Chapter 8

~Jayden~

That was a close call. I don’t know what came over me, but suddenly, I just had to be close to her. I needed to touch her. The brief contact with her neck nearly drove me insane. She smells so damn good, and I could feel myself being swept up in this mate bond. I can't afford that. She now knows I'm a father, and I'm sure she is just being polite by playing with Brooklyn. Once she's done, I fully expect her to reject me to find someone who is not as tied down as I am. We spent the next hour playing dolls with Brooklyn, and I was able to get to know more about Kehlani since Brooklyn was asking questions non-stop. The door to my place opened and in walked Autumn.

“Jayden, dear! I haven’t seen you all morning. Have you thought about…..” She stopped abruptly when she noticed the scene in front of her. Brooklyn and Kehlani sat on the floor among various dolls while I sat on the couch with a doll in my hand. She started to smirk at the sight. “Hi. You must be Alpha Masters. I'm Luna Autumn.” she said to Kehlani.

“It's nice to meet you Luna. Please just call me Kehlani,” my mate replied.

“Godmom!!” Brooklyn jumped up and ran to Autumn.

“Hey Lovie! I was actually coming to steal you away. I was thinking we could go down to the lake with the twins. What do you say?”

Brooklyn looked back at me, “Daddy can I?” Brooklyn loved playing with Autumn and Issac’s twins. She always feels like the older sister.

“Of course you can go. Be good and I will see you later,” I reply.

“Oh she will be just fine with her godmom.” Autumn says. I suggest you use this….alone time wisely! Thank me later. Autumn mindlinked me as she was walking out hand in hand with Brooklyn.

“I love you a million hershey kisses daddy!” Brooklyn exclaims while walking out of the door.

“I love you a billion skittles my love,” I reply.

The air in the room got thick pretty quickly once they walked out of the door. I was nervous and felt awkward. Kehlani’s scent was not helping matters. Breathing it in made it harder and harder to focus and keep level-headed. I tried to look everywhere but at Kehlani because I didn’t know what to do or say. I know it would be best for this rejection to happen as soon as possible. She should be free to find that special someone who is not already a bit jaded and carrying so much responsibility. I feel for her enough to want the best for her, and I know eventually, she would see that this was a good idea.

“What are you thinking about so hard over there?” Kehlani asked, breaking through my thoughts. I didn’t realize I had zoned out until she spoke to me.

“Just thinking that now is as good a time as any to end this. You now know why I would be no good for you, so we should go ahead and you can find someone better suited to you,” I reply quietly.

“Do you seriously think that you having a child is enough for me to walk away?! I don’t think so. If anything, it tells me how great you are seeing how you are doing this alone. I won’t pretend to know the whole story, but I can imagine that raising a child is a big job, and here you are going at it alone.” Kehlani got up from the floor and sat next to me on the couch. If I was suffocating from her scent before, this definitely wasn’t helping. Not only was her scent even more overpowering the closer she was to me, but the close proximity was driving myself and Jace crazy. I could feel the heat emulating from her body. I was getting lost looking into those chocolate-brown eyes. My gaze moved down to her lips...goddess, those lips. They were so full and so pink. I just wanted to run my fingers across them before attacking them with my own. I looked back into her eyes, trying to fight the urge to move closer to her. “How about this,” Kehlani started. “Let’s at least get to know each other. If after that you want to walk away, I won’t stop you. I just don’t want to end things before we can even start.”

What should I do? Do I indulge her knowing that it will not end well? She sees me as some type of hero simply because I'm a single parent, but I'm not worthy of that title. I'm not some man that women line up to claim as their own. If I were so great, why did the mother of my child...my love...why did she leave me so easily? Why did she walk away, never to return? She wouldn’t even allow me to mark her; she was my fated mate. I know I'm not worth much, let alone good enough to keep an Alpha happy for life.

Stop it already, Jayden. I hate when you torture yourself like this. You are a good man...she was just a despicable person. Besides, we got the best part of it all….we got to keep Brooklyn.

Jace, you can call it what you want, but obviously, I'm inadequate if I couldn’t even keep my fated happy. I'm just so sorry that you had to lose your mate because of me. Jace growls at this, and I can feel his anger grow.

I will not listen to this anymore. Just give her a chance. With that, Jace retreated to the back of my mind and threw a block up.

I was jolted when I felt those undeniable sparks on my face. I focused on the scene in front of me and saw Kehlani looking into my eyes with hope. This will probably be a huge mistake, but something in me would not allow 'no' to leave my lips. I didn’t trust my voice, so I simply nodded. That prompted the most incredible smile to form on her lips, and Kehlani started to lean even closer to me. Before her lips could brush against mine, a siren started to go off. I was startled and tried to look around to see where it was coming from. Kehlani did not look disturbed and pulled her phone out of her pocket. Once she saw who it was, she got up, saying, “Excuse me, I need to take this.” I watched as she walked down the hallway.