Chapter 129

Claire POV

I sat in my father’s office at the Royal headquarters, a neat stack of finished reports at my elbow.

It had been a long day, but also a satisfying one. With no emergencies or attacking rogues, I was finally getting the pack back on track.

If only that satisfaction extended to my personal life.

I still felt bad for how things went the night Nathan came to see me.

He had come to apologize, and I never got a chance to thank him for that. He’d come all the way from Silverfang territory to have a heart-to-heart conversation, and instead we’d barely said a word to each other.

The reason we hadn’t talked, that passionate embrace I’d nearly lost myself to, was something that still crept into my thoughts throughout the day. And the night.

Our continued connection was undeniable.

And that was something else we needed to talk about.

So I sat at my desk, turning on the lamp to push back against the deep dusk falling outside my office windows.

And I tried to write Nathan a letter.

Dear Nathan,

I want to sincerely thank you for coming to the palace the way you did. It means a lot to me that you would come to apologize to me in person.

Pausing, I stared out into the night.

I wanted to be as open and honest in my letter as Nathan had been with me lately.

But what to say?

How could I hope to explain to him what I felt for him, and what I was coming to feel for Gavin, when I didn’t fully understand it myself?

In the end I didn’t even try to address all of that. I just focused on his most recent visit.

Now I need to offer an apology of my own:

I handled what happened that night poorly.

Being in your arms again…It felt like coming home.

And I wanted to stay there. I truly did.

But wanting it that badly was the problem.

There’s been so much between us…I’m still afraid of going backwards, of ending up living a life that just isn’t right for me.

I was a secret for such a long time, Nathan. I was something to keep hidden.

Something to be ashamed of.

And I can’t - won’t - do that again.

I don’t know what this means for us. But I needed you to know.

The way you treated me when I was still a wolfless Omega, the way you made me lie about who I was to both you and Andy…

It still hurts me.

I tried to write more, tried to explain that even though there was so much pain in our history there was still a deep and abiding love.

There was still that undying connection between two fated mates.

But the tension had returned to my neck and shoulders as I wrote, and by the time I finished my head was pounding.

And a drop of blood landed on the desk beside the letter.

Startled, I reached up and touched my face.

I had a nosebleed.

And at that moment a piercing stab of pain struck my head, like lightning stabbing through my temples.

Grabbing a tissue, I pressed it to my nose and leaned my head back against my chair, waiting for both the pain and the bleeding to stop.

“Princess!” my assistant Megan exclaimed, rushing into the room.

“What’s happening? Are you alright??”

I waved my hand at her, urging her to talk quieter. Her shout of concern had caused a spike in the pain in my head.

“It’s just a nosebleed,” I whispered. “And another headache.”

Megan shook her head, her expression worried. “Princess, these headaches…I must admit, they are quite concerning.”

To myself I could admit that they had me worried as well. But I didn’t say that to her.

As the Royal leader, I needed to be strong. No one could know how much these headaches were beginning to scare me.

“It’s alright,” I said instead. “They’re just stress headaches. And I used to get nosebleeds as a child.

“Nothing to worry about, Megan, I promise.”

She didn’t look completely convinced. “Alright. Should I have the car brought around to take you home?”

“Yes, please.”

“And…should I call the palace and tell Dr. Baldwin that you’ll need another healing session?”

That had been my exact plan, and it was a relief simply to nod and have her deal with it.

“Good idea,” I said. Then I pointed to the letter I’d managed to seal and address before the pain hit.

“Please make sure that gets in the mail tomorrow,” I said.

“Of course, Princess. The car is being pulled around front. Please, go home and rest.”

Rest would be nice.

As I left the Royal headquarters, walking slowly down to the ground floor, my head still throbbing, I prayed that tonight’s healing session would chase away the pain.

And the nightmares.

Catherine POV

In a matter of days I was settled into the Silverfang pack.

And into Nathan’s office.

Becoming his campaign manager had been the easiest thing in the world. The poor man had so much on his plate already. He’d been struggling to keep his campaign together.

Sabrina, for all her sloppy manipulations and half-baked plans, truly had been good at organizing and communicating.

Without her, Nathan’s campaign had become disorganized and was slowly starting to fall apart.

Now I was there to pick up the pieces and get him back on top.

Where he belonged.

With me by his side, there was no way Nathan was going to lose.

He was going to be the next Alpha President.

And I was going to be by his side.

Humming to myself as I went into the office one morning, I grabbed the mail waiting on his secretary’s desk to check for any correspondence I needed to handle.

I was as happy as I’d ever been, knowing I had a whole day of satisfying work ahead of me.

Work I would do while seated beside Nathan.

Then my hand paused as I flipped through the letters.

I saw first the familiar handwriting, and then the palace’s return address.

It was a letter that came from the Royal territory.

It was a letter from Claire.

Glancing around, I hurried into the office and sat at my desk, tossing the rest of the mail to the side for the moment.

Without a moment’s hesitation or guilt, I slid my finger under the wax seal with Claire’s official emblem on it, breaking the seal.

I read the letter with growing jealousy and anger, my hand gripping the paper tight enough to crumple the edges.

How dare she!

Thanking him for coming and apologizing? Just “thanks”??

Nathan had obviously traveled to her to spill his heart and try to make amends.

And all she could give him was a simple thanks.

And the rest…

Thinking of Nathan holding Claire, kissing her, their passion rising…

I opened the bottom drawer of my desk and threw the letter into it with disgust.

To think, Claire had that moment of passion with him, and tossed it away.

That explained why he was so angry and upset when I met him that night in the hallway.

Claire had once again rejected him.

Claire had hurt him.

Well, she’d had too many chances to make things right, as far as I was concerned.

Chances she’d wasted, over and over again.

No more.

Claire had simply made too many mistakes with Nathan.

She no longer deserved to have a relationship with him.

Nathan deserved someone who would love him without hesitation, and devote themselves to serving him.

No, he didn’t deserve the way Claire was treating him.

He deserved better.

He deserved someone like…me.