Cole: The Wounded Sons, Leah Sharelle [the reading list .TXT] 📗

They didn’t know just how perfect for me she was … is. I did, though, and I wasn’t going to let her fall on her sword.

“Oaklee, no, it isn’t your fault, none of this is baby, it’s—”

“Mine.” A booming voice echoed in the room from near the bar area. A voice I knew well. Whipping my head up, I looked up and found my father standing in the middle of a straight line of Wounded Souls. The original members. The first Team Five.

Oaklee, too was turned in her seat, looking at my dad with a mixture of fear and surprise. Not that I blamed her, it wasn’t often one heard the great, brooding Creed Stephens own fault.

“Son,” Dad nodded at me, “mind if I say a few things?”

Lowering my gaze back to Oaklee, I turned her face back to me. “Baby?” I asked, giving her the lead. Dad and I were still in the process of finding our way back, and I wasn’t overly concerned we wouldn’t. After all, family was the most important thing in my dad’s life. Oaklee, however, wasn’t used to the overbearing and overwhelming ways I was used to, so this was going to be her call.

With a wobbly smile, Oaklee nodded, then gently pushed on my chest so she could get up from her seat. Quickly jumping to my feet, I took her hand and helped her up, sighing happily when her fingers threaded through mine and held onto me as we turned and faced the intimidating line-up.

Behind the wall of muscled men, I saw my team and their wives standing with the Flock. Four of them looking particularly guilty and ashamed. That conversation would come later because the Flock meant well, it was their execution that needed some work.

“Hello, Creed,” Oaklee greeted my father politely, her voice was quiet but strong.

Good girl.

“Hello Oaklee, I’m glad my son found you. He has been in hell these past weeks, and honestly, so have I.” Breaking ranks, Dad moved forward until he was standing directly in front of us, his black eyes full of sorrow and regret.

“I owe you an apology, Oaklee, I made a judgement call from a handful of assumptions, and for that, I am not proud of myself. I misjudged you, made up my own mind without fully understanding the woman you are.” Dropping his head, Dad looked to be struggling, which was not something I was used to seeing.

“And to make matters worse,” Dad muttered, looking back up this time at me, “I didn’t trust my son. I forgot for a minute there just how much of an upstanding man he is, that he would never hurt a woman, never use her, never let his darkness touch her. I misjudged you both, allowed some old ghosts in, and did some fucking horrible assuming.”

I wasn’t going to lie, hearing my father admit to his flaws was kind of satisfying. It showed me that even heroes weren’t always perfect, that they fucked up from time to time, just like us normal folk.

“I underestimated the love you have for each other and its healing quality. I won’t be doing that ever again,” Dad promised, his gaze holding mine for a few seconds, then softened when he swapped back to Oaklee.

“I’m not brittle, Creed, some tiny cracks may surface from time to time, but for the most part, I can hold my own. Cole going away on deployments or the role in his team, I promise you, I can handle.” Oaklee ran her thumb over mine; the gesture and the words and the meaning behind them made my heart pick up a beat and my cock twitch in my pants. Oaklee standing up to my mother and my old man gave me the reassurance she could indeed hold her own, but with my job and deployments?

Maybe she wasn’t going to have to in the future.

Forgetting that line of thought, for now, I let go of Oaklee’s hand only to replace our connection with my arm wrapped around her waist, letting out a low growl feeling how much slimmer she was under her bulky knitted jumper.

No more Temptress. No more heartache for you from now on. Only love and happiness. I vowed silently.

Holding out her hand to my dad, Oaklee waited for him to accept her peace offering before rocking my world.

“I know you and Memphis love your sons and daughter, Creed, but you have to know, Cole is the most important part of my life. He healed me without me even knowing it, and he gave me a purpose, the strength to face all my demons. He makes me feel like the most beautiful woman he has ever seen, and he treats me with such exquisite tenderness and loves me so deeply. How can anyone be all that and not be trustworthy with my health and heart?”

My legs threatened to give out; how the fuck this gorgeous creature chose me, a beat-up, lonely, brooding, dark bastard, was a miracle and not one I was ever going to take for granted.

“Baby,” I murmured, forgetting the room full of people gawking at us and pulled Oaklee flush against my chest, crowding her with my big body, melding us as one.

“I fucking love you so much, Oaklee Jane Banks. I love your kindness, your sass, and your compassion for others, even when they don’t treat you with the respect and love you deserve.” Laying my lips to hers, I breathed her in, taking much-needed seconds to assure myself she was here, looking at me with those stunningly kind green eyes.

“You make me whole, baby, you make me want to shed the dark and only live in the light. There is nothing I wouldn’t do for you, my beautiful girl, but …” pulling her deeper into me, I pushed my crotch into her belly, loving the gasp and the moan that left her lips and the cloud of desire that flashed across her face.

“If I ever see another man