Chapter 31

Nicholas’s POV

Suspicion had a way of sinking its teeth into me and never letting go. It wasn’t subtle, polite, or quiet. It didn’t tap at the edges of my mind like a timid shadow.

It clawed, it gnawed, and it dragged me down into a pit of unease until I could think of nothing else. Lately, that suspicion had a name: Esther.

Or, more accurately, the children she had brought into our world, shadowing her like reminders of a life I was never meant to see.

I tried to tell myself it was a coincidence. It had to be a trick of my mind. Perhaps I imagined the resemblance, or maybe I even hoped for it. Perhaps the connection was entirely fabricated by my own obsession.

It didn’t mean they were mine. It didn’t mean they carried my blood. It couldn’t. It wouldn’t.

Then I saw him—Carl, laughing with Kevin—and the thin veneer of reason shattered like glass underfoot.

The boy was more than comfortable with Kevin. He was bonded to him, trusting him in a way that should have belonged to me. Easy laughter, small gestures of unquestioning loyalty, it was all there.

It made me physically ill.

That should have been me.

The thought burned, sharp and acid-hot, through my veins.

“Dan.”

My Beta appeared as if called by instinct, his posture immediately folding into the rigid obedience I had drilled into him over years of service. One look at my face and he knew: hesitation would not be tolerated.

“Yes, Alpha.”

“Those children. Find out everything. Now.”

There was a pause, a fraction of a second, but it was enough to set my teeth on edge.

I turned slowly, my gaze locking onto him. “You already know.”

Dan’s jaw flexed nervously. His eyes avoided mine.

“Tell me,” I growled, my voice a low, dangerous hum that vibrated through the stone walls. “Or I’ll drag it out of you myself.”

A sharp inhale. A measured exhale. He chose his words like a man treading over a minefield.

“They’re hers. Both of them. Twins. She gave birth about six years ago.”

The words landed in my skull like cannon fire, echoing, bouncing, meaningless at first.

“What?” I croaked, my voice betraying the panic curling in my chest.

“There’s no record of adoption,” Dan continued, careful now, measured as if he feared my wrath could ignite at any moment. “No surrogacy. No arrangement. They’re biological. Her children. By birth.”

I staggered back a step.

Biological. Esther’s. Twins.

The weight of it hit all at once, a tidal wave of disbelief, rage, and grief that crushed me to my knees. My vision tunneled.

Norman, my wolf, rose in a deafening roar inside me, pacing and snarling against the confines of my body.

Ours.

But no.

Not ours.

Not mine.

Could they really be Kevin’s?

Rage detonated inside me, hot and uncontrollable. The idea of Kevin’s hands on her, Kevin’s teeth at her throat, Kevin’s child in her womb all tore through me with ferocity, consuming every rational thought, every ounce of control.

I slammed my fist into the stone wall beside me. The impact cracked the surface. Shards of mortar dust sprinkled the floor. My knuckles split and bled, but I barely felt it. Pain was nothing compared to the betrayal curling in my chest.

“She dared,” I whispered, voice raw, trembling with fury. “She dared to give what was mine to another man.”

Dan took a step back, his unease almost tangible, sharp in the air between us.

“Alpha—”

“Get out.”

“But—”

“NOW!”

The command tore from me like thunder, rattling the stones and reverberating through the corridors. Dan bowed low, eyes wide, and disappeared in a rush, leaving silence in his wake.

I didn’t move. The fury inside me was alive, a beast pacing, snarling, and demanding release. Norman prowled, restless and savage.

She betrayed us. She bore his children.

“Shut up,” I hissed under my breath. But the thought had already rooted in me, thorny and poisonous, burrowing deep.

Esther was my mate. The one the bond had chosen, the one fate had shackled me to. She had left me. Run from me. Then she had created a family with my rival.

I couldn’t breathe.

The fury had nowhere to go. It filled me until I thought I would claw my own skin off just to escape it.

I needed to see her. I needed to look into her eyes and hear the lie myself. I needed to watch her lips form it, to feel the betrayal in every tremor of her body.

I found her near the hospital wing, as I knew I would. She always lingered close to them, like a shadow at their door. Her hair fell loose over her shoulders, her head bowed as if the weight of the world rested there.

The sight of her twisted the knife further. She was frail and beautiful, and every time I saw er I was more taken aback.

I couldn’t remember if I had ever viewed Esther like that before.

She looked up, sensing my approach. Our bond ensured she would. Her eyes widened, lips parting slightly.

I gave her no chance to speak. In two strides I had her cornered against the wall.

“Whose are they?” My voice was a snarl, sharp as steel. “Whose children, Esther?”

She froze. Her mouth opened but no words came out. That silence told me everything.

My fury erupted.

“You won’t answer?” I slammed my hand against the wall beside her head. The sound rattled the corridor, reverberating down the empty hallways. She flinched but held her ground, defiance trembling beneath her fear.

“Then I’ll find out for myself.” I’d see for myself if she had a mate mark. I reached out for her neck.

Her hands shot up, clutching at her collar. Panic flashed in her eyes, enough to ignite the wolf inside me fully. I grabbed the fabric and tore it with one savage pull, exposing her throat.

Then I saw it.

The world fell away.

There, etched into her skin, was the mark.

My fingers hovered over it, drawn against my will. She flinched violently, pressing herself into the wall as if my touch burned her. The bond pulsed, a spark that refused to die, igniting a madness inside me worse than before.

My hand curled into a fist against the wall beside her head.

“Whose mark is this?” I demanded, voice raw, feral. “Answer me!”

She trembled but said nothing.

Norman snarled inside me, savage and relentless.

She is ours. She always was. She always will be.

But I couldn’t hear it. Couldn’t believe it.

All I could see was her silence, her fear, the mark against her skin like a brand I could neither erase nor forgive.

I leaned closer, the feral growl in my chest matching the tremor in my voice. “Speak, Esther. Now. Or I swear, I will tear the truth from your lips myself.”

Her eyes glistened, tears threatening to fall. Yet, she stayed silent.

I didn’t move. The tension between us crackled like lightning, ready to ignite everything around us. Every muscle in my body ached with desire, rage, and heartbreak all at once. My wolf prowled, pacing, snarling. Norman’s hunger was not for flesh alone—it was for the truth, for the bond, for the life she had stolen from me, willingly or not.

In that frozen, terrible moment, I understood one immutable fact: nothing would ever be the same. The mark was there, the bond alive, the children’s truth unknown, and the rage inside me… it was only beginning.