Chapter 120

Alaric’s POV

Fury, regret, and guilt all filling me at once, I turn on Melinda. She’s looking at the door, where Cara just disappeared through, and smirking like this has all worked out for her in the best possible way.

My anger intensifies. Who is she to show up and interfere in my life like this? How can she possibly think she can get away with it? I am the Alpha King of the DuskWood pack, not some downtrodden fool who would allow for such treachery.

Despite what Colin thinks, what he accused me of, I am not the kind of man who would allow this behavior.

I will deal with Melinda first, then make her tell Cara the truth. Above all, I will find a way to fix this misunderstanding.

But first…

“Melinda Bedford,” I say, the name thick with accusation and a growl undertone. My wolf may yet still be keeping his distance from me, yet in this, his fury matches my own.

Cara is our mate, and Melinda just ensured this misunderstanding and Cara’s hurt.

“You will answer my questions at once,” I snap.

“Of course, darling,” Melinda says.

“Stop calling me that.”

“Why?” Melinda asks, her eyes still wide and watery. “Surely you haven’t forgotten what we mean to each other? Or were those promises you made only to make sure I’d keep your bed warm?”

“What the hell are you talking about?”

Despite her good acting, for the briefest of moments, Melinda smirks. She glances around, just a flick of her eyes right and left. Looking away from her, I follow the direction of her glances and see that everyone in the lobby is watching us.

Melinda isn’t just putting on a show to hurt Cara. She wants the entire BloodyMoon pack to get the wrong idea!

“We have no relationship. No child. We’ve never been and never will be together!” I insist.

She winces at my harsh tone. “How can you say these things to me? How can you be so cruel?”

I look around again, and it’s clear from the reactions of those in the lobby, that no one believes me on this. Thanks to Melinda’s quality acting, everyone is taking her side instead.

I curse internally. Lowering my voice to a whisper, I say, “We will speak about this privately.”

She bats her eyelashes as she whispers back, “Whatever you say, lover.”

Vile, vicious woman set keenly on destroying the fragments of my reputation.

“Come with me,” I say and start to turn.

“A gentleman always leads a lady from the room by the arm,” Melinda says hastily.

I glare at her.

She widens her eyes once more, waterworks at the ready.

I curse internally once more, louder than before, the word echoing through my mind.

I can’t afford to lose face in front of BloodyMoon pack, but to acknowledge Melinda’s request would be to give credence to her absolutely false claims.

“If I see a lady, I will be sure to do that,” I say, barely able to contain the anger in my voice.

Her face scrunches in annoyance, but I only see it for a moment, before I turn my back on her and start forward, walking toward the elevator.

She’ll follow. I know she will, if she wants to continue this ruse of hers.

As I walk, I hear the clink of her heels following behind me and know that I’ve won.

In the elevator, as the door closes behind us, the false woe-is-me pretense slips off her face and smugness fills it instead.

She looks at me like a cat cornering a canary.

“Why did you make up those lies?” I ask, wanting to get out ahead in this interrogation. If I lead the questioning, pushing hard, perhaps she would break under the pressure.

Unfortunately, she seems cool and calm, totally collected, as if she is running this show.

“They might be lies now,” she says. “But they won’t be for long. Soon, I’ll be your lover, your mate, your Luna, and the mother of your children.”

“You are insane,” I say. She seems so confident of her own words, even though there is no way they could ever be true. I would never allow it.

Cara is the only mate I want.

“If you don’t believe me, you should talk to the elders,” she says. Lifting her hand, she picks at her nails, as if this entire conversation is boring her. “They will help you see.”

Cara’s POV

I’m not running away, but I am walking quickly, wanting to distance myself as much and as quickly as possible from what I just experienced.

Alaric denied a relationship with that woman, but she said she was pregnant. I want to believe Alaric, but the woman is quite convincing. In the past, Alaric did not withhold his attention from other women, even though I was his mate. It’s not so difficult for me to believe that he might see others on the side, especially when I’ve so far denied his pursuit of me.

Still, I hoped he would wait for me. I’d started to believe his words and promises…

Maybe it’s all been some kind of game to him. Perhaps his feelings for me are not as strong as he pretends them to be. Maybe he himself wants them to be that strong, but if he’s off sleeping around, then I couldn’t trust him.

If he has a child with another woman…

My heart aches so badly, I half-wish I could tear it from my chest and finally be free of this pain. In lieu of that, I can only try to harden myself against him, as I did years ago, when I first moved to BloodyMoon.

My mistake has been in letting Alaric back into my life.

Colin quickly catches up to me. He wordlessly keeps pace with me.

When we stop at the corner of an intersection, waiting for traffic to stop, he looks at me and asks, “Are you alright?”

It’s the softness, the kindness in his voice that almost breaks me.

It’s easy to be hard against the world when everyone is being hard to you. But this kindness…

I swallow down the rising lump in my throat.

“I’m sad for my children,” I tell him. “They deserve to have a good father, but… it seems I was right to keep the secret as I’ve been doing. Alaric cannot be trusted not to break their hearts. Or mine.”

“Our brothers and I will speak to him,” Colin offers.

“No,” I say. “He is an adult and able to make his own choices. I do not want him to give up his… side adventures because he has been forced to. If this is the life he wants for himself, then he is free to pursue it. But I will not be a part of it.”

It’s so strange. This new behavior does not match all things he’s done the past few weeks. He saved my life, stepping in the way of that dagger. He chose to stay in BloodyMoon, hoping to pursue me…

These things must have been lies somehow. Some kind of deception.

I need to harden myself against him. I can’t let him break past my defenses again. I need to remember why I erected those walls to keep Alaric out to begin with.

“I don’t care who he’s with anymore,” I say, and wish I meant it.