Chapter 111

Kayla

They wanted me to have a meltdown.

The room fell silent, every pair of eyes locked on me like an animal in the zoo. They wanted a show—a dramatic meltdown, tears, maybe even a scream or two. They were craving it. Dying for it.

After all, what kind of Luna wouldn’t lose it upon hearing that her husband had shoved another woman hard enough to send her into premature labor? Potentially bearing his baby from a one night stand, no less?

Across the room, I spotted the group of women who had been gossiping about me earlier. They were sipping their champagne, subtle smirks tugging at their lips as their eyes gleamed with a malicious sort of glee.

They wanted it—my downfall, my public disgrace—more than many, perhaps. They wanted to see the ‘wolfless brute of a woman’ show her true colors.

And truthfully, I wanted it, too. That beastly little part of me wanted to scream and cry and let out all of the frustrations that had been building for days. No, weeks—months. Years.

But I wasn’t going to give anyone the satisfaction tonight.

I took a deep breath, steadying myself. My heart was pounding, my stomach churning, but I refused to let it show on my face. Instead, I calmly turned to Marcus, who was still standing beside me.

“He went to the hospital?” I asked.

Marcus nodded.

“Then please take me to the hospital,” I said as calmly as I could muster. “If Anna or Nicholas needs me, then I think I should be there.”

Marcus blinked, clearly a little surprised by my composure. Around us, the whispers started up again, other guests glancing at one another. One set of eyes in particular felt as if it were burning into the back of my skull, and I didn’t need to look to know who it was.

Gray.

“Of course, Luna,” Marcus finally said after a moment, nodding. He gestured toward the exit, and I followed him out of the venue without another word.

As we made our way out into the chilly night air, I couldn’t help but feel Gray’s gaze intensify on me. I looked up, my eyes scanning the crowd one last time until I found him.

He was standing near the bar now with a glass of wine in his hand, and his lips were curled into a subtle sneer. There was something about the way he was watching me—something calculating, almost predatory.

It sent a shiver down my spine, but I tried my best not to let it show.

He was up to something tonight. I wasn’t sure what it was, but I just… knew. I could feel it curling in the pit of my stomach, like a dark shadow twining around my intestines.

I held his gaze for a moment, my chin lifted in defiance, before turning away and following Marcus out the door. Whatever game Gray was playing at, I wasn’t going to play back. Not right now, at least. And certainly not to his knowledge.

The car ride to the hospital was quiet, the tension between Marcus and me palpable. He kept glancing at me, as if waiting for me to break now that we were alone, but I stayed silent, staring out the window at the passing city lights.

But my mind was anything but quiet.

Finally, I managed in a smaller voice than I liked, “He shoved her?”

Marcus’s face tightened, as did his fingers around the steering wheel. “Apparently.”

“Did you see it?”

“No.” The Beta’s voice was dark, heavy. I knew without him saying another word that we were both wondering the same thing.

What was real anymore? What was misconstrued? And most of all, what was carefully crafted specifically to destroy Nicholas?

When we arrived at the hospital, Marcus led me to the waiting room. I felt my chest clench the moment I stepped through the doors, and I hesitated. But when I saw Nicholas, pacing back and forth like a caged animal, his hair disheveled, his tie loosened, and his face pale, almost ashen…

The sight of him like that broke something inside of me. Loosened the knots that had formed around my ribs. Without thinking, I rushed forward, closing the distance between us in a few quick strides.

“Nicholas.”

He turned to me, his amber eyes wide with surprise and something else. For a moment, he just stared at me, as if he couldn’t quite believe that I had come; as if he, like everyone else, expected so much worse of me.

Without a word, I wrapped my arms around him and pulled him into a tight hug.

“I’m here,” I whispered into the warmth of his chest. “If you need me, I’m here.”

Nicholas stiffened at first, his body tensing against mine. I could feel his heart pounding beneath my ear, could feel the brief skip in its rhythm when I tightened my arms around him.

But after a moment, he relaxed, his strong, sturdy arms coming up to wrap around me in return. He buried his face in my hair, his breath warm against my neck, and I felt him exhale shakily, as if he’d been holding his breath for hours.

“Thank you,” was all he said.

We stood like that for what felt like an eternity, holding onto each other as if we were the only two people in the world. My heart ached at the feeling of his arms securely wrapped around me, but I couldn’t help but ask, “Did you really push her?”

Nicholas stiffened again, his throat bobbing against the side of my head, but after a moment, he shook his head and replied tersely, “I didn’t mean to. It was an accident. It all happened so fast…”

I pursed my lips, unsure of what to make of it. Nicholas was a lot of things, but he wasn’t abusive or cruel. He wouldn’t intentionally push a woman, especially not a pregnant one.

“I believe you,” I finally said simply.

His shoulders slumped as if in relief. But he said nothing.

Eventually, we pulled apart, and Nicholas led me to a pair of chairs in the corner of the waiting room. We sat down, our shoulders brushing, and I reached over to take his hand. He didn’t pull away, but rather his fingers intertwined with mine. I held his grip, refusing to be the first person to let go.

The hours dragged on, the clock on the wall ticking away the minutes with agonizing slowness. Nicholas and I didn’t talk much as we waited for the news. Every so often, he would glance at me and open his mouth as if he were trying to find the right words, but he never said anything, and he never let go of my hand.

At some point, my exhaustion caught up with me. My eyelids grew heavy, my head nodding forward despite my best efforts to stay awake. I felt Nicholas shift beside me, his shoulder pressing against mine, and before I knew it, my head was resting on his shoulder.

I didn’t fight it. Instead, I let myself relax, the steady rise and fall of his chest lulling me into a light doze.

I don’t know how long I slept, but it felt like only minutes before I was suddenly jolted awake by the sound of footsteps approaching. I jerked my head up, wiping a bit of drool from the corner of my mouth with flushed cheeks, and blinked blearily at the doctor who had just entered the waiting room.

The doctor was grinning, and I felt something in my stomach turn heavy and sour. Nicholas stiffened beside me.

“Alpha Nicholas,” the doctor said, “It’s a boy.”