Chapter 177

Kayla

Once Nicholas and I were alone, truly alone—we’d ensured that the basement was empty, Mindlinked Henry to quietly check the estate grounds for intruders without alerting my father, then hurried upstairs to my bedroom and closed and locked the door—I turned to him. My head was still throbbing from the unexpected impact that had knocked me unconscious, but right now, I hardly felt it.

I took a deep breath, trying to calm my racing nerves. Grace’s and my father’s warnings echoed in my head, but… I trusted Nicholas. I couldn’t let other people’s opinions sway my opinion of him. He was my husband, my chosen mate, the father of my child.

“My father warned me about you,” I said, the words spilling out before I could lose my nerve. “He said you were only using me for Bluemoon. That you ordered Vanessa to poison him. That you just wanted my connection to the pack territory and had no real feelings for me.”

Nicholas’s face hardened, but he didn’t pull away. He remained standing steadily in front of me, his large frame partially blocking out the dim late-afternoon light streaming through the window.

“Grace told me similar things,” I continued, unable to stop now that I’d started. “She said you had ulterior motives. That you might think I know something about Luporath, and that you were only marrying me to get information.”

“And you believed them?” Nicholas asked, his eyes searching mine. There was no accusation in his question, just curiosity.

I looked down at my hands. “I… I didn’t know what to believe. Everything has happened so fast, and…” My voice trailed off. I couldn’t finish. I was ashamed.

Nicholas moved to sit beside me on the bed, taking my hands in his. “Kayla, look at me.”

I raised my eyes to meet his.

“I love you,” he said simply. “Not Bluemoon, not whatever power or knowledge you might bring me. You. I’ve loved you since the moment I met you.”

My throat tightened. “But my father said—”

“Your father has been in a coma for two years,” Nicholas cut in gently.

I swallowed hard, nodding. He was right.

He went on, “Kayla, you’re my chosen mate. The mother of my child.” His hand moved to my belly, resting there with a reverence that made my eyes sting with unshed tears. “My wife. Nothing—not Bluemoon, not Luporath, nothing—matters more to me than you and our baby.”

I believed him. Goddess help me, with everything I could muster, I believed him.

“I’m sorry,” I choked out. “I should have trusted you sooner. I should have come to you with my doubts instead of letting them fester.”

Nicholas pulled me close, his arms encircling me in a warmth I’d missed desperately. “Don’t apologize. I wasn’t there for you like I should have been. I was angry about the potion, about your attempt to free Liam… About everything. I let that anger distance me from you when you needed me the most.”

I pulled back slightly to look at him. “You had every right to be angry. I betrayed your trust.”

“And I should have been there for you anyway,” he said firmly. “You were scared and confused. I should have seen that instead of just seeing my own pain.” His thumb brushed away a tear that had escaped down my cheek. “I’m sorry, Kayla. I promise I’ll do better.”

His words warmed me. I leaned forward, pressing my lips to his. The kiss was gentle, tentative at first, then deepening as weeks of doubt and distance melted away. When we finally broke apart, I rested my forehead against his, breathing him in.

But I wasn’t finished.

“There’s more,” I whispered. “So much more.”

Nicholas pulled back slightly, his brows drawing together. “Tell me.”

I took a deep breath, gathering my thoughts. “Before you found me in the basement, I was looking through my mother’s old things. I found a hidden compartment in her trunk, and inside was her journal.”

“A journal?” Nicholas’s expression sharpened with interest.

I nodded. “I only read a few entries before… before I was knocked out. But Nicholas, she knew about Luporath. She knew where it was.”

His breath caught. “Are you sure?”

“Positive.” I held my wrist up, exposing the compass charm bracelet I’d worn every day since finding it in my mother’s jewelry box. “Look at this. I always thought it was broken because it never points north.”

Nicholas frowned, leaning forward to examine the small compass dangling from the delicate chain around my wrist. “Where is it pointing now?” I asked.

“Down,” he said slowly. Realization seemed to dawn on him, and he looked up at me.

I nodded. “Straight down. My mother wrote that Luporath isn’t some distant, hidden underground city in the mountains or across the sea. It’s beneath us, Nicholas. Beneath Bluemoon territory.”

He stared at the compass, then at me, disbelief written across his features. “All this time… it was right under our noses?”

“Apparently. But that’s not all. I heard my father on the phone before I went to the basement. He was talking about my mother’s death—the ‘true nature’ of it, he said. He ordered someone to bar you from the guild archives and burn any evidence that might still exist there.”

Nicholas’s jaw tightened, but he looked confused.

“Our mothers,” I went on. “They knew each other, Nicholas. Your mother, mine, and Grace’s mother too. According to the journal, they all knew about Luporath and made a pact to protect it.”

“Protect it from whom?”

“The guild. William especially, but my father too.” I swallowed hard, the next words almost impossible to say. “Your mother… Mia… The journal said she jumped off a cliff when the guild tried to force her to reveal Luporath’s location. They were going to drag her off to an ‘asylum’, claiming she was insane after your father left her, but really, they were taking her to a secret prison to try and get the information out of her. She killed herself before they arrived.”

Nicholas went completely still, his face draining of color. We both knew, of course, that she’d killed herself, thanks to Grace’s revelations. But we didn’t know exactly why or how.

His fingers curled around mine. “And your mother? What happened to her?”

I shook my head. “The journal entries stop just before her death. But from what I read, I think she knew my father was going to try to force the information from her too. I think…” My voice broke. “I think that’s the ‘true nature’ of her death he was talking about on the phone.”

Nicholas pulled me against his chest, his heartbeat thundering against my ear. “It makes sense now,” I murmured into his shirt. “Last night, my father told me I should remove you as Alpha of Bluemoon, make Liam the Alpha instead. He doesn’t want you to find the relic. He might have been working with…” My throat bobbed. “Them.”

His arms tightened around me. “But Vanessa—”

“I don’t know why she poisoned him. I suppose we might not ever find out, now that she’s a rogue.”

Nicholas’s face tightened, and he sighed. “I’m sorry, Kayla. If I had known, I wouldn’t have demanded William turn her into one.”

“It’s not your fault,” I replied quietly. “You were scared and angry.”

We sat in silence for a long moment, considering everything we knew now. Our mothers had died protecting Luporath. The very relic everyone had been searching for was right beneath our feet, its secret guarded by the blood of those we loved most.

“We have to honor them,” Nicholas suddenly said, sitting up a little straighter. “We have to protect Luporath, just as they did.”

I glanced up at him, not sure where he was going with this. But then, he said firmly, “We have to find it first. Before they do.”