Chapter 59

Kayla

The eggs on my plate had already gone cold, and the toast was completely untouched. I picked up my fork, stabbed at the scrambled mess in front of me, and sighed. My appetite had vanished the moment I’d sat down, replaced by a gnawing frustration that only seemed to grow the longer Nicholas stayed away.

It was breakfast time, and he still hadn’t come home. In fact, no one had seen him all night—none of the servants, and not Jade or Emma. No one knew where he was.

Still, I needed the energy. I took a bite of my cold eggs, chewing absently as my laptop dinged beside me. Another email came into my inbox, another reminder that my pack was barely hanging on without me. Or maybe it was me barely hanging on without them.

I scrolled through the messages, skimming one from Beta Henry that made my stomach tighten.

“Another coup attempt, but it’s been handled.”

Handled. Right. By whom? By Beta Henry, who was already juggling too much? This was why I needed Nicholas to get his act together. If we could just solidify things, we could make a trip to Bluemoon together and handle the dissenters.

Having a responsible Alpha by my side would make everything—everything—so much easier.

Wasn’t that the whole reason why I’d entered into this arrangement? Nicholas was supposed to help me secure my pack, not run off all night over an argument.

And yet here I was, eating cold eggs and scrolling through crisis after crisis while Nicholas was… wherever the hell he had been all night.

Suddenly, the sound of a sharp knock at the front door made me jump. My stomach dropped as I remembered what today was.

“Shit.”

I scrambled out of my chair, nearly knocking over my coffee in the process. Today was the guild’s weekly check-in—their little way of ensuring that Nicholas and I were the perfect, happy couple we were supposed to be.

And, of course, he wasn’t here to play his part.

I ran to the door, forcing a smile onto my face as I yanked it open. Standing there was the same guild representative as last week, clipboard in hand and a pencil tucked behind his ear. His expression was neutral, but I swore I saw his eyes flick to the empty driveway before landing back on me.

“Good morning, Miss Sterling,” he said, polite but curt. “I hope I’m not catching you at a bad time.”

“Not at all,” I lied, my fake smile stretching uncomfortably across my face. “Please, come in.”

He stepped inside, his sharp eyes sweeping over the foyer as if expecting Nicholas to materialize out of thin air. “Is Mr. Reynolds home?” he asked.

“Oh, he’s out this morning,” I said breezily as I closed the door behind him. “Just running a few errands.”

The guild representative raised an eyebrow and pulled his notepad out from under his arm. “Errands? What kind of errands, if you don’t mind me asking?”

My brain scrambled for an answer. “Uh, just… picking up some things for the house,” I said. “You know, groceries, little repairs, that sort of thing.”

The guild representative stared at me for a moment, his eyes searching mine, clearly trying to gauge if I was telling the truth or not. I just kept smiling placidly at him, hoping he couldn’t hear my heart pounding from across the room, until he began to write.

I felt my stomach twist violently as I watched his pencil scratch across the notepad, but I swallowed hard, trying not to let my unease show. The last thing I needed was for him to start poking holes in my flimsy explanation.

Then, as if on cue, the sound of a car engine roared from the driveway. I turned to the window just in time to see Nicholas’s car pulling in. Relief flooded through me, but it was short-lived when I saw him step out, looking ever so slightly disheveled in the same clothes he had been wearing yesterday.

Fucker, I thought, narrowing my eyes.

With his hands in his pockets, Nicholas strolled up to the door, his usual air of unbothered confidence intact despite the state he was in. By the time he walked inside, his amber eyes sweeping over the scene, I was already gritting my teeth.

“Hello, darling,” he said smoothly, leaning in to press a kiss to my cheek as though he hadn’t spent the entire night Goddess knows where. But at least he was playing his part.

I plastered on a tight smile. “Perfect timing,” I said as calmly as I could manage, gesturing to the representative. “The guild is here for their weekly visit.”

Nicholas glanced at the representative, his expression calm and pleasant as ever. “Of course. Always glad to see you.”

The representative’s gaze simply shifted between us for a moment, his pen still poised over his notepad. He jotted something down that I couldn’t read and then looked back up at us, at the spot where Nicholas’s arm was wrapped firmly around my waist. I kept my expression as neutral as I possibly could, even though I wanted to scratch Nicholas’s face off.

“Would it be possible to sit down for a brief interview?” the representative finally asked.

Nicholas smiled. “Of course.”

We moved to the living room, and as I set about preparing coffee—anything to keep my hands busy and stay the hell away from him—Nicholas settled onto the couch with the guild representative.

By the time I joined them, he was the perfect picture of a happy husband, his arm draped casually over the back of the couch with a smile on his face. “Thank you, darling,” he said saccharinely as I set the coffee tray down and moved to take a seat on the armchair across from them.

But then Nicholas’s hand shot out, grabbing my waist.

“Sit with me,” he said. It wasn’t a question.

Before I could protest, he pulled me directly onto his lap. I clenched my jaw, forcing myself to relax against him as his arm tightened around my waist. But all the while, my nails secretly dug into the back of his hand in silent protest.

Of course, he didn’t even flinch, his smile unwavering despite the pain I knew I was causing him.

The guild representative didn’t seem fazed by our display. He sipped his coffee and opened his notepad. “So, tell me, how are things going between the two of you? Settling into married life well?”

“Wonderfully,” Nicholas said smoothly, his thumb brushing over my hip in a way that probably looked affectionate but felt like a hot brand against my skin. “Kayla is an amazing partner. I couldn’t ask for more.”

He tilted his head and glanced up at me. Something flickered behind his eyes then—something dark and angry, mirroring my own cold fury.

But I forced a laugh, leaning into him and looping both arms around his neck. I had to resist the urge to choke him as I said, “We’re very happy.”

The representative nodded, jotting something down. “And what do you two like to do together in your free time?”

Nicholas didn’t miss a beat. “Tennis, mostly. We’ve been playing a lot lately. Isn’t that right, darling?”

My smile turned even more brittle. “That’s right. Nicky has been teaching me.”

I felt Nicholas bristle beneath me at that nickname, filling me with vindictive satisfaction. “She’s quite the competitor despite her lack of experience,” he bit out through clenched teeth, as if he were smiling when I knew he really wanted to kill me. “Keeps me on my toes.”

I had to resist the urge to roll my eyes at the thinly veiled insults. Instead, I murmured, “That’s not the only thing I do to keep you on your toes, dear,” and reached up to kiss his cheek, keeping my movements slow and deliberate. But as I leaned in, I froze.

Perfume.

The fucker smelled like women’s perfume.

My heart stopped, my stomach plummeting as the realization hit me.

I pulled back a little, my eyes searching his face for any hint of guilt or acknowledgment, but he was unreadable, his smile still firmly in place. I swallowed hard and forced myself to look away, praying that the representative hadn’t noticed the flash of incredulity on my face.

The rest of the interview passed in a blur. By the time the interview was almost over, I felt like a marionette with my strings tangled, barely holding it together.

But it wasn’t over; the representative had one more trick up his sleeve.

“One last thing,” he said, slow and deliberate. With a smug look on his face, the guild representative slipped something out of his pocket.

He set it down on the coffee table, and my blood ran cold as my eyes landed on the image staring up at me.

It was a photograph of Nicholas, sitting at a restaurant in the same clothes he was wearing now.

And across from him was a woman I didn’t recognize.