Chapter 188

Kayla & Nicholas

Kayla

My heart cracked open in my chest.

“They probably just went somewhere to talk,” Emma offered gently, reaching for my hand.

I nodded mechanically, not trusting myself to speak. Talk. Yes, that made sense. Nicholas loved me. He wouldn’t… he couldn’t…

“Kayla?” Jade’s voice seemed to come from far away. “Are you alright? You’ve gone pale.”

I forced myself to breathe. “I’m fine. Just tired.” The lie tasted bitter on my tongue. “I should go find Nicholas. He’ll want to know that Emma’s awake.”

Before any of them could stop me, I turned and pushed my way back through the crowd, my eyes scanning desperately for any sign of Nicholas’s tall frame or Anna’s flowing dark hair. The celebration continued around me, seemingly oblivious to my panic, couples dancing and embracing in the red glow of the moon.

“Looking for someone?” A female voice spoke from behind me.

I turned to find a member of the pack I vaguely recognized—one of Nora’s old friends. I didn’t know her name, but judging from the way she was smirking at me, she’d probably seen where Nicholas went.

“Nicholas,” I said abruptly. “Have you seen him?”

The woman’s red lips pressed together in a thin, malicious little smile. “Oh, sure. I saw him heading into the woods about ten minutes ago.” She pointed toward the treeline where so many other couples had run off to copulate under the moonlight.

My stomach dropped. “Alone?” Please let him be alone.

“Nope.” She popped the “P”, her smirk widening.

“Anna,” I whispered. I felt like I’d been punched in the stomach. I didn’t even manage to choke out another word before turning and heading for the forest path. She watched me go, and I could feel her smirk hitting the back of my head even though I wasn’t paying attention to her anymore.

I didn’t know what I was going to do when I found them. Scream? Cry? Beg? I only knew I couldn’t just stand there doing nothing while Nicholas—my Nicholas—gave himself to another woman.

But I had barely reached the edge of the trees when a pain like nothing I’d ever felt before tore through my abdomen. It was as if someone had plunged a white-hot blade into my stomach and twisted it. I doubled over with a cry, my knees buckling beneath me.

“Kayla!” A familiar voice cut through the haze of pain. Hands caught me before I hit the ground. I blinked up to see Noah staring down at me, his chest bare and his eyes wide. He had lipstick stains on his neck and grass in his hair.

“Noah—”

Another wave of agony crashed over me, and I felt something warm and wet between my thighs. No. Please, Goddess, no.

“She’s bleeding,” I heard Jade’s voice say suddenly. “We need to get her inside. Lay her down and put her feet up.”

The baby. I was losing the baby. Just like the doctor had warned, my body wasn’t strong enough to sustain the pregnancy. And now, with the stress and heartbreak of Nicholas’s betrayal, it was rejecting the child growing inside of me. Maybe even rejecting my own life, too.

“I’ll take her,” Noah said. “Find Nicholas.”

I felt myself being lifted, cradled against a broad chest that smelled like sweat and earth. Through the pain and fear, I felt a strange detachment, as if I were floating outside my body, watching the scene unfold from above.

As they carried me away from the forest, away from Nicholas, a sensation that had nothing to do with physical pain washed over me. Dread. Pure, cold dread that sank into my bones and froze the blood in my veins.

Something was wrong. Terribly, horribly wrong. And it had nothing to do with the baby.

And then I heard it—Nicholas’s voice, clear as day inside my head.

“Kayla!”

He needed me. Something wasn’t right.

I tried to speak, to tell the others that Nicholas needed help, but darkness was closing in from all sides. My vision narrowed to a pinpoint, then disappeared altogether as unconsciousness claimed me.

…

Nicholas

“Kayla!”

I waited, but there was no response. I couldn’t feel her, couldn’t sense whether my desperate cry had reached her through our bond. With her lack of a wolf, Mindlinks had always been difficult, but I’d hoped—prayed—that the bond we’d forged would be strong enough to transcend that limitation.

Anna’s hands slid lower, brushing against the front of my trousers. I strained against the invisible force holding me to the tree, fury and revulsion building in my chest. I didn’t want this. Didn’t want any of it.

“Why are you doing this?” I managed to choke out through the shard of glass that was lodged in my throat, focusing on her face, trying to understand what was happening. “What do you want?”

She smiled, a cold curve of lips that held none of the warmth I remembered from the real Anna. “What every woman wants from you, Nicholas.” Her fingers trailed along my jaw. “You’re wasting yourself on that wolfless wretch.”

None of this made any sense. Kayla had helped Anna, welcomed her into our home when we’d thought Anna’s baby was hers. She had then given her a new home in Bluemoon, a whole cottage to herself, a job with pay, a place where she could safely raise her child.

Anna would never do this. Anna loved Kayla—respected her. Appreciated her. Was it all a lie?

Suddenly, the moonlight shifted. A cloud that had been obscuring part of the Blood Moon moved, casting a direct beam of crimson light onto her face. And in that instant, I saw… a flicker. A ripple across her features, like an image on disturbed water.

For a split second, Anna’s face disappeared, replaced by another I knew all too well. One I’d learned to hate many years ago.

Isabella.

The shock of recognition was like a bucket of ice water being dumped over my head. The magical bonds holding me loosened for a split second, just slightly, just enough. With a roar that contained all my fury and disgust, I lunged forward, breaking free of the spell’s constraint.

“You!”

I tackled her to the ground before she could react. As I took her down, my hand knocked something out of hers, something small and made of glass. It flew from her fingers, landing in the leaves a few feet away—a small vial filled with shimmering liquid.

A… potion? Had she taken something to take on Anna’s visage?

“No!” she screamed, clawing at me as I pinned her to the forest floor.

She writhed beneath me, thrashing like a wild animal caught in a trap. Gone was the seductive facade, replaced by raw, undiluted rage. She spat curses, some in languages I didn’t even recognize, ancient and guttural sounds that seemed to make the very air around us vibrate.

And as she fought, her appearance began to change. The glamour spell—for that’s what it must have been—started to dissolve like wax melting under intense heat. Anna’s features blurred and shifted, transforming.

The dark hair lightened to blonde, the eyes shifted from doelike and wide to narrow and hateful, the features sharpened and aged. The transformation was horrifying to witness, like watching a snake shed its skin in fast motion.

In moments, it was complete, and I found myself staring down at the true face of the woman beneath me. Not Anna. Not my fated mate.

Isabella. My stepmother and eternal tormentor.

“Why?” I hissed, digging my nails into her wrists.

Isabella pressed her lips shut. But before I could force a response out of her, a familiar voice echoed through the forest.

“Nicholas! Nicholas!”

I whipped my head up to see Jade sprinting toward me, out of breath, her white gown billowing behind her. She skidded to a halt, her eyes flickering briefly with confusion as she caught the scene.

But then she took a deep breath and said in a rush, “It’s Kayla. She’s miscarrying.”