I'm No Cinderella

Chapter 32

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Come Around

    Unsurprisingly, my outburst at the dinner did little to speed up the process of passing the bill– the grumpy old men I had argued with turned out to be the very council men that held the fate of my people in their wrinkled, old hands.

    A month dragged on, and then two, and still not much had changed, other than Luca putting his foot down on the late night council sessions. Well, somewhat.

    He still spent the majority of his evenings in meetings, but for two nights each week, I had him all to myself. We spent much of that time talking before the hearth in his foyer or strolling through the enchanted garden.

He tried hard to hide it, but I could see the toll the endless debates with the council were having on him. His smiles never quite reached his eyes as they used to, and he spent more of our time together pacing the floors with a hand at the back of his neck than sitting beside me.

I was at a loss for what to do to help him.

There was nothing I could do to help. Despite the temporary status I was enjoying as the alpha's mate, officially I was still a peasant girl. Powerless. Weak.

Maybe one day, if I chose to stay with him and became his queen and his luna, I would have the influence to assist in lifting some of the weight of his position from his shoulders. But until then, all I could do was watch, lip tucked between my teeth as I worried away.

One night, I couldn't take it anymore.

When his pacing drew close enough to touch, I reached out, snagging his hand in my own. He paused, looking down at me, expectantly. "Sit with me." He obliged without complaint.

He never seemed to mind it when I ordered him around. I had come to realize I was the only one allowed to do so, though Evelina did try her best.

He didn't release my hand, and instead used it to slowly pull me toward him, as if allowing me an opportunity to stop him. I didn't.

I let him maneuver my body until I was draped across his lap, my ear held to his chest. He pressed his face into my hair, taking a deep breath as his arms tightened around me.

My body came alive at the proximity, and I knew he could hear my heart hammering away as clearly as I could hear his. He exhaled, tickling my neck and sending tremors through my body.

He held me like that for a long time, so long I nearly drifted to sleep in his arms, but then he spoke. His voice was soft against the crackling of the fire, "If I can't get this law passed, will everything change between us? Will things go back to the way they were before?"

I hadn't expected such a question from him. Would everything change? I didn't know the answer to that, myself. Could I even consider the thought of staying with him at the end of the year, when so many people like myself suffered under his rule? Would I be able to live with myself, pampered and comfortable like a shifter, while they were brutalized outside of these walls?

I didn't know the answer to that myself.

I had come to care for him deeply, but if it came down to it, that alone wouldn't be enough. Neither would the mate bond, formidable though it may be.

I would choose my family and my people over my own happiness, as I always did.

Instead of answering, I hugged him tighter to me.

I drifted off to sleep listening to the steady beating of his heart.

~*~