Chapter 58

Kayla

The car was quiet at first, save for the low hum of the engine and the faint swish of the wipers brushing snow off the windshield. Noah didn’t say a word as we watched Nicholas speed away—not that I could blame him. We were both just sitting there in shock for different reasons that ultimately boiled down to the same person.

Nicholas.

I still couldn’t believe that he had used the mate bond against me. I could forgive the other stuff, but using the bond to force a kiss on me, just to drive home his half-baked point?

I wasn’t sure if I could forgive that.

Finally, after staring at the retreating cloud of snow behind Nicholas’s car for a long moment, Noah sighed and put the car in drive. I sank down a little in my seat as he pulled away from the side of the road and headed in the direction of home.

“Was he always this much of a jackass?”

The words blurted out of me before I could stop them, but I didn’t care. I was too angry to have a filter right now. Too hurt and betrayed.

Noah glanced at me, clearly trying to gauge whether I was looking for an answer or just ranting. He opted for silence, although the way his hands tightened around the steering wheel was all the answer I needed.

“I mean, really,” I growled, folding my arms across my chest. “Has he always been like this, or is it just me who he enjoys tormenting?”

Noah sighed, his lips pressing into a thin line. “I don’t think it’s my place to say,” he started cautiously.

I couldn’t help but scoff at that.

There was another long silence. Finally, after a moment, he exhaled heavily, as though resigning himself to the conversation. “Nicholas… he’s a complicated man, to say the least. I wouldn’t call him a jackass, but yeah, he can be difficult sometimes.”

“That’s the understatement of the century,” I muttered bitterly as I picked at a loose thread on my sweater.

Noah shot me a sidelong glance. “Look, I’m not excusing anything he may have done. But Nicholas isn’t the type to hurt people on purpose. He might mess up—he messes up a lot—but he doesn’t mean to. He cares about a lot of people. Including you.”

I frowned, willing my cheeks not to heat in response to Noah’s words. Of course I knew Nicholas cared about me, to some extent—he wouldn’t have kept me warm all night in that cave and held my hand while I was recovering if he didn’t—but it was the motivation behind his caring that threw me for a loop.

Did he actually care about me, or just our arrangement?

And when he used the mate bond against me, was that out of pure necessity or something more?

Noah and I were both quiet for several minutes. I stared out the window, watching as fat snowflakes began to fall from the sky. Noah’s headlights lit up the snowy road ahead, where the tire tracks from Nicholas’s car were still visible on the road.

Finally, he spoke, his tone softer this time. “You know, he didn’t have it easy growing up. His stepmother… she wasn’t exactly warm and fuzzy.”

I looked away, clenching my jaw. “Trust me, I know.”

Warm and fuzzy couldn’t have been further from Isabella’s nature. More like frigid and hard as steel.

“Don’t we all.” Noah’s hands tightened slightly on the wheel. “It’s part of why he built those walls around himself—why he acts like he doesn’t care half the time. It’s easier for him to be an asshole and push people away than risk getting hurt.”

I opened my mouth to respond but found myself at a loss for words. I hadn’t expected that. Nicholas had always seemed so self-assured, so infuriatingly confident despite his past.

Something about the way Noah said it, though, softened something in me. But I wasn’t ready to let go of my anger just yet.

Still, I couldn’t help but turn to Noah and murmur, “How long have you known him?”

“Since high school,” Noah said, a faint smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. “We’ve been through a lot together. He’s more like a brother to me than a friend.”

I tilted my head, studying his side profile. “So you must know him better than anyone.”

He hesitated, a muscle clenching somewhere in his jaw. I could tell he was treading carefully, trying not to say too much—no doubt he was feeling like the unwilling participant of a domestic feud by now.

“I’d like to think so,” he finally said.

I fiddled with the hem of my sweater again, gathering my thoughts. “Has he… has he said anything about our wedding? How he really feels about all of this?”

Noah’s grip on the wheel tightened just slightly, and I knew I’d hit a nerve. “Kayla…”

“I’m not asking you to betray his confidence,” I said quickly. “I just… I feel like I’m walking blindfolded into this whole thing. I don’t know what he wants, what he’s thinking. I don’t even know if he’s taking any of this seriously.”

Noah was silent for a long moment, his jaw working as though he was debating how much to say. “I can’t speak for Nicholas,” he said carefully. “But… it might not be as simple as it seems. That’s all I’m going to say.”

That answer only left me with more questions, but I knew better than to push. If Nicholas wanted me to know, he’d tell me himself—or he wouldn’t. Either way, there was no point in prying it out of his best friend.

We fell into silence after that, the tension in the car easing just ever so slightly. I leaned my head against the window, watching the familiar streets of home come into view.

When Noah finally pulled up in front of the house, I unbuckled my seatbelt and turned to him. “Thanks for the ride,” I said quietly. “And… thanks for listening.”

He nodded, offering me a small, reassuring smile that held more than meets the eye. “Anytime,” he said.

With that, I climbed out of the car and made my way up the front steps, the cold air biting at my skin. Surprisingly, or perhaps not so unsurprisingly at all, Nicholas’s car wasn’t in the driveway.

The house was dark when I stepped inside, and the silence was almost eerie. I closed the door behind me and flicked on the light, half-expecting to see Nicholas sprawled on the couch or waiting for me in the foyer with his arms angrily folded, even though his car wasn’t here.

But of course, he wasn’t there.

For some reason, I couldn’t figure out if it was a relief or a disappointment.

Later that night, after eating dinner alone and taking a long, hot shower, I climbed into bed. But as I laid there, I couldn’t help but keep glancing at the empty space beside me. The sheets were untouched and cold, and I still hadn’t heard the front door open yet.

That night, Nicholas didn’t come home. And I knew he didn’t arrive because, no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t seem to sleep.

My mind kept whirling with thoughts, everything ranging from anger over his hypocritical jealousy to betrayal over his use of the mate bond against me.

But most of all, I just felt… confused.

Confused because, no matter how furious I was, I couldn’t seem to stop thinking about the things Noah had said—about Nicholas’s past, the walls he put up, the barriers that existed between him and the rest of the world. Even me. Or maybe… especially me.

Every time I thought about it, I couldn’t help but reach up and brush my fingers across the mating mark on my neck. It was silent now, cold, unfeeling as ever. But earlier, it had been alive like the first day of spring, like a warm sunrise over snowy mountains.

As angry as I was at him for using that bond against me, part of me wished it still felt that way.

Eventually, somehow, I did manage to drift to sleep.

But when I awoke the next morning, the sheets beside me were still perfectly made. And when I looked out the window, Nicholas’s car still wasn’t there.

He really hadn’t come home all night after all.