Chapter 98

Kayla

I woke the next morning to a fresh snowfall outside, icicles dangling from the eaves of the house as evidence of the night’s freezing temperatures. The shed was already calling to me, the promise of a warm blanket and a book to soothe my nerves. Dressing quickly, I made my way downstairs and to the kitchen to pour myself a cup of coffee.

But I was halfway toward the back door to the gardens when I heard it: the low murmur of voices, and the sound of the TV playing in the living room.

It was awfully early for anyone to be up and watching TV, so I poked my head through the doorway to see who it was.

I froze.

There, on the screen, was a pregnant woman with long black hair and the deepest brown eyes I’d ever seen. She looked at least seven months pregnant, her hand brushing across her rounded belly. There was a wistful look in her teary eyes as she dabbed at them with a tissue.

“I just wish I could talk to him,” she was saying, her voice choked by soft sobs. “It hurts so much to know that he’s with another while I’m carrying his baby…”

I hesitated in the doorway, the cup of coffee suddenly trembling in my hand. Nicholas, who was staring at the TV from the armchair by the window, snapped his head up and met my gaze. He quickly shut the television off, but it was too late.

I’d already seen the headline plastered across the bottom of the screen.

“Nicholas Reynolds Marrying Another While a Woman Carries his Child.”

“Kayla—” Nicholas shot to his feet, but I was already gone. The cold air hit me like a slap to my face as I stormed out of the house and across the gardens. I didn’t even realize that I hadn’t put my shoes on yet until my socks were soaked through from the snow, but I didn’t turn back.

Stomping into the shed, I slammed the door shut behind me and set my coffee cup down harder than I intended, sending hot coffee sloshing onto the small wooden side table. Nicholas was right behind me, and the door clattered against the wall as he hurried after me.

“Kayla, talk to me.” His hands gripped at my waist, tugging me closer.

I didn’t push him away, but I also couldn’t bring myself to turn and look at him. My hands were shaking as I gripped the edge of the table, and it had nothing to do with the cold.

“Is it true?” I finally managed to choke out. “Is that your baby?”

Nicholas was silent for several moments before he let out a deep breath and released his grip on my waist. He stepped back, raking a hand through his hair. “I don’t know.”

I swallowed hard, steeling myself, before I turned to look at him. “Did you sleep with her?”

Another long silence. Then, slowly, he nodded. “Yes. About seven months ago, before I met you. I remember her.”

It felt like a knife twisting in my gut. I sank down onto the chair behind me and hung my head, gripping fistfuls of my hair.

I wasn’t mad at him—not really. He had slept with her before he met me, before we…

But what hurt was that she was carrying his baby. Supposedly. If he was going to be a father, then what did that mean for us?

We still hadn’t talked about putting labels on… whatever it was that was happening between us. And maybe I wasn’t ready for that just yet. But this complicated things so much more, in a way that I never expected. At most, I thought that our conflicting feelings and constant quarreling might cause issues, but not another woman’s baby.

Without entirely meaning to, I felt something cold and solid form around my heart—something that had been there for the longest time, but had begun to melt over these past few days. A wall of ice. But now it was reforming, just like the icicles outside.

“Kayla…” Nicholas took another step closer. I lifted my head, and somehow, I forced a thin, unconvincing smile. He paused, looking at me with confusion written across his face.

“You should talk to her,” I found myself saying, even though my voice sounded far away even to my own ears. “Find out for certain.”

Nicholas responded, but I couldn’t really make out what he said over the blood pulsing through my ears. He stared at me as if waiting for me to speak, but I remained silent. A moment later, he turned on his heel and left.

I shivered in the sudden absence of his warmth, and the ice around my heart hardened just a little bit more.

Sure enough, by mid-afternoon that day, she had arrived. Nicholas summoned her to the estate along with a doctor to perform a paternity test, and she was even more beautiful in person. Her dark waves didn’t catch the sunlight, but rather absorbed it, like a black void. Her brown eyes were big and doelike, and she was tall and slender with the faintest dotting of freckles across her nose.

Her name was Anna. And unlike me, she had a wolf.

A powerful one, too.

The moment I saw her, I could sense it. I could see it in her graceful poise, the dewy finish to her skin and the healthy sparkle in her eyes. She was everything I could never be: beautiful, elegant, strong. The type of woman that any Alpha would die to have carry his child.

How could I compare?

Somehow, I kept a smile plastered on my face throughout the entire test, although I think that was only because I couldn’t hear much of anything through my racing pulse. Everything felt garbled and far away, like I was stuck underwater. It was only the sensation of Jade and Emma’s hands on my shoulders that kept me somewhat grounded to reality.

Nicholas, for his part, was extremely professional and clinical about the entire ordeal. He allowed the doctor to draw his blood, shook hands, kept his face neutral the whole time.

That should have been a comfort, but it wasn’t. Because I knew, deep down, that the paternity test would come back positive. It had to. After all, why would she have come so willingly if she were trying to manipulate Nicholas?

I was just unlucky. Such was my fate, and I had to accept it. For all I knew, I would be cast aside once that baby was born, and that would be the end of it.

By the time she set one foot out the door that day, I was already turning on my heel and retreating upstairs. I wasn’t sure if Nicholas called after me or not, but he certainly didn’t follow me. I hurried to my room and threw myself onto the bed, burying my face in my pillow.

A few minutes later, I felt warm hands on me again, but they weren’t Nicholas’s. I looked up to see Jade and Emma perched on the bed, their faces etched with concern.

“Everything will be okay, Kayla,” Emma said gently, rubbing wide circles on my back. “It’s just a hiccup…”

“Probably not even his…” Jade was murmuring, although we all knew that likely wasn’t the case.

I sat up, rubbing my eyes. Somehow, I hadn’t shed a tear all day. I just felt… numb to the entire thing. Numb, and tired.

“I’m fine,” I managed, offering them a faint smile. “We just slept together once. If the baby is his and he wants to be with her, then he has every right to.”

But even as I spoke, my voice quavered a little, betraying my true emotions. My friends exchanged disbelieving glances, but said nothing.

In their silence, I hung my head and ran a hand through my hair.

A baby… His baby.

I wondered if I should have ever let him into my heart to begin with, if this was the inevitable outcome.