Chapter 131

Alaric’s POV

After ending my call with Eamon, I walked out of the office and towards the living room. Cara and the kids must have finished playing their game because the room was much quieter now. Looking into the room, I didn’t see Cara or Mia. Only Ethan was there, sitting on the couch. He had a book on his lap but he wasn’t reading it.

Ethan’s behavior towards me does make me sad, but in a way, his personality reminds me of my own when I was a child.

I too was independent. I excelled in sports and academics. My parents even called me their golden child.

Yet, for all my successes, I felt so terribly lonely. In many ways, I had isolated myself, not truly relating to other children my age. It had taken me a long time to open up to others, to realize that they weren’t all out for money or fame. That some people might actually just like me for me.

That was what I had wanted to believe of Cara, when I first realized she was my mate. But then I overheard her talking with my father about money. At the time, I had thought she was just like all the rest.

I don’t believe that anymore, though that conversation I overheard does still stick with me in my mind.

Yet, I don’t want the same experiences for my son. If he has gotten from my genes the inclination to isolate himself, I want to help him. Even if he despises me for reasons yet unknown, I still want to help him.

He’ll always be my son.

So I walk into the living room. Not wanting to startle him, I knock lightly on the doorframe as I enter.

“Hey, kid,” I say. “What are you up to in here?”

Ethan shakes himself out of his daydream and lifts up his book. “Reading,” he says, like it’s obvious.

“Is it a good book?” I ask, coming closer. I don’t recognize the cover.

“I guess.”

As Ethan is sitting on the couch, I sit on the nearby cushioned single chair, giving Ethan enough space and room to abandon this conversation without effort.

“I like to read, too,” Ethan says.  “When I was a kid, I was always sneaking off to spend time with my books. Growing up in my house, I felt like there was always someone around keeping an eye on me. My secret reading hiding spots had to get more and more elaborate to evade my tutors.”

My story seems to perk Ethan’s interest. For the first time, he lowers the book to look at me with something other than resentment in his eyes. Now, he’s more curious.

“What’s the craziest hiding spot you had?” Ethan asks.

I consider a moment, but it doesn’t take long for me to come up with the answer.

“I fell in a well once,” I said. “Fortunately it hadn’t been completed yet so it wasn’t all that deep. But… I’d run out of places to hide in the house, so I went outside. I just wanted to climb or tree or something, but I did not look where I was going at all and fell straight into a hole.

“I was there for hours. No one could find me. I must have shouted myself hoarse. But then, finally, right when it was starting to get dark, my father’s face appeared over the edge of the hole, looking down.

“I’d never been so relieved in my life.” Thinking back, I remember the look on his face. At the time, I didn’t understand the look. I thought he was angry with me, or disappointed. Being a father now, with my own kids to worry about, I knew any anger he felt that day was directed inwardly.

With how tightly he held me, he couldn’t have been anything more than relieved.

He didn’t show it on his face though, and we never talked about it afterwards.

I wish we had taken the time to get to know each other better. But that hadn’t been the way of things in my childhood home.

I want better for my own children.

“Was it cold in the well?” Ethan asks.

“It was a little cold,” I say. “I think because it was dark.”

I remember how frightened I was, thinking I might die down there.

Ethan’s quiet for a moment, and with his pensive expression, I can see that he’s thinking.

“That sounds scary,” he says.

“I was,” I tell him. It was scary at the time, but I’d do it a thousand times over if it means that I could now bond with my son. Ethan seems interested in the story, and like he’s softening to me.

“Ethan,” I say, my thoughts sliding back to the responsibilities I held as a child. Responsibilities that I could reasonably carry because of the personality traits I share with Ethan. “Have you ever thought about what it would be like to be the heir of a pack?”

This was the wrong thing to ask. Whatever goodwill I had generated with Ethan disappears in an instant.

“With the DuskWood pack, you mean?” he asks.

“Yeah…” I say. There’s no denying that’s what I meant.

“No,” he says firmly. Snapping his book closed, he hops up from the couch. “I don’t want anything to do with DuskWood pack. I’m BloodyMoon through and through.”

“I didn’t mean to –”

“And I don’t want anything to do with you, either!” he snaps.

The words stun me into silence. In my stupor, Ethan runs away, out of the room.

Regret fills my heart. I was connecting with Ethan. But then I pushed too hard and I ruined everything. Cara already told me not to make the kids heirs. I don’t know what I was thinking. I guess I was thinking about my own childhood and then…

Ethan may have similarities to me from when I was his age, but we are not the same. We have different lives, and are different people.

I was born and breed to be heir. It’s what I trained for all my life.

Cara doesn’t want that for Ethan. She wants him to just be a kid.

And Ethan wants that too.

I’ve made a mistake here. I wonder if Ethan will let me correct it.

Cara’s POV

The next morning, I woke up early after receiving a phone call from Noel. He wanted to have an early morning breakfast. The kids were still asleep, and their tutors are coming early today, so I don’t see the need to wake them.

Instead, I shower and change, and then head to the door to go and meet them. The servants, seeing me prepared to leave, seem to all move suddenly very question. It’s no surprise then, that by the time I get to the door, Alaric is standing there, blocking it.

“Where are you going, Cara?” he asks me.

“I’m meeting Noel for breakfast.”

“On your own? You were just going to leave without me, without security…?”

Ah, I suppose it does seem reckless now. When Noel called, I hadn’t thought much of it.

“Noel will be with me,” I say.

Alaric straightens, his face becoming even sterner. “And what if Noel is the assassin?”