Little Red and the Big, Bad, Wolf.

Chapter 26

The sun doesn't bother as much anymore. It's a much more peaceful wake-up call then horrors conceived in my head. I never thought I'd say I liked to wake up to the blinding sunlight, but here I am, seeing it as more of a blessing than my usual nightmares that screw up my senses for me to actual bolt awake in my fear.

This morning it's not too bright, the clouds seem to lessen its brightness. My eyes flutter open and I take in the familiar surroundings. Roman's grey ceiling, the drapes over the big window, the little vase of flowers that always seems to be alive.

I turn to my left. It's one of those rare occasions that I'm up before Roman. I notice how peaceful he looks when he sleeps, his face isn't in any kind of contortion - just peaceful. I sigh. I wish I could just go back in time - to when I wasn't lying about getting beat up by Jaxon to protect the ones I loved.

I rub his cheek gently with my thumb. I wish I could mark him...

Roman suddenly grabs my hand in his and brings it to his mouth, kissing it. His eyes flutter open and looks at me.

"I bet you're the only woman in the world who looks this amazing in the morning." his voice is deep and raspy.

I force a sad smile and roll my eyes.

"I bet there's a lot of women who look better than a sack of potatoes in the morning actually."

He chuckles and wraps his arms around my waist, pulling me close to his chest and tangling our legs together.

"You are the most gorgeous sack of potatoes I've ever seen."

I playfully smack his arm.

"Kidding!! Kidding you're a .... Goddess. You're a goddess, love."

I giggle, for the first time in a long time it seems.

Roman pulls away from me slightly so he can look me in the eyes.

"I think it's time we both got some answers, okay?"

I nod hesitantly. I remember having so many questions before all this happened, but now, they seemed to vanish from my head.

"I'll mindlink someone to bring up some breakfast."

----

15 minutes later

"Fane is a vampire. And most of the stuff you've already heard is true. He was in line to be the next Alpha, and back then, he really was quite good at what he did. But, the people didn't feel safe with a vampire alpha. It wasn't right to them because it had never been done before. There is no such thing as a Vampire Alpha. And so," Roman chucks the crust of his toast on the empty plate. "He just became cold."

"And that's when he made all of those bad decisions?" I ask, taking a swig of coffee.

Roman becomes serious.

"Yes, for five years he hurt the pack. He seemed to make up his mind that he would never be good enough for them, and so he stopped trying."

"That's terrible for the people" I mumble.

Roman nods and looks at me.

"And then, well, it gets worse." he sighs. "Fane found his mate while visiting another pack-"

"Aella."

"Yes, Aella. At first he seemed happy, but that just faded away with time. He brought her back to the pack, and she did begin helping with pack duties and such, but he started to treat her badly. One time he hit her, and then stormed out of the room. Aella went looking for him, and when she found him..." he pauses.