Isis: The E6 Breeder (Lycan Breeder Series Book No. 2)

Scene 23

"Ready to go?"

Isis's hair was pulled up in that messy bun females loved to wear. Although in her case, she was probably aiming for a standard bun. It looked like she had laid down, but not slept for the last several hours. She nodded and passed him silently. Still wearing what she had on earlier, but now his own sweatshirt was added on top. It looked like she was walking in a jersey sleeping bag.

"Listen, I know we haven't been, well, decent from your perspective," Julien paused when she slowly turned around to face him. Her swollen eyes a result of both crying and exhaustion locked in on him. "We were prepared for something else."

"Rejection and acceptance. I'm giving you that tonight and hopefully I can start pulling my life together after."

"Wait. Just... please don't walk in there and have the first thing you do be to accept the rejection. Nothing has to be decided tonight."

"I am falling apart, Julien." At the sound of his name in her voice, a twist happened at his core. "I have left my family. For the first time in my life I am all alone, and until I finish the break I will never be able to build a life with someone else."

"I'm so sorry," he whispered as he enclosed her in his lean arms, pulling her into his chest. He breathed down on the top of her head, her scent giving just a little buzz in his sinuses. "We'll take care of you for as long as you need."

"That's the thing. I don't want you to take care of me."

"I'm not saying anything right, am I?" He relaxed his arms and she nodded her affirmation. But when she looked up, some of the darkness seemed to have lifted from her face. "This is why they don't send me out to talk to anyone. Let's just go and please, listen to them."

His hand wrapped around her shoulders, grabbing the far side and escorting her with constant bodily contact. It felt natural. Secure. It shouldn't. Afterall, he had a mate and Isis was not it. Right?

Right.

The rest of the walk was in silence. Instead of the throne room, they made their way to a smaller entertaining room. Inside were empty leather couches, priceless rugs, a blacked out TV, and five anxious fighters standing around with no one to fight.

They had interrupted a conversation, and given the look on Marc's face, he was leading it. Of course.

"Go on. I don't think she wants to be left out of any more conversations we have about our potential lives with her." Julien stood protectively behind her, both hands on her shoulders. They worked out the basics and it was downright insulting that they would continue to figure out the solution when she was half of it.

Marc's grey eyes pierced him. That male didn't do anything without passion. It was his strength and his downfall. Too long has Julien been basking in the warmth of such attention, but it has gotten in the way. He tried to end it so many times, but how could you turn him away? And for what?

Now there was a "what". And she was standing in front of all of them.

"I was saying this would be a lot easier without the bond. We don't need it. You," and now he looked lower so he was making eye contact with Isis, "can be our breeder like what is expected even if you struggle without the proper training."

Looks like we're just going to jump straight in.

"I'm not going to breed. That's not what I am."

"So why are we even having this conversation?" Marc exclaimed, throwing his hands up in the air.

"Would you give her a second to come up to speed on this?" Julien snapped from over her head. He was such an ass sometimes. His empathy was almost zero to strangers. "And where did that even come from. We didn't discuss that earlier."