Chapter 9

Dominic

This room was a forbidden area meant to memorialize Dominic’s late wife.

He didn’t allow anyone except himself to set foot inside.

And now Dominic had just walked in on Nova, sitting on the windowsill with one leg outside, like a burglar in the night.

On her first day, no less.

But as Dominic stood there, his heart pounding with righteous anger, he couldn’t help but notice it—that scent that was identical to that of his late wife. It was filling the room, swirling around him like a physical thing, clouding his senses.

For a moment, he almost thought he was seeing his dead lover again as he looked at the nanny. Her beautiful eyes, the almost wild look in them, the way her red hair swirled around her neck…

Amelia…

But no. When he blinked, he realized that this woman didn’t have the face of his dead wife—just a similar hair color. She was just the human nanny he had hired for Aria’s sake. If it weren’t for that oddly familiar scent, he wouldn’t have thought she resembled Amelia at all aside from her hair.

This wasn’t the first time he’d picked up that scent from Nova, either.

When he had first encountered Nova in the garden the other day, he had sensed a similar scent to Amelia’s on her. It had taken him by surprise for a moment, just as it did now, but he had quickly assumed it was intentional.

“I knew humans were opportunists at heart,” he had said then, “but I didn’t expect one to try to get into the Alpha’s bed.”

Nova had staunchly denied it, had even gotten angry at the accusation and stormed off after saying some… choice words… but he had dealt with too many scheming women to believe her. She was just deflecting.

Dominic figured she must have created some kind of perfume that mimicked his dead wife’s scent. She was a human after all, and thus had no scent of her own aside from the typical scent of a human—body wash, shampoo, perfumes, all mixed together with human musk. Intoxicating to werewolves, and not in a good way.

At first, he had been begrudgingly accepting of the scent. Aria liked her, and he knew it was fake, so he was willing to look past it for his daughter’s sake.

But now, seeing that she had trespassed into a place she never should have entered, Dominic was furious.

Was she really trying to seduce him? Trying to learn more about his dear Amelia, perhaps, so she could take her place?

He almost would have preferred if she were actually trying to rob him.

“I told you, if something like this happened again, you’d be fired,” Dominic growled.

Nova’s face deepened to a crimson color as she scrambled back into the room. She smoothed down her skirt and tucked a strand of flaming red hair behind one ear.

“I can explain.”

Dominic folded his arms. “So explain.”

She took a deep breath and held up a small woven bracelet with a clearly fake sapphire dangling from it. The beadwork looked clumsy as if a child had made it.

“The maids stole my bracelet and threw it in here,” she explained. “I didn’t know what this room was, and when I went to retrieve it, they locked me inside.”

“Anna and Lilly?” Dominic couldn’t help but snort at that. He had hired the twin maids years ago and had never had any issues with them. They were diligent, polite, and respectful. “I highly doubt that.”

Nova lifted her chin. “It’s true. Do you really think I would have intentionally offended you and your late wife by coming in here?” She gestured around at the portraits lining the walls. “It’s not exactly comfortable for me, either. If I’d had the faintest idea what was in here, I would never have entered.”

Dominic’s jaw tightened as he glanced around at his wife’s visage lining the walls. He couldn’t blame Nova for feeling a little odd standing here.

Once, these dozen or so portraits had been scattered around the house. But when Amelia had passed away, even Dominic couldn’t bear to look at her everywhere he went.

It was already bad enough that the walls reminded him of her. The last thing he needed was for her blue eyes to stare at him from every surface.

So he had repurposed this room, which was once just another one of the many sitting rooms in this too-big house, and had turned it into a small memorial for Amelia. He placed all of her portraits in here, along with her jewelry and clothes in the closet, and would only come here on occasion to have a drink and feel close to her.

Truthfully, Amelia loved this room while she was alive. It was her favorite sitting room in the house because it was east-facing, so she could watch the sun rise in the morning while she had her coffee.

Now, it was her tomb in a way.

Dominic blinked away the memory of Amelia sitting in the plush armchair by the window and looked at Nova again. She was still staring at him, head up, spine straight. That childish bracelet was still dangling from her fingers.

“This bracelet was made for me by my daughter,” Nova said when she noticed him staring. She slipped it around her wrist and held her arm up to show it off, puffing her chest out slightly with pride. “It was a mother’s day gift and it’s my most prized possession. When the maids threw it in here, I couldn’t just leave it behind.”

For a long moment, Dominic didn’t respond. He was still considering firing her; he wasn’t sure if he trusted her now, between the strange scent, the garden incident, the way she had walked in on him in the bathroom, and now this.

“How do I know you’re not making all of this up to replace my wife?” he suddenly asked. “Walking in on me in the bathroom, fantasizing about my body—”

Nova laughed. Laughed.

She didn’t just chuckle, but rather threw her head back and laughed so hard that her shoulders briefly shook.

But there was no humor in the sound; it was a wry laugh. Was she mocking him simply for stating the obvious? Dominic’s tempers were beginning to rise even more.

“Me? Fantasizing about you?” She shook her head and wiped her eyes with her index finger. “I’m not interested in you, Alpha. Trust me—you’re not my type. Besides, what could I possibly gain from entering this room?”

A muscle in Dominic’s jaw ticked. Behind where the nanny stood, his late wife’s portrait over the mantlepiece—the two of them together, holding her eight-months-pregnant belly, painted just weeks before her death—seemed to stare at him.

He didn’t know what to do. He couldn’t risk Aria getting hurt because of a woman like this in the house, and yet that scent…

Suddenly, the door flung open, causing both Dominic and Nova to whirl around. Aria burst into the room in tears, wearing her little pajama set, her favorite teddy bear clutched in one hand.

“No, Daddy! Please don’t fire her!”

Aria rushed forward before Dominic could speak and placed herself between him and the nanny, spreading her arms wide.

Dominic sighed. “Aria—”

“I said, no!” Aria stomped her foot. “Mommy is innocent! You can’t fire her!”

The room fell silent. Both Dominic’s and the nanny’s eyes widened.

Aria had just called Nova “Mommy”.