Chapter 101

Kayla

“Sorry,” Noah said, shaking his head with disbelief, “did you say you broke into Gray’s office?”

I planted my hands on my hips and leveled Nicholas with a stern glare. The oh-so-daring Alpha was finally beginning to look somewhat sheepish now, if only because his best friend and his Beta were both thoroughly scolding him for what he had done.

“I thought I might find something,” Nicholas said as he ran a hand through his hair. “If I had just had a couple more minutes, I might have.”

Noah and Marcus both exchanged wary glances before Marcus muttered something under his breath and left the room. Noah, for his part, looked more exhausted than usual and sank down into the chair behind him.

Nicholas turned to me. “You, of all people, should understand,” he said a bit more softly now. “You’re the nosiest out of all of us.”

I technically couldn’t argue with that logic, no matter how much I wanted to. If I had been in Nicholas’s position, I would have done the same. We had hit a bit of a dead end with the investigation into the guildsman’s actions lately, and his office was only the logical place to look for information.

“But here’s the difference between you and I,” I finally retorted. “I wouldn’t have gotten caught.”

Noah snorted, and Nicholas looked caught between annoyance and amusement. Although, it was hard to tell with that black eye of his. With a sigh, I gestured to Nicholas. “Come on. Let’s get you cleaned up.”

Nicholas didn’t protest as I led him out of the living room and into the kitchen, where I retrieved the first aid kit from underneath the sink. His wounds were shallow enough that an Alpha like him could have healed by now, but for some reason, he hadn’t.

“Why haven’t you healed?” I muttered as I popped the cap on a tube of antibiotic ointment.

Nicholas merely shrugged and took a seat at the kitchen table. His one good amber eye flicked up toward me, briefly sweeping over my hair—which was still in its wedding style, although I had lost a few pearls on the way to and from the guild hall.

“I meant what I said earlier when I told you your hair looked nice,” he muttered.

I shot him a sidelong glance. “You’re not healing because you want me to tend to you.”

He didn’t answer that, but he didn’t need to. I gently began to dab the ointment across his wounds, taking extra care around his eye. Neither of us spoke as I worked, although I could feel his warm breath fanning across my skin, and he didn’t stop staring at me even once.

“You’re an idiot,” I muttered as I finished up. “You shouldn’t have done that.”

“Yes, well, I learned from the best,” he replied, his voice so low it was almost a whisper. He looked up and gave me a meaningful glance, and my cheeks began to warm under his gaze.

Clearing my throat, I recapped the ointment and went to pull back. “There. All better,” I said. But before I could pull away, he caught my wrist—just as he had at the guild hall, only gentler now, more tender—and tugged me closer to him once more.

My breath caught, and I didn’t have a chance to steady myself before he was firmly pulling me onto his lap. Both of his warm, muscular arms snaked around me, holding me fast against the broad planes of his chest and abdomen.

“Nicholas, what are you—”

“You look beautiful,” he whispered, and as he spoke, his face dipped closer. His nose brushed against the tender flesh of my neck, and it sent an involuntary shudder through me.

For the first time in what felt like ages, the bond hummed to life. It had really only been a few days, as the last time the bond had lit up had been in the shed the night we had made love, but it felt like an eternity.

And now, as the mark began to subtly warm beneath the tender touch of Nicholas’s lips, I almost began to melt into his arms again.

I wanted to, really. In some ways, I wanted nothing more than to give in to his touch, to let myself relax against him. I… missed this already, even though it hadn’t been that long.

And for a moment, I let myself show it. I subtly exposed my neck to him, and a low, throaty sound rumbled from within him. His lips brushed across my skin and then his teeth grazed my mark, just slightly, just enough to make me shiver. His fingers moved upward and tangled in my hair, sending a few odd pearls scattering across the kitchen floor.

But then reality returned, and with it, the memory of that woman’s pregnant belly.

Just before Nicholas’s lips touched mine, I pressed my palms flat into his chest and pushed myself away. Gently, but just enough to put some distance between us. Nicholas’s arms slackened slightly, and I took the opportunity to wriggle free.

“Kayla—”

“Let yourself heal now,” I said, turning away under the guise of placing the ointment back in the first aid kit when I really just didn’t want to look him in the good eye. “It’s not becoming for an Alpha to succumb to such minor wounds just for the attention of a girl.”

Nicholas was silent, and that silence was heavy. I snapped the first aid kit shut and put it away, then, taking a deep breath, I slowly turned to look at him again.

His face was dark. Blackened, even. And his black eye and split lip were already beginning to heal, slowly but surely. But as the purple, swollen flesh around his eye began to recede, I almost wished I hadn’t told him to heal—because now both of his amber eyes were staring at me with an emotion that I wasn’t quite ready to see.

“You’re still angry with me,” he said. It wasn’t a question. “I slept with her before I met you. I promise I’m not interested in her in that way.”

I bristled a little. His promise didn’t really help, because it wasn’t why I was upset.

“It’s not about your history with her,” I replied as steadily as I could muster. “I knew about your past before we…” My voice trailed off, and I shook my head before I finished quietly, “It’s not about that.”

Nicholas rose from his chair. “Then what is it about?”

“It’s about—” I looked away, not entirely sure if I could bring myself to finish without choking up. But it seemed I didn’t have a choice, because Nicholas swiftly closed the distance between us. He didn’t touch me, he didn’t try to manipulate our bond, but rather he just stood there, staring down at me with disbelief written across his face.

“What is it really about, Kayla?” he whispered. “Because I have no intention of being with her if that child is mine. I’ll pay child support, ensure they’re both taken care of, but I hope you know that I don’t feel anything for her.”

I swallowed hard and stared at my feet for a moment. “That’s… good of you,” I managed. “But it’s not the point. If I stick around while you have a baby with another woman, imagine what that will do to my image—the things people will say.”

His eyes flashed. “So it’s about your image?”

“What isn’t?” I retorted, my voice rising slightly now despite my best efforts to keep it low. I met his gaze. “I’m already hated by my pack, constantly at risk of losing everything. I’m just the wolfless female heir that no one asked for.”

Nicholas remained silent, his jaw working soundlessly. I went on, “The last thing I need—the last thing either of our packs need—is to be labeled as the woman standing in the way of the great Alpha Reynolds’ happy little family.”

For a moment, he said nothing. Then, so quietly I almost couldn’t hear it, he whispered, “So are you saying you’ll end our arrangement if the baby is mine?”

By now, Nicholas’s superficial wounds were almost entirely healed. His eyes were fixed on me with an intensity that nearly stole my breath away, but I didn’t let it. I couldn’t.

“I made a promise to you,” I said, lifting my chin as best I could. “I’ll see our arrangement to the end, fulfill the contract, and then…”

“And then?” He cocked his head, and his face flashed with a look of righteous anger that I couldn’t even blame him for.

I took a deep breath. “And then,” I said, “we’ll go our separate ways.”

Nicholas didn’t answer. Rather, with tight fists, he stepped out of my path. I brushed past him, eager to leave the room—if only so I could slip away before he could see the tears in my eyes.