Chapter 87
As Fleur scanned her fingerprint to unlock the apartment door, Christian’s larger-than-life presence overtook her. He pushed past her into the foyer, his powerful chest expanding as his deep, dominant voice boomed through the quiet space: “Chloe! Gabriel p>
The sudden thunder of his voice startled the entire house, but the moment the twins recognized that unmistakable, comforting rumble, the quiet evaporated.
The bedroom doors flew open. Chloe and Gabriel burst into the hallway, their eyes lighting up like stars as they spotted Christian standing in the living room, his massive arms thrown wide to receive them.
The twins exchanged one ecstatic, disbelieving look before screaming in perfect unison, “Daddy p>
They sprinted down the hall. Christian dropped heavily to his knees, his broad shoulders bracing for impact just before both children slammed into his chest, burying themselves in his scent of fresh pine, leather, and winter rain.
Goddess, he had missed them so fiercely, the ache in his chest finally easing as he wrapped his powerful arms around their small frames, holding them tight against his heart.
“I missed you, my pups,” Christian murmured, his throat tight as he pressed fervent, lingering kisses onto the crowns of Chloe’s and Gabriel’s heads.
“We missed you too, Daddy! So, so much!” they chimed together, clinging to his neck.
Fleur quietly stepped inside and closed the door behind her. Crossing her arms over her chest, she leaned against the wall, a soft, bittersweet smile playing on her lips as she watched the sheer, raw emotion of the reunion.
The invisible thread of the blood bond between them was undeniable; they fit together perfectly.
“Daddy, promise me something,” Chloe begged, pulling back just enough to pout, her bright, innocent eyes locking onto his. “Promise you won’t ever leave us again p>
“Daddy will never abandon you, sweetheart,” Christian vowed fiercely, his gaze fixed on his little princess as a thick knot of emotion formed in his throat. He would burn the world to ash before he let anyone tear them apart again.
“You can’t back out now, Daddy. You promised,” Gabriel chimed in, his little voice trying to sound stern, though his tail would have been wagging if he had it out.
Christian let out a low, rumbling chuckle.
“I didn’t leave by choice, buddy. Your mom threw me out of the house,” Christian said, casting a wicked, teasing glance over his shoulder at Fleur.
Fleur’s eyes narrowed instantly into an annoyed glare. The absolute audacity of this man. Leave it to a ruthless mafia Alpha to use wolfish charm and manipulation to turn her own children against her.
“Mom, please don’t make Daddy leave,” Chloe pleaded, turning her big, soulful eyes toward her mother, her lower lip trembling with masterfully executed innocence. “Please let him live with us p>
Fleur let out a heavy sigh, raising her hands in defeat. Christian and the kids had successfully formed an alliance against her in less than five minutes.
“Alright, alright. No one is going anywhere tonight, so calm down,” Fleur said, her tone a mix of exasperation and warmth.
“Yay! Daddy, let’s go to our room!” Chloe squealed, her excitement bubbling over as Christian easily scooped her up with one arm.
Gabriel stood just a few feet away, his small hands planted firmly on his hips, his little brow furrowed as he watched his sister get lifted. He looked so much like a tiny, brooding Alpha that it almost made Fleur laugh.
“Alright, champ. Come here,” Christian said with a soft, proud smile, extending his other massive arm. In one swift, effortless motion, he hoisted his little carbon copy onto his opposite hip, carrying both children like they weighed nothing at all.
“Daddy is the strongest in the whole world!” Chloe gushed, her eyes wide with total adoration.
Fleur couldn’t help but giggle. Her baby girl was completely spellbound by her father, viewing him as an invincible king who could move mountains at her command.
Fleur shook her head, the amusement lingering on her face until her gaze drifted toward the corner of the room. There stood Lea. Her friend was silently tracking the entire interaction, her face an unreadable, tightly controlled mask.
Yet beneath that silence, Fleur could practically feel the suffocating weight of Lea’s unspoken questions and sharp disapproval. Feeling a prickle of defensive anxiety, Fleur quickly looked away.
“Alright, kids, let’s get you ready because we are going out for a massive feast,” Christian announced loudly, his voice echoing happily down the hallway as he carried the twins toward their bedroom. “It’s time to celebrate now that your mother has officially given me permission to stay p>
The door to the kids’ room clicked shut, cutting off their high-pitched giggles. Immediately, the atmosphere in the living room shifted from joyous warmth to freezing tension.
Lea strode purposefully toward Fleur, her heels clicking sharply against the floor. Fleur bit her lip, still reeling from the whirlwind shift in her relationship with Christian. She didn’t even know how to articulate what was happening to herself, let alone defend it to someone else. Seeking an escape, she turned toward her own bedroom.
“Fleur!” Lea called out, her voice urgent and sharp, cutting off Fleur’s quiet retreat.
“Lea, let’s just get ready. We don’t have much time to figure out what we’re wearing for dinner,” Fleur said, her voice tight, a dead giveaway of how desperately she wanted to evade the confrontation.
“Fleur, how could you do this to Raphael?” Lea demanded, pushing past the threshold into the bedroom and slamming the door behind them to secure their privacy.
Her eyes were ablaze with a mix of fury and genuine disbelief. She had watched Raphael worship the ground Fleur walked on, hoping with everything in her that Fleur would finally choose the safe, devoted path with him.
“What exactly have I done to him, Lea?” Fleur asked quietly, forcing a calm, even composure into her voice as she turned to face her best friend.
“He literally just proposed to you, Fleur! And now you’re running straight back into the arms of that monster?” Lea accused, her voice rising.
“He is not my ex-husband, Lea. He is my husband,” Fleur responded, a deep sigh escaping her as she tried to anchor her boundaries.
“And secondly, I cannot marry Raphael simply because he asked me to. He is an incredible man, and any woman would be blessed to have him. I love him as a friend, and I am endlessly grateful for everything he has done for us. But I tried, Lea. I tried so hard to force myself to move on and give him that piece of me, but I couldn’t love him the way he deserves to be loved. Marrying him out of obligation or guilt would be the ultimate betrayal to him p>
“So instead, you choose to love a predator? A monster whose world almost destroyed you and the kids?!” Lea snapped, her voice laced with a desperate, frantic need to shake some sense into her friend. “What happened to you, Fleur p>
Fleur felt completely defenseless against the truth of those words. Her own traitorous heart was a weakness she couldn’t outrun.
She knew the dangers of this alpha king, knew the feral unpredictability of the beast Christian carried inside him. But all the walls she had tried to build, all the resentment she had desperately clung to, hadn’t been enough to kill the ancient, deep-rooted love she bore for him. Against all logic, she wanted a future with him.
“That… that was the past,” Fleur said, her voice dropping into a cold, defensive register. Her eyes hardened as she turned her back on Lea, walking toward her closet to pull a dress from the rack. “Christian is devoted to the kids now, and my children are blissfully happy. That is the only thing that matters to me p>
“Fleur, if I were in your shoes, I would never—not in a million years—look back at a man who put me through that, no matter how much he claimed to have changed or begged for grace. It is incredibly reckless,” Lea said curtly, the judgment dripping from her words like venom.
“You can say that easily because you don’t have kids with him!” Fleur snapped, the pressure in her chest finally fracturing as her frustration boiled over.
The moment the words tore past her lips, the room fell into a horrifying, dead silence.
Fleur froze. She watched the color drain entirely from Lea’s face, a look of profound, agonizing pain shattering her friend’s features.
The air left Fleur’s lungs as the cruel, accidental weight of her words registered. Lea’s long, painful struggle with infertility was a private grief they had cried over for years.
“Oh God… Lea, I am so sorry,” Fleur breathed, horror overtaking her as she rushed toward her friend, hands outstretched. “Lea, please, I didn’t mean it like that p>
But Lea stood entirely rigid. Her expression hardened into an impenetrable, icy wall, her eyes turning utterly cold and distant as she stepped back, out of Fleur’s reach.
Fleur’s stomach dropped into a hollow pit; she knew instantly she had just dealt a devastating blow to the one person who had always stood by her.