Chapter 177

Alaric’s POV

Watching Cara sit with Noel and Colin sent a shred of ugly jealous straight through my chest. I knew I had no reason to be jealous – not really. Despite Noel and Cara’s closeness, nothing between them indicated that they were anything more than friends.

Yet… he knew her secret and I didn’t.

Also, he was free to go with her wherever she went, while I was tied down to DuskWood and the responsibilities of being Alpha King.

Perhaps I had reason to be jealous after all.

Seeing them together, chatting, possibly about her secret, made me feel even more left out than I had previously.

When Colin left them to approach me, I started to feel that ugliness swirl out of my chest and into the rest of me, even down to the tips of my fingers and toes.

“Come on,” Colin said, gesturing me to move farther into the house, away from the glass door that opened to the outside where Colin was coming in, and where behind him I could see Cara and Noel sitting in the patio chairs.

I turned and went with him, only with the hope of finding out more answers.

As jealous as I was about Noel and Cara, I knew Cara wasn’t in any danger with Noel. His dedication in helping to find Mia proved to me that he was safe, even if I know resented how close he had become with the love of my life. He wouldn’t hurt her.

“Colin,” I said as I followed him into the living room. “Tell me what’s going on. Please.”

“Cara has to be the one –”

“Everyone keeps saying that, but she’s not saying a word either. Why does it feel like everyone in the world knows except for me?”

“That’s not true,” Colin said. “It’s only her family –”

“And Noel,” I said.

“Colin didn’t tell Noel. Aiden did.”

Aiden, who had glared at me since learning the truth himself, and had basically disappeared since we brought Mia back to the estate. Whatever was going on, Aiden was pissed as hell at me about it.

I had no way of knowing if I deserved that anger because no one would tell me.

This was all so frustrating.

“You have to understand where I’m coming from here,” I said. “Everyone is acting so strangely and I know something is going on. That no one is saying anything only makes my imagination work that much harder. I’ve thought of everything now, even things I don’t want to say out loud for fear they might come true. I have no idea what’s right.”

For Cara to keep a secret like this meant it had to be something bad. I’ve thought of everything from she’s dying to she might be pregnant to perhaps she developed some kind of DuskWood-only allergy. I truly had no idea.

“She’ll tell you in time, I’m sure of it,” Colin said.

That mirrored something that Ruby said too. She told me that I just had to wait. Neither of them seemed to realize how difficult that was when it was the person you loved having a health scare and you were kept in the dark about it.

“She’s thinking of returning to BloodyMoon pack,” Colin said, changing the subject now, shutting the door on any hope I had of learning the truth from him.

“She told me.”

“Are you going to let her go?” Colin studied my face, likely looking for a hint of deception. I didn’t know what he expected to find really. I had no desire to keep anyone a prisoner, least of all the woman I loved.

I wanted her to be with me because she wanted to stay, not because I forced her to.

“I don’t want to be apart from her,” I admitted, “But I’d never make her stay somewhere she didn’t want to be.”

As Colin nodded, I rubbed a hand over my forehead. There was a migraine coming on.

“The way everyone is acting with her… it’s unnerving,” I said. “I’m starting to be afraid that if I let her go, I might never see her again.” Holding Colin’s gaze, I asked him, “I will see her again, won’t I?”

He didn’t respond, likely not having a good answer. I didn’t know. The whole thing made me feel sick to my stomach.

“We’re going to do everything we can,” Colin said, and that was all he said, which made my terrible imagination create so many horror-filled disasters.

If only someone would give me a straight answer!

“Alaric?”

I turned at the sound of Cara’s voice.

“Cara,” Colin said with some meaning behind it.

“It’s alright,” she said. “Can you go back to keeping Noel company? I want to talk to Alaric about a few things.”

Colin waited a moment, but then nodded. “Very well.”

He walked past Cara, headed out through the glass door as Cara came closer to me.

I stood very still, not sure what to expect.

“I spoke to the kids about returning,” Cara said. “They miss home.”

I couldn’t argue with that, or with anything else. I’d already learned it would do me no good and might even damage my relationship with Cara. For both our sakes, and whatever future might be left for us, I could only stand here and hear what she had to say.

“But they also said they will miss you,” Cara added.

The breath punched from my lungs. Gods, I would miss them too.

“But you are still leaving…” I said softly.

“I have to,” she replied. “Please don’t ask me why. Not again.”

I closed my mouth to physically hold the word back.

“But I do want to go back, too,” she said. “It’s no hardship to go home again.”

It hurt that she couldn’t see this estate as her home. Once, she had considered her home where I was, but that was before I ruined everything, and before she found out the truth of her lineage.

“I won’t try to talk you out of it,” I said. “I want you to have the things that you want. But I will miss you,” I said.

I would miss her and the kids so much. Perhaps they hadn’t seen this place as their home, but I had become accustomed to their being here. No more would the children’s laughter fill the hallways. No more would I be able to look forward to seeing Cara’s face every day after work.

I’d be alone again, distant and out of touch. I was pleased that Mia was healthy again, but now I would have to worry about Cara instead. And since I didn’t know what was wrong, I would never know when I might get a call to tell me it’s too late to do anything, to even say goodbye one last time.

My body went cold.

Someone would tell me what was going on before that end, if that were the end to fear, right?

Panic clawed at my throat, keeping me from speaking. I couldn’t give voice to any of this, afraid it might make it come true.

“Alaric,” Cara said, and looked away, almost shyly. “I want to go to BloodyMoon, but, like the children, I find I don’t want to be without you… I know it’s selfish of me, but if I asked you to come with us, what would you –”

“Yes,” I said at once, not even letting her finish. “I’d say yes.”

Her gaze lifted back to mine. “Then say yes.”