ISABEL

FORTY

After dinner that night, Rodrigo and his mate watched cartoon with the kids until it was time for bed. Paulina went into the kitchen to tidy up, after kissing Teresa and David goodnight, while Rodrigo put the kids to bed.

While wiping her wet hands with a clean towel, Paulina felt a swift movement outside. She looked out the window to see who it was, but there was no one there. To make certain, she went out of the house through the back door and still there wasn't a soul in sight.

Concluding within herself that she was probably having a paranoia, Paulina went back inside the house, only to be met with a set of sharp claws around her neck. She gasped at the cold feeling of the tip of her attacker's claws on her skin and tried to crane her neck backwards to get a glance of the werewolf holding her captive in her own house, but that was a big mistake on her part, as her attacker's claws sank into her neck, causing blood to ooze out of the wound.

"Tsk tsk... Make one wrong move and you're dead." The stranger's deep voice threatened in her ear, consuming her with fear.

"What do you want?" Paulina asked in a shaky voice, as she was scared of the tall stranger who could kill her any minute.

Her wolf was agitated and was pleading for her to call out to her mate for help, but she was doubtful about it being a smart move to make. Her mate could be this stranger's target and she couldn't risk Rodrigo or the kids getting hurt because of her inability to protect herself.

"Now you're getting the point." The stranger said cheekily, much to Paulina's disgust.

"I'd like to have a word with my father."

There was a sudden sinking feeling in the pit of Rodrigo's stomach as he tucked David in bed, but he couldn't decipher what it was. He tried to brush off the feeling but his wolf wasn't having it.

"Our mate is in trouble." It told Rodrigo, causing him to leave David's room in a hurry.

Thanks to the moon goddess, Teresa and David were already asleep when he took them to their various rooms, if not, he wouldn't have been able to respond to his wolf's nagging voice. He raced down the stairs and halted in his tracks at the foot of the stairs, just as he noticed his mate being dragged out of the kitchen by a total stranger. He growled on seeing Paulina being treated with disrespect, gaining both his mate and the stranger's attention.

Rodrigo was about to lunge towards the stranger as he was already in a half shift, but stopped himself when his mate cried out in pain from the stranger's vicious assault on her neck.

"Wow! I'm impressed by your swiftness. The mate bond really does work magic like they say." The stranger tried to sound impressed but there was a hint of mockery in his voice.

Paulina shook her head in disapproval, as a way of telling her mate to remain where he was because she didn't want things going downhill.

"Who are you?" Rodrigo growled at the stranger. He was only listening to his mate at this point because he was taking into consideration the safety of the pups sleeping soundly upstairs.

"I find it funny that a father doesn't recognize his own son." The stranger replied, looking Rodrigo straight in the eye.

"You!"

"Yes. Me... Just so you know, my mother named me after you. So, it's Junior to you."

The sad and betrayed look Rodrigo's mate was giving him made him gnash his teeth and ball his hands into fists, regretting why he didn't listen to his father twenty four years ago. His show of mercy then has turned out to be the greatest mistake of his life.