Chapter 122

Alaric’s POV

The first thing I do, after hanging up with the elders, is tell John, “Book a flight for Melinda and get her to the airport.”

I don’t acknowledge her at all, even when she stands from the couch and attempts to approach me.

“We should talk about this,” she says. “The elders agree making me your mate is the best course of action. Why are you being so difficult? Why can’t you see what’s best for the pack?”

Perhaps I am being selfish by placing my needs over those of the pack. In a way, I can see where the elders are coming from. I could have been more seriously hurt by that silver dagger, and without an heir, the pack wouldn’t have anyone to turn to for the line of succession.

But I can’t in good conscious rush into a relationship or a marriage when my heart so firmly belongs to another. I can’t bring children into the world with someone I do not love. What kind of example would I be setting for those hypothetical children? Serve the pack above all else? Don’t expect happiness for yourself?

I am not so cynical to believe that. Not yet. Not while I still have a shred of a chance with Cara, the woman I actually love.

Melinda’s interference has certainly set my pursuit of Cara back a ways, but if I beg, perhaps she will hear me out. Perhaps she will believe me about Melinda and the elder’s attempts at sabotaging the one relationship that I want for myself.

I will not be swayed from my path of courting Cara. The elders have already given me their permission to do so. They can’t take that back now.

So I look at Melinda, and I tell her. “Get on the plane. Go back to DuskWood, and forget this ever happened. I know I will.”

Then, satisfied by the shocked look on her face, I nodded at John, who nodded in return, and then I left the room.

My destination was clear. Where else could I even hope to go but to see Cara and try to fix things?

After what happened the other night, I know she’s no longer staying at home. Instead, she and the children are living with her brothers at their mansion in the high society part of town.

I could be wasting my time by going there now, as well as risking my personal safety. If Colin and Cara have shared the situation with the brothers, they are no doubt furious with me for what they believe occurred. There is no guarantee any of them will listen to me, let alone believe me, especially this soon after, when tempers are so flared.

Yet, I must attempt to clear the air all the same. I won’t be able to rest until I do. Even now, walking there, I feel an uneasy inside of me, giving me adrenaline and making it impossible to stand still.

I have to fix this. I can’t rest until I’ve fixed this.

Reaching the door of the mansion, I walk to the gate and ring the buzzer. It takes a moment, before a voice comes through the intercom.

“What the hell do you want?” comes Aidan’s voice through the intercom.

Of course. Of all the brothers who I would have to convince, it had to be the most impulsive one, who disliked me the most, who answered my call.

“I need to talk to Cara,” I say.

“She doesn’t want to talk to you.”

“I need to explain things,” I insist. “If she would just hear me out –”

“Why should she?” Aidan says. “And why should we let her? You’ve had plenty of chances not to hurt her, and you’ve blown every single one of them. Why would this time be different?”

“Melinda is not, nor has ever been, my lover. She is not my mate, and she is not pregnant with my child,” I say firmly. “She only said those things so that Cara would hear them and get the wrong idea. Melinda wants to be Luna, but I will not accept that. Cara is the only one I want so… please. Please. Let me speak with her.”

I spoke the words from the heart. Even asking please so many times, as an Alpha to the princes of another pack, is a big gesture. If the elders could hear me now, they would be ashamed that I’d be so willing to – in their eyes – lower myself just to curry favor with Cara and her brothers.

But I don’t see it that way. This mess with Melinda… Ultimately, it is my fault. I haven’t done enough to convince Cara that my feelings for her are real and my intentions earnest. Because of this failing of mine, she too easily fell into this trap of believing Melinda’s lies.

“I will stay here for as long as it takes for her to see me,” I say. “I’m not going anywhere until she hears the truth.”

The voice on the other end of the intercom is quiet for a long time. Too long. I can feel the waves of rejection washing over me.

Everything is made worse when a voice calls out from behind me.

“I knew you’d come here,” Melinda says. “See how she dismisses you? That’s something I will never do.”

Cara’s POV

When someone presses the buzzer on the gate, it alerts the whole house with a distinctive chime. After telling the twins about what happened with Alaric at the hotel, they are feeling protective. So when the chime sounded, it was no surprise to me that Aidan quickly hopped up to answer it.

Yet, as time drags on, and he has not returned, I start to feel suspicious. Walking toward the front door, I find Aidan there, frowning and glaring at the small screen in the wall that shows the camera feed at the gate.

“What is it?” I ask. “Who is there?”

Aidan immediately turns. He uses his body to shield the monitor.

“No one,” he says, unconvincingly. His angry expression tells me everything I need to know about who is at the door.

The only person who could make Aidan angry like this right now is Alaric. But he won’t step aside. In fact, as I lean to the left and right, trying to see the monitor around him, Aidan leans too, so that he consistently blocks it from my view.

Frustrated, I decide to take matters into my own hands. Going to the door, I open it and step outside.

“Cara! Wait!” Aidan calls after me, but it’s too late. I’m already outside, seeing Alaric at the gate.

Hope fills my chest. For him to come here, to want to speak with me… maybe things really weren’t as they seemed at the hotel. Maybe I should hear him out.

But then I see the woman beside him. She’s… here?

I’m about to turn away, as my hope falls and pain floods through my chest in its stead.

But then, I hear Alaric’s voice, loud and distinctive.

“Cara is the only one I want for a mate, Melinda. Do yourself a favor and return to DuskWood. Stop humiliating yourself with these lies and foolish behavior.”