Chapter 139

Nathan POV

I sat at Catherine’s desk a few days later, still trying to make sense of the shocking revelations as I cleaned out the files and folders and stacks of notes.

Catherine had not only arranged for a hired rogue assassin to open fire on the final Alpha Presidential campaign event, but she’d done so with the intent of getting herself shot.

Actually shot.

Just to prove that she was willing to do so.

And for what?

Out of some twisted sense of love for someone she barely knew.

It was wild to think about someone thinking doing such a thing would prove anything other than just how insane they were.

The fact that she fooled me, hiding that madness, bothered me on a very deep level.

How could I have been so easily fooled? Again??

But the more I thought about it, the more I realized how Catherine had managed to get so close to me.

She’d done it by making herself seem like Claire.

Looking back, it was almost laughably easy to spot.

The way she wore her hair, the kinds of clothes she dressed in.

The perfume.

When the servants packed up Catherine’s things, they found another bottle of that perfume, along with a few sets of tinted contact lenses.

Lenses that had lightened Catherine’s eyes, making them an exact match to Claire’s.

Instead of trying to separate him from Claire, Catherine tried to become Claire, using her scent to fool his senses.

And more of those so-called “charm” bags, full of herbs very similar to the ones Sabrina had used in the tea she gave me.

Herbs designed to make a mind relaxed and open to suggestion.

My hand tightened on the desk, and knots formed in my belly.

Mind control.

Catherine had planned to slowly replace Claire in my mind, making me think she was actually my mate.

It sickened me.

It was the perfume that fooled me the most, drawing me to Catherine in a way I couldn’t understand.

And I’d been so caught up in what was going on between me and Claire that I hadn’t even stopped to think about it.

Now I felt like a fool for not spotting it sooner.

Turning back to the work of clearing out her desk, I was glad to be putting this whole mess behind me.

And to be putting the campaign behind me as well.

The election was only a few days away now, and by all reports from the polling my people did in both Silverfang territory and other packs, I was well supported.

With the closing speeches out of the way, there was nothing to do now but wait for the polls to close and see how the people had voted.

Win or lose, I would no longer have a campaign to-do list constantly weighing on my mind, or crowding my schedule.

That part of my life, at least, could go back to normal.

As for the rest…

My mind went immediately to Claire.

She was what I wanted for the rest of my life.

If only I could get her to believe me.

Nearly finished clearing out the desk, I opened the bottom drawer and saw, as if I’d conjured it, Claire’s handwriting on an envelope.

I blinked in surprise, wondering if I was imagining things.

But no. It was a letter from Claire.

Opening it I saw by the date that she’d written it weeks ago.

Catherine must have seen it before I could, and hid it away.

I read the letter slowly, each word falling on me like a pile of stone.

Claire had poured out her heart about all the past hurts she’d suffered.

And it broke my heart.

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

Something to be ashamed of.

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.

The true pain laying at the heart of our complicated relationship finally hit me like a flash of lightning.

Claire thought I’d been ashamed to have an Omega mate.

For years she’d been living with me, loving me, raising our child with utter devotion - all while convinced that her mere existence embarrassed me.

But I had never been ashamed of her.

Claire was the kindest, most gentle and loving woman I had ever known.

And she had always had my heart. My entire being belonged to her.

But I’d made a mistake.

I’d made it over and over and over.

While it was true I’d never been ashamed of our fated mate bond, I had been afraid of what people would say.

How that would affect how they saw me as a leader.

And no matter how wonderful Claire had shown herself to be, both as a partner to me and as a mother to our child, it just hadn’t been enough for me to swallow my stupid pride and make our relationship known.

I had never claimed her as my mate.

All these years, Claire had deserved to stand by my side as my equal, commanding respect in the pack.

And I had let her down.

Even now, even after her wolf and healing abilities emerged, even after her true heritage as a Royal Princess was discovered, I’d dodged the issue.

I had tried to convince both Claire and myself that our love for each other should be enough. That we should move forward from this point, and forget the past.

Now that she was a princess, after all, I could be with her without anyone needing to know our true history.

Or how I’d lied for all of these years.

But Claire would know.

And that’s what mattered the most.

That’s what I needed to make right.

As soon as possible.

I folded the letter carefully, tucking it into the breast pocket of my shirt, where it could rest against my heart.

There was pain in that letter. Pain and sadness.

But there was also hope.

Her first words circled around in my head, and my heart:

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

Determined now to make things right, I clung to the hope those words gave me.

And prayed that Claire still felt that it was true.

I spent the rest of the day making arrangements with my Beta and my administrative staff.

There were some changes that I needed to make.

Big changes.

That evening I went home and told the servants to start packing our belongings.

Mine, and Andy’s.

“What’s going on, Dad?” he asked, eyes wide. “Where are we going?”

I could tell her was torn between being excited and being nervous.

Thinking about the disruptions my son had been dealing with for months now, I realized I couldn’t blame him.

I sat down with him, putting my arm around him.

“We’re doing something I should have done a long time ago,” I told him.

“We’re going to be with your mother.”

Andy jumped up from the couch and stared at me.

“Really? Really??”

When I smiled and nodded, he threw his little arms around my neck.

“Thank you! I’m so excited. I’m going to go help pack!”

He ran upstairs, and I chuckled.

This was the right decision.

I’d wasted far too much time away from Claire, and Andy had been without his mother for entirely too long.

We needed to be together.

We needed to be a family.

Openly, with no more secrets that we worried others might discover.

I was going to make sure of that.

First by apologizing to Claire.

And then by telling the world our true story.

All of it.

I pulled out my phone, calling Claire to tell her that we were coming to see her.

And my heart dropped.

It wasn’t Claire’s voice on the other end of the line.

It was Amelia’s.

Telling me that Claire had slipped into a coma.