Filed To Story: Goddess's Design His Fated Mate (Willow & Reuben)
I sat there buttoning the shirt still processing the intensity of the moment and meaning behind his words as he opened the door for Mia.
“Check her,”
Reuben ordered Mia, prompting her to approach me. However, my attention was drawn to the wide-open door, through which Ella had passed with another pack member. Her eyes locked on the scene, me in Reuben’s shirt with messy bedding tucked around me and Reuben halfway dressed in front of the wardrobe. She paused abruptly as I witnessed a pinched expression on her face.
“How are you feeling, Willow?”
Mia’s inquiry grabbed my attention.
“I’m fine,”
I replied with a smile, glancing back at the now-empty doorway where Ella had vanished.
“Hmm I doubt it,”
Mia murmured while checking my eyes. “Are you feeling weak?”
“Yes, a little,”
I shyly admitted. Reuben, who had been standing by the wardrobe, immediately glanced in my direction.
“Why is she weak?”
Reuben frowned, walking back to the bed.
“She seems to be skipping meals, Alpha”
Reuben’s eyes immediately snapped back to me which I intentionally ignored. He used to become brutishly overbearing when it came to my meals whenever I skipped them. Even six years later, I could feel the same intensity in his gaze over the matter.
A sense of panic rose in my heart, I felt that If I did not give a proper explanation allowing Reuben to fully grasp the situation that he was going to do something crazy over this trivial matter. So I replied to Mia, “I’ve been engrossed in my designs and projects, so I didn’t pay much attention to eating, but I’ll-“
“Let’s keep it brief. What needs to be done now?”
Reuben cut in, redirecting his focus to Mia. I couldn’t help but glare at him.
Mia stood up from the bed, answering him. “It’s not a serious situation, Alpha. She simply needs to eat properly and rest for a day or two without stressing herself with work or anything else. It would be best for her to stay in bed as much as possible..”
“That’s impossible!”
I interjected, resisting the idea of being confined to a bedroom.
“It is possible, and I will make it happen,”
Reuben countered. “I will take care of her myself for the next two days.”
“That’s great! If the Alpha is going to take care of Willow, then I believe she will be fine. Please excuse me then,”
Mia exited the room, winking at me before closing the door behind her. Wait! Did she get the wrong idea about me spending last night with Reuben?
Taking a deep breath, I glanced at Reuben, “What do you mean you will take care of me?”
He approached me and explained, “It means you’re not leaving this room until you have regained your strength.”
I stared at him in disbelief. “What are you-“
“Don’t get out of bed, you need to rest if you want to leave this room, Willow. Or is it that you’ve become addicted to my warmth and want to sleep with me every day?”
a playful smile curled at his lips.
“Nonsense!”
I snapped, my cheeks burning.
“If not, then obey,”
he chuckled.
“There’s no way I can rest. I can pause my work, but I have to take care of Wyatt and Lori,”
I murmured.
“Don’t worry about them. I’ll take care of our children and everything else,”
Reuben assured me, sitting on the bed beside me and grabbing an orange for a bowl of fruit.
“You’ll take care of the children?”
I couldn’t help but softly laugh. “You can’t handle them. You’ve only ever been around them while they were being cute. When you experience their mischievous natures, taking care of them like I do, you’ll go mad,”
I shook my head, drawing my legs close to my chest.
“Well, I want to go mad,”
Reuben muttered, his focus on peeling the orange. I paused, sensing the pain in his heart through our mate bond. “I want to see my children’s naughtiness and take care of them,”
he continued, his voice filled with a subdued emotion. He placed a piece of orange gently in my hand. “I want to feel like a father,”
he confessed, slowly meeting my gaze, his finger hooking with mine, “I want to get back everything I’ve lost during that last six years.”
Willow
“I want to get back everything I’ve lost during the last six years.”
My chest was stabbed with the sadness and pain that was in Reuben’s heart. I witnessed the love in Reuben’s eyes for Wyatt and Lori, aware that there was probably more that I could not see. He did not want to trap them, snatch, or steal them away from me, he just craved their love. I could not even blink to escape the weakness that Reuben had shown me for the first time.
“Don’t I deserve that much, Willow?”
he whispered, barely brushing my fingers with his. My heartbeat quickened at his question. He hooked his fingers in mine, entangled our emotions, and reignited our buried passion for each other. His beautiful soft green eyes were almost begging me to hold his hand as he traveled down this path that he had refused to walk in six years ago.
He silently gazed at me waiting for a reply, his eyes desperately waiting for my permission. My fingers subconsciously brushed against his fingers as I replied, “As long as you don’t hurt them I murmured.
A small smile appeared on Reuben’s lips at my unexpected permission as he hooked another finger into mine. My cheeks heated and I lowered my eyes. I wasn’t any more sure as to why I had given him permission that would clearly allow him to get closer to my children but Reuben’s sincerity had convinced me. I never thought that behind that smile and calm demeanor, he hid such pain.
“Why did you give me permission?”
he asked in a lowly, as I watched his fingertip brushing over mine again. “Did you feel my pain?”
I slowly raised my eyes to meet his gentle one, “This is the pain that you earned all on your own six years ago when you rejected our babies, Reuben,”
I replied, hooking another finger with his. “You can never go back to the past and fix the horrible mistake that you made,”
New Book: Returned To Make Them Pay
On her wedding anniversary, Alicia is drugged and stumbles into the wrong room—straight into the arms of the powerful Caden Ward, a man rumored never to touch women. Their night of passion shocks even him, especially when he discovers she’s still a virgin after two years of marriage to Joshua Yates.