Chapter 48

Hannah’s POV

“I’m sorry you had to find out this way,” Emily said, a smile playing on her lips and there was no ounce of compassion on her expression.

“She isn’t sorry,” Nora hissed. “Nothing about her is sorry.”

I clenched my fingers tightly, feeling my nails pressing firmly in the palms of my hands. It was taking everything I had not to lung at her and rip her apart, piece by piece.

“We’ve been seeing each other for some time now. He was supposed to tell you, but I couldn’t wait for him to do that much longer.”

“I appreciate your honesty,” I said through my tightened jaw.

I had to get out of there before something happened. I could feel tears burning in the back of my eyes and I was already humiliated standing in her presence. I could sense Sebastian returning to the room; he was only around the corner. If I left now, he wouldn’t see me.

I needed to get out of there quickly.

I turned away from Emily before she could say anything more and I ran from the room. I heard the murmurs of Nancy and Sebastian from not far away and I knew I had seconds before they spotted me. I felt Nora shifting without my control; I gasped as her fur broke through my skin and her powers began reining through me.

Her fury was intense, but her pain was even more evident. She didn’t want to fight or attack anyone at that moment; she just wanted to leave the hospital and not look back. She howled out in distress; her pain was clear in her tone, and it sounded through the hospital halls. Sebastian silenced and I could sense his concern; he knew it was me right away and it was only a matter of time before he ran toward me.

Nora ran quickly; I could hardly grasp what was happening. One moment we were in the halls of the hospital and the next we were surrounded by the wooded forest. I felt the wind whipping through our fur and strengthening our body. I breathed deeply, trying to calm her but her pain was too much to handle. She didn’t want to hunt, she didn’t want to fight, she just wanted to get away.

I allowed her to run for as long as it took. We ran circles around the large forest; running with a speed that made my vision blurry. My heart raced rapidly against my chest feeling like it was about to explode. Tears threatened to escape from my eyes, but I pushed the feeling away and focused on Nora, trying to calm her to get her to slow down and rest for a little while.

She ignored most animals that we passed, refusing to feed. Her body trembled as she howled again; her tone cracking slightly as pain overcame her. She was becoming the pain she was feeling. It was an odd reaction to have considering we didn’t even want to marry the wolf king, to begin with. This whole marriage was set up by my father so his family would be set up for life with the king’s money and fortune.

This was never about me and all about my father and his family. This wasn’t fair to me and now Nora was suffering because of it. I wasn’t sure at what point I began having actual feelings for Sebastian, but it was obvious that Nora was feeling for him hard. Ever since he chose us as his mate and then didn’t mark us; she’s been only wanting to be close to him and have him by her side. Our scent and saliva kept him calm during his madness, but in return, he also kept Nora calm.

She enjoyed his presence, and we were getting used to being his luna queen.

Now everything was crashing down around us before we could grasp what was happening. He was no longer the wolf Nora was beginning to love. He was a stranger with a baby on the way.

I wasn’t sure how much more pain I could handle.

My lungs felt like they were being squeezed as I tried to control my breathing; it didn’t help that Nora was running at a fast pace. She could feel my distress and soon she started to slow. A sob escaped my mind and I listened to her weeping for a long while.

As we sat, I allowed the tears to flow from my eyes. Nora allowed me to transition back into my person so I could sob freely. My body trembled and I suddenly felt so alone. I wrapped my arms around my body, trying to hold it still and keep from trembling too violently.

“We should go to the palace,” Nora said weakly; she was dreading seeing our wolf king again. But we couldn’t avoid him forever.

The sun was setting in the distance, which meant we’d been in the forest for a while. Sebastian was bound to start searching soon if we didn’t return.

“What are we going to do?” I asked her.

She was silent for a moment as we walked slowly. My feet were bare and crushing the dirt and twigs that surrounded us. I didn’t mind the pain that it caused the bottoms of my feet; there was no pain greater than what Nora was experiencing. It broke my heart to feel her in such discomfort and agony.

“We go to bed,” she answered. “We need rest. Tomorrow, we will figure out what to do. But for right now. We rest.”

I said nothing more to her and she said nothing more in return.

The palace came into view and a lump formed in my throat; I tried to swallow it down, but it felt stuck. The aura around the castle was almost darkened; I didn’t need to enter to know that Sebastian was there and waiting for me.

He was probably furious that I took off so suddenly.

As suspected, he was standing in the middle of the foyer as I entered. He was pacing back and forth, even after he saw that I was there. He paused and stared me over; I probably looked like such a mess.

I wasn’t even sure what to say to him at that point.

I thought he would be a lot angrier, but his expression was almost unreadable. It was typically hard to read his expression because of his mask, but usually, there was something in his eyes or the formation of his lips would give away what he was thinking and feeling.

But in this case, there was nothing.

Soon, his eyes shifted, and I could see the concern in his gaze as he stared at me. I thought he was going to run toward me and hug me. He even took a step closer to me, but I flinched away from him.

I didn’t want to be embraced by this man. I wanted to leave, but I listened to Nora when she said we needed to rest and figure out what to do tomorrow. We needed to sleep. I could feel exhaustion overtaking my body.

“What happened?” He asked; his tone was low and filled with worry. I was surprised by that. “I’ve been worried. You took off so quickly. In your wolf form…I…”

I rose my hand to silence him; he looked startled.

“I’m going to bed,” I told him in a broken whisper as I walked past him.

“Hannah…” he said, it wasn’t a warning, but a plea for me to stay and talk with him.

“Not tonight. Sebastian. Just not tonight.”