Chapter 325: _ General in Heels
María José brought my family as an excuse to skip breakfast like it didn’t mean anything. Like skipping breakfast before a battle was some casual Tuesday decision. But I saw it. I saw the tension tightening her shoulders beneath that suit. The faint tremble in her fingers when she reached for her folder. The too-fast blink that screamed she was trying not to spiral.
And María José was not a spiraler. She was a conqueror. Which was why it hit me right in the chest.
"You’re nervous," I said, the words falling from my mouth before I could sugarcoat them.
She froze in her tracks, back still to me. "I’m not."
I stepped even closer slowly and carefully because I knew that voice. It was the one she used when she was barely holding it together. When she was trying to convince herself more than me.
"María," I said gently, walking up behind her, placing a hand on the curve of her hip. "It’s me. You don’t have to pretend."
She turned slightly, just enough for me to see her jaw tighten. "I can’t afford to be nervous. Not when I have to go in there and face those bastards who think they own the pack. I have to walk in like I’ve already won."
"You already have," I said.
She scoffed, eyes flicking up to meet mine. "Axel..."
"No. Listen to me." I stepped in front of her, cupped her cheeks with both hands, and tilted her head so she had no choice but to look at me. "I see you, María José. I see how hard you’ve fought. How alone you’ve felt. And I hate that I wasn’t with you through it all."
Her eyes fluttered, just a blink, just a flinch... but I saw it.
"I was too busy being petty," I confessed. "Too stuck in my own damn head, hurting over something I should have had the spine to investigate instead of sulk about."
Her brow creased. "Axel, it wasn’t your fault. Ignacio..."
"No. No more excuses. I made a vow to you the day I claimed you as mine. And then I let some shadow with a grudge manipulate me into breaking it. You were alone when I should have been at your side."
She shook her head, but her lips quivered.
I pressed a kiss to her forehead. "That ends today. Starting right now, you don’t face anything alone. Not the court. Not the council. Not even breakfast with the Montenegro vipers. I’m with you. Fully, completely, loudly."
Her throat worked around a lump. "You’ll come to the hearing?"
"I’ll come, I’ll sit front row, and I’ll growl at anyone who so much as breathes wrong in your direction."
A watery smile touched her lips. "Even if I start yelling at corrupted and bloodthirsty pack elders ?"
"Especially then."
Her laugh was a little choked, but it was real. And I’d take it.
She exhaled shakily and leaned into my touch. "Gods, you really know how to say the right thing at the wrong time."
"I’ve had practice," I teased. "Turns out, groveling is my new love language."
"Good. Because you’ve got a lot to make up for."
"I know," I said. "And I will. Starting now. I’ll stand by you in court. I’ll help you take down every corrupted councilman. I’ll even make you breakfast tomorrow."
She tilted her head. "You? Cooking?"
I placed a dramatic hand to my chest. "I’m deeply offended."
"You probably forgot how to because as it seems, you’re now married to your duty as the Beta, Axel."
"Aw, come on. I needed something to transfer all that pain into."
She chuckled, and it was the most beautiful sound I’d heard in days. "I know, Axel. Even though you didn’t have to let the pain in."
"I know, mi Amor. My bad."
I kissed her again, softly this time. Just lips brushing like a promise. Then I reached past her to adjust the blazer she’d worn wrongly when she’d stormed off earlier, and helped her slide her arm into it properly.
She blinked. "You’re dressing me now?"
"You dressed yourself today because you needed to feel grounded. But let me help now—because I need to feel connected."
She didn’t argue.
I straightened the lapels, smoothed the fabric over her shoulders, and stepped back to admire her.
"You’re a storm in heels," I murmured.
"And you’re biased."
"Painfully."
Her phone buzzed from the dresser, and she groaned when she saw the screen. "Carmen says they’ve arrived."
"The council?"
She nodded. "And apparently, my father’s already made himself a nuisance."
I hissed. "Of course he has. The man couldn’t let a day go by without being a dick."
She rolled her eyes, then adjusted her sleeve cuffs like she was rolling up her metaphorical gloves. "Let’s go give him something real to be embarrassed about."
"Now that," I beamed, grabbing a clean shirt from the closet and yanking it on, "is the kind of courtroom drama I want a front-row seat to."
I was about to walk up to her when she held her palm out in a stop sign. "Uh-uh, dear husband. I don’t think so. Not with that drool on your jaw. Why don’t you go bathe first and get ready for the day?"
Right. I only just woke up.
I blinked at her, then rubbed a hand down my jaw, where—yep... sure enough, the sticky trail of dried drool was clinging like a shameful badge of sleep. "Well damn, I was trying to look sexy and primal, but sure, let’s go with swamp creature."
María José raised a brow. "You’re lucky I like you better as a swamp creature."
I gave a dramatic sigh, dragging myself toward the bathroom like I was going off to war. "And to think, just a few hours ago, this mouth had you screaming into the pillows.."
"AXEL!" she hissed, eyes wide as her heel thudded threateningly against the floor. "Shower. Now."
I chuckled my way into the bathroom, shutting the door behind me and leaning against it for a second. The sound of the water spraying from the overhead nozzle filled the space. I stepped out of my boxers and let the steam wrap around me. Warm water hit my back like judgment.
Gods. My María was strong. Not just the I-can-throw-a-punch kind of strong, but the kind of quiet, rooted strength you didn’t always see until it hit you in the chest. I remembered when I first met María José. She was quiet, observant, so far down the pack totem pole she may as well have been a shadow but she was younger then. How old? Three, I think?
But then, years later, she became an Omega by title, invisible by choice. People ignored her. Underestimated her.
Now? Now she stood like a general in heels.