Chapter 70

By the time that I woke in the morning, the sun was shining into the room. I rolled over, so that I was facing Justin. I sat up and leaned down and kissed his forehead. He stirred slightly before falling back to sleep. I looked down at his sleeping form and I smiled.

What did I do to deserve this man?

I glanced down at his chest as I admired him. I don’t think I have ever taken the chance to really look at his torso, his muscles and admire him.

I really don’t deserve this man.

I traced the contours of his muscles with my fingertips as I admired his torso, paying to the hard ridges as I traced over them.

“Are you enjoying yourself?”

His voice snapped me out of my reverie and I jumped as if I was caught doing something I should not have been doing. I did not even realize that he had been awake.

I looked down at the bed, embarrassed. I placed my hands in my lap, twisting my fingers as I spoke, “I am sorry…I did not realize you were awake.”

He softly sighed and rolled onto his side. He placed his fingers under my chin and lifted my face, so I could look at him.

I tried to force my face down, so I didn’t need to see the anger in his eyes.

“Kataleya…Kat…what’s wrong?” he asked me quietly.

“You are mad at me. I should not have touched you in your sleep…I am sorry,” I whispered.

“Kataleya, love, look at me.” I slowly lifted my face, so I could peer into his eyes and I was shocked by the love and the gentleness that I saw in his face. “Baby, I am not mad at you. It is natural for you to want to touch me…I was just shocked. You generally do not initiate touch. The closest I get is that you will kiss me on your own accord. You rarely ever allow me to touch you and you rarely touch me. I love feeling your touch. I love when you kiss me and when you take the initiative. You never need to worry about whether I will get mad if you touch me. I have been ready for you since I was born. I have always wanted my mate, Kataleya. There is nothing that you could do to me that would make me change my mind about you.”

I blinked away my tears before they could start rolling down my face. I love you, I thought to myself. My throat felt as if it was closing and I was worried that if I tried to speak then I would start crying.

Justin gently caressed my cheek, as we stared into each other’s eyes. “I love you,” he whispered.

‘I love you, too,” I linked him back, too scared to try and speak to him. He wrapped his arms around me and held me to him.

So, we laid like that for what felt like hours.

‘Kataleya, we are waiting for you and Justin before we start this meeting. You two are the only ones that are not present,’ my father’s voice cut through my thoughts as he linked me.

‘We will be on the way shortly. We just woke up dad. We had a long night,’ I responded as I cut the mind link.

“Come on. We have to get up, Justin. Apparently, everyone is waiting for us before they start the meeting. We just never got the memo of what time we were supposed to be there.”

We both rolled out of bed to get dressed. I quickly grabbed some clothes and threw them on, not really caring about what I looked like.

Once we were both ready, we made the way to my father’s office. Before I could knock on the door, the door opened and my father stood at the opening.

“Kataleya, we decided that with the number of people that are going to be present for this meeting that we would go ahead and move to conference room A, so that we would better accommodate everyone.”

I nodded my head and led my way to conference room A.

Once we entered the conference room, Justin took his seat and pulled me next to him.

I was shocked when he pulled me onto the seat next to him, instead of on his lap. Typically, no matter where we are, he pulls me into his lap. It embarrasses me whenever he does that, but I never realized how much I miss it when he does not do it.

I looked over at him questioningly. ‘Everything alright?’ I linked him.

He nodded his head. ‘I know that it embarrasses you when I pull you onto my lap. If you want to sit in my lap, then you can, or if, at any point in time, you need the added comfort, you can grab my hand under the table or you come and sit in my lap. You are the only one who seemed to care about physically being in my lap during meetings. Everyone else does not even bat an eye, my love.’

I guess he had a point. I just thought it was inappropriate for me to be in his lap during meetings…you typically do not see very many mated couples that sit like that during meetings. I guess a small part of me was, also, scared to continually get close to him…and that was how it felt every time he would pull me into his lap.

‘Kat, you just think too much.’ Skye grumbled at me.

‘I can’t help it.’

‘Instead of thinking, I need you to just do it. If you want to be in his lap, then sit in his lap. Justin and Ares will give zero fucks about you wanting to be in their lap. Fuck, they will probably enjoy it more than they should. You should not worry about what everyone in this room will think. The majority of them are mated. They will understand. And if it was ever an issue, then your parents would have said something after the first time.

I guess she had a point, so what was stopping me? Fuck it…I pushed my chair back while we waited for everyone to take their seats and I looked at Justin. He pointed to his lap and I nodded my head. He scooted his chair slightly back, so that I could sit in his lap before pulling us back to the table. He wrapped his arms around me, encasing me in his touch. I laid my head back on his shoulder to rest my head.

I looked over towards my parents and they were both smiling at us. I guess it was truly okay.

“Now that we are all present,” my father stated, looking at me pointedly, “we can begin. First things first, how is Jasaslyn doing?”

Jasper, her mate, was quiet for a moment. “Jas is doing as well as can be expected. Last night was filled with nightmares…since we have been mated, every time she had a nightmare, I was there with her experiencing her nightmares…” he looked at the ground before continuing, when he finally looked up, I could see the pain encased in his eyes, “It was like experiencing it all over again. It was to the point that I had to ask the doctor to sedate her, so that she could have a peaceful sleep.”

I glanced at him in sympathy. I remember those. The nightmares were fucking horrid and I would never wish that upon my greatest enemy.

“I know it is hard, but I promise she will eventually feel normal again. While I was not fully mated when it happened, the nightmares of what happened to me were horrible. She will be able to move past it, just make sure that you are there for her.”

He nodded his head at me, “I will be.”

“Moving on to the rogues, who call themselves Alphas, we do not know much besides what Kataleya was able to get out of the one we captured and then what Jasaslyn shared with Kataleya. We know they are primarily targeting Kataleya. He wants her to come to them. They have eluded every pack ever since they have had targets on their heads. Does anyone have any ideas on how to take them out of the ‘woodwork?’”

I had an idea, but it was crazy and was going to piss off nearly everyone in this room. What if I gave them what they wanted? Then, no one else would get hurt and I would not feel this overwhelming, crushing guilt weighing down on me.

‘What are you thinking? I can tell you are nervous about saying something.’ Justin linked me.

Stupid bond. I forgot that he could feel what I was feeling now that I was marked. I can only imagine how much everything will intensify if we complete the bond.

‘Just an idea I had,’ I responded quietly through the link.

I cleared my throat. “I have an idea, but I would appreciate everyone letting me finish before they speak…” I felt Justin start to tense behind me. “What if we used me as bait?” I could tell that they were all about to start talking, so I held my finger up. “Let me finish please. They are going to continue hurting others until they have the chance to get to me…what if we gave them what they wanted to get a link to their location? As Alpha heir, everyone in the pack has a special link to me that can help guide them to my location. Plus, Justin is my mate. He can help you locate me. Use me to bring them down. It started with me, so it is only right that it ends with me.”

As soon as I finished, a loud growl reverberated through the room.