Chapter 88

“What is it?” he asks. “Do you think I will ever have my wolf fully with me? I mean, do you think...Will it always remain asleep?” She knows no one has the answers. James wraps his arms around her. “Wolf or not, I’ll love you either way.”

Even in my massively pregnant state, I found myself back in the kitchen, baking up a storm.

I could tell James was not thrilled with me being near anything potentially dangerous or harmful, considering our recent affairs, but he was decent enough to leave me be.

“If you need me, and I mean for anything, I’ll be in my study. I just have a few calls to make and one or two projects to look over,” he told me.

I tried to stifle a giggle while merely nodding my head.

It was no surprise that the poor man was still very much on edge and not wanting to leave me alone for excessive amounts of time. But it was still highly strange to have barely any contact with James to now have him wanting to be attached at the hip.

I did my best to reassure him that everything was going to be okay and all I was doing was making strawberry shortcake. I’d be lying if I said that I wasn’t enjoying all this extra attention I’d been missing before. Because I truly was.

Even though James and I hadn’t immediately tried to jump back into anything too physical, I was simply relishing the warmth that came from being close to him naturally. That magnetic pull within me had done nothing but hum and spread a much-needed wave of comfort through me.

That need of wanting to be near him had fully returned, and I wasn’t mad about it.

In the midst of slicing up the strawberries, I realized that I had never reached out to Emily. I swiftly placed the knife down and reached for my phone.

My nerves in my stomach were rolling at the notion of having to face Emily’s undoubtable fury. Hell, she had every right to be upset with me for not calling her sooner to let her know what’s been going on.

The phone rang twice before I was met with a very distressed voice.

“MIA! Oh my God! What the hell happened?! Are you okay? Are you hurt? You know that goodman husband of yours never had the decency to call me back and keep me in the loop!”

“Oh, Emily, I’m so sorry. I should have called you sooner, it’s just that—wait, what?”

My brows furrowed when I finally let that last bit of her rant sink in.

“Why would James call you back?”

Emily let out a long breath. “Well, you know the day you went missing, I went to James’ house and told him what was going on.”

“Oh,” I breathed.

“Jesus, Mia. I was so worried,” she said.

“I know. Emily, you wouldn’t believe the screwed-up insanity. Turns out, I was taken by order of my Uncle David,” I told her.

I could only imagine the look on Emily’s face. “What the hell? Why would he—”

“Let’s just say that he doesn’t approve of my marriage to James because our families apparently have a lot of baggage that I was unaware of.”

“What the hell does he expect you to do? Divorce James and marry someone of his choosing?”

I let out a loud snort. “Funny you should mention that,” I said dryly. “His idea of the perfect match was between me and Michael.”

“He wanted to pair you up with Michael?!”

Although it was bizarre David saw himself fit to play matchmaker, what I found even more surprising was knowing how Michael truly felt toward me.

Could it really have been true? The look on Michael’s face should have been enough proof; however, part of me wanted to know the truth from Michael himself. Or, perhaps it would be best if things were left alone...

“Yes, but nothing happened. James came to the house and well, things ‘slightly’ escalated but everything worked out.”

There was no way in hell I was going to tell her about my being held at gunpoint. I was already dealing with one hypochondriac, there was no chance that Emily would ever let me live it down if she knew the full truth of the situation.

“So, in any case, I’m back at the house and James and I are deciding to take things slow for a little while,” I told her. “There’s a lot that he and I need to work through with one another, but we managed to sit down and speak a lot about what’s been going on between us.”

About half an hour later, I finished up my call with Emily and took the bases for my shortcakes out of the oven to cool.

“Mia,” James called from the doorway. He closed the space between us and rested a strong hand on my shoulder. “I have something I want to show you.”

I raised my brows with interest as I followed closely behind him as he led us through the house. I began to notice that we were making our way toward where the bedroom would be but he stopped short. We came upon a door I wasn’t familiar with. Slowly, he turned the handle and opened it to reveal a newly furnished nursery for the twins.

“Oh my God, James...It’s beautiful,” I hummed.

“Right now, I know it doesn’t look like much but I figured the two of us can take our time and properly decorate it.”

According to Dr. Harold, the babies weren’t due for another two months. It was crazy to think how much time had passed. Yet, in the meantime, I still felt like it was only yesterday when James first offered that wild proposition of marriage to me.

I felt overwhelmed but in a good way and more than happy to share this feeling with James. It all made me wish that my wolf was fully awakened so that we could experience the full strength of our bond.

James must have sensed my mood shifting. He carefully turned me in his arms and looked down at me in concern.

“What is it?” he asked.

“Do you think I will ever have my wolf fully with me? I mean, do you think...Will it always remain asleep?”

I knew no one had the answers. Not even him. James wrapped his arms around me and held me close, resting his chin on the top of my house. It was like fitting two puzzle pieces perfectly together.

“Wolf or not, I’ll love you either way.”