

I don’t know how to answer that question, so I just shake my head. “Let us head back, hmm?” I say in an attempt to change the subject and thankfully she doesn’t press me.

When we get back to the other women, Luna Mia gets to her feet and walks over to me. “Are you okay? Do you want to go home?” she asks, and I nearly laugh at her use of the word ‘home’ when talking about Maxim’s place.

I shake my head. “It’s okay, I’m alright,” I say and am about to walk away when she gently grabs my shoulders and shoots me an apologetic look.

“Is this about Maxim’s decision? Are you upset about it?” she asks, and now it’s my turn to frown.

“What do you mean?” I ask, cocking my head to the side. “What decision?”

The look on her face tells me she’s just told me something I was not supposed to know. Her eyes widen and her mouth opens in a gasp; then she puts her hand in front of her mouth. “Oh…Oh, Xiomara, I’m so sorry! I shouldn’t have mentioned a thing!”

I cross my arms and feel myself glaring. “What were you not supposed to mention, Luna Mia? What decision did Maxim make?” I ask. She breathes out a sigh and her eyes shine with tears as she tells me the decision Maxim has made.

“When was the last time you trusted someone other than yourself?”

Gianna’s words still ring in my head even after Maxim collects me later in the evening to go back to his place. When was the last time I trusted someone…I’ve never had the luxury of trusting anyone other than my mother.

Trusting their partners seems as easy as breathing to them, but I’ve never had someone who was worthy of being trusted. Is that the key to this, I need to completely trust Maxim in order to be happy? I was willing…before Luna Mia told me the decision Maxim made without me.

“...What do you think?”

My eyes snap toward Maxim and I realize we’re standing in the kitchen of his home. I also think he’s been talking to me this entire time - damn it!

“I…uh, I’m sorry I didn’t catch that,” I say with an embarrassed smile. “What was it?”

Maxim has his one eyebrow lifted at my reaction, but he continues anyway. “I said I’ll order some take-out if you’re up for it. You’ve been cooking the entire week, I’m sure you’d like to rest tonight,” he says, acting kind again and giving me whiplash.

“Sure,” I say, offering him a small smile. “I’d like that, thank you. Do you mind if I go clean up before dinner?”

“Go right ahead, I’ll be in the gym,” he says and we make our way to separate rooms.

I watch him walk towards the gym with something akin to sadness settling in my heart. When did it come to this? Was it our easy understanding that had me falling into a routine while slowly accepting him without even knowing?

I wish I’d stayed dumb to everything, wish Luna Mia didn’t inform me about Maxim being sick of me and sending me back to my father. I know the shame I’ll be carrying when I go back home, how my father will treat me because the SilverCrest Beta didn’t want me.

This was what I wanted, right? I wanted to go away from here, wanted to escape and be free so why am I feeling like this? Why do I feel like unwanted goods tossed to the side?

Not only that but if Maxim made this decision a while ago, why is he still being nice to me? Why try to make this work when he doesn’t want me? I suppose that I can ask all these questions and never get to any answer because I am asking the wrong person.

The more I’m thinking about it, the angrier I get and by the time Maxim calls me to say dinner is here, I am fuming.

I tried to make this work, I was nice and courteous because I was coming to terms with being his wife. Meanwhile, he had other plans on the side, plans to not only send me back to my father but he’ll have another bride here before I even reach home!

Stupid, desperate Xiomara.

Sighing, I walk downstairs in my cotton night dress so I can head straight to bed afterward, my mouth goes dry when I see the object of my thoughts looking gorgeous without even trying.

Dressed in nothing but a pair of loose jogger shorts and no t-shirt, he places the Thai take-out on the kitchen island so I walk around to grab some cutlery. His hair is still damp from his shower and his sandalwood scent is making my head swim.

It just makes me feel more pissed off. Why did he have to be so goddamn attractive and flaunt it in front of me?

I sit down opposite him and we take out whatever we want to eat; I don’t particularly feel very hungry because of my seething right now but I pick at my food and hope that my feelings don’t show.

“I won’t be here for a while,” he decides right there to cut the silence and I grit my teeth. “Niko is sending me away for a few weeks.”

My heartbeat picks up at the mention of him being gone for so long. Does that mean he doesn’t even want to say goodbye to me before I go? Did I completely misread his kindness?

“So, how was it meeting the other brides?” he asks when I don’t answer him.

“It was okay; they seem really nice,” I manage to say through a swallow of Pad Thai. “I like Gianna.”

At the mention of the woman I thought he would like, he simply nods and takes a sip of his soda. I never know what’s up with this man, he drives me up the fucking wall with his kindness and then his nonchalance.