Chapter 73

Iris & Arthur

Iris

Suddenly, as I’m reading the legal letter, a sharp knock at the door breaks through the silence. I fold the letter quickly and tuck it into my dress pocket, then open the door without checking first—a mistake.

Selina is standing there.

“We need to talk,” she says, pushing past me into the apartment without waiting for an invitation.

I turn to face her, my hand gripping the doorknob. “Leave. There’s nothing to talk about.”

“You’ve ruined everything,” she hisses, ignoring my request for her to leave. “Do you have any idea what you’ve done? Arthur just publicly humiliated me in front of everyone who matters in Ordan.”

My breath catches. “What are you talking about?”

“He announced that our engagement is over.” She spits the words at me like venom. “In front of the entire gallery. Years of planning, of positioning myself, of loving him, all destroyed because he couldn’t keep it in his pants around you.”

I stand frozen, processing her words. Arthur ended the engagement after all? Publicly?

“You should have taken the money and never come back,” Selina hisses, stepping closer. “All those years ago. You could have lived comfortably in Bo’Arrocan, you could have—”

“I didn’t want it,” I cut her off, folding my arms across my chest. My eyes flick to my phone sitting on the kitchen counter, and I begin to move toward it, wondering if I should call the police before this gets out of hand. Which it will.

Selina’s eyes flash. “Bullshit. All you ever cared about was money.”

“No, I didn’t. I never cared about any of that.”

“Please.” Selina rolls her eyes. “We both know you’re just a gold-digger who latched onto a rich Alpha the second you have a chance. You happily let Arthur take care of you for years so you wouldn’t have to work.”

I step forward, my hands balling into fists at my sides. “I’ve never chosen Arthur for his money. I chose him because I love him. I’ve always loved him. Even if he were dirt poor, I would have stayed with him.”

“Love?” Selina scoffs. “You know nothing about Arthur or what he needs. You’re just a human—a distraction. You can’t give him what I can.”

“And what’s that? A loveless political marriage? A partner who only cares about power and status?”

Her smile turns cruel. “A true understanding of what it means to be an Alpha. Strength. Children who can carry on his legacy. Even though that kid of yours is a wolf, that hybrid freak will never amount to anything. He’s too much like his mother.”

I think of Miles, sleeping peacefully upstairs, unaware of any of this. I’d like to keep it that way, so I keep my voice low and steady as I say, “You don’t know anything about my son. And furthermore, he’s not a wolf. He’s a human.”

“Is he?” As if she expected this, Selina reaches into her purse and pulls out a folded document. She thrusts it toward me with a malicious little smile. “Take a look.”

With shaking hands, I unfold the paper. It’s a test result. A DNA test.

“Wolf gene expression: positive.”

My stomach drops. This has to be some kind of a trick. How could I possibly believe anything Selina has to say? Miles isn’t an Alpha wolf—he’s a human. Like me. The doctor told me so when I was pregnant.

And yet, somehow, I can’t find a lie in her eyes. Miles…

“What is this?” I ask, my voice hardly more than a whisper.

Selina’s smile turns triumphant. “Aw. He didn’t tell you, did he?” She jerks her chin toward the document. “I found that in his office. Look at the date.”

I stare at the paper, my mind racing. The date is set to weeks ago. Has Arthur known for weeks that Miles is a wolf and not a human? He’s known all this time, and he hasn’t said a word to me? What is he trying to hide from me?

Selina suddenly takes the paper back from my limp fingers. “Why do you think he’s suddenly so interested in playing daddy? It’s not because he loves you, Iris. It’s because he wants an Alpha heir. That’s all Miles is to him—political currency.”

I shake my head, refusing to believe her words. “You’re lying. Arthur loves Miles.”

She tilts her head in an almost feline fashion. “Keep telling yourself that.” Selina tucks the document back into her purse. “But ask yourself why he never told you about Miles’ true nature. Why he let you believe your son was just a human boy.”

My mind flashes to all the little signs I’d dismissed—Miles’s unusually quick reflexes, his heightened sense of smell, the way his eyes sometimes catch the light just like Arthur’s. The very fact that he could sense that Arthur was his father in the only way werewolves can.

“Little wolf,” I called him for years. All this time, he really was one.

Selina moves toward the door then, pausing with her hand on the knob. “You should have taken the money and run when you had the chance, Iris. Now it’s too late.” She opens the door. “Arthur may think he wants you now, but trust me—once he secures his rights to his Alpha son, you’ll be nothing more than a footnote in his story. And he’ll come back to me, where he belongs.”

With that, she walks out, closing the door behind her with a soft click that sounds like a gunshot in the silence.

…

Arthur

I stare at my phone in shock, watching the footage from the nanny cam app with growing horror. Selina is at my door spewing venom with a smile on her perfect face.

I’d installed the security system after Miles got lost, wanting both him and Iris to feel safe, wanting to be able to check on them when I was away. I never imagined I’d be witnessing this.

“Aw. He didn’t tell you, did he?” Selina pulls a folded document out of her purse, and my blood runs cold before she even hands it to Iris.

The DNA results.

The test confirming that Miles is a wolf and not a human.

For weeks, I’ve been keeping it from Iris, waiting for the right time to tell her. I didn’t want her to know that I knew, not yet, not until I’m certain I can convince her that I don’t intend to take him from her as my Alpha Heir. I wanted to build trust first, make sure she knows that I have no bad intentions.

But after tonight, our trust is at an all-time low. I betrayed Iris by not telling her about the final event with Selina, because I was too damn busy being jealous and angry over her and Hunter—a situation that I now realize was completely misread by me. Ezra already told me about the conversation he overheard between her and Hunter, about her rejecting his kiss. From my point of view, I thought…

But I was wrong. I misunderstood the friendship between them, just as Hunter apparently misread it. And thanks to my lack of communication, thanks to my stewing in anger and distance from her, Iris now thinks that I never intended to leave Selina.

I need to get home.

Now.

I rush out of the office, ignoring the calls from my staff. After the incident at the event, Selina stormed out to presumably go home—a lie, I now realize—and I went to my office to handle the paperwork regarding the contract termination before Selina could retaliate. The rain has stopped by now, but the streets are still wet, reflecting the city lights. I slide into the back of my car and instruct the driver to take me home as quickly as possible.

By the time we pull up to the apartment building, I’m nearly frantic. I take the stairs two at a time, not waiting for the elevator, running down the hallway to our door.

I fumble with my keys, hands shaking, and push the door open. I nearly fall on my face as I bolt up the stairs, but don’t stop. “Iris!” I shout. “Iris, don’t listen to—”

My words cut short when I round the corner to the studio. Iris is already packing a bag.