Chapter 70

Kayla

The bright lights of the news station felt far too harsh for this early in the morning. Honestly, I wanted to be literally anywhere else—I’d even take Grace’s cold cell over this. But I couldn’t. It had to be done, and I had no say in the matter.

So I sat in the leather chair with my legs crossed, my hands folded neatly in my lap, and a perfect, placid little smile on my face.

Nicholas was sitting right next to me, his arm draped casually along the back of my chair as usual, and somehow he made the whole thing look easy. Relaxed. Like he actually belonged here, soaking up the attention like a sponge. Meanwhile, I was doing everything in my power not to fidget under the cameras or let my nerves show.

“Welcome back to Morning with Amber,” the news anchor, Amber, chirped, cheerful as ever. She seemed nice enough, but it didn’t make it any easier for me to relax. “Today, we have Alpha Nicholas Reynolds and his beautiful mate, Kayla of Bluemoon Pack.”

Nicholas flashed his signature grin. The kind that could make most women weak in the knees. I managed not to roll my eyes and instead widened my smile, tapping into that deep well of fake happiness that I’d cultivated over the past two years.

“It’s a pleasure to be here,” Nicholas said smoothly, wrapping his arm around my waist and giving me a little tug. “Isn’t that right, my love?”

Those words made me bristle, but I nodded and beamed at the interviewer. “Yes, I’m really thrilled to be here. Thank you so much for having us on the show, Amber.”

The news anchor grinned from ear to ear. “I’m sure our viewers are dying to know more about your engagement,” she continued. “Let’s start simple. Where was your first date?”

Nicholas shifted, his knee brushing against mine under the table. We hadn’t prepared much before the interview—Nicholas had just told me to trust him, and despite everything, I did. He may have been a real pain in my ass, but I knew he was reliable enough to make sure that something like this would run as smoothly as possible.

“Oh, that would be the old lake at Bluemoon,” he said easily, glancing at me. “Do you remember that night, sweetheart?”

I felt my stomach flip at the endearment, but I kept my expression neutral. “Yes,” I replied softly. “It was a quiet spot, away from everything. We both needed that at the time. Nicholas brought me flowers, but he accidentally dropped them in the lake because he’s such a klutz.”

Beside me, I felt Nicholas stiffen infinitesimally. He didn’t appreciate being made out to be a klutz on live television, that much was for certain. But if he was going to force me to do this interview as a little revenge for everything that had happened with Noah, then I figured it was well within my rights to get a little of my own. Just a tiny bit to balance the scales.

The anchor giggled airily. “That’s adorable, really. And the mating mark? I think we’d all love to hear that story.”

Nicholas didn’t hesitate. “It was early one morning just a few weeks ago,” he said, leaning slightly closer to me. “She was simply breathtaking, even though she had chocolate on her face from eating pancakes that morning. I couldn’t resist.”

I almost choked on my own breath but managed to smile through it. “It was… spontaneous,” I added quickly, feeling heat creep up my neck. Chocolate? I thought with an inward chuckle. That’s the best you’ve got?

Still, I couldn’t help but hold Nicholas’s steady gaze as he looked at me. Despite our little digs aimed just to get under each other’s skin, the interview was going well. Too well.

Which was exactly why I should have known that something was coming.

“And, of course,” the anchor continued, her tone shifting as subtly as the breeze changing direction, “we can’t forget the name Liam. That’s a familiar one for some of our viewers, isn’t it?”

My chest tightened instantly, and Nicholas’s arm stiffened into iron around me.

“Liam Reynolds, your ex-fiancé and Nicholas’s younger half-brother. It’s quite the scandal, isn’t it? How was it that you and Nicholas ended up together so soon after the, er… incident?”

I froze, my mind scrambling to find the right words.

Liam. Of course, they would bring him up. The bastard who cheated on me on our wedding day. The one person I didn’t want to think about right now. I should have known that it would come up, should have been prepared, but I felt at a loss for words right now.

The anchor leaned in slightly, her smile turning almost wolfish. “Some might even say that there was overlap. That Nicholas and Kayla—”

“Actually,” Nicholas cut in smoothly, “there wasn’t any overlap in our relationships.”

His arm slid down to rest against my hip, pulling me just a little closer to his side.

“Kayla is not a cheater,” Nicholas continued, his eyes locking onto the anchor in a dark, intense way that had her face turning slightly pale. “And I would know because I was so in love with her while she was with my brother that I tried, on numerous occasions, to win her over.”

I blinked up at him, caught completely off guard.

Nicholas wasn’t looking at me, though. His gaze stayed fixed on the anchor, and his smile had returned.

“She never gave me the time of day,” he added with a soft chuckle. “I even lost hope at one point. But looking back, I think it was a sign of her loyalty. Her pure heart is what made me want to change my own ways. I had quite the playboy reputation, as I’m sure you know.”

The anchor shifted uncomfortably in her seat, clearly not expecting him to flip the narrative with such ease.

Nicholas glanced down at me then, his amber eyes softening with an intensity that made my pulse quicken.

“But Alpha Nicholas, your brother—” the interviewer began, but Nicholas cut her off without looking away from me.

“I never stopped loving her,” he said, his voice low and smooth. “And once she was free of Liam… I knew I couldn’t waste another second.”

My heart hammered painfully, and I felt my breath catch in my throat.

He’s lying, I reminded myself. This is just for show. For damage control.

But the way he looked at me, the way his hand lingered a little too long at my waist… it didn’t feel like a lie. Even if we had never met before the disaster of a wedding day, it still felt like… like a sweet little fantasy that I wanted to believe.

More than anything, I wanted to believe it.

The anchor, clearly flustered now, quickly pivoted to another topic. I barely registered the rest of the interview. I just sat there, leaning into Nicholas’s side, my skin buzzing where his hand rested.

By the time it was over, I was more than ready to leave.

As I grabbed my coat, a staff member approached me, a young girl with big, saucer-like eyes.

“Luna Kayla, you are so lucky,” she gushed. “The way Nicholas defended you was incredible. I wish my mate would say things like that about me...”

I swallowed, forcing a small smile. “Thanks,” I murmured, glancing over at Nicholas where he stood talking to one of the producers across the room.

His usual cocky grin was back in place, as if nothing had happened.

But I could still feel the warmth of his arm around me. The ghost of his hand at my waist. The thrum in my heart when he came to my defense so easily, like it was the most natural thing for him to do.

Maybe that was why I found myself saying softly, “I guess… I guess I am a lucky woman.”